The Year of the Snake
Week 4 is Turmeric, Rust, Pistachio and Green Grey
On Wednesday it’s the Chinese New Year and the start of the Year of the Snake, more specifically the Wood Snake which symbolises wisdom, intuition and mystery. Each combination of an element and an animal follows a sixty year cycle, so the last Wood Snake was in 1965.
Whilst snakes are traditionally associated with evil and temptation in Western Christianity, their symbolism in China is complex and varied: good luck, rebirth, harvest and procreation together with cunning and terror.
If you’re working out your own Chinese Zodiac Animal, remember that birthdays in late January to mid-February might fall under the previous sign. My birthday is coming up soon so I’ve just doubled checked I’m still an Earth Monkey.
In December we visited the Natural History Museum in London where I saw some of Jan van Kessel’s intricate paintings of insects.
This strange oil on copper work measures just 20x15cm (8x6”) with spiders, snakes and caterpillars all contorted and entwined to spell his name!
Van Kessel(1626-1679) came from a family of artists, he was the grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder and nephew of Jan Brueghel the Younger.
“Signature”, Oil on Copper, Jan van Kessel the Elder, 1657 (Image source)
Colour Combination
This week’s colours are Turmeric, Rust, Pistachio and Green Grey. Use them together with neutral lights and darks to create an artwork in any medium or style.
As always, I love seeing what you’ve created. I noticed a number of new names in the facebook group posts, a warm welcome to you. If you’re posting on Instagram, please tag #coloricombo and #estemacleod. Join us in the private Facebook group Creative Prompts
Other News
Whilst in South Africa on our recent trip I didn’t do much painting but I had a sketchbook with me and made drawings in different locations. You can see a snippet on Instagram of our visit to Smitswinkel close to Cape Point. This week I will be doing some creepy crawly drawings in my sketchbook starting the drawings off with letters and I’ll post the video here.
It’s very wintery, a bit grim and grey in our neck of the woods. Make use of this time to get creative with one of my mini-courses, you can see them here.
Contributing #coloricombo subscribers always get a 20% discount off full priced courses, see below for your discount code.