We had a wonderful day on Saturday at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. The weather was perfect, the streets crowded with people and the event was extraordinary. While I was performing my storytelling show, we had a team of facepainters transforming the crowd with faces to suit the theme of Paris of 1910-1920 — faces based on the Modern Artists that themselves transformed what painting and sculpture looked like in that fertile, creative time in Paris. Our company was hired for the event by The Kimmel Center and the facepainting was free for the public, so the lines were long. The crowd, though, was in a great mood all day, despite the wait, and people were very receptive and excited about being turned into Modern Art.
Britt painting a face using a detail of fabric patterns from a Matisse painting
Here are a collection of faces from one of our company, Britt. Each of our artists brings their own style and interpretation to the Transformation Facepainting concept. I continue to admire Britt’s use of soft colors and the expressive quality of her brush strokes. I feature her today because I feel her approach to this theme captured the spirit of the artists that inspired our faces for this event in a way I can learn from.
from Picass Head 1961
Picasso inspired bird face
from Monet's Women with Parasol
Monet waterlilies - an idea that inspired several faces
Monet's painting of a sunset in Venice
Monet inspired Paris scene - Eiffel Tower
Another of Britt's take on Monet-esque Eiffel Tower
Monet's garden, with footbridge
from a Max Ernst painting
from one of Matisse's gold fish paintings, again Britt used a detail of a famous painting to craft the face design
from Paul Klee painting
from a Gauguin painting
from an Andre Derain painting: "The Dance"
taking other elements from an Andre Derain painting: "The Dance"
Thank you, Britt, for such an expressive contribution to our collective art at PIFA.
Related articles
- The Kinetic Art of Face Painting – Pt.1: Sending Art off into the World (thestorybehindthefaces.com)
- First Night Hartford – Face Painting Adults and the Final Faces of 2011 (thestorybehindthefaces.com)
- Face Painting Gallery – 2011 Holiday and Christmas Faces (thestorybehindthefaces.com)
Very different face painting! Wonderful! I think that Matisse would definately like your art and choice of colors. I think your readers might like my blog at http://segmation.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/a-closer-look-at-complementary-colors-www-segmation-com/. Thank you for allowing my comment.