Sorry No Monster Monday Today

 Hi Everyone!

I'm sorry, but I'm in bed with lupus. No Monster Monday today.

Wishing you all a very good day.

Nicole
 

Sunday in the Art Room

 Welcome to

Today is for artists that create in ANY medium to come on by and just talk art. Write a post about what's on your mind in the art world. It's a place to ask questions on your blog where other's can hopefully answer. Or share your videos, your techniques, tools or even what type of camera you use. So, you say you can't draw but you can write.... that's art baby! AI creations are welcome as well. Since this type of art is taking off to main stream. Let's say you think you are in no way artsy. But you love art. Show murals, historical art, your friends or kids art and talk about it.  

I would like this to be an all inclusive way for artist to share, whatever. 

My only rule? Criticism with kindness. 

If someone asks to have their art critiqued it must be done with generosity and consideration. 

This is a place of encouragement and inspiration. 

Today I want to share with you the woman artist who made it possible for all other women artists. 

Her name is Sofonisba Anguissola

This is just one of her self portraits.

  During the Italian Renaissance, women artists did not have the same access to art education as men. Sofonisba Anguissola, however, was very lucky to receive artistic training and later achieve a successful international career. She paved the way for many other female artists who would later follow in her footsteps. 

 Sofonisba Anguissola was born in 1532 in the city of Cremona, Northern Italy. Her father, Amilcare, encouraged both her and her sister to train with artist Bernardino Campi. Anguissola herself appears often in her own works and there is known to be at least twelve self-portraits by the artist (seven are believed to have been lost). Her self-portraits form a series that was larger than those by either Dürer or Rembrandt. In one of her most famous paintings, the artist paints herself on an easel in the process of painting Madonna and Child. In Renaissance artworks, the female figure would normally be the subject of the painting. Here Anguissola establishes herself as the creator too. 

She was a rule breaker

In the 16th century, art was a predominantly male occupation. At that time, Sofonisba Anguissola did not comply with roles that were traditionally assigned to women, such as a mother and a homemaker. Instead, as a strong and independent woman, she decided to fulfill her ambition of becoming an artist instead. By doing this, she paved the way for other female artists such as Lavinia Fontana who followed in her footsteps and also went on to paint portraits of the nobility and history paintings.

In an unusual self-portrait from 1559, Anguissola painted herself being painted by her teacher Bernardino Campi. This work can be called a self-portrait in the sense that it is a painting of the artist and Anguissola is the creator. However, within the scene, the painter we can see is Campi. The painting provides a commentary on gender roles assigned throughout art history – the male as the creator, and the female as the subject. Here, Anguissola breaks the rules and reverses these roles.

The artworks created by her were not limited to the genre of the self-portrait. Anguissola demonstrated that she was just as capable of producing other types of art as some of the most celebrated male artists of her time. For example, she painted a number of portraits for Philip II’s Spanish court. She was a tutor to his wife, the consort Queen of Spain, Elisabeth of Valois. She balanced both the jobs of being a tutor to the consort and being a successful artist at the same time.

In these portraits, she proved her worth as a major court artist and established that her talent was equivalent to contemporary male court artists. However, in some ways, the role of a court artist in Spain constrained her artistic career. Anguissola produced these artworks to earn a living, under the guidelines of a strict contract. Her self-portraits, on the other hand, can be seen as examples of her own self-expression and freedom as an artist.

Sofonisba Anguissola, Portrait of Marquess Massimiliano Stampa, 1557, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. ArtStor digital library.
 

Overall, Anguissola achieved great international fame during her career. Her success was extraordinary, not just for a female artist at that time, but exceptional for an artist in general. When she was 92, a Flemish painter in English court, Anthony van Dyck painted a portrait of her, showing her in her old age. 

Sir Anthony van Dyck, Sofonisba Anguissola, 1624, National Trust House in Knole, UK.

Female artists of the Italian Renaissance, like Anguissola, have only received a small proportion of the recognition that they deserve as artists. Traditionally, female artists have been excluded from the “canon” of art history – the established timeline of key artists and art movements throughout history. But this began to change with the introduction of  feminism in the 1970s. Perhaps most famously, Linda Nochlin’s article Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? highlighted their exclusion.

The exhibition, A Tale of Two Women Painters: Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana, at the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid (Oct 2019–Feb 2020) displayed a number of works of these two pioneering female artists for the first time, celebrating their success. The first room was dedicated to self-portraits by both. Amongst the artworks displayed elsewhere in the exhibition was The Chess Game. This painting shows the artist’s sisters (Elena, Minerva, and Europa) playing a game of chess. An unusual subject in the 16th century, the painting provides an insight into a domestic setting. It is a beautiful image of the bond between sisters. In the background, there is a landscape. The figure to the right has been interpreted as the family’s maid watching the girls play the game.

Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game, 1555, The National Museum in Poznań. ArtStor digital library.

 
Anguissola was determined to pursue a successful career in the arts. Today, aspiring female artists are given equal access to professional training alongside men. And it was artists like Anguissola, living almost 500 years ago, who proved that women should be allowed to work as artists too. Sofonisba Anguissola was an extremely inspirational woman, artist, and rule-breaker.

Linda Nochlin. “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” In Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays, edited by Linda Nochlin, 145-177. New York: Routledge, 1988

            Leticia Ruiz Gomez. A Tale of Two Women Painters: Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana. Madrid: Museo Nacional Del Prado, 2019

The above information and photos are originally from  

https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/sofonisba-painter/ 

Nina Relf 11 December 2025 

That's it for now. I look forward to seeing you in Sunday in the Art Room

Nicole 

 

Welcome To Friday Face OFF (FFO)

This is the place to show off your face art.

You know, ANY type of face, nature, the face of a flower, photography, drawings, paintings, AI. There just needs to be a face in your blog post, a link back to my blog and please use the image below. 

Thank you.

 I have been battling with lupus all month and the last few days have just done me in. Have been in bed sleeping most of the time. I tell you this, to say I have no new art to show this week so you will get old art.

Some of you may remember my leather sculpted faces. These were featured in the library art gallery. 

This one still hangs in my home and I will never sell it. 

Here are a few more that hang in my home. These are all leather sculpts. Once the sculpture is dried the leather is removed from the plaster face, that I also make. The leather holds its shape with nothing behind it. A perfect mask. 

This is one of the first leather faces I ever  made. Some time in the mid 1990s

This face I just sculpted free hand and placed on a painted canvas.

Now for some AI.

 

Ready to see a few features?

 

Linda always has wonderful art.  

Granny Annie can capture the likeness of actors. 

Don't forget to join in for Sunday in the Art Room, "SITAR" Anything art. 

Please link back to my blog and use this image. Thank you so much.

 

New FFO challenge. 

This one is all about expressions. Create a portrait that shows one of the following emotions. Choose from,

 1. Happy, a big smile showing teeth, bright eyes with smile lines and wrinkles. 

 2. Sad, create a face with downcast eyes, a down turned mouth, tears running down the cheeks.

 3. Tired. Create a face that has dark circles under the eyes with a blank stare. Or yawning. Slumped shoulders. 

 4. Surprise. Make a face with wide eyes with lifted eyebrows and forehead wrinkles, A mouth that is in a circle shape.

 5. Anger. A lowered furrowed brow, glaring eyes, flared nostrils, and thin lips. 

 You may create one or more of the expressions or all of them!

You have 11 weeks to create your challenge face (s). April 24th will be the show date on FFO. Use any art medium you like and make it fun!

Remember, the challenges are optional you may still join FFO with your face posts.

 

That's it for me. 

Now show me your face    

Tuesday Mundane Stuff.

 Hi Everyone!

Once a month, and not on the same day of the month, I meet up with my neighbors for coffee time. We take turns hosting. There is usually 4 of us but one of the ladies got called into work. 

Kay, who is 85, is pushing her hair back and the other lovely lady is Elke. We've been meeting like this since before covid. 

This month I brought big filled cupcakes and Elke brought her coffee pot and some bite size apple streusel. We always have a grand time.

I brought huge, filled cupcakes.  

I say if I was going to enter these into an ugly cupcake competition I would win!

But there is a reason for it. I don't have any large cupcake baking liners. So I used coffee filters. 

I made a basic white cake recipe.  

After the cake mix is filled I cut the excess filters off. Normally when I make cupcakes I bake them at 425°F for 10 minutes. This makes a large muffin top. However, I must have had too much cake mix in the pan because they puffed up all crooked and busted out the side. (After the 10 minutes reduce oven heat to 350°F and bake another 10 minutes or so.)

Not pretty at all. 

Next carefully remove the paper. I also cut off the the cake that was bulging out.

Allow these to cool completely. 

You can fill cake with just about anything. I had some cool whip and some green pistachio pudding mix. I stirred those together and placed in the fridg.  

Once cooled cut a circle out of the middle of the cake. 

Do not cut to the very bottom. 

This is my nice green filling.

Too much filling

way too much. I spooned out some of the filling.

 Next cut the end off of the cake part you removed so you just have a top.

Put it in place. I did mash it down even with the cake.
I had white frosting that I added the rest of the dry pudding mix and the scooped out filling.  These were difficult to frost evenly, or nicely. I topped them with colorful candy bits and then put them into the frig to keep the filling firm.

They may not be pretty but the filling set up nicely.

 and they are OMG good!

 

I took some of the cupcakes to my other neighbor. We would never eat all of these.

 

Wishing you a happy Tuesday.

Nicole 

 

Monster Monday

 Welcome to

I have over 2,000 credits with NightCafe

and I use them! We received a notice that NightCafe is changing the way credits are given out and when the notice goes into effect next month we have 2 months to use the credits we have accumulated. I lost the darn notice. So, Gene, Dora or anyone else on NightCafe if you have the notice let me know. The problem is I just won 100 credits tonight, another player tipped me 15 credits and so I'm wondering how to use all of these.

Oh I guess I could make more monsters. LOL

Here are some I made yesterday.

Now for some pretties

 

 

That's it for now. 

Wishing everyone a great week. 

 Nicole 

Sunday in the Art Room SITAR

 Welcome to

Today is for artists that create in ANY medium to come on by and just talk art. Write a post about what's on your mind in the art world. It's a place to ask questions on your blog where other's can hopefully answer. Or share your videos, your techniques, tools or even what type of camera you use. So, you say you can't draw but you can write.... that's art baby! AI creations are welcome as well. Since this type of art is taking off to main stream. Let's say you think you are in no way artsy. But you love art. Show murals, historical art, your friends or kids art and talk about it.  I would like this to be an all inclusive way for artist to share, whatever. 

  My only rule? Criticism with kindness. 

If someone asks to have their art critiqued it must be done with generosity and consideration. 

This is a place of encouragement and inspiration. 

 

Have you ever looked at a piece of graphite art you've been working on and think, 

"This looks dirty."  Not from smudges but rather from the paper you are working with.

I've mentioned the "creepy paper" I have and how I don't like the way my graphite looks when using it. On several pieces, I swear, the faces look dirty. Of course, when I ask Mr. M. he tells me no. Then, I discovered a youtube that made me realize I'm not crazy. 

OK, OK, you can stop laughing now. I know I'm crazy. I mean crazy about this.

Don't know if you can see it but every place I used a tortillon it looks horrible.

 

Here is the Youtube that is worth watching.

After watching this and several of his other videos, I'm changing the way I create with graphite. Have you found changing something with your style has improved your art?

 

Something else I learned this week. I was in the middle of working on a pastel piece. 

This is the photo I was working from. I know this is a painting not pastel.

 

At first I was very happy with it.  

As I was working things started to go awry.

 I was getting quite frustrated. I had lost the jaw, and I was not having fun trying to find it again.  

I strayed away from the jaw and started working on the other side of the face.

I still wasn't happy and was about to RIP the paper off the easel, when I took my hand from the bottom of the page and smeared the entire face upward. There was no background at that time. All of a sudden the face came to life. 

The face was a bit muted and reminded me of some of the old masters paintings where colors are subdued. (No I'm not comparing myself to the masters)

I worked on the features and the background and now I'm very happy with this pastel. I still didn't find her jaw but that's OK. 

 

I said all of that to say. With your art if you get frustrated do something with it that you would not normally do and see what happens. Smear pastels, take a credit card and run it across a painting, flip a collage, just try something different.

 

As for paper, I found a sale on Dickblick and have some new paper coming in. 

Much cheaper than Amazon even with shipping. If you have never shopped there give it a try.

 

That's if for me. I look forward to seeing your art in 

Sunday in the Art Room

Nicole   

Happy Valentine's Day.

 

Hi Everyone!

What ever you do today make it the best.

Nicole