#watercolor monday

[deep-dark-fears]

Out out, Mister Goofums. A fear submitted by Lauren to Deep Dark Fears - thanks!

You can find original artwork or commission portraits in my shop!

[chitinleg]

got him off-balance!

[thembobimbo]

I spent ages on this... hello Saw fandom

[cupcakegalaxia]

More Yugo and a refined 'normal outfit' from the previous post than his funny little battle onesie. Wanted more of the blue and orange in his old outfit.

Also did a little speculation on how the wings worked; the bottom text roughly says ' A 'naked wing' -- the said part that is 'soild'. The energy forms around them as the Eliatrope grows ( s2 Yugo) and fully solidifies when reaching physical adult hood (s4 Yugo) .'

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

The Morse Dry Dock Dial, 1921

New York Movie, 1939

Houses of Squam Light, 1923

Interior, 1925

Self Portrait, 1904

Cape Ann Granite, 1928

Night Windows, 1928

Jo Painting, 1936

Nighthawks, 1942

Cape Cod Morning, 1950

July 22nd marks the birthday of American realist painter and printmaker Edward Hopper (1882-1967). Born in Nyack, New York, Hopper took to art at a young age exploring shadows and shapes through charcoal drawings. By age ten, he started to sign and date his work and, with his parents' encouragement, spent his teen years delving into watercolor and oil painting. Declaring his professional interest in art, Hopper attended the New York School of Art and went on to become a renowned figure in American Realism.  

Like many before him, Hopper started his career in commercial illustration to pay the bills but by the late twenties he was supporting himself through showing and selling his paintings. Hopper’s work explores architectural American environments and intimate rural scenes through a lens of solitude. The dramatic moods of his paintings are created through his expertise in capturing light and shadow to convey the subtilties of human experience.  

In celebration of the day, we’re sharing Edward Hopper: a catalogue raisonné published in 1995 by Whitney Museum of American Art and edited by art historian Gail Levin (b. 1948). The three-volume catalog is a definitive work on Hopper featuring essays on the artist and hundreds of plates encompassing the entire scope of his career. Scholars will delight at the publication’s inclusion of bibliographic details including provenance and exhibition histories attributed to most pieces.  

Read other Milestone Monday posts here.

– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[jeeklaart]

Sunday café visit ☕

( find me here )

[uispeccoll]

#MiniatureMonday #TinyTuesday

A Mushroom ABC. by Peter and Donna Thomas

For the beginning of summer, MiniMondays is going to have a series focusing on a small fraction of the lovely artists books by Peter and Donna Thomas!

For our book after a long weekend, we have some lovely illustrations of mushrooms in an ABC accordion book!

"Printed watercolors on one side of an accordion folded handmade sheet (50 x 150 mm.), shaped to resemble a mushroom. First and last folded leaves mounted on two paper boards, covered with gray paper, and also shaped as a mushroom. Title paper label on front cover. Issued in a slipcase covered with paper and with a mylar front cover that reveals the shaped binding."--Catalog

Peter and Donna Thomas are "book artists from Santa Cruz, CA. They work both collaboratively and individually; letterpress printing, hand-lettering and illustrating texts, making paper, and hand binding both fine press and artists’ books." They have made over 100 limited edition books, often with Peter making the paper, and Donna doing the illustrations.

Check out more of Donna and Peter's books at Uiowa here.

--Diane R., Special Collections Graduate Student

[goblinfables]

thinking about also starting up some Mollusk Monday

Common Periwinkle water snail! :>

[ofdarklands]

31 - Simurgh

The Simurgh is depicted in Iranian art as a gigantic bird, big enough to carry off an elephant or a whale. She appears as a peacock with the head of a dog and the claws of a lion – sometimes, however, also with a human face. The Simurgh is inherently benevolent and unambiguously female. Being part mammal, she suckles her young. Iranian legends consider the bird so old that she has seen the destruction of the world three times over. She learned so much by living so long, that she is thought to possess the knowledge of all the ages. In one legend, the simurgh was said to live 1,700 years before plunging herself into flames (much like the phoenix).

The simurgh made her most famous appearance in Ferdowsi's epic Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), where Zal, the son of Saam, was born albino. When Saam saw his albino son, he assumed that the child was the spawn of devils, and abandoned the infant on the mountain Alborz. The child's cries were heard by the tender-hearted simurgh, who lived atop this peak, and she retrieved the child and raised him as her own. Zal was taught much wisdom from the loving simurgh, who has all knowledge, but the time came when he grew into a man and yearned to rejoin the world of men. Though the simurgh was terribly saddened, she gave him three golden feathers which he was to burn if he ever needed her assistance. Upon returning to his kingdom, Zal fell in love and married the beautiful Rudaba. When it came time for their son to be born, the labor was prolonged and terrible; Zal was certain that his wife would die in labour. Rudaba was near death when Zal decided to summon the simurgh. The simurgh appeared and instructed him on how to perform a cesarean section, thus saving Rudaba and the child, who became one of the greatest Persian heroes, Rostam.

[arinmoss]

a miku i painted in my sketchbook :3

[finalgirlart]

happy mallory monday everyone! here’s another scene that will live forever in my head

[pufflepastels]

miku and i (2024 redraw)

assignment in our watercolor class. i decided to repaint this old miku fanart i did 6 years ago. i made a digital sketch first so i can figure out what i wanted my watercolor output to look like. i'm not sure if i like how the watercolor one turned out, but i guess the lighting of the picture makes it less bad 🥹.

[elleskinner-justart]

One of my favorite winter break illustrations from Missing Monday’s run :) I love how cute my girls look and how the whole thing has a very appropriate storybook vibe.

-

Missing Monday completed this year and the entire comic is available to read start to finish at missingmondaycomic.com!

[pigmentpanda]

"What image would you put on my lifeless body...?"

Anonymous M by Pinocchio-P & ARuFa 🎵

-

Alternate coloured versions under the read more

(reblogs appreciated ✨)

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

On June 24, 1374, a massive outbreak of St. John’s Dance hit Aachen, Germany causing reported hallucinations and exhaustion that spread quickly through Europe reaching as far south as Italy. St. John’s Dance, also known as dancing plague or choreomania, was a social phenomenon that occurred throughout Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. Afflicted individuals would join together dancing uncontrollably in a seeming state of unconsciousness for up to months at a time. The cause of St. John’s Dance has been widely speculated, including mass hysteria, ergot poisoning, spiritual possession, and ritualistic stress relief.  

The inescapable urge to dance is celebrated in Dumpy La Rue, the story about a pig whose passion for dancing becomes contagious on the farm. Written by Elizabeth Winthrop (b. 1948) and published by Henry Holt and Company in 2001, Dumpy La Rue tells a tale about following your heart and inspiring others. Unphased by his family’s conjecture that pigs can’t dance Dumpy closes his eyes and twirls about the barnyard encouraging his friends to join in. The story is illustrated by Caldecott awardee Betsy Lewin (b. 1937) whose use of black brush line over watercolor washes adds an element of emotive movement to the pages.  

Dumpy La Rue is part of our extensive Historical Curriculum Collection of over 3,000 titles that can be explored in the online catalog here. 

View other posts from the Historical Curriculum Collection here.

Read other Milestone Monday posts here 

– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[beekindac]

Happy Monday All! I hope your week is off to a good start. Enjoy some colorful clouds and immortal words to help make today a little brighter.

🌈In addition to creating for the fair, I'm working on stuff for Pride Month! I want to go to our local parade with my kids this year, but we are questioning safety based on how crazy everything has gotten. Even if we don't get to go, I hope to show support our local community in some way. I really hope someday soon we can all just take a breath and get along.

*** We know some folks dont agree or approve of the LGBTQ+ community and we do respect your right to have that opinion. However, we ask you, most humbly and seriously, to STFU and and keep your opinions to yourself / keep scrolling if you have nothing nice to say. We are intolerant of intolerance on this blog. Thank you🏳️‍🌈 ***