My Twilight Blue and ... 'Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose'

John Singer Sargent's wonderful  painting  'Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose 'was chosen as the inspiration for the February challenge of the Art Bead Scene blog. 

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Intrigued by the painting, I decided to investigate ..here follows an excerpt from the JSS Gallery site ..

"..The seed of the idea was first planted in the fertile garden of the Lavington Rectory in 1884 when Sargent was staying with the Vickers. The white lilies in full bloom around the two children in a garden would be the framework on which he would mount this most ambitious project. The idea (a purely fanciful one to be sure) was to capture, not the most perfect sunset, but the affect of the most perfect sunset has, in terms of color, shadows and light on a scene. But it was more than that. How about the artificial light of Chinese lanterns at the precise moment of twilight when lanterns and sun are at perfect equilibrium!  -- Could he paint that magical transient moment that lasts no more than a couple of minutes most -- capture that most perfect color of mauve when the sun is still flush in the sky and the lanterns glowing equally?  Not create the scene from his mind or memory of what it would or should look like, but actually capture it -- could he paint the exquisite beauty between those two minutes?  

Of course not. No one could paint in two minutes and even come close to a faithful adaptation no matter how prepared he or she was prior. But what if he painted only for those magical minutes every day?  If he was faithful, if he kept true to the principles of Impressionism -- painting only what he saw and not what he thought he saw or wanted to see, if he did it every day for two minutes could he capture lightning in a bottle so to speak?..."

And so..a medley of blues is born.. a jumbled array of ribbon  and rags with chains and vintage beads of all sorts and species. Hand patina-ed, handpainted..hand distressed in a attempt to obtain the peaceful 'twilight' tone and dusky textures of  the painting.

The main stage is taken by a beautiful melancholy blue raku cross focal pendant by a favorite and most talented etsy artist, Dorcus, from Wondrous Strange.
Lush midnight blue and faded grey velvet , dusty blue green vintage calico print fabric and sun-faded lavender silk rag strips make up the ribbons..  inspired by the little girl's dresses.  

                                                                              
  I thoroughly enjoyed the last few days.,distressing,constructing..dreaming. ..faintly hoping the necklace may evoke perhaps just a small bit of that wonderful and peaceful, melancholy 'twilight' that John Singer Sargent so wonderfully captured on canvas.