First Ever Art Competition!

Our home is a busy little creative hub at the moment ... and I love it! My two girls and I have decided to enter into a local art competition for the first time! We're very excited to have the opportunity to be involved in something like this, and we're looking forward to seeing all the entries and having a great opening night next Friday night!

There are four sections to enter; art, photography, sculpture and ceramics, and children's art. We're entering all apart from sculpture and ceramics.

For us, it doesn't matter about winning or losing. It's about gathering with like-minded artists, sharing our work, encouraging each other, drawing inspiration from each other, and giving my daughters an opportunity to be encouraged creatively by people other than their Dad and Mum.

These are our finished entries ...

Top is a photograph taken by my eleven year old when she was ten, "Autumns Beauty".
The bottom pic is her first abstract piece. Acrylic on canvas, "Summer Time".

This piece was created by myself. "Moving Forward"

Another abstract piece created by myself. 
Acrylic on canvas with Gold Leaf "Reflections"

My photograph titled "Ollie Boy".

Above photograph taken by myself, "Dew Drop".
Bottom piece created by my eight year old daughter, "Diamonds"

A photograph taken by myself, "Morning Glory"

Above and below images are a triptych that my eleven year old took,again when she was ten.
If you look closely, you can see the beautiful
little bumblebee she's captured in each piece!
"All in a Days Work"

My little artists! They are very excited to be entering the competition! I'm so happy to be entering along side them!

My eleven year old ... "Summer Time"

My eight year old ... "Diamonds"

"Autumns Beauty"

"All in a Days Work"

Now all that's left to do is drive them to the art gallery so they can be displayed with all the other amazing artworks that will be entered! It really is going to be such a fantastic experience, and we can't wait!

So, you'll have to keep popping in to see how it all pans out!

Happy creating everyone!

Abstract Pieces

I've plunged into the deep end. I've taken a risk. I've painted more abstract pieces. Yesterday I spent the better part of the day painting. By the end of the day I had created four abstract pieces in acrylic, and some with oils mixed in as well. 

It still remains a mystery to me as to why all of a sudden I have an urge to paint in abstract, when I've never had a desire for this style in the past. However, I am really enjoying the freedom of it and the fact that there are no hard and fast rules. 

I have found that painting abstracts that relate to favourite song lyrics of mine add personal depth and meaning to the piece, as well as painting things that I know I like (trees, birds, etc). How do you approach your abstract pieces?

I must admit, I'm hooked. Even though I'm new to this style, there's something about it that makes me want to keep trying a different technique, a different colour scheme, a larger sized canvas! I keep a sketchbook with my ideas in preliminary sketches so that if it's a while between paintings, I have all the ideas written down (I'll show you this book in another post).

Here's the pieces from yesterdays blissful creative time! ...

"Rainbow Lorikeet" ... acrylic on canvas.

"Forest" ... acrylic on canvas with silver leaf.

"His Glory Appears" ... acrylic and gesso on canvas.

"Bonfire Dance" ... acrylic and oil on canvas.

It's school holidays here, and I really hope to cram in as much painting time as I can ... after I've bought more paints and canvases! 

Happy painting everyone!