A Small Art Swap

A Face At The Window - Collage

 Well, I guess it's not really a swap, when you get one in exchange for three, but here goes anyway.

Do you like to receive cool handmade gifts? Do you like to give handmade gifts and bring joy through those gifts? Do you want to join a project and BRING JOY EXPONENTIALLY through handmade gifts?

PAY IT FORWARD 2012

This was started by Erin of Art-Is-Try.

I found out about Erin's project from Andria of Drawing Near and thought it an easy and fun thing to do.

1. If you would like to participate, please leave a comment on this post. The first three people to commit to the project will receive a handmade gift from me!
2. Post this project on your own blog—feel free to cut n’ paste. Gather three new participants and be willing / prepared to follow through with the “Pay It Forward” part!!! Please link back to this original post, and I, in turn, will include a link to your post so that we can follow the project from its origin.
3. E-mail me  with your full name and address, and I will send a small, simple, heartfelt, handmade gift. In turn, you will give small, simple, heartfelt, handmade gifts to your participants. Let the joy grow exponentially!
4. If you are interested in participating but are not one of the first three to comment on this post, come back after I have listed my three participants here, click on one of their links and sign up under them (or if they are full, click on their links etc etc etc until you find one)!

*NOTE*-any and all handmade gifts are okay! Try to keep them small, and heartfelt. A small painting, poem, collage, etc, but with a touch of your own personal heart and creative side! There is also no time limit , but I would hope they would all be made/given in a timely matter. As long as you make some kind of agreement with your gift-receivers, your deadline should be up to you…

So, to help clarify, here is an example to follow: I commented on Andria's  blog, so Andria will send me a gift. I am posting the project on my blog so I am waiting for 3 comments. When I get them, I will send 3 gifts. Those people will post to their blogs, and send out 3 gifts of their own! I hope that makes sense, but if not, feel free to email me at jo.murray.art@gmail.com  with any questions, or visit Erin at her blog.

I look forward to seeing who will be my three participants.  I just love the idea of so many handmade gems travelling around the world.

I expect I will send Artist Trading Cards to my participants, or perhaps some earrings, or a collage, or even a glass pendant?  If you have a preference, mention it in your comment.

In The Picture - February Challenge

In The Picture has made February's theme is 'write on !'.  I've had to add words of some kind to my self portrait.

It's hard enough to figure out how to take your own photo, let alone add writing!  However it's amazing what you can do with 'smoke and mirrors' as they say.

Here's my offering:

I photographed my hand with lots of my homemade jewellery, and one of Fiona's pebbles, then photoshopped my face into the background.

I'm getting quite good at looking into my own camera and pressing the button.  Hooray for digital cameras!... you can delete all the crook ones.

Unable to leave well enough alone I began playing around with distortion of various kinds and like this one best:

That was using the 'Polar' distortion tool, but 'Sphere' distortion is interesting too...

I can't leave Photoshop alone!  Wonder if someone will start a "Photoshoppers Anonymous" in the future.

A Letter A Week

It seems that when I revert to painting larger works I neglect my blog.  This is probably because it takes much longer to get a worthwhile result on a large canvas than on small pieces of paper.  That said, I have two works 'in progress' that will be posted very soon.

Meanwhile I still have my ALAW project, and a couple of others, in the pipeline so here are February's letters...

It's worth having a look at everyone's wonderful creative letters, so click HERE to visit.

Back to the easel......

Matisse - Drawing Life

GOMA is showing the most amazing and comprehensive exhibition of drawings by Matisse and I was fortunate enough to go with our local Regional Gallery  group to see it.

I didn't realise that Matisse did so many drawings of each subject that he painted.  He drew and drew and drew it until he was happy with the composition, sometimes dozens of times.

When drawing for drawing's sake his goal was to use as few lines as possible, simplifying to the extreme.  I love this concept.

 If only this was easy easy as it looks!!! 

Well, information about Matisse and his work is readily available in books but what about Yayoi Kusama ?  A totally new artist to me, I found her work totally absorbing in so many senses. 

In this exhibition, running concurrently with Matisse, she has employed colour and spots to transform an ordinary space into an "Obliteration Room"

It was mindblowing!  I felt that I was standing in an optical illusion... perhaps because I was.

All Yayoi's other work is as fascinating, and colourful.

Think this looks small?  I could walk through that space without bending in the slightest.

This marvellous flower is HUGE...... (you can see the floor and ceiling of the room)

If you ever have the chance to see this... do!  I loved it.

A vote of confidence...

Thank you Laurie of ' When The Bough Breaks' for nominating me for the Liebster Award.  This is the second I've received in a year, so I must be doing something right.  It's nice to know that you wonderful people in Blogland read and enjoy my blog.

As for Laurie... you just have to check out her gorgeous birds.

Who knows where The Liebster Blog Award originated? It is meant to showcase those who have fewer than 200 followers. (Liebster means "favourite" or "dearest" in German.) This is done in the spirit of pay-it-forward. In accepting this award, the recipient agrees to:

• Thank the person that gave them the award and link back to their blog
• Copy and paste the award to their blog
• Reveal the 5 blogs they have chosen to award and let them know by commenting on their blog

For those I am about to award, I should also point out there is no obligation to continue this award. If this is not your cup of tea, don’t worry.

The value behind this award is for us to get to know other bloggers who might not be well known, yet have a lot to share. Each of us has our own following, for various different reasons. Those who read our blogs might benefit from being introduced to other sorts of art practice. It is all part of the blogging concept of sharing knowledge.

Sooooo, that said, here are five worthy recipients:

1.  David at David Weir Art

     His work is superb!!! Everyone should follow this blog

2.  Jann at '..with an artist's hand'.

     Beautiful encaustic works.

3.  Terrie at Creative Explorer

     Because she is willing to try new things, and excels at them.

4.  Granny Annie at The Whimsey Asylum

     How I love what she does with digital art.

5.  Steve Specht at Collagist.
     A great inspiration to me.

  

Hope you enjoy visiting these talented people as much as I do.  Isn't blogging fun!

Art Shows...and having fun

No posts for a week!  Guess I've been out and about too much.  Several friends have been having exhibitions so I just had to go to all the openings.

'More Than Enough' - Victoria Fitzpatrick

Victoria has had exhibitions in two galleries... Rosebed St Gallery, and Noosa Regional Gallery.

At Noosa she is showing together with Kym Barrett, whose work I bought at another opening at Studio 4 Gallery.

'First Light' - Kym Barrett

Here I am with Victoria at her opening at Noosa

Next lot to have an opening were friends from Aileen Shaw's painting group - Marianne Reardon, Philippa Hume, Ellie Anderson, and Noni Metzler (sorry, no links).

Marianne, Noni, Ellie, and Philippa at Gympie

Aileen and I went to Gympie Regional Gallery for this event.  It's about one hour's drive from here so we made a real day of it and arranged to lunch with two of Aileen's friends from that area.

At McCafe there was a very talented girl doing face-painting (for the children) so of course we could not resist lining up to get ours done. What a hoot! 

Maree, Shirley, Aileen, and me

Don't you think we all looked great!  We were quite a hit at the opening.