Mother Nature wields a mighty paintbrush!

I've entered two photographs in this month's EBSQart's Flower of the Month Show. It's on begonias this month. You can see them here along with all the other entries.

If you're feeling generous, maybe you could go vote? If you're not a member of EBSQ, then you can join free as a Patron and vote. Here's where you'd go to join up as a Patron. Voting starts on September 1 and goes through until midnight on the 7th.

Here's my two entries and accompanying statements:

Floral macros fascinate me! I love to shoot them and I love to paint them. The lines and curves and colours are just so amazing when viewed from so close. It's like a whole other world.

Begonias are so beautifully lush with colour and texture that it's difficult not to be attracted to them. Even though this one is white, I usually have some peach coloured begonias somewhere in my garden! But if you look closely, you can see a myriad of colour in those whites. Magical!

Something else that draws me to begonias is the waxy look of their huge leaves.

I shot this begonia originally for reference use as I like to use my own photographs whenever possible for reference.

I also have on file the original tiff format that I shot this in so that I can enlarge it to poster size. I use a DSLR with excellent macro capabilities.

I call the above photograph "fiery heart".

I love the inner world of a flower. I love to shoot them and I love to paint them. I use a DSLR that allows me to get very deep into the heart of the begonia.

The magical thing about shots like this is that you tend to feel like a little fairy that can actually step into this incredibly beautiful spot.

This begonia didn't have many petals yet when I shot this and for that reason, I was able to get a deep-looking macro like this.

Since this is also in tiff format, I can enlarge this to poster sizes.

The reds and the yellows look so fiery and I love the way the colours blend together.

Mother Nature wields a mighty paintbrush indeed!!!

The Steps of a Giraffe

Since I've been so horribly lax in painting (with some other things needing doing and also with a hideously busy week at work), I thought I'd post a slide show of the creation of a painting.

I was pretty proud of the fact that I didn't use any mask at all with this background because I always have a tough time painting large backgrounds - i.e. keeping that area wet enough and not drying out. There were many, many washes applied for the neck and face areas with the spots.

Watercolour (of course!) on Arches 1/4 sheet with mostly Daniel Smith and Winsor Newton paints. A finished Giraffe is below the slide show. Titled "A Coy Giraffe".

Brillante Web Award

Many thanks to Rhonda for sending me the Brillante web award! I have to send this on to seven of my favourite art sites. I'd definitely send it to Ann but Rhonda sent it to her also. I'd send it to Rhonda but she sent it to me. :-)

(Ann, I hope you don't mind but I copied the 'rules' from your blog.)

Soooooooo, here goes:

The rules are that if the persons receiving the award decide to participate, they must:
1 - Put the logo on their blog
2 - Add a link to the person who gave them the award
3 - Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4 - Add links to those blogs on yours
5 - Leave a message on each of the blogs nominated.

My nominees are:

1. Ruth Harris - I love Ruth's watercolours and she's a fantastic photographer who freely shares her photography at Wet Canvas.

2 - Deb Townsend - Deb's a great person (I mean Deb Townsend, not me!) whom I met through Painting Friends and I just love her work with webbing spray! (Anyone know where you can buy this in Canada?)

3. Carol "Dabs" Holt - I met Dabs through Watercolor Workshop years ago and I enjoy following her blog whenever I get the chance. I may not comment Dabs, but I'm rooting for you!

4. Jose Antonio G. Villarrubia - Oh, you have to visit this blog! His work is incredible! Before you look though, scroll down to the bottom and click the music to play. The Glass music matches the wonderfully old-world paintings perfectly!

5. Raynald Murphy's Blog called Art Plein Air - A bilingual blog that teaches a lot about drawing! I love looking at his work because so much of it is Montreal scenes. (I live an hour from Montreal and love to visit this beautiful city.)

6. Dana Marie's blog - I love Dana's work and one of these days would love to buy a large painting of her's. I met Dana through EBSQart.

7. Joyce's Daily Paintings - A fellow Ontarian artist who does gorgeous aceo's!

I've put all the links for these wonderful seven sites and will put them into my links list over on the right hand side of my blog. Visit them all for some wonderful eye candy!!!

Thanks again, Rhonda!

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