While I may not have been blogging much, I have continued to paint. Here are a few of my recent works.
These wet pebbles were for our “Going Coastal” assignment on Free your Art.
and an enamel bowl and jug – this was an exercise on white on white – I really enjoyed it.
I also painted two wall murals at two under-privileged schools for a charity which does really great work with the schools on raising awareness of our ecology and ecosystems and also running food gardens at the schools
Our “Artful Cartoon” challenge finished after the first week in August and I have been remiss in blogging about it. You can read the details of the challenge here.
Although cartoons are really not my thing when it comes to painting, this challenge tested our creativity more than any of our previous challenges. The test was to reproduce a cartoon in your own style and medium – creating a work of art.
Here is my attempt – I called it “the little mermaid grows up” and I painted it in acrylic on board.
As you can see from the picture below we got so many unusual and creative entries. From wall clocks to skateboards, paint shopped images to Popeye and Picasso.
A collage of the other entries
The piece of art that won the popular vote was a painting of Spiderman’s hand on a skateboard done by Jamey Richards.
Excellent detail. Congratulations Jamey!
To join our art challenges or to just follow along (although we love everyone to join in – no matter what level) please join our Facebook group – Free your Art
A new road side stall called Piccadilly has opened up near Hoedspruit. It is really worth a visit if you are driving out towards Lydenberg or just to the reptile park. I often find it difficult finding small gifts for birthdays and Piccadilly has so many wonderful gifts and ideas. Elsa, the owner, also sources fresh vegetables from local farms and has a few basics like cold drinks and other groceries available.
I walked away with some very fresh farm potatoes, green beans and onions and some wonderful pictures of the stall.
Piccadilly is located on the Orpen road just off the R527 near the reptile park, and just outside the entrance of Zulaika Country House. Please pop by and show your support of our local businesses.
Click on the picture below to join our Facebook page to participate in this challenge. It runs from 6 July to the 6th of August 2012.
(written by Vanessa Marais)
The Artful Cartoon
Our third online assignment will test your creativity in your chosen medium and encourage you to think outside the box
Gavin Marais won the vote in the Tree Challenge and he has chosen the next topic to be ‘Simple Toons to works of Art’.
He had this to say,” Sounds silly as a topic, but it could be anything from disney to cartoon network, print-based cartoon or comic book characters to a block buster 3d animated movie character. In essence, I’d like people to have fun interpreting a typically ‘childlike’ genre into an artwork worthy of any wall.”
Choose any cartoon character you like, but make it your own. Who’d expect to see Garfield in Charcoal, the Simpson’s in Pastels, or Goofy in Oils? Bake a cake, embroider, make a mosaic, form a sculpture. Go mad and have FUN!
Guidelines
Timeline:
This challenge may sound confusing to you as it did to me at first so Vanessa has put together some examples so that you can see what we are looking for
We are looking for as many participants as possible. Beginners to experienced artists are all welcome. I hope you will join us for this challenge.
Sundays on the farm are my best days. All the housework is done, and I get to do as I please. I normally take it slow and fiddle in my veggie patch and take Cleo for long walks or I paint. Today, I have been lucky enough to do all three. Our weather is beautiful, with the temperatures around 26-28 deg C (not bad for mid winter).
On the painting front, I have been working on painting a collection of fruit and veg for my kitchen wall. Today I was able to paint two more to complete the collection of four, but now I think I am going to keep going and paint a whole pile of them as it seems they will sell off rather fast judging from reactions I have had so far.
I was really not sure which to paint for this collection but I think my choices have worked reasonably well,
What do you do on your lazy days?
Heather Leigh Wagner won the vote in our previous challenge, so we thought it appropriate to give her the subject choice as a prize. We also wanted to make this a little more informal and open to personal interpretation, so when she suggested “A tree or trees – and maybe not from a ‘print’ or ‘master copy’ but each person could find their favourite tree in the garden or find a picture to copy…. that way everyone’s will be unique but with the same theme?” – We thought it a great idea! This is our second online assignment, less of a challenge and more of showcase of personal style and taste.
Guidelines: · A Tree/Trees are the main theme. It can be fantasy; macro of a bonsai; a sunset with a tree silhouette, or a perhaps a forest, just stick to the topic · The reference material* is to be sourced individually, either from a photo, or life. ·
Medium: Open ·
Size: Open
Timeline: The assignment runs from 30th May to the 25th June 2012. Final paintings must be uploaded to the appropriate album by 6pm GMT 25th June 2012.
Please upload progress and reference pictures to the appropriate albums on our Facebook page or email them to me on slowvelder@hotmail.com
*This image is not the reference image, please source your own
Please let me know if you will be taking part. We only had one international entry in our last challenge which was Peter from Belgium. Thank you so much for participating Peter. We are really hoping for a few more international entries this time.
Why don’t you give it a try? Remember that your entry can be in any type of medium, so clay modelling, photography, any type of painting medium, pencil, scratch board, are all welcome. Let’s get creative!
Our first group art challenge is now over. Thank you to everyone who participated. We had great fun. Heather who I wrote about in a previous post was voted as the favorite.
My personal favorite painting was the one done by Vanessa.
Isn’t it beautiful!
We are now talking about our next challenge on our Facebook page. If any of you who do not have facebook would like to put in some suggestions as to what we should all be painting next please leave a comment on this post. Suggestions should just be whether you are interested in painting a landscape, still life, portrait, wildlife etc. Once we have finalised this we will be looking for specific pictures. Please post your suggestions.
When we started talking about our idea of setting up our art challenge, I had about thirty people say to me that they would be so keen to join in and paint with us. Once the challenge was launched, due to timing and various real world pressures many came back to me with apologies about not being able to join us this time. Although I understand these pressures and time restraints only too well, I have been a little disappointed that we only have about 8 people participating so far. So today I though I would post a picture of our latest participant, Heather. Heather has been an active participant on our Facebook page so far – egging (pun intended) us on and encouraging all the participants. She only started her picture yesterday. Like me she likes to leave things till the pressure is on.
Here she is about 1 and a half hours into her sketch
Heather you inspire me – and I hope that those reading this post will also be inspired to pick up their pencils and brushes, appreciate what they have and get cracking on their pictures!
Heather you are a star! Thank you for all your support and encouragement on our Facebook page. It would not be the same without you.
If you would like to know more about our painting challenge please click here to read about it
Below you will see some of the pictures already submitted for our challenge. Some have done a quick colour study before starting their main painting and others have been submitting progress pictures as the go forward. Some of these artists have either never painted before or last picked up brushes many, many years ago.
I would like to encourage those of you who have not started yet to pick up your brushes and get going. That includes me. I start in earnest tomorrow.
I have also heard via the grape-vine that my Dad MAY just pick up brushes for the first time and try this challenge. Wow – I would be so thrilled if he does. Come on Dad!!
Why the Egg?
Being the first online challenge, we thought that in order to see the various mediums and skill levels at play we would begin with something basic. Don’t be deceived however, as eggs can be rather tricky to get right. They can easily end up looking like potatoes. I am sure it will test your tonal skills, drawing skills and patience levels. Neither of us has ever painted a still life with eggs, so the task will be worthwhile. Starting with eggs will give an appreciation of form and tone (shadows-midtones-highlights), and how the two go hand in hand when creating the illusion of depth and dimension.
Guidelines
Timeline: The challenge runs from the 25th of April to the 20th of May 2012. Final paintings must be uploaded to the appropriate album on our Facebook page by 8pm SAST 20 May 2012 or emailed to me by 12h00.
Feel free to upload your progress pictures to the Facebook page whenever you wish. We would love to see how things are going. If you get stuck, upload a picture to the page wall and ask your question. We are all here to learn and help.
Credits:
Thank you to Dale Tyndall for taking the photo, and to Vanessa Marais for choosing this challenge, photoshopping and for telling us why we should paint eggs.
Let’s get painting!
Click on the picture below to join our Facebook page
