OWOH winners

A quick post to announce the winners of my giveaway.

Congratulations to Beth of Elizabeth Studio 54 who wins the print.

Large postcards also on their way to:

Sheree - Raven Moon Magic
Diane - My Art Journal
Fiona Whitehead
Yoborobo

All the winners should have received an email from me requesting their mailing address.

Pay it forward - UPDATE

There's always something lovely to find in blogland. We have all the excitment of the One World One Heart event at the weekend (if you don't know... where have you been? Take a look at the link in my sidebar!). I was visiting a fairy friend and found a little treat. The first five to comment on her post would receive a handmade gift in the post! Well, who could resist?

There were however some rules. If you want to play along then you have to be willing to repost this and do the same - will you commit to offering a handmade gift to five other people too?

I promise to send out my gifts as soon as I can, but you might have to give me chance to make something first as I'd like to create something individual for each. Just a little treat, something easy to post.

UPDATE
Just for clarity, I was offering gifts too! I'm playing!!

Sharing

First to share is the winner of my giveaway. Without further ado, I turn to the randomo generatio machinio (not sure why it's called that, but it sounded fancier).

Drum roll please....

Hear it whirr into life and those numbers begin to rattle around inside.....

25 entries plus 1 extra for Paula as she was actually my 200th follower!

And the winner is....

Kiki!

Well done you. Do you want to drop me a line with your email and we can do the address thing.

wendy.windblows[a]hotmail.co.uk


***

Now there was another side to my giveaway - I wanted something in return and you gave in bucketfuls - artistic inspiration.

I'm rather chuffed with myself. What a cracking idea to ask you to share your most admired artists. I've been on a virtual gallery tour all week and have been whisked on a whimsical journey into the imaginations of some very talented creatives.

I'd like to share a couple of my personal favourites from your suggestions, plus a few of my own. I do love how a visit to one site takes you to another, and another. It reminds me of popping into the National Gallery just to look at the Canalettos for five minutes and suddenly finding myself 10 rooms in and immersed in a Van Gogh!

Why not click on a link or two and allow these artists and their muses to show you around a gallery or two. You can also click back to the comments of my giveaway post and follow the other recommendations too.

(c) Henry Asencio

Henry Asencio paints vibrant and contemporary figures with a freedom of brush stroke that breathes life into his works. This link takes you to his work as shown on Vinings Gallery. If you pop along to their home page, you'll find many more talented artists. Including:

(c) Charles Dwyer

Charles Dwyer. Now, this his is a direction I wish to travel with my mixed media work. I would love to spend a day or two observing him at work. Or maybe mix him with a little of...

(c) Teresa Magel

Teresa Magel, whose dreamy portaits I came across on Onessimo Fine Art from where you can find yet more talent and inspiration like...

(c) Jennifer Scott McLaughlin

Jennifer Scott McLaughlin whose wild and seemingly carefully considered flower doodles. Surely fairies live among these florals... Which leads me on nicely to:

Celtic Photography (Angela Jayne Barnett); if you believe in fairies, maybe you should take a peek and step or two through this door... I think it could very well be quite magical!

Enjoy...

Happy spells

Well, it's Friday and tradition has it that I write a Happy Friday post.

I am sitting here with quite a glow about me. Following on from Wednesday's declaration to start exercising again I am fresh from quite a workout. My joints have been a-creaking and a-groaning but it felt so good. Those muscles sure needed a stretch. I had intended to start on Wednesday but work was a bit too busy to take time out at lunch, then we went out in the evening. Yesterday I left the house at 7.15am and returned at the same time pm and crawled over the doorstep, so no leaping about last night! Excuses I know... I shall have to be stricter with my time management and not allow complete and utter exhaustion to get the better of me! Ha! Some hope...

I remember when Fridays meant wild nights out. These days it's usually a struggle to stay awake past 10 o'clock. I can't even enjoy a glass of wine without it knocking me out.

I'll tell what put a spring in my step this week though. I was thrilled to bits to be featured on Victoria Pettella's art blog - Enchanting the Invisible. She put me in her creative spotlight. I feel quite humbled to be such illustrious company. Victoria (aka Kiki) paints mystical figures and weaves enhanchments with her words.

Have you read 'Garden Spells' by Sarah Addison Allen? I really think you should... It's quite magical - just remember never to eat any of those apples though! I've had my nose immersed in it all week just before bedtime. I could probably have finished it much sooner, but I was enjoying my nightly excursion to Bascom so much that I wanted to prolong my little holiday for as long as possible. Can anyone recommend anything similar?

I posted a giveaway yesterday to spread my happy, so do join in if you are interested. I'm inviting for you to share one (or more!) of your favourite artists to help feed my voracious appetite for inspiration and creative loveliness.

I took this picture last summer, but it seemed perfect for this post - I added a few spells in photoshop :)

A little celebration giveaway

I'm rather chuffed. I hit my 200th follower, well 201 now. Can't be bad.

As promised, I shall treat one lucky reader to a giveaway now I have achieved this somewhat historic milestone. Yes, I painted something especially for you. Before we go on to the entry criteria though I am afraid I shall subject you to more ramblings (you are of course free to skip to the end, but then who knows what you'll miss - there might be ice cream!).

So, we begin... It seems only natural at this point to spend some time reflecting on how far I've come since I started this 'little writing exercise' about 18 months ago. In the beginning, it was all about the writing. I wanted to write a novel, but they do take rather a long time and considerable effort. I discovered that penning a blog post was actually much simpler and satisfied my urge to create prose in a far shorter timeframe and word count. Then, suddenly people started finding my paragraphs, and... commenting on them! Here was some fun. I began to feel like I was writing my very own column in a daily paper - childhood dreams realised.

And while I was regressing back to youthful dalliances with literature, I was reminded of my love of illustration. No story was complete back then without a picture. A bunny here, a cute little cottage there with roses around the door. It was time to get my paints out again. I had forgotten the sheer unadulterated pleasure to be gained by creating. Over the years we seem to feel that we can't paint unless we're brilliant artists, but we couldn't be more wrong. For me painting, drawing, making and just creating is my soul food, my rocket fuel and this online forum for sharing and learning alongside like-minded individuals has been more inspiration than I ever could have wished for. I have to confess to being rather addicted to blogland. If I'm not writing my own, I'm hopping around others, sometimes taking a crazy route through a maze of links until I end up whole worlds away from where I started. I just love this magical exploration and all the treasures it unfolds. The writing and the art have become intrinsically linked.

Then, finding that people actually like my work and even claim to be inspired by it was truly a revelation but also just the encouragement needed to keep on creating, to push myself. I still see huge room for improvement but knowing that at least some people like what I do and enjoy my words is quite the creative tonic. Making friends and sharing the creative journey sure has proved to be a rich mine of happiness. Through these friendships I've been able to find the confidence to open my own Etsy shop, join groups, take courses and even set my own creative challenges for others. Membership of Inspiration Avenue for example provides a worldwide creative support network - and some great places to buy pretty things!

Taking the regular art challenges often forces me outside my comfort zone and sees me far more likely to complete something - the element of 'getting my homework done' is another childhood throwback I think! I always was such a girlie swot! I love pushing myself though.

I could ramble on for hours, but do pity my poor readers and wouldn't want to log on next time and find I've put half of you off...

So, without further ado let's explain how you can win. Just leave a comment and share with us one of your favourite artists - with a link if can. Simple as that. I'll draw the winner by random generator on 1st September.

'Every woman blossoms' started off as an interesting background. There's some newspaper, dribbled inks and lots of acrylics. Then the face began to take shape but she kept shifting and changing. At one point, she became Frida Kahlo, then, somewhat bizarrely Minnie Driver made an appearance. Finally she blossomed into her current incarnation.

Mixed media on canvas block - mainly acrylic with a bit of ink and some collage. Measures 12cm x 18cm.

And, if you like a giveaway then do pop over to Plumrose Lane for the chance to win some stunning jewellery. As a customer, I can highly recommend Sharon's wonderful creations. She currently has a closing down sale in her jewellery shop with up to 85% off. Pick yourself up a bargain friends. There's a link direct to the sale at the top of my blog.