For the Love of Blue + Postcard Giveaway and Swap Update

So, I go to Greece to take pictures of white houses and blue sea. Which I did, and I enjoyed. But as I shared in Monday's post, the things that inspired me the most continued to be the places with texture, the colors, and little details like this door handle and lock. I captured this in the small town Megalochori when we rented a car one day and visited some of the smaller towns around the island of Santorini. Once you got out of the tourist zones where everything was postcard-perfect, Santorini was texture heaven. Just goes to show, style will always come through. You've probably heard the saying: "No matter where you go, there you are." Even artistically, this is so true. (I'm linking this in to The Creative Exchange for that reason!)

Today I've also got a lot of little updates so hang on through the end if you are interested in a Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap update, my Paint Party Friday entry, entering a postcard giveaway and a quick newsletter tip.


Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap Update and Postcard Giveaway

I'm so excited with the response to the postcard swap. There are 87 people signed up for the swap so far. That's 435 pieces of art that will be winging their way around the world come late July. Isn't that awesome? And it's all because you are helping me get the word out!  Thank you so much!

If you're already signed up, you can expect an email this week with some more ideas and resources about making or printing your postcards. If you have some resources or tips you want to share with the group, send them to me and I'll add them to the update. If you haven't signed up yet, there's plenty of time. Go here to sign up and get the details.

To thank you for the great response to the swap and your help with growing it, I'm doing a postcard giveaway, to liberate more art into the world.  There will be two winners. I'll be giving away a set of my own "Favorite Flowers" postcards, as well as a set of "Superhero" postcards from my good friend Jenny Shih. Any one of these postcards is guaranteed to make the recipient smile.

 




Even better, you can have up to three entries into the pool. Here is what you need to do to enter:
1. Comment on this post for one entry. Just say hi and you are in!
2. If you are a signed up for the postcard swap, you get a second entry. Leave a second comment on this post that you are signed up, for your second entry. It's not too late - sign up here and then come back and use this entry!
3. If you have helped get the word out on the postcard swap (a blog post, a tweet, putting the button on your blog sidebar, etc.), you get a third entry. Leave a third comment on this post telling us what you did to help get the word out, and provide a link if you have one, for your third entry. It's not to late for this either - if you help get the word out between now and Monday, come back and comment again.

I will draw for the winners on Tuesday morning here in Italy, so you have until Monday night around midnight EST to leave your comments. Please make sure that there is a way for me to get at your email through your comment - either by a link back to your website where I can find it or commenting with a method that will allow me to reply. If you win and I can't find your email to contact you for the address, I'll re-draw for the prize.

Quick Newsletter Tip


My newsletter will be going out on Sunday, with the Visual Contrast printable file I told you about in yesterday's post. Be sure to add my email address to your address book so it doesn't end up in your spam folder. If you signed up but don't see it by Monday morning, or didn't see the first one I sent a couple of weeks ago, check your spam folder.

Paint Party Friday!


I had so much fun participating in Paint Party Friday the first time a couple of weeks ago. That, along the wonderful blues I experienced in Greece last week, have motivated me to start another painting. This is a small 20x20cm canvas, painted in acrylics. I haven't finished it yet, but thought I would share my progress.

Step One: I wanted to get a watery looking background so I used quite a bit of water with Cerulean blue paint to initially paint the background. Then I crumpled a paper towel and dabbed at the canvas to unevenly take paint away. It was an experiment, and I liked the results.

Step Two: I started painting a circle of Aquamarine, from the outside in. I still used quite a bit of water and overlapped as I went. Eventually I worked to the center and then spiraled out, darkening the places that seemed to be naturally dark. I had no intention with the subject, but the result at the end of this step look like a rose to me.

This is all I've done so far. Next I'm planning to go along with the emerging rose I see and add some highlights. We'll see where this goes in future updates. It's funny how both this painting and the last one I did have ended up looking like flowers, that was not intentional.

Have a great weekend!!