Artists that inspire me: Albena Vatcheva

Albena Vatcheva, or, in short, Albena, is a French artist of Bulgarian origin.

She is greatly influenced by various traditions, like icon-paintings

And there's also a strong influence of India and Persia in her paintings.

I like the zentangle-like details in her work

and the soft, almost invisible lines

look at all the detail in this work. I keep finding new things.

Those lines give her work a dynamic flowing movement

If you want to see more of her work, check out her website, her Facebookpage and her prints at Fine Art America. Lots more to see there!

I'm off to bed now. I've had a few (very) late nights because I have the bad habit of reading in bed before I go to sleep. Everytime I think: one more page, then I'll stop, but I just keep reading. And now I'm starting to feel very tired. No wonder ....

Thanks for visiting today. Hope to see you again on Friday for the Paint Party! ♥ ♥ ♥

making art when you're stressed for time ...

Thanks so much for the sweet comments on my previous post, and thanks to everyone who has blogged or facebooked or twittered about my calendar! Don't forget: you have until the 16th of November to be in the draw, so you can still particpate if you didn't already ☺. You can find the rules here.

Today I've been working a bit on 2 of my boxes. With all kinds of housework getting in the way, I started too late and before I knew it it was time to get the kids out of school, and I didn't get anything else done.

This is how far I came:

Today I also received the newsletter from the Art Colony with a link to a tutorial for 10 minute Intuitive Watercolor Wash Faces. Ten minutes? Okay, I could spare that. So I tried it out and failed miserably. I'm just not very good with watercolours, I find it very challenging to get it right from the first time. Acrylics is much easier, you can just paint layer on top of layer, but with watercolours you can't. But I had a new box full of yummy bright colours so I had to try it. Actually, I like the before picture much better:

should've left it like this ...

Instead I made this.... Yuk. Where's the brightness of the colours? And what's with all the lines on her face and neck? And why didn't I leave her eyes closed?

Oh well, it was just some fun in between, and I'll definitely try again later, when I have more time (somewhere in January I'm afraid ...)
 
Oh yes! Remember that I mentioned the mystery about the email that had disappeared? Well, I found it! I hadn't been mailing her from my gmail, but I had sent her a message on Facebook and it was there that I received an answer. Phew .... Was starting to think that I was losing my mind .... Thanks to Minnemie though, for the tip about the archive in gmail. Didn't know about that, it took me half an hour before I even found my archive ...

That's it for now. I'll probably be back on Wednesday with another inspiring artist post, IF I get an answer from the artist I asked for permission. See you then! Thanks for visiting ♥

2 winners and a new give-away!

Thanks so much for visiting and leaving your sweet comments ♥

 I’m very late this week with my entry for Paint Party Friday. That’s because I had to wait for the kids to come back from school so they could draw the 2 winners of the give-away.  They thought it was all very exciting, so it took a while, and after drawing the winners and taking pictures it was time to go to badminton practice. So now it’s already evening in Australia.

I’m linking this to PPF, although I don’t have much to show this week. Because I’m doing another market in December, and very ambitiously signed up for a 2,5m space, I am now in a frenzy to make more stuff. 

This is what I got so far:

Not much, I know …. But all the groundwork is done. The sanding, first layer of paint, second time sanding, second layer of paint. They are all ready to be tackled now.

Yesterday I received my calendars in the mail! I hadn’t expected them for another week since I only ordered them last Friday. So it was a big surprise. And I’m so happy with them! The paper is nice and sturdy, so the pictures can still be used as prints when the year is over. Last year I experimented for the first time with making a calendar. I ordered one from Vistaprint, but was rather disappointed with the outcome. The paper was too thin and it all looked too flimsy. But this one from Lulu is exactly as I wanted it. Here are some pictures:

And now about the give-away … Thanks to all who signed up, I’m really grateful that so many of you would like to have a piece of my art. I used the old-fashioned way of writing all your names down on a piece of paper ;-)

My kids were arguing about who got to draw the first prize and the second prize, so I had to explain that both “prizes” were equal, and they finally decided that my daughter was allowed to draw the winner of the print:

Blindfolded, because that’s waaay more exciting ….

And the winner of the print is ……

 

Congratulations Gina! Please send me your postal address and I’ll get this print in the mail first thing on Monday!

And then it was my son’s turn:

 

And the winner of the 5 postcards is …..

 

Congratulations Anja! I have a lot of different postcards, and I put them all on my new website www.denthe.com. If you click this link , it should bring you straight to the postcards. Let me know which cards you would like to have, and the address to post it to, and I’ll send them to you next week.

To all who didn’t win: don’t be disappointed, because I’m doing another give-away! Yes, that’s right! Why? Because I need your help to spread the word about my calendar. I am not on Twitter, and not that involved on Facebook either, so I can’t reach out to a whole lot of people.

So I’m giving away a calendar if you’re willing to help me spread the word. I know that some of you bought the calendar already, so in case I draw your name, just let me know and then you can have a choice between the calendar or the print or 5 postcards. Sounds good? Here’s what you need to do to be in the draw:

You “promote” my calendar on your blog, post it to your friends on Facebook or Twitter about it. Or better yet: do all three ☺ . When you do, please put this link in your post, so it brings them straight to my Lulu-shop.  After you’ve done that, please let me know, either in the comments below or email me. That way anonymous followers also have a chance to win. You can use images of the calendar, but please link back to this blog if you do. 

That’s it! So your name could go in the draw three times if you blog, update your friends on Facebook and twitter about it. Please make sure that I know how often I should put your name in.

Well, this post is becoming way too long, so that’s it for now. Oh yes, one more thing: I, or rather one of my kids (ew, they will be arguing again I’m afraid ….), will draw the winner on Friday the 16th of November. So you have 2 weeks to do this. Hope you will!

Thanks for stopping by! Don’t forget to look at all the beautiful art on PPF. I’ll try to get around to everybody this weekend .

Hope your Friday and your weekend will be relaxing and sweet! ♥ ♥ ♥

Artists that inspire me: Rebekka Ivacson

Today's artist, Rebekka is a Romanian artist who started to draw at age 12.

She likes to use different techniques and materials, watercolours being the most prominent.

She's also a photographer and an illustrator

I love  her style. I think her images are very powerful.

She doesn't seem to have a website, but she's on Facebook

And she has 2 blogs, one on Wordpress and one on Blogger.

I love all those little details; the lines, the drips, the doodles

Isn't this lovely?

 
The weirdest thing happened to me today. I wrote her an email on Monday to ask her permission for this post, and she wrote back to say that it was okay.

And today I was looking for that mail in my inbox, and I couldn't find it. It's gone! I searched everywhere, even in my trash, but it's nowhere. I don't know where it went, and I can't even find the mail that I sent her in my "sent items". I'm baffled. It's almost as if I dreamed the whole thing. And still I KNOW that she sent me an answer. I even crossed it off my to-do-list. I really don't understand this. Has anyone had issues like this before with gmail?

Anyway, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed looking at her art. She's also on deviantART, go check it out!

Hope you're having a wonderful day. It's night again here in Australia, so I'm off to bed.

Back on Friday with the names of the winners of my giveaway! Joohoo! Exciting! Looking forward to it ☺
See you then ♥

Lyricsgirl and one-liner

Wow, thanks so much for all the sweet comments on my previous post! My kids are already fighting about who is going to draw the winner ☺ They see the postcards as the "second prize" ...

I read about the big hurricane that's moving towards the eastcoast of America. Looks scary! I hope all of you who live there stay safe and sound, and that all will be back to normal asap.

In the meantime, I've signed up for another market. It's at the 8th of December, close to the holidays, and it's a well-known market. So I figured I'd give it another try. If it's the same disaster as last time, then I won't do it again and concentrate solely on selling online and through a few shops here in Brisbane.

So this week I'll paint some more boxes. Although I really want to start working on my canvases again, but I guess that'll have to wait. Booh!

Anyway, I made another lyricsgirl, since that was a long time ago and doesn't take too much time to make, and another one-liner.

Here they are:

Felt like making another long-necked lady ... The lyrics are from Tori Amos

That's me all right ... My days are fully booked lately, and I'm afraid it's going to stay that way at least until after the market ... Oh well, guess I'm not the only one for whom the holidays are the busiest time of the year. I'm looking forward to January already ☺.

Well, thanks for stopping by! I'll be back tomorrow with another inspiring artist post!
♥ ♥ ♥

Finished calendar and a giveaway!

Yes! I finished my calendar! Uploaded everything to Lulu, which is not always very user-friendly I might say ...., and ordered some for myself. They should be here in 2 weeks. Can't wait ☺

Here are the pages I finished this week:

In case you're interested in buying this calendar, here's the link. I'm going to do some more "marketing" for it as soon as I've received mine.

And this week I reached 100 followers! So excited! For me it's a milestone, I never thought I would reach it before the end of the year. I'd always planned to do a giveaway when I reached 100 followers, but, as always, I wasn't prepared for it and now all of a sudden I didn't know what to give away. First I wanted to give away one of my smaller canvases, until ..... I took a look at the shipping prices for overseas ... To make matters worse Australia post was so kind as to increase their prices as of this week. And since I don't want to limit this giveaway to my Australian followers, I had to come up with something else.

So I decided to give away an A4-sized (8,3"x11.6") art print of my latest painting "A place away from darkness":

 And secondly, for someone else, a pack of 5 random postcards, like these:

  or like these

Now, what should you do to enter the giveaway? Well, it's simple, just leave a comment on this post to enter the giveaway once. If you share this on your blog, Facebook or twitter (with a link back to this blog), your name will be added as often as you share it. Just don't forget to mention the link(s) to your posts in your comment below.

That's it!

I, or better yet, my daughter (she LOVES these things ☺) will draw the two winners next Friday (2nd of November). That's Australian time, so it'll still be Thursday night in some parts of the world.

Well, thank you so much for visiting! I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday, don't forget to check out all the gorgeous art works there.

For now I'll just wish you a very happy day, and a wonderful weekend doing things that you love!

♥ ♥ ♥

Artists that inspire me: Silvia Pelissero

My planning this week isn't working out too well. Where DOES the time go!?

Well, this week's inspiring artist is a young lady whom I admire a lot.

Silvia Pelissero is probably better known as "agnes-cecile".

She is an Italian painter, only 21 yrs old, and incredibly talented.

I discovered her on deviantart a while ago, and am fascinated by her work.

 Isn't this gorgeous!?

She uses different techniques: watercolours, acrylics and oils, ink, and something she calls "drip paintings", made with varnish.

 She has a lot of videos on YouTube. Go have a look, it's mesmerizing, it really is.

All so different, and yet very recognizable as her own style.

I had a hard time choosing which pictures to put on my blog, she has a huge amount of work for someone so young

and it's all equally beautiful ....

Can you tell I'm completely smitten by her work ...?

If you go to her facebook page in the "about-section", you can find a lot more links to various shops and sites. And a massive amount of equally gorgeous artwork. Go go go, it's worth it! ☺

And now for something else: all of a sudden I've reached 100 followers! Incredible! Thanks to all of you, and welcome to my new followers. And as a token of my appreciation, I'm going to do a giveaway!
I'll tell you more about it in Friday's post ...

Hope you're all having a wonderful day / night! ♥