It's Over!

What a whirlwind these past two weeks have been. I have visited nearly 900 artist's blogs over the last couple of weeks. What an amazing experience it has been. I have met many wonderful and talented artists and have added a lot of blogs to my reader! I have been overwhelmed by the number of comments I have received and am thrilled to have acquired 50 new followers! That should keep me on my toes.

All good things must come to an end however, and I have used random.org to generate the prize winner of my painting.


The winning comment belonged to Mel from Paper Imagery Designs. Congratulations Mel.

Now I need to get back to the studio - with all my blog hopping I've had no time for art.

One World One Heart Giveaway

The final
One World One Heart Blog Open House is on. Bloggers from around the world offer a "door" prize which will be drawn February 17th. All you need to do is visit the blog of the participating artists, leave a comment and you will be in the draw to win their prize/s. Simple isn't it?

Followers of my blog have seen the process of creating this prize. It culminated in an unfortunate incident where a lot of water was spilt on the painting. Fortunately I managed to cover up what wasn't meant to be there. Unfortunately, what I didn't realise was the amount of water that had been spilt on the painting, saturating the board the canvas is mounted on. We have have extremely hot weather here, the board dried out today and some of the canvas has come away from the board making bubbles underneath the painting. The affected areas are the corners and top of the painting so the winner could frame if and camouflage the damage to a certain extent. It is very disappointing but only slightly detracts from the focal point of the painting.

So if you are interested in winning a slightly damaged, but still beautiful original acrylic/mixed media painting, please leave a comment below and a random draw will select the winner on February 17th.

Weird

According to my daughter, I am weird. Why else would I be sketching my blender? For the Sketchbook Challenge of course - the January theme is "Highly Prized". There are so many things I highly prize - my family, my faith, my health ... the list goes on. However, I love my Vitamix blender - I use it 3 or more times in a day - it sits on my kitchen bench at the ready. I make my green smoothie every morning in my blender using whatever fruits are in season plus some greens such as spinach and kale. A wonderful way to start the day. I make my almond milk in the blender, salad dressings, my chocolate nut bread (see previous post), soup, etc. It makes short work of anything I throw into it. With my raw diet, there is no way I could manage without it - so here she is - my highly prized kitchen appliance!

Great news - I managed to salvage my painting for One World One Heart blog giveaway (starting on Monday!). I will give her a couple of days to dry then spray her with fixative so no other accidents will affect her. Onto my next project now - stay tuned.

Chocolate Nut Bread

Well at least something productive came out of my studio - the chocolate nut bread is delicious! What you probaby don't know about me is that I follow a way of eating that is referred to as "high raw". I went on my raw diet about 4 months ago, have lost weight and feel great. Most people would probably feel this type of diet is a bit extreme and that it would probably be boring, but it really isn't and I have to say that I am never hungry!

The recipe for the chocolate nut bread was from
Rawfully Tempting and I did modify it slightly as I didn't have some of the ingredients and I forgot to add one of the ingredients.

Chocolate Nut Bread
1 cup almonds (soaked 6 -8 hours)
1/2 cup macadamia nuts
1/4 cup shredded coconut
3 dates, pitted and chopped
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp agave nectar
1 apple
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch sea salt
1 Tbsp cacao powder
2 Tbsp almond butter
1 Tbsp ground flax seed (this is what I forgot)
water, as needed to mix
dash of cinnamon

Process all ingredients except cinnamon in food processor or high speed blender. Leave a little chunky. Using an offset spatula, spread the batter onto a non-stick dehydrator sheet about 1/8 - 1/4" thick. Dehydrate for 4 hours, flip onto mesh sheet, score with a dull knife, sprinkle with cinnamon, and dehydrate another 6-8 hours. (Don't let it dry out too much).

Cover and store in refrigerator for 2 days or freeze.

Try serving with a bit of nut butter.

Sorry I don't have the photo to post as I still haven't got a battery for my camera. If you go to the link above you can see a photo of it. This is so moreish and really good for you.

Nothing Much

Teenagers have taken over my studio these past couple of weeks. Needless to say I haven't got a lot done. My camera's batteries are flat so I haven't been able to take any photos of what I have done. To add to it, when I went to my studio today to put some chocolate nut bread in my dehydrator, I found that water had been spilt over my painting and other bits and pieces on my work desk. I have tried to salvage my painting but the colour from her lips has bled down her chin. I will have to try and mix up another batch of skin tone and try and see if she can be salavaged. If not - there goes my prize for the One World One Heart giveaway. Sigh. No one has owned up to it and I'm sure it was an accident anyway - fingers crossed I can fix her.

Only Words

I had a big afternoon shopping with my daughter and by the time I got home, I was exhausted and took myself to bed for a nap. Still didn't feel so great, but dragged myself off to the studio to put the words onto my painting. They read "A person's world is only as big as their heart." I thought this was appropriate given that the painting is part of the One World One Heart blog giveaway. So, despite best intentions, she still isn't finished. Tomorrow ...

Home straight

Almost done. Today I collaged the heart with scrapbook paper then a few different coats of transparent paint, finally finishing with a coat of gold mica flakes from Golden. The heart was then outlined with a bronze/copper lumiere paint. I painted the dress and added the pattern with a fine brush. Tomorrow, I will finish off her face with blush and some subtle shading and think about what other elements I will include - then she will be finished. She will have plenty of time to cure before she is posted to her new owner. I don't usually work on canvas boards but because it is more than likely she will end up in a foreign land, she will be able to go as a letter instead of a parcel, hopefully which should cost considerably less. The new owner can then decide how to frame or mount her. I'm thinking about what to paint for my next project now. I need to do something for my 100th blog post giveaway ...