"Swirls of Copper" - An Abstract Painting

"Swirls of Copper"     6" x 6"     Acrylic on Museum Quality Claybord

Well hello there my friends! I have two orders of business I must attend to on here, and they are quite good if you ask me. =D

First of all, I just wanted to remind you all that there are only 6 more days left for you to WIN A COMPLETELY FREE PAINTING from my "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Collection, both shipped and framed (or on an easel, depending on which one you choose if you win) for free as well!!! What a deal, right?! All you have to do to be eligible to win is sign up to follow my blog by clicking the blue button, "Join this site" on the right sidebar. So if you haven't done it yet, make sure to do that before you go today so you won't forget. You can tell if you did it right if your name appears in one of the squares underneath the word "Members." Good luck to all of you! And thank you so much for those of you who have already shown me your support by signing up for my blog - you have no idea how much that means to me, and I am truly thankful! =D

And secondly, I wanted to let you know what the 2nd CONTEST FOR 2013 is going to be, which will start now and run through the end of February. I will be giving away one free ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals) to three different people this month, free of charge, shipping and all!!! So there's three chance's to win this month, which is pretty stinkin' awesome! For those of you who may not know what an ACEO is, it's a small original work of art about the same size as a traditional baseball card (2.5" x 3.5"). And for those three lucky people who win this contest, they will receive their ACEO inside of a Card Frame, which means their work of art will be encased in a little card that actually acts as a mat for a frame, so that it will be all ready to frame and hang on the wall. And this contest is super easy to sign up for! All you have to do is "Like" my Facebook fan page and let me know that you did!!! Yup, you heard me right. That's it. Super easy, right? So if you want some free original artwork in a sweet little white mat that's all ready for you to frame, all you have to do is "Like" my page! You can do it now through February 28th, 2013, and anyone who has already liked my page is automatically entered to win, so long as they comment on my page that they are interested in entering this contest. Woo-hoo!!! I will make a special post for anyone wanting to enter this contest  Good luck to all of you out there! If you actually want to "Like" my page right now, go ahead and click here, and it will open up in a new window for you for your convenience. Soon I'll be putting a link to like my page on the right sidebar of my blog so that people can like it from there.

Now, as for this painting, it went through quite the interesting process, let me tell ya! The underpainting was a combination of baby blue and windsor purple wrapped in a ribbon-like pattern, much like those old fashioned candies most grandparents seem to have in a dish on the table around Christmas-time. Then, it turned into a few different designs, only to be washed away and scrubbed completely clean so I could start over from scratch.

Anyways, my hope was to create something completely different with this one, since that was pretty much my theme for the last 26 days, but I have to be honest with you, I'm kinda dying to go back to spending more than just one day on my works, and my hope is to eventually get a few smaller paintings in the works so that I can spend quite a bit more time on each one, while still posting nearly as much as I am now. That way they're staggered as I'm finishing them, but each one can get more attention to detail and such, because I keep wanting to try some really intensely detailed works, but just can't do so under the pressure of these deadlines. Anyone else out there having the same problems as me? And any tips out there for how to keep up your daily quota without having to sacrifice on the type and style of work you want to do? Because I know that once January ends and I'm on my own that I'm really going to struggle with this A LOT!

On the bright side, what I really have loved about this challenge is how it quite literally challenges me to be fresh, creative, and to try to become more and more organized about how I do my art, although in reality I've found that even if I organize myself by planning the entire weeks worth of paintings ahead of time, that by the time I even just get to day two I've already lost my momentum and my inspiration to paint each one dwindles away completely so that I have to set it aside for another day anyways and just do something else. But I do like how I have to try to come up with something completely different each and every day, because it's really helping to spark the imagination deep within me that I once feared I had lost. And that's pretty huge in and of itself, I'd have to say. So, all in all this has been a pretty incredible challenge and I'm shocked it's going to be over in only a few days...