A POEM FOR THE LAST DAY OF JUNE

Poppies on the Wheat

by Helen Hunt Jackson

Along Ancona's hills the shimmering heat, 

A tropic tide of air with ebb and flow 

Bathes all the fields of wheat until they glow 

Like flashing seas of green, which toss and beat 

Around the vines. The poppies lithe and fleet 

Seem running, fiery torchmen, to and fro 

To mark the shore.                         

  

                          The farmer does not know 

That they are there. He walks with heavy feet, 

Counting the bread and wine by autumn's gain, 

But I,--I smile to think that days remain 

Perhaps to me in which, though bread be sweet 

No more, and red wine warm my blood in vain, 

I shall be glad remembering how the fleet, 

Lithe poppies ran like torchmen with the wheat.

THE FINAL SKULL DRAWING

I worked on this a little at a time, taking breaks frequently.  When I returned, I always saw something I needed to fix.  It's done.  Graphite and white charcoal on Strathmore toned paper.  And my student didn't want the skull back, so I still have it as a model to use sometime.




  

MOON PRINTS

The last of the super moon prints.  Got in some ultramarine blue but it did tend to make the moon green - which I had to clean up a bit.  

You can tell how much paint I had on the plate by how strong this ghost print is - the second pull.








And now...back to drawing shapes on plexi.  Once I graduate from that, I'll be doing tonal shading in graphite on paper.

BETHESDA NORTH HOSPITAL - PURCHASE AWARD

I received a phone call Tuesday afternoon to tell me my painting, Am I Blue?, was one of seven paintings that were Purchase Award paintings in the Bethesda North Art show!  YAY!  If you remember, I entered 2 paintings back in September 2012 and then the artist reception wasn't held until May 2013.  But we weren't told at that time who got Purchase Awards - meaning, which paintings did the hospital buy to remain in their facility.  They just decided and mine is one of them.  YAY!

And it's always been one of my favorite paintings so I am glad someone loved it as much as I did.  

Which one am I talking about?
This one.  
Titled, Am I Blue?

It will be on permanent display in the Mary Jo Cropper Breast Health Center of Bethesda Hospital North in Cincinnati.

I am feeling like a very lucky girl lately, with getting into the Viewpoint juried show with a painting, and then finding out Bethesda is going to purchase this painting, and I have a show at the Campbell County Library in July coming up.  I like being a busy and successful artist :)

Wishing you much success with your artwork, too!

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Curve

Photo by me from Yellowstone National Park

SUPER MOON PRINTS

Have been watching the full moon this month.  The ones who know say that it appears 14% larger in the sky to onlookers this month.  They are calling it a Super Moon for that reason and say there will not be another until August 2014.  

With that information, and the neat email I got from Gelli Arts on creating texture in your prints, I had in mind something very round and big.  So...



First:  Make your texture stencils/bits.
I used a piece of Cheap Joe's All Media Art Board, taking Golden Coarse Texture Paste and a painting/putty knife to make the round moonish shape on part of the board.  

Then I used one of Mary Beth Shaw's StencilGirl stencils to make the tree shapes on another part of the board.  Cut that longer piece in two so I had two small bits to use as texture makers.








Second:  Get some paint on.
I rolled acrylic paint onto the Gelli plate with a rubber brayer, then pressed the art board texture bits into the plate, lifting off some of the paint.

(The more you use the texture bit, the more paint stays on the art board, creating a neat  print all on its own.)

Third:  Transfer onto print paper (prewet and make sure your printing paper is damp - it won't pull up any paint if the printing paper is dry).
I put the texture board bits down and pressed damp print paper over the boards, getting the color to come away and some nice texture, too.


Each one is different, if you change up your colors, wipe back some color off the Gelli plate, or leave more white or less white, depending on your moon...eh, I mean mood! 



Super Moon in June 1



Super Moon in June 2

It's easy and fun.  Do it again and again until you are tired or bored or have run out of printing paper.  

Just prepare all your things before you start and put out some more bits and pieces - you may want to change up the image a bit as you move along.  This one certainly changed from the first print to the last - which I'll share later.

VIEWPOINT45 JURIED SHOW

I entered 4 paintings for the 45th annual Viewpoint show.  One got in!  It was the one I was iffy about - because it was a nude.  But it got in!  You just never know.

So - this is the Viewpoint 45 national juried show.  400 entries were received (oils, pastels, acrylics, charcoal, graphite, watercolor and sculpture).  72 pieces were chosen to be in the show.  

The opening reception is

August 2 from 5 - 8 pm

at 

the Cincinnati Art Galleries

225 East Sixth Street

Cincinnati OH

Valet parking on the night of the opening.

Then the show runs from August 2 through 30.  Monday through Friday, 9 am - 4 pm daily and Saturday 10 am - 3 pm.  

I hope you get a chance to stop by and see the artwork.  I probably will not attend the opening but will sneak over to see it without all the hooplah during the week - with Sweetie :)

Here are two of the entries that DID NOT get in:

This is one (Gourds 'n Shadows) that got into the Woman's Art Club of Cincinnati juried show earlier this year - and won an award.  It didn't get in this one.

This is one (Jester's Pet) I redid after ruining the first version (in turquoise and orange - yuck!).  Carol Carter saw saw all 4 entries when she was visiting here this month, and she said this is the one she thought would definitely get in!  
Just goes to show, you never know what any one person is going to choose - or the why or where of it.  And, of course, any time you are denied entry, you never know what wasn't as good about your painting as the others that got in - or what the judge thought.  

I'll show the other one that did not get  in later, along with the painting that got in once it comes back from the framers.  It has to be done in plexiglass, not glass, even though I can hand deliver it and don't have to ship it.  

So, when it comes to juried shows, you don't know, your spouse doesn't know, 
your mother doesn't know, your friends don't know, your art buddies don't know - only the judge knows what will get into a show.  
Just paint what you want to paint, do your best, and hope for the best.  
Viewpoint is a big deal here locally and it's a big deal to get in.  This is the 4th time I've tried to get in and the 3rd time I've gotten in since I started showing my work around locally.  And I'm happy to get the positive feedback to my work.  But, again, it's just one person's opinion of the paintings I entered.  Another judge may have chosen something else or discounted all 4 of them.  Never let one person's opinion make you too happy or too sad.  

A POEM FOR SUMMER

Summer in the South 

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

The oriole sings in the greening grove 

As if he were half-way waiting, 

The rosebuds peep from their hoods of green, 

Timid and hesitating. 

The rain comes down in a torrent sweep 

And the nights smell warm and piney, 

The garden thrives, but the tender shoots 

Are yellow-green and tiny. 

Then a flash of sun on a waiting hill, 

Streams laugh that erst were quiet, 

The sky smiles down with a dazzling blue 

And the woods run mad with riot.

Did you see the SuperMoon last night?  Tonight is the real full moon but it was putting on a show last night, too.

WASTED DAYS AND WASTED NIGHTS

Do you know that old song?  An old Freddie Fender song.  It has a tendency to crop up in my memory banks right now. 

Why?

I've had a couple of wasted days and wasted nights due to migraines - grrrrrr!!!!  The really painful and bad kind that make you spend all your time either knocked out in bed with all the lights off or in the bathroom (nuff said).

There may be a correlation between the NBA Playoffs and this.  I got the first migraine while watching the Heats almost LOSE to the Spurs - tense times!
The second one - last night - began after the Heats and Spurs played their final game.  But I didn't even watch it - I taped it so I could go to bed at a reasonable hour.  
So I took a pill (which didn't work the first time but seems to have worked this time), went to bed and slept.  Up this morning early and feeling not too bad.  

I sure hope this isn't a return of the series of migraines I had last summer (or was it the summer before?) when I had 2-3 every week for months!  UGH!  

So, as Freddie sang, 
Wasted days and wasted nights...
That's all I have to offer my blog followers until I can get back to the drawing of the skull that's still set up on my kitchen table.  I have been working on it a little bit.  I did a complete do-over, making it fit it into a rectangle on the page, which helped make it the size it needs to be on that paper (and not a small drawing on a large sheet of paper!).

Wasted days and wasted nights
I have left for you behind
For you don't belong to me
Your heart belongs
To someone else

Why should I keep loving you
When I know that you're not true
And why should I call your name
When you're to blame
For making me blue

Everybody sing....

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Homestead

Photo by me from Yellowstone National Park

NOT QUITE RIGHT

I set up the skull to draw on my toned paper sketchbook.  And worked a bit, stopped, worked a bit, stopped - you get the idea.  Over a couple of days, I was still struggling with this one.  It wasn't right.  Why? The skull on the table was turned, with the rear being farther away from me.  

But I was trying to draw it as if it was straight on, even on both edges to my sightline.  I know this is something we do when we first start to draw and I see it a lot in portraits where the head it turned but the person has drawn or painted it as if it was facing straight on.  Why do we do this?  Anyway, back to the drawing board (or sketchbook) and decided if I was going to draw it straight on, I might as well place it that way.  So moved it a bit on the table and began again.

This time, there are other issues.  Like the size of the skull on the paper - too small!  I do tend to make things much smaller than my paper space allows.  

So...one more time with feeling and I hope the third time is the charm :)

And this is just another reason why I need those video lessons I'm doing.  I have graduated from squares and rectangles and am not on shapes - just the outer shapes - of peaches, cucumbers, watermelons, apple cores, etc.

How is your art work coming along this week?  Good, bad, indifferent?  

I sat the show for the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society exhibit at The Barn yesterday from 1 pm to 4 pm.  I was glad I took my mother and invited my sister and cousin over.  Other than family (7 of us!), only 3 ladies stopped in to see the show.  I knew it would be slow, due to Father's Day, so wasn't surprised.  But today, for some reason, I am sooo tired!  Maybe because I ate horrible stuff and had a horrible routine of eating yesterday = 1 piece of raisin toast for breakfast before I left to pick up my mother; then nothing else except a small cup of coffee until 4:30 pm and then I stopped and ate at Wendy's, having a single and a frosty!!!  Shot all the calories for the day on that - no wonder people gain weight when they eat out all the time.  So I'm blaming my horrible diet yesterday with how draggy I feel today.  

BONES

One of my students brought this over to have Sweetie determine what it was:  a coyote?  a dog?  a wolf (doubtful)? a fox?  

Unfortunately, it could be a large dog or a coyote.  Hard to tell.  Dog skulls, apparently, have more of a hard slope down from the top of the skull and out the front while coyotes have more of a gentle sloping from the upper skull to the front.  This is a gentle sloping curve here but it's about 9" in length - fairly large for a coyote.  Sweetie, being a marine biologist, will have to check some books to see if he can identify it.

I think it's someone's dog (perhaps a German Shepherd), and it has a bullet wound in the skull behind the eye socket.  Probably someone out in the country was not happy with someone's dog on their land - or barking all the time.  

I want to use it for drawing practice, so set it up and lit it and will take lots of photos to use later - when the skull is returned.

So, time to get out the toned paper...


Have a great weekend!

CLASS WORK: PORTRAITS

The watercolor class numbers fluctuate all the time.  I have 2 beginning students in the Tuesday morning class and now have 1 beginning student who comes on Wednesday for private lessons - until she gets up to speed enough to join the Tuesday class.  I have had as many as 5 students around the tables (2 of them) at one time.  

This past Tuesday morning, I had one student doing the Portrait in Payne's Gray (Winsor Newton, not any other brand) a la David Lobenberg and his wonderful DVD.  I didn't show them the DVD but just showed them David's technique using only Winsor Newton Payne's Gray to build up values and create a portrait.  It's a good way to get over the fear of colors and lessen the need for so many choices when tackling portraits.  I did let them use my drawing and trace it so they didn't have to worry about drawing the portrait as well as painting it.

The Payne's Gray portrait is where we start - to see our values and learn our shapes before tackling color.

(This is my version, done when I first watched David Lobenberg's DVD - which you can purchase from his blog sidebar.)

This second one I did with the student last Tuesday morning while she was doing her version.  Very different even though I was using the same drawing to trace onto the paper!  I like the first one - on Fabriano 140# cold press - more than the second one - on Arches 300# cold press.  I like the blossoms and flow of the first one more.  Neither painting actually looks like the model (the photo of which is included in David's DVD).

While the first student was doing the Payne's Gray version, the second student was doing a color version.  I had her use only 3 colors - Quinacridone Rose, French Ultramarine Blue and Raw Sienna - to do the same portrait again.

This is my version, started while she worked on her version (which turned out much nicer than mine and she actually finished her version in a high key and beautiful way!).  

This one of mine actually looks more like the model.  It's on Arches 300# hot press paper (why I have 300# hot press, I'm unsure, but I have it, so I used it - it's very unforgiving and once the paint is dry, you can't move it or soften edges much at all).

So, while I'm talking and teaching and helping, I'm also painting so they can see how I do it (not that I want them to do it THAT way but see a different way and perhaps watch for a minute, how I lay down colors wet in wet).  I will probably wait and finish this in class next time we meet, when the first student will move to the color version.  I really like the look of my work at this stage - before I fuss with it and lose lights and ruin colors that, right now, are so fresh and clean! ha ha  Of course, you can't just start paintings and never finish them - so this will take another layer before I can call it done.

TONED PAPER PORTRAIT

I just added a bit more to this, finishing with the white charcoal for the highlighted areas.  (This is more true to the color of the warm toned paper from Strathmore I'm using - it comes in a nice sketchbook which has perforated edges on the left side so if you do something you want to hang or show, you can tear it out easily.)





This is what I'm doing in between drawing squares and rectangles :)

Here's my set-up in my art room (a bit crowded because it's a small room) with the easel and a backing board and then the plexiglass over that.  I draw on the plexi, making adjustments as necessary (I'm already getting better at sight-seeing the shape and drawing it the right size width and height on the plexi), using a Caran d'Ache crayon which wipes right off.

I am about to progress from squares and rectangles to other shapes like peaches, vases, etc.




We had some strong storms come through early this morning and looks like another round is on its way...

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Purple?

Photo by me of a bunny enjoying the clover in our back yard.

NO CHEESE WITH THIS WHINE

When faced with a challenge, do you slink away and let your inner brat tell you, "You can't do this"?  Or do you consider the challenge and do the best you can, knowing you will do even better next time?

I do both, depending on my mood!  Maybe that's just human nature.

Anyway, I have always been fascinated and have always enjoyed seeing beautifully rendered portraits and figures.  Actually, anything drawn well makes me wish I could do it, too.  So what's keeping me from doing it?  Just a strong work ethic.  The ability to do it - and do it over and over again until it shows signs of improvement - the ability to learn and practice.  That's all!

Trying to do the portraits and figures on toned paper with the Strathmore Online Workshop showed me how much more I need to study and practice.  I believe I can do it - but not by NOT doing it and just wishing it would happen the next time I put pencil to paper.

(This drawing is from a photo by Li Newton, our friend on the Bahamian island of San Salvador, of one of the workers there at the Gerace Research Station.  She has uploaded many of her great photos for use on WetCanvas.  She also uploaded it for use on PaintMyPhoto.  Putting his head in a box (a trick from a Michael Britton/ArtAcademy.com free lesson) helped me get the features closer to "right" than they were before, I can tell you that.  However, this is just a beginning - a start.  And I see several things that need fixed right now.  I am going to continue to work on this one and see where it goes.)  Right now, it's just a sketch.  I want to bring it closer to a finished portrait but not photorealistic.  

For the remainder of June and July, I'm challenging myself to get better at drawing.  Drawing anything and everything, but studying and learning along the way, not just drawing on my own, perhaps causing particular faults to become ingrained.  That's why I'm doing the video lessons from ArtAcademy.com and learning from them.    Michael Britton (the artist who runs ArtAcademy and gives the lessons) says his Beginning Drawing course is a full semester of work.  Am I up to that challenge?  Can I go back to school and make myself do the lessons and exercises?  I hope so!

What do YOU want to do as an artist?  What do you REALLY want to do?
If, right now, you had the skill set and talent, would you be painting portraits in watercolor, pastel, oil or pastel?  Would you be creating animal portraits or landscapes?  Would you get out your paper and draw figures in charcoal or graphite?  What calls to you but is being ignored because

It's too late
It's too expensive.  
It's too time consuming.  

Think about what you really want to accomplish.  
Then go about getting it done, one step at a time.
(And, yes, this is a pep talk for myself as much as for you. :)

I have a beginning watercolor class today and again on Wednesday (someone who wants private lessons for a while before she joins the beginning class).  Fun fun fun!! But also planning.  With lots of paint and water on paper.  
But in my free time, I'm going to be drawing and studying drawing - will you join me?  

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

Whenever I draw something and struggle with it, I realize how much more I need to draw and practice.  And how much more I really need to practice (even if it seems boring at the time) foundation techniques and skills.  With this in mind, I'm going back to some videos I downloaded of Michael Britton (from ArtAcademy.com) and drawing.  And it's hard!!  I'm finding myself whining and saying, "I can't do this!!"  But then I take a break, have a bite to eat, and carry on.  I don't know where I got the videos - I don't recall buying them so he might have given them as free downloads at some time - he does that a lot.  Anyway, I need his workbooks to continue on so I may have to buy the Drawing for Beginners lessons with the books.  Truly a steal!  And all you have to do is make yourself do the lessons/exercises (it doesn't work if you just look at the videos and books and don't do the work - I know, believe me!)

My problem is, so many things have come easily for me.  Or I have loved learning them so much that it didn't seem like a struggle at the time and I got better.  So working on sight measuring and drawing (on plexiglass with a watercolor Caran d'Ache crayon) simple shapes and then seeing how far off I am can get unnerving = how can I be so wrong??  Why does my hand seem like it's put in strange positions whenever I hold a brush or a straight stick to sight see?  It's like I don't know how to turn my hand! ha ha

I'm trying to silence that inner brat that says, "I want to play with color, not do this boring stuff!"  You know we all have that brat - she wants to play, enjoy the things we do well and bask in the success; she does not want to struggle, fight and work hard to get to a place that takes patience.  Time to go back to "beginner mind" as the Buddha would say :)

I hope your inner brat is not winning the battle this weekend! 
I hope you are learning, growing, and finding real essence in the work you are doing. 
I hope your artistic voice is shouting out loud!

CAROL CARTER AT THE GCWS

I have had an exhilarating 2 days!  Carol Carter arrived Tuesday afternoon and we spent the time catching up, having dinner, and talking a lot until she crashed that night (still a bit jet-lagged from her recent return from China where she visited her son and also gave a workshop!).  There was a lot more talking over coffee and breakfast Wednesday morning before we drove over to Mt. Adams for the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society monthly meeting.  We set up her paintings, were ready to go by the 10 am meeting time, and I took very little time to play President (our President, Deb Ward, was out of town on a painting trip).  We had a smaller turn-out than I hoped for (which is always the case in summer), but all present were very enthusiastic and thrilled to see a water media artist of Carol's stature give a program for our group.   And those that were present talked about how lucky they were to see Carol and her work - and how they were going to tell their friends how much they had missed by not being able to attend!

There were many questions as well as oohs and aahs as Carol went through her life in art as documented by the many paintings she shared - all displayed in real life (not a PowerPoint presentation) so people could closely see the flow of pigments and water on paper which illustrates the special look Carol has in her watercolors.  Some paintings were elephant sized (bigger than a full sheet watercolor of 22 x 30) and you felt you could step into the painting!  I received nothing but positively glowing reports from members after the meeting and am so glad they all fell in love with her work (as I did, 10 year's ago when I first happened upon her webpage and her earlier works).

Carol led us through her process and her thinking as an artist - what she wants to convey and how her voice has been heard through the paintings she does.  She began her work with black and white figures (you can see them on her web
site), then moved to her very bold and colorful "Swimmers" series, using water as a metaphor for the possible danger, uncertainty and also joy of life.  From there, she worked in portraits, doing a self-portrait every 10 years to show her own changes and express what was going on in her life.  The portrait here commemorated turning 50.  Carol stressed the development of imagery and content in her paintings.

When Carol was Artist in Residence for the Everglades National Park in 2010, she was thinking about how her connection to water and the ecology of the whole planet which often displays its status (good or bad) in the health of the animals that make their homes in and around water - like the alligators she encountered on her many walks in the glades while she was there.  She shared paintings done after the BP oil spill and a visit to the clean-up area where she saw the volunteers cleaning pelicans and other shorebirds that were covered with the sticky brown oil.  She is currently still working on her Everglades series of paintings from that time in between other shows.  After seeing those paintings, it was unanimous that she return to that series and work more on it :)

Carol keeps herself on deadlines she creates, planning for individual shows months in advance, then furiously painting specifically for that show to be ready when the date arrives.  She plans and markets her work well, presenting her work not only in large and small paintings, but in prints (Crate and Barrel has chosen 2 of her watercolors for inclusion in their limited edition fall collection you will be able to find the prints there soon!) 

Carol works in series, but sometimes jumps out of a series she is working on to paint something that is particularly beautiful to her.  You can see her signature style in everything she paints - there is a glow to the painting, a depth, and a wonderful use of blossoms and backruns which some watercolorists hate but which she uses to their best capacities.  

She recently had a show called Small Intruders in St. Louis.  She painted insects (which are often reviled), making them all interesting and beautiful little gems, glowing and shining enough to make us want them (so much so that 60 pieces were sold at the opening!).  The show contained small and large paintings as well as tee shirts created using the colors and shapes (but not direct copies) from her paintings.  She had notecards and small business cards as well as a book highlighting the show and the beauty in the bugs.  She is a hard and dedicated worker, always planning head to bring her artwork to the largest audience by thinking outside the box when it comes to shows (Carol is wearing one of her teeshirts in the photos above which are made from her Small Intruders paintings.  She brought a few to show the members and several of the ladies had to order some for themselves and friends.)

Carol gives lessons in her St. Louis studio, she teaches workshops around the world (she has taught in Norway, China, France, the Virgin Islands); her work is hanging in many collections around the world, most recently the Panama City Embassy for their 2012-2014 collection (2 of her paintings), and the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis (4 of her paintings for their public collection).  She will be the featured artist in 2014 at the Biennale d'Aquarelle de Toulouse in Toulouse, France and her work is included in the latest Splash book Splash 14)  that comes out this month.  She is one of only 6 American artists in the North American Watercolor Group, showing works with those other artists at the Strathmore Foundation in Rockville, MD as well as currently exhibiting with that group for Madrid Spain Watercolor in Spain.  The NAWG has also had a group show in Mexico.

I hope people took a lot away from the meeting - the main points Carol stressed are to be thinking of what you want to say and how to say it when you paint something.  To learn to express yourself and have a voice that is your own - not a copy of another artist.  Learn, study and grow - don't allow your successes to make you stagnant and don't paint something just because it's pretty - if it means something to you, others will sense that when they see it.  (If you sold a painting of beautiful apples, don't just continue to copy that painting because it sells, but expand on that and grow.)  If you don't need to make a living with your art, paint what moves you and hope for the best.  If you need to make a living at it, then learn all you can about the art-buying market and your viewers - know what will sell and what people want and can afford based on the economy and on the area in which you show your work.  Expand your sights to other areas and other markets.   Paint what you love but make informed choices to get your work seen by the most people and make things affordable in hard times.  Work hard at it and you will see the benefits.  

If you have not seen her work, you really should visit Carol's blog (where you will see links to her web site and her paintings for sale and Facebook site).  You will be bowled over by this amazing artist who is moving full speed ahead in her life and her career. 

In the past 10 years, I have taken 2 workshops with Carol.  I have found her to be not only extremely talented and skilled, but also one of the nicest people I know.  (For me, that is the icing on the cake.)  I was so pleased Carol took time out of her full schedule to drive over and give our group a program they won't soon forget.  She is definitely a gem and I am so happy to be able to call her my friend.

Thank you Carol.
You are definitely a keeper!

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Patterns

Photo by me

GCWS SHOW - JUNE 2 THROUGH 30

Here are the winners (thanks to Sweetie for his photography skills) from the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society June show.  It runs through the month at The Barn on Cambridge Avenue in Mariemont.  

Honorable Mentions 1 + 2:

Shirley Knollman
for her batik painting,
At the Greenhouse

Donna Cameron (on the right, accepting her certificate and ribbon from the show coordinator, Sally Wester)
for her painting,
Signs of Spring

(Sweetie didn't get a photo of Donna standing next to her painting but here is the painting which won.)

He took the photos of the paintings at an angle due to all the lights and reflections when he tried to shoot the photo straight on.

3rd Place Prize:  

Barb Zentgraf
for her painting,
View from Tonto

2nd Place Prize:

Wynne Bittlinger
for her painting,
Red Apples and Basket

Wynne wasn't present so no photo of her standing next to her winning painting.

And 
1st Place Prize:

Deb Ward
for her painting,
Industrial Revolution








And here are my two "losers"!! ha ha

Strip Tease

Caramel Apples