Happy FAF & Sea Green Creative Color Challenge

"Lazy Days" by Megan Woodward Johnson

'To the Sea" Digital Photo of Jupiter Beach, the Atlantic Ocean by Cathy.

"Lura" Acrylic on Wood by Melissa Moss.

"Thank You" Oil On Canvas by James Johansen.

Big Mermaid by Mazarine.

"To the Sea" by Jeanette House.

"To the Sea" by Jenny Blair.

Sea Green/To the Sea by Louise Gale (our lovely co-host!).

"To the Sea" by Claire Ishino

"Sea Ya Later" by Kristin Dudish.

Digital Art "Crystal Wave" by Nutty.

Black Marker and Colored Pencil on Background from Hand-Painted Fabric by Sheila.

Mixed Media painting: "To the Sea-Green" by Esther

"Under the Sea" by Pippin.

"To the Sea" video by Christophe. (Our fist trip together to Robert Moses State Park - Long Island)

WOW. What can I say? Look at all the fabulous entries or this month's "To the Sea" and "Sea-Green" Found Art Friday and Creative Color Challenge (courtesy of Louise Gale)! I had the most fun reading through all of your blog posts about creating these pieces. There were so many techniques used! I am so impressed by everyone's work, and it was heartwarming to meet so many new blogger artists due to my collaboration with Louise.

I do want to add a little note about my own process here, too. As you can see, I submitted a digital photo this time. This was actually a last minute choice after throwing out not 1 but 2 encaustic pieces based on the same image. I thought I would try out using encaustic wax on top of a digital photo, but, honestly, I hated the result. I like to think that I can fix any piece of art with enough effort, but this was the exception. And it got me thinking about a few things. First of all, there are some things we simply cannot fix (in paintings and in life). Not everything is meant to be. And, secondly, I am a much better artist when I use my imagination or try to tell a story than when I just go with pure aesthetics. So this Friday, I "found" not only a lot of new artwork & artists to admire, but an important lesson about my own voice. Truly a useful exercise!!

Thank you all so very much for participating. If you would like to join us again next month, our theme here for FAF is CHANGE.

24x24 Large Giclees on Canvas now for Sale

24x24 inch giclees of "Spun" and "Aloft" are now for sale at my Etsy shop.

I am SO excited that I have been able to reproduce my paintings onto giclee canvases! And I have to say that "Aloft" looked so cool in my living room for the photo shoot that I was tempted to order one for myself (this one is sold). You can order any print in my collection!

FAF Teams Up with Louise Gale's Color Challenge this Friday

Adorable Sea Turtle from Louise Gale's Blog

This Friday, I am happy to announce that participants in Found Art Friday will have another opportunity to post their artwork to the blogging community. When I spoke with Louise Gale last week, we realized that our themes of "To The Sea" and "Sea-Green" (the color for Louise's current Creative Color Challenge) were perfect complements! So, if you are doing a "To the Sea" piece for this Friday, you can also have your work featured in Louise's Creative Color Challenge.

To participate in Found Art Friday, either blog about your "To the Sea" piece and send me a link (or just a jpeg if you don't have a blog) by Thursday August 26th. For Louise's blog, create your piece using Sea Green with the theme "To The Sea" and either blog about it or post your image to her flickr group by Thursday Aug 26th .

To learn more about the Sea Green Color Challenge, visit Louise's post on the subject.

To send me a link to your "To the Sea" artwork, email me at cnichols19@aim.com! I look forward to seeing your creations!!

For All of You Artist Moms Out There

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I first heard about this movie on my friend Marisa's blog last year. Then, today at the pool (our last glorious day of vacation!), I met a lovely mom who said she went to see Babies in Brooklyn Heights and was astounded to see so many moms with their transfixed babies in the audience. With not much else to do this evening, I decided to rent Babies for Annabelle (3) and Nicky (2). Well, it was truly amazing. I have never posted about a film here on my blog. But I cannot resist sharing my children's reaction to this movie. Nicky never watches TV, but he and his sister sat riveted for 40 minutes watching this story of 4 globally different babies' first years. It was SO cool. I had to drag them away for bedtime. Nicky even tried to explain to his Papa over the phone about the film. He said "paint. paint. babies" and rubbed his head -- illustrating the way that the African mom painted her baby's head red.

The most amazing thing about this documentary is that it illustrates the incredible diversity of cultures for babies using protagonists who are just like themselves - babies, too. We like to tell our kids, "hey, eat your vegetables, there are children starving in Africa," but they have no context for what this means. I imagine, like most artistic documentaries, this one was created for adults - but it seems like the filmmakers have inadvertently made a masterpiece for children. Like I said - SO COOL.

Enormous Tiny Art 8

It's almost time for the Enormous Tiny Art Show 8 at Nahcotta. The show opens on Friday September 3rd from 5-8 pm in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and I am showing 6 new original encaustic paintings. You will, of course, recognize them as the 6-part story/series I have been working on this summer. I'm also thrilled to be the current Featured Artist on the show website! All of my new originals are available for purchase right now online through the eta site.

NEW "Forever Falling" Customizable Encaustic Tree

"Forever Falling Tree" - 8x10 encaustic painting on 1.5" cradled wood panel. For sale here in my Etsy shop.

Back by popular demand, I've created another in my "forever tree" limited edition series. The "Forever Yours" tree sold out in July, but this new "Forever Falling" tree can also be inscribed with the initials/names of sweethearts. I've also sold the tree inscribed with the name of one child. I really like this particular color scheme because it's both colorful and neutral which would look pretty nifty in my own living room. :) The tree itself is based on a sketch I did in Montauk, and the rear limbs are made of cut valentine paper featuring definitions of popular words of love.

I've Been Moonshined

"Sun" -- Heliodor on 7-foot Diamond Cut Sterling Silver Chain (ways to be worn only limited by the imagination) by artist Cate Rubenstein of Moonshined Designs.

It is with immense pleasure that I share the launch of my dear friend Cate Rubenstein's jewlery line: Moonshined Designs. Her work -- like Cate herself-- is not only beautiful, but edgy and thought-provoking as well. Reading her descriptions of the pieces are about as interesting as the prospect of showing up in one of them in a great outfit on a superb hair day.

This is another of my favorites. It's called BAD ASS. (Need I say more?)

"Beauty in all forms causes a visceral response- it is this response I am interested in, and what happens next when we experience that. Philosophers have argued the point for ages, but for me, beauty is freedom, form and kindness. And faith that everything around us is part of a greater design, all working towards what it should be." -- Cate

You can also find Cate's work on Etsy.

Found Art Friday theme for August: TO THE SEA

Santa Monica Pier, 2006. (Photo by Christophe.)

As I am going "to the sea" this month -- on Saturday -- , and since it is the end of summer, I thought it would be fitting to make TO THE SEA our Found Art Friday theme for August. Who doesn't love the ocean? Imagine the possibilities for art (found and otherwise). Please share your own interpretation of the theme with our readers on Friday, August 27th. Just email me a jpeg and/or blog link with your image by Thursday, August 26th, and I will post it here. Hopefully, everyone will have enough to to participate this time around!! I so appreciate all of the kind apologetic comments about July, but I do realize it's entirely my own fault for not giving us enough time to be creative. I cannot wait to see your creations!!