Flower in the Wind, Abstract Painting

Flower in the Wind is a watercolor and ink painting. It was inspired by music I heard. Simple line patterns I originally imagined took shape in this flower. What I wanted to show is a cool breeze on a hot summer day. Cool colors used for the flower were chosen this intent. For more information about this painting you can watch this YouTube video where I explain it a little better.

   Original $100

  8.5x11 print $20

I just finished this painting this morning. There are times in life when I have no time to paint, this week was one of these. I went crazy about having it finished today because I wanted to keep on posting a video every Tuesday, so I had to finish it. Little challenges like this make it easier to keep on painting no matter what. 

Palm Trees, and Monkeys. Painting of a Beach

In one of the art teams on etsy we have these challenges. We pick a topic and try to paint it. This time the topic is beach/ocean. Well, I must admit, this was actually challenging. Mainly because of all elements in nature, I never got special attachment with the beach. I lived most of my childhood ether close to the forests or mountains. We had rivers and lakes, but they were small and never inspired that great of an ow in me. I only saw sea for the first time when I was in my teens. The earlier memories were much more important to me as far at loving elements in nature goes. Plus, I'm really not "painting the beach" kind of girl.

After thinking about this challenge for a few days, I finally figured out how to combine this topic with my painting style. I finally cracked it, I'm doing it and I'm loving it. This picture shows it as it is so far, I have to put another day into it before I can say I'm done, but so far I think it's going well.

Now, here is how I managed to get this to the point where I can actually enjoy doing it. First of all I needed to figure out how to do it in abstract, more importantly my style of abstract. I googled "abstract beach" images and saw how other people did it. This started bringing me in the right direction. I figured out what I wanted on the painting plus I got the boost of confidence that I can indeed do it. Then I remembered all those cartoons I watched when I was little and how small islands were depicted in them. This helped me develop it further. Now add a simplified version of my crazy lines and here it comes. Beach painting that is my very own and that I can relate to. Now I just have to finish and hope I wouldn't mess something up in the process.

The whole time I was painting, Monkey wanted to be close to me. After trying to get comfortable on the drafting table where I was painting, he figured there was too much water and paint, plus I was moving things around too much. He changed his position by switching to the table just an arm length away and of all places, he went ahead and fell asleep on the printer.

-Monkey, can you print out last month expenses?
-Mew, give me catnip

Oh, and the spiders... I hate spider... For some odd reason they seem to like the idea of moving in with us though. Killed one of them myself (after screaming like a little girl) and Vincent killed the other (after I screamed like a little girl.) Now, this is how the conversation went between Vin and I after I screamed
-Vincent, there is a spider in the bathroom, can you kill it?
-Nah, it's going to keep the flies away (he has a thing against killing things, even spiders)
-No, it's going to keep me away
Anyway, after threatening to spray the spider with chlorine so that it would die a terrible and painful death without me getting near it, Vincent agreed to catch it and release it outside. Killed it in the process of catching though.

Don't forget about the giveaway btw, it's still on at http://artofarmadavolya.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-of-painting-joy-and-my-first.html

Apocalypse update: Good news, it cooled down a bit over here. It was so much nicer today, I didn't even have to turn on the AC. Though I still have to water the plants myself :(
Darn, this end of the world is very sneaky, you can't even see it coming.
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Update: 3 spiders... 3... One of them snack up on me while I was typing the blog post for From the World of Art. My arachnophobic mind can't handle it. Perhaps this is the way the world will end... it'll be huge aggressive spiders... they will scare us all to death...
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Another quick update, there is another giveaway I'm sponsoring. If you would like one of my Ancestor's Spirit paintings, I'm giving away the largest, the most expensive and the one I like the most. It's an $80 painting, so don't miss out

Giveaway of Painting Joy and My First Youtube Video

It is finally done, my first youtube video is up and running. Hence the giveaway. As I promised a while ago, it's up for grabs.This Painting would normally be $50, but since I love you guys so much...

The rules are simple, for each entry leave it's own comment here on my blog. Make sure I have some way to contact you (email, etsy shop, twitter, Facebook, YouTube, some place I can send you a message if you win). I will draw the lucky number once my YouTube channel hits 500 views, so the faster it'll happen, the faster the painting will be sent to the winner. The ways to enter are many.

Mandatory:
Subscribe to my Youtube channel and comment on the video. (1 entry) 

Additional:
Follow Armada Volya's Art Corner and From the World of Art (1 entry each)
Favorite Armada Volya etsy shop (1 entry)
Follow me on Twitter (1 entry, please give name in the comment)
Like my Facebook Page (1 entry, please leave name in the comment)
Post about this giveaway and the video on twitter, Facebook, and/or blog (1 entry each, give links in your comment)
Join my mailing list. Email me at armadavolya@ hotmail.com with your mailing address. I don't send emails more then once per month and I don't send mail more then twice a year. Information will not be sold or shared (2 entries, one for email address, one for mailing address. Be sure to leave 2 separate comments)
And just because I really love the print I got, visit Jessica Lopez's shop and tell me what item you like the most there

The winner will be picked using www.random.org
Good luck.
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Sorry guys, forgot to do my usual apocalypse update, so here it is for both days. Yesterday- more of the same. Today- there is no rain, it's horrible, all day it was really hot and then there was no rain... now I'm going to have to water my plants myself... now that's very close to the end of the world as far as I see it.

C is for Creativity, Rustic Alphabet

C is for Creativity from the rustic alphabet that I have drawn and colored. I wanted to make the whole alphabet in matching ornate style.
This letter can work on it’s own or can be combined with others to spell out names, words, or quotes.