The Seven Links Project

   I knew it would arrive sooner or later - the invitation to participate in  the seven links project. I received a gmail from my blogging friend, Vinayak Deshmukh, who is an engineer by profession and an artist by passion. His blog, PENCILS AND BRUSHES, displays his beautiful portraits, landscapes, and still life paintings, done in both watercolor and oil.
   Being most curious by nature, I wanted to find out where this project originated. I traced it back to a travel blog, and it started in late June of this year. It seems to have been around for a longer time than that.
   I consider my most beautiful post to be the one of  Carmella, the yellow labrador. This post received a lot of feedback, but the backlit rose got even more comments.
   The most popular post, judging by the number of comments, was the backlit rose. I was a bit surprised, as it was only a small painting done as an experiment. Thankfully, the trial of a new technique went well, and all of you approved.
   I was sure I would receive some comments about a post I wrote on New Years Day; it was a bit of a rant about materialism, and the true value of just being YOU. But I must say, the most controversial post was about the process of a painting of an alley in Athens. I was really getting stuck with all aspects of the painting, and when I asked for advice, I received many answers ... ALL of them quite different. Truly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all artists  have their very distinct definitions of beauty and art.
   When I consider my most helpful post, I think there are several that fall into that category. Again, I base this on the number of comments, and the comments themselves. I have posted several "painting processes", in which I photograph and describe  the painting as it progresses; almost all of these have received comments about how the description is helpful.

   The post whose success surprised me was the backlit rose. I was trying to figure out HOW Jacqueline Gnott created those softly circumscribed areas of lightness in her floral paintings. And being too tight-fisted to buy a DVD, I experimented. That was pretty much how I learned watercolor, too - read the books, studied the paintings, and tried out some ideas.
A post I felt didn't receive the attention it deserved was one I did on the painting process of a carousel horse. I thought it was cool - bright, colorful, different. I think it was one of my early posts, and that is how it was ignored ... at least, that's my theory!
   As for the post of which I am most proud of, I must admit they are all equal in that regard. I have enjoyed presenting all of them, the painting posts and the "farmish" posts, and I am very happy that you have enjoyed reading them!
   I thought I would include my favorite paintings ...

Denise in Venice

Bruno

Little Red Hen

 

Daylily


I would like to thank Vinayak for the invitation to the seven links project, and , in turn, I would now like to invite  seven people:


Julie Hill   Capturing Life with Brushstrokes
Matteo Grilli    Wildlife Art - Watercolors from the Australian Bush
Melanie     Redhead Art 
Mary Sheehan Winn   Just Painting
Nolon Stacey   Leaping into the World of the Starving Artist
Jennifer MacNeill Taylor   Gypsymare Studio
Jane Minter   Jane Minter's Sketchbook