Share Your Story

Here's my share:

"Epitaph For A Captive Cheetah" - This piece started out as a bit of doodling and the thought: what if the cracks on an old, decaying wall formed a picture? And then the old saying "If walls could talk" got mixed in, and then a childhood memory of a visit to a zoo badly in need of refurbishment probably added to the mix. Then a cheetah entered the picture, probably because cheetahs are my favorite wild cat. The idea of caging such a swift, fierce creature is pretty horrific. In the end, while I really didn't set out to make a statement with this picture, I guess I kind of did.

https://pixels.com/featured/epitaph-for-a-captive-cheetah-j-l-meadows.html

HOW I CAME TO CREATING VULTURE SCULPTURES.


It all started one drizzly summer, Sunday afternoon, in Quogue, on Long Island, way back in the early 1960's.

Everyone, at the beach house were pissed, spending all this money and stuck inside, sick and tired of playing Cribbage


Everyone, except ME

I loved the subtle colors, this dismal day provided.....And we did pay to get wet....

So, I spent the day, walking the beach.


I did try to convince the others to come out and enjoy the treasures of that day

No Dice

So, I told them that I'm going to come back with a treasure.


I had no idea, what that "treasure" would be

Confident in my unfettered artistic EYE, I knew I would come back with something.

Off I went


After, rejecting an "owl" made from a piece of driftwood and flat stone, there was a pair of mussel shells at my feet.

" They look like vulture wings,...What can I use for the head?", I asked myself

And VOILA !!, right there was a small crab claw....The beginning of the first vulture sculpture..


With, pieces of rusted snow fence for the legs, a chunk of cork for the base,

and a manipulated tar ball, instead of getting between my toes became the body and stuck everything together

I had my TREASURE.


Happily, and proudly, I went back with my treasure.

I might have made 3 or 4 in the next 15 years, for I had more important things to do with my life

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/first-vulture-roger-swezey.html


It was in the middle 1970's that I started making vulture sculptures in earnest.

First as therapy, that EXPLODED into a completely NEW LIFE.

A LIFE, I'm still living.

Now, back to the cellar,....To Create more Vulture Sculptures

JL,

RE:.. "Epitaph For A Captive Cheetah" ...A Statement

This haunting image, certainly speaks to me

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/bloodmoonrise-abstract-viva-anderson.html

I stand by the outcome, but must say, this was an adventure! It all started when I got out the
ladder, determined to get this! from a height. Picture me!! shaking, lol.
The jpeg unedited is just a view of my kitchen table (round),
my chair, and, there’s no explanation of how I got this….hours later!
The red moon is actually the base of the table, my pov of course!
Literally, spaced out!

Thank you, Roger. And I enjoyed your story about the origins of your Vulture sculptures. I'm so glad you made a career out of it. It gives other non-conformists, like me, such inspiration and hope!

Many years ago, after a long period of pondering, I bought a new lens for my camera. A 14-24mm wide-angle zoom. I was eager to test my new precious one when it arrived, so I went to a small park.

The first thing I noticed was this beautiful swan. The swan was focused, cleaning feathers, so I got very close behind.

Suddenly, after finishing cleaning, the swan started spreading the wings. I had only a second to get the shot. After that, the beautiful bird turned to me, hissing angrily.
I fled and checked the camera display to ensure the shot was successful.

It was: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/swan-spreads-wings-in-front-of-state-theatre-stuttgart-germany-matthias-hauser.html

Great stories so far, love this discussion!

My story is contained within my ABOUT section at: http://revad.pixels.com .

Here is a copy, as it currently reads. It gets tweaked quite often.

——-

C O N N E C T E D [ A L P H A B E T S ]
and other paraphernalia

I FIDGET ART

If you need a pigeon hole, I work across several art movements, incorporating elements as the enquiry requires. Think abstract, algorithmic, conceptual, concrete, constructivist, and you may find a partially appropriate pigeon hole. You may also think code is the common factor. Whatever you think, I make what I need to make, when I need to make it.

PHILOSOPHY

I make it. I share it. I come back in a day and look at it. I come back in a week and look at it. I come back in a month and look at it. If I am still sharing it in a year, then it made the cut. It is important to note, most of my work is made in a virtual space. So, I have to share it for it to exist. Rare outcomes make the transition from virtual to real. Some of those transitions are triggered by others, some are triggered by me. There is no right way to do this. It is an art of itself. Self curating is hard. Letting others curate for you is hard. My philosophy is, nothing is a waste, everything leads to something. The web is my gallery, prints are merchandise. It's all about the process. EVERYTHING IS TRANSIENT!

——-

My earliest outcomes, as can be seen here on FAA/Pixels, are my geometric alphabets.

CIRCUARE MONO = https://revad.pixels.com/featured/circuare-mono-alphabet-revad-codedimages.html

There are more examples in my ALPHABET collection.

ALPHABET = https://revad.pixels.com/collections/alphabet

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/great-dane-art-stick-with-me-by-sharon-cummings-sharon-cummings.html

I periodically go through old photos for inspiration and ideas. Years ago I came across this image that my daughter took of our dog when she was around 10 years old. It was special because my girl is on the spectrum and we had bought her a camera because she really took to it and it helped her be more engaged with the World. Most of her pictures were of little strange things she found here and there. But she took a picture of our Bacchus out in the back yard. Our special boy died from bone cancer at 3 years old and we were devastated. I had never even seen this image before. It was just in a random file folder that she had put in my computer. It was blurry, small and a very poor quality. But I decided to create an entirely new image with my Color Fusion collage style. Many days later, I had a beautiful piece of art to celebrate his life! And he just keeps giving back to our family because this image is my number 1 best selling dog image ever. Woof!

I had an interesting piece of burled wood. And ended up here:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/vibrations-l-a-feldstein.html

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/crow-in-the-corn-field-val-arie.html

It has been more than ten years now that I started doing digital art. I had been, and yes I still am, a traditional artist. It was the middle of a very cold snowy winter and I needed art supplies to work on anything. I no longer remember what I was out of but there was noting I could work on without a trip to the art supply store many miles away.

I was sitting there bored out of my mind, it was too snowy to travel. My youngest son asked why I was just sitting there. When I told him I needed supplies, he replied " No, you don't" and pointing at the computer he said "You are an artist, you can make art on that!"

I wasn't really as easy as all that, but I am stubborn and kept at it. The link above is one of the first pieces that was worth sharing.

It's early here so haven't had the chance to read everything here, but so far such wonderful stories.

JL love the painting and the back story it brought a lot when I finally opened up the link.

Roger thanks for sharing and adding the photo... interesting to hear how it all started, especially something beautiful out of what the others considered such a dismal day.

VIVA my precious... I didn't know that was a table and chair.... What a knack for turning the ordinary into elegance!

I was taking a photography course called, Pursuit of Light and it changed my awareness in a big way. It wasn't just about sunrise/sunset. It was about noticing and that's why I love this image.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/pauls-chair-renata-natale.html

I had planned something hugely complicated for this. Lots of little pieces cut out as stencil and tracings. It was a total disaster. Whatever was planned in my head, was a mess on paper. I washed it off. You can still see in the background the faded tracings.

Stuck in the Middle with You

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/stuck-in-the-middle-l-a-feldstein.html

Some of my images, like this one, are here to document or journal experiences that I have had. This one came to mind because I just revised it last night and uploaded this version, replacing the original image. I think it's an improvement. My husband and I went to Moab to spend Thanksgiving (2004 or 2005) with my son and his friends who were rock climbing there. We had a great time and I wandered around taking photographs. I had a nice little Sony Camera...now with a little coaxing from today's software I think its a great picture and I was so excited when I found this old truck. I loved that camera...(has a nice Zeiss Lense)


https://fineartamerica.com/featured/truck-under-full-moon-bw-cathy-anderson.html

Ken, thank you so much, :) VIVA

Great thread, entries!

Nothing could beat a beautiful day fishing. This photo was taken in 2004 with a throw away camera. I transformed it into a digital pencil finish. That was a challenge. The camera had been thrown in a stack and developed several years later at some drive through developing center. It was yellowed. But the aged look lent a bit of character to it.

The location is in the June Lake belt of California. The temperature was 75 degrees and there was not much of a breeze. Just lots of peace, quiet, beauty. and mosquitos! Didn't catch anything that day except a memory.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/fishing-on-a-perfect-day-glenn-mccarthy-art-and-photography.html

I hope you don't mind if I use an older blog post where I told my story...

On Becoming a Digital Artist
by Shelli Fitzpatrick


I’ve always been an artist, but I have only recently realized that I’ve become a digital artist and how that happened is really quite incidental.

I never thought of myself as a starving artist, even though I was close to being starved for creative outlets due to my financial estate of barely above the poverty line, while I struggled as a waitress to raise two children on my tips.

We didn’t go hungry but I also didn’t have money to spare for art supplies so I became very resourceful and used whatever medium was available at the moment.

I drew on napkins and school notebook paper with ink pens and pencils, until once, when I found some left over model paints at a yard sale and some clay pots, I used toothpicks for brushes and painted the pots with those enamel model paints.

Then I bought cheap acrylic paints and miniature wooden boxes and painted them. I planted cactus in the pots and glued felt in the boxes and these became Christmas gifts for family and friends.

I would also hodge-podge my drawings onto wooden plaques and give them away not realizing that I had no record of any of this art for the future or that I might need one someday, so nearly all of my early work is undocumented.

Once my kids were on their own, I acquired a laptop and began dabbling in digital art with simple paint programs which produced very primitive and naive art and saving it all to my hard drives.

Then my daughter gave me a digital camera and I discovered a love for snapping photos and especially macro photography.

I started thinking of ways to make my average but decent photos into one of a kind unique works of art and that is when I got my first iPhone.

Things started getting serious from there when I signed up for Instagram and learned about all the amazing art apps for iPhone and started participating in Instagram challenges and groups.

From there I started to develop my own digital techniques of photo manipulation, glitch art and app stacking trying to create my own personal style.
I discovered I have a passion for creating abstract art and digital impressionist paintings from my photographs.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/echoes-of-civilization-shelli-fitzpatrick.html

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/wild-onion-flower-shelli-fitzpatrick.html

Over the past five years I have been mastering the use of Gimp software which is an alternative to Photoshop, and nowdays digital is about the only medium I ever use to make art.

My latest adventure has taken me into the world of fractal art with an amazing app that allows me not only to discover beautiful fractal landscapes but to tweak and manipulate them into truly unique art that I hope will become recognized as my fractal style.

https://shelli-fitzpatrick.pixels.com/featured/where-turquoise-grows-on-trees-fractal-abstract-shelli-fitzpatrick.html

And so that is how I came to realize that I am not just an artist but I am a digital artist for better or worse... and I love this digital medium because it is so versatile and elastic and seems to have endless possibilities for creating art!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/emilies-bougainvillea-viva-anderson.html?viewall=true

Sharing this because I am mostly 'locked in' these days, and, my granddaughter, Emilie,
is always out and about, and so thoughtful, to send me her snapshots, as was this one, too.
She's my great 'supporter', so here I honour her love, devotion, b/c, she knows.....
Purple's the 'go' for me; that I'll play for hours happily with her pix; and I really got into
this one and learned about enhancing to the max. Thanks for this great thread.

Revad, what a cool images!!

Well, ok, my program is unbreckable, unmistakable, but that time, it broke, very simple scene with one box and 3 piramides started to act weird, it devided space to 3 segments, by orientation and colour, so I had to save that work, unfotunately in a very low resulution ..

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/3x3-milija-jakic.html

I'm overjoyed to see so many of my FAA friends here and to read your thoughts, stories, and musings.

Matthias - It was interesting to thinking of you creeping behind this beautiful bird only to have to startled - but what a great shot. How these things come about is facinating.

Revad - Thanks for sharing

Sharon - I have seen this image, and actually wondered the reason behind this - now it's so much more special knowing what this means to you personally. Love your style :)

L A - One of my FAV. Knowing from the last discussion how you create your works - your eye in taking a photo, and using it as your inspiration for something fantastic - wonderful.

Val Arie - I commend you transitioning thus - reminds me of VIVA - how having that experience adds to the digital work you do. Thanks for the cute story.

Renata - I so appreciate you eye in the images you shoot. Love the abstract nature here and the colors.

L A - YES! Let the art become what it wants. This is how much of my work tends to go :)

Cathy - Thanks for sharing, and adding the type of equipment. I often wonder when I see something I like what equipment/software was used.

Glenn - Thanks for sharing. Been a long time since I've been fishing - that was my Dad's thing (passed away in 2016) but with the right people and location - I'd be game.

Sheli - Wonderful. Thanks for the history behind your work. BTW, what fractal program do you use? I have wanted to try some, but don't know where to start.

VIVA - I treasure the more I learn of your world. PURPLE. This used to be my COLOR. SYNC! these days I'm not sure I have a FAV, per se, but I tend to still lean towards the cooler colors.

Milija - ....But you made something out of this.....good work.

THANK YOU ALL for all these stories. I think they enhance the work, and also connect us together. I appreciate you all.

Ken, I use Frax. Mine is installed on my iphone but I think you can get it for ipad too.

It is really an amazing app even it it is an iphone app. I always render the images in the pro format to get the highest resolution and I also bring my images into Gimp on my computer to tweak them some more. lol

I am planning on getting an ipad someday if they don't come out with a version for Windows first.

......
Description ...Fourth in the series The Story Vol 1 telling the story of finding hope in the midst of grief.

- "She stretches her toes out in the sand, something satisfying and grounding this connection with nature. In the distance is her sanctuary on the water where she spent the day reading one of those damn books she promised herself to get to, but never did. But all good things come to an end, or so they say. She was not done taking each one of these experiences she shared with him and making them her own. This was something she had to do, not to forget the love of her life that was taken so quickly from her, but to honor him by living. This had been their spot on the beach for romance, watching the sun dip below the horizon. Now it was a place to recognize the beauty around her-within her. She sighed with contentment, 'This was a truly wonderful day.' But now, The Night Comes For Her, and though she will miss her time on the beach, she is looking forward to the dreams that await her. viva 👏👏👏

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-night-comes-for-her-part-4-ken-walker.html

Thanks for posting - I had forgotten this story LOL. Since you brought it up, the series THE STORY VOL 1 https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/kenneth-walker?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=899776 was a way to share my love for a good romance. I have no shame in admitting I'm a HALLMARK romance movie addict - and don't even get me started about the Christmas marathon.... I thought it would be fun to write a story of my own in a series of shorts with an art piece for each. In this one, 2 people slowly come from across the country to finally reunite. It was an interesting thing to do because I was working with abstracts, and the abstracts were in a may guiding the story, but sometimes the story would influence the direction of the painting. Some of the images I feel can stand on their own, why others I feel more serve as an illustration to the story. Either way, I haven't done anything like this since. As some of you know, I've been doing more poetry than prose.

THANKS VIVA

A shepherd and his trusty sheep-herding dog watch his flock on this magical day in France. This is a 35mm slide I took in 1954 while in the army signal corps in Fromont, France. It was always my most popular slide, and the sad part about this picture is that it was the only one taken of the shepherd, who died a few days after I took it. I would never have known that he passed away, except that some farmers showed up at the microwave relay station and told me that his wife had no pictures of him and could she please have a copy, so naturally I had a print made for her. I think it is wonderful that he may live on forever in this and other pieces of my artwork.

https://chuck-staley.pixels.com/featured/french-shepherd-chuck-staley.html

shortened: https://bit.ly/3EWHxNb

This image got me started thinking about sharing my work with others about a dozen years ago.

Before that, TV directing was my game.

Ken - The Passage - Wow, what a place you have taken this to. Great, I love it, love what you wrote. Great job! Fascinating reading about the process - both 'art' wise and 'thought' wise. And the poem adds to the entire concept.

Louise - Ripple Effect - I like this, motion, darkness, looks like 'secrets', or hints of things to come, subtle light to darkness.
Tree Magma - Like how the red just peeks out, so much depth and texture in this.

Fellow artist, Ken Walker, provided me with a photograph of the rusted rear axle, complete with shock absorber, of an old car. He was curious to see my interpretation. I have just finished the second version. I tried to capture the geometry in the photo, especially all of the cabling and the jacketed cabling. Mostly I used muted colors. And, I added some things that were not in the photo. Here are both versions:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/rear-axle-abstract-two-l-a-feldstein.html

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/rear-axle-abstract-l-a-feldstein.html

L A -. Love the lightness and openness of the first one... It brought me back to my childhood and all the wonder! Love what you've done with the squiggles.. perfect! I'm amazed both how you've turned these into such playful pieces-but not surprised knowing your work already. Just thinking the moment I opened them I was brought back to a feeling and a memory from my schooldays playing with that bead and wire game and how this is what I imagined it looked like... You captured this perfectly!

Ken, thank you for the comments and, of course, for the photos. I've downloaded the other photos; we'll see what happens! Input welcome, thank you

Fellow participants here, stay tuned for more of these 'auto' abstracts.

...

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/emergence-of-intuitive-innocence-terrance-depietro.html

Thank you, Terrance.........as always: Beauty and erudition.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/undulations-viva-anderson.html

Sharing this oldie, but goodie, to realize, looking back, here as always was my chosen go-to palette, b/w.
We'd just been out into the Australian countryside, to go to the 'family' seat, dghtr's husband's Father,
the local MP, RIP.............and a lot of Australia is wide open plains, and/or 'hill country', with beautiful
streams, forests, fauna, flora. This really is a 'dreamscape' of all I saw: more a story of how I felt,
out there, where one is/was free to roam, and, see.......hence, this, my abstract from the heart, about
the heart, of Australia.
I don't expect great plaudits for it, lol. But, have been surprised by its' lovely reception, so far....with
my gratitude.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/being-a-different-angel-viva-anderson.html

A very emotive visual, in response to this Angel - HER story:


I found her alone at the shoppe, because her five perfect siblings
had been sold, but she’d been left on the shelf. She is not perfect,
as angels are. But, to me, she is! And so, this lovely photo to honour
her, left behind, but beautiful to me, in her ‘irregularity’. her 'uniqueness'.

These lovely Xmas decorations were a ‘set’ of six, all hand made,
hand-carved, wire wings beautiful, and each a treasure. Her 'set'
was sold, without her. Now? She is mine, on my desk, and faces the world proudly,
DIFFERENT.

So much of what we SHARE in this thread is photopainting,digital originals.
I mention that b/c , we are expected to 'tell' the story: and for me, this
and much I do, is ALSO, the story of the process, to create a unique
to me, response: in honour of my 'way'; and in keeping with this thread.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/tree-of-life-special-edition-7-ken-walker.html#comment49087703

Another rainy day in Sydney, gave me time to re-visit this, and the Series. I've added new thoughts/ as
my comment there, so shan't quote it all here, too, but.......this is Thank You, Ken......for each in the
Series. I probably could return/visit each one, and study them in depth: from your Artist thoughts at
each and every creation: quite an amazing feat, that you've steadily engaged in, due to your true
understanding of 'the sisterhood', and your need, as a thinking man/artist, to express your unique,
thought provoking Portraits, created from your Heart. All the above due to the current worldwide
International Women's Day celebrations. Thank you.

VIVA - thank you for the support in this series - it was an idea that came to me for 1 or 2 paintings but grew to be so much more out of the love and support given - more to come as there are so many wonderful attributes to admire - one of the driving forces is that so often women get idolized by men for their sexuality - and little else - unfortunately while strides have been made, I do not think it's improved enough. For me, as a man, I want to speak TRUTH of all the attributes I not only admire, but count on - as well as the sexual beauty of women in a honest and honoring way - which hopefully I have. More to come as I delve into this. On a side note, I have noticed that a few TV shows I enjoy have cast "real women" - not the model perfect impossible women usually portrayed and for me these women are so much more desirable possessing the beautiful and strong qualities I have attempted to portray in my TREE series. Again, thanks for the support.

VIVA - Like the angel - I remember seeing her - imperfect but no less the angel we need - maybe even more so because she is someone who can relate to our flaws and better understand us.

Louise - Sorry for the late response. I opened it up shortly after you posted it but immediately had a reaction to it so didn't want to just post a quick response. The best I can describe my feelings were the undulating thoughts and emotions of the soul - shifting in and out of the light and then retreating. This is part of the journey of healing many take - in and out - of the truth of light, then back into the darkness of fear and doubt. Back and forth it goes until the waters break into the full light of day. In it all - there is always movement - a drawing out. This is what I think for me with this image. You've been choose your texture layers well. Good eye.

Thank you, Ken. Got it in ONE, of course, :)) V

As to The Tree of Life! Series, It is a noble, beautiful endeavour! Be proud! You have seen, expressed such
wonderful undeniable TRUTH! What a Heart , have YOU !❤️

https://fineartamerica.com/contests/open-drone-contest.html?tab=overview

cooeeee, Louise xoxoxoxoxo

Coooeee! VIVA... I will av a go. Xoxo

Coooeee! KEN... you not only create intricate artworks, you write such meaningful and descriptive stories to complete them. I am so honoured that you have done this for me... can I please quote them on this image so they are not lost here in the thread.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-ripple-effect-louise-merigot.html

VIVA - Undulations: This really does show an undulating landscape brought out by the curved and varying thickness of line. Also a great exploration of Grey Scale.
Different Angel: What a beautiful, sensitive story behind this image with such a sweet ending. Plus how you handle B & W photography - so powerful.
Heloise: I remember reading about Heloise and Abelard long ago - a passionate, compelling love story. This image portrays Heloise in a wonderful way.

Louise Thank you. Of course.

I used my earlier upload, Petri Dish Abstract, and played with it digitally. What I came up with is Leaving Home. A lot of manipulations got me to this place, and probably could not be repeated (because I do not remember all the steps). There is bold contrast of color on this. I see a solidary figure walking uphill carrying a branch with blue flowers. Anyone see anything else?

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/petri-dish-abstract-l-a-feldstein.html

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/leaving-home-l-a-feldstein.html

L A, (3 a.m.) and thank you so very much for your wonderful insights, encouragement! zz VIVA

This one is one of my repeat sellers - A harmless picture, nothing even slightly profound or ironic and never was intended to be. What it IS however, is a photo of a nice sunny summer day in Ocean City, Maryland. I've vacationed there all of my life and know this view in my bones. I also look at the location of purchasers and see that they live in areas that appear to be geographically correct for other people that have parked their umbrella on this beach. This view didn't get the ocean, but otherwise, Boardwalk on the right, amusement park rides in the distance, super-clean sand right up close and colorful kites flapping in the sea breeze makes ME think of summer in OCMD.

I'd guess that this and some of my other beach photos evoke a summer vacation nostalgia in one of the US's most archetypal beach locations. Not many people come from California or Chicago or Alabama to hit the boards in OC. Most of them are from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia (based on auto license tags) and purchasers of this photo have had similar locations, so I'm guessing that they want some summer nostalgia for the TV room or on the coffee mug, or, in one case, on their shower curtain. They get sunburned or grease up with sun block, buy fries and ice cream on the 3 mile long Boardwalk, sit on the balcony and breathe salty air, or, in this case, fly a kite. The story behind this one is completely what it appears to be...."I like being on the beach in Ocean City"....that simple. It wouldn't probably just be "a beach" because the view is so completely identifiable, so it's the beach in OC.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/kites-sand-and-sun-doug-swanson.html

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-ghost-of-you-tree-of-life-special-edition-16-ken-walker.html

Posting this in advance of Ken’s SHARE , to celebrate his profoundly beautiful, thoughtful,
unique new work. Kudos, Ken

THE GHOST OF YOU TREE OF LIFE SPECIAL EDITION 16

///////////

...................EDIT .................posting this after the closure of this Thread................................................

Thank you, Ken,
For your vision, this thread, your support, your inspiring Art, your thoughtfulness.
I am glad you have made a choice to proceed and find balance, and, wish you success.
VIVA

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/leaving-home-l-a-feldstein.html


My post at site: Love this one!
"
VIVA Anderson.... I see she's walking da doggie: a poodle!! and kudos, love: this is such sad/fun, the story sad , poignant, yet, the image, so colourful, keeps our spirits up. Compliments, kudos, fav, VIVA"

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/kites-sand-and-sun-doug-swanson.html

Doug, thanks for sharing. And! Thanks for the memories!! . Here's my post on site:

VIVA Anderson... This takes me waay back, to such happy memories,Doug. And, highest compliments: a wonderful , bright, capture, loving the flags!!, fav......VIVA

You're an old hand at this, I know! Could you share some of your tech and emotive approaches, decisions for these scenes outdoors.
For me, that 'light' so bright : I can't quite capture the wonderful 'other' colours/washed out by me!, sigh, the way these / yours are
so fresh. And, I like your perspective! I ask just b/c in this thread , we do hope to share , hear about, the challenges of creating
the image, too. Thanks, Doug.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/happy-girl-ba-tripi.html

I'm sharing BA's beautiful Happy Girl painting because I love it! I found it at forum/another thread, and then!
I commented not to BA, omg, but to Philip, and here it is for all to know my mistake, with good intentions, sigh,
now hopefully clarified. I do so feel happy, uplifted, a 'lightness of Being' !! and thank you, BA for understanding.

Thanks Viva - you just made Happy Girl even HAPPIER BA

Doug - I can see why Kites Sand and Sun is a repeat seller. Having spent some summer vacations on the Jersey Shore, this photo certainly resonates.
BA - Happy Girl - Love all the swirls.

Sometimes for me, titles show up after the painting is completed. On Morning Coffee my intention was only to paint the front of the reel-to-reel tape deck. But, when it was completed, I saw the cup of coffee.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/morning-coffee-l-a-feldstein.html

TO MY DEAREST FRIENDS -

I am beyond overjoyed of community of vibrant and giving artist here on FAA that has been fostered here. The stories you've shared with us all amazing, and heartwarming. As you have not doubt noticed, I have been mostly absent from this thread - I am pleased that it has done so well. Unfortunately, I will be closing this portion of the thread in order to allow one of you to take over from here. With my personal and business needing more of my attention, I have decided to scale back my social presence on FAA for a time in order to achieve a more healthy balance - I suppose this is an artist's constant struggle.

I have been blessed by you all - and I hope that someone will take up the mantle and keep this going - what has been built here.

My love to you all.

Ken Walker