Juried Exhibition and BBC Wildlife Magazine Art Competition

Title: Study of a Raven
Size: 9 x 12 inches
Medium: Acrylic
Support: Hard board

Seven years ago, I found out about a juried art competition called "Arts on Fire" in my home town. I sent in my entires, but they did not accept my works for three consecutive years. I gave up and have forgotten about this show. This year, for some reason, I thought about entering a work that is "not my best" sort of as a joke. This raven study is the one I entered.

About a month ago, I received a letter from them saying that my entry was accepted! This was totally unexpected. I just couldn't believe it. The painting is currently in the show.

Today, I received an email from BBC Wildlife Magazine saying that my entry won through to the finals in the World Birds category of the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year 2009 competition. I thought this was a joke and about to delete the email. However, when I saw the actual title "Study of a Raven" and the attached image, realized that this was a real thing. Yeah!!!

A few months ago, Linda told me about this competition. Thank you Linda! Since entries were free, I entered a couple of my paintings. The one I thought was good was not accepted, but they like this raven. There must be something about this raven that I don't see. Now I have to figure out how to get this painting for the final judging in England.

New Cat ACEOs

Title: Kyra #2
Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches
Medium: Acrylic
Support: Multimedia Artboard
Sold

Title: Sphynx #2
Size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches
Medium: Acrylic
Support: Multimedia Artboard
Sold

These ACEOs are currently on eBay. To see the listtings, click the image.

Mona's Mini Blog Award

I received this Mona's Mini Blog Award! Thanks Mona. I'm so honored.

UPDATE: There is a correction to the rules, as indicated in red:

The rules are: Acknowledge via link the artist who passes you the award and pick it up from their blog. Then, name five of your all-time favorite movies. Additionally, name your pick for this year's movie of the year. Then pass the award forward to three miniature or ACEO blog artists you appreciate for their finely detailed art on a small scale, linking them in your post.

Okay, my all-time favorite movies are (not necessarily in this order): Ladyhawke, Somewhere in Time, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Sanjuro, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. My pick for this year's movie of the year is Grand Torino.

I'm passing this award on to Gail Ragsdale, Kathleen Coy, and Vern Schwarz.

French Bulldog

Size: 11 x 14 inches
Medium: Acrylic
Support: Stretched canvas

It took me about two weeks to finish this piece, because I was interrupted by a couple of small jobs (which actually pay bills).

While painting this, I was wondering what this dog was thinking. What makes him look so sad? Do they always look like this? They sure are more expressive than cats.

I Love Your Art Blog award

I was given the "I Love Your Art Blog" award by wonderful artist as well as wonderful cat person Jala Pfaff. I'm very honored. Thank you Jala!

The rules of this award are: If you are tagged and would like to participate, tell in your post that I tagged you and put a link to my site, and then tag some more people. I'm tagging the following blogs:

Art for the Animals
Art for Critters

Eyes of Billy

Size: 11 x 14 inches
Medium: Acrylic
Support: Stretched canvas

This is Billy. He has the most amazing eyes. We adopted him about three years ago. For some reason, he had no undercoat. All he had was just a single layer of rough topcoat. His doctor thought that he had some kind of allergy that prevented him from absorbing nutrients.

He now has both undercoat and topcoat and gained a lot of weight. Yes, he is one healthy, happy guy!