Gallery of Friends – August 2020

Title: Something creepy
Artist: Ekaterina Vitkovskaya
Backstory:
Something creepy 😬 (and I didn’t forget about reflection on the water, it just isn’t here 😁)

Title: Space Terror
Artist: Justin Preston
Backstory:
The terror that Claire felt as the creature enveloped her was not that she would soon be joining her crew mates. But that she finally figured out what had been bothering her the entire 5 year mission. In her rush to meet launch time, she had forgotten to take the kitchen trash out. O how rancid the apartment would smell! And it was this that brought on a scream of terror that was silently joined by her crew mates.

Title: Mundari Cow
Artist: Taria Dawson
Other Links: Etsy
Backstory:
Not quite a fantasy creature as this painting is based on a real animal but I like to think I have captured it in a slightly fantastical way.
This is one of the cows I saw while staying with the Mundari tribe in South Sudan. Life revolves around cows, cow excretions and trading cows for women (dowries).
It was absolutely fascinating spending a couple of days observing the daily routines of the people…and the cows.

Title: VISHNU – Hindu Mythology God (from PS game🎮 PERSONA 5)
Artist: Eesha Hariramani
Other Links: Etsy
Backstory:
This is my first in fantasy character painting! And i loved the way it turned out.😍.
I wanted to do a fantasy painting for #galleryoffriends theme for this month, when my teenage son who is a gaming champion, showed me this character #vishnu from his game #Persona and i fell in love with it. When i was done with it, he gave me the best ever compliment “Mom, this is my favorite amongst all ur arts til date!” 🥰❤
.
》A short description about Vishnu in Hindu Mythology:

Vishnu is one of the primary deities in the Hindu pantheon. He is called The Preserver and is known for a kindly demeanor and genuine interest in the welfare of humanity. In the Hindu religion, Vishnu the Preserver is one of the three principle deities of the Trimurti (Hindu Triad) along with Brahma, the Creator, and Shiva, the Destroyer. 

As the preserver, Vishnu maintains balance within the world, and at the end of our current aeon he will appear as his final avatar Kalki and judge whether mortals have been good or evil. After this, the universe will end and creation will start anew. He is depicted with up to four arms, blue skin, holding a chakra wheel, a lotus flower, a mace and a conch, and rides on the back of Garuda. He also sleeps on the back of a great naga named Ananta Shesha.

He is the husband of the goddess Lakshmi in all her incarnations and has ten personal incarnations starting with Matsya and ending with Kalki. He may also be worshipped in the form of Harihara, the perfect fusion of Vishnu and Shiva.
.
》For more info, go to this site: https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Vishnu

Title: Little lights
Artist: Aakanksha
Backstory:
How do you make a sad friend smile?
Dirt kids for #vonnartdirtkids dtiys challenge.

Title: “The Ill news”
Artist: Lizzy
Other Links: Patreon
Backstory:
“What troublesome news do you bring, my friend?” This was done using copic markers (a medium which I don’t use often but I enjoy a lot when I do). I really wanted to make some sort of big story with this subject

Title: Old Friend
Artist: Julie Peterson Shea
Other Links: Artist Website
Backstory:
Years ago, I started creating these winged frogs. I envisioned them as an army hiding in the shadows and behind leaves in a magical forest. They would use acorns as their weapons to protect their home in the forest. I titled this piece “Old Friend” because to me drawing winged frogs again was like talking to an old friend picking up right where we left off.

Title: Girl amidst nasturtiums
Artist: Thu Ha Kueng
Backstory:
I love anything whimsical. For this topic, I placed my little niece into a nasturtium flower bed. She`s supposed to be a little fairy.

Title: Antelope Archer 3
Artist: John Ramsey
Backstory:
Enormous moth like birds. It’s possible that they are migrating as they don’t often gather in such large numbers.

Title: Fairies do exist 😋
Artist: Daniela Tsvetkova
Backstory:
It was fun trying something new and quite different for me 😆

Title: n/a
Artist: Pigi Glarou
Backstory:
The main idea was to make a forest autumn scenery and test my abilities, as I haven’t experimented much using brushes for painting forests, trees etc. I am satisfied with this amateurish try and also added a figure, that I haven’t thought about who or what it may be, maybe an elf or a wanderer. 🙂 It’s acrylics on canvas panel 15×20 cm

Title: Ocean Painting
Artist: Kris Kou
Backstory:
After three months struggling with how to paint landscape by using Acrylic Gouache, finally could this ocean piece be finished! And now as a gift to one of my friend who was making and showing us wonderful landscape works during that time and inspired me a lot 🙂

Title: Desert Moon
Artist: Charlotte Gill
Backstory:
There is no specific story behind this piece. I just love painting environments that have an outer-worldly touch and mostly include an alien desert or gloomy place combined with a sunset and sunrise…

Title: Roots
Artist: Cheniva C
Backstory:
More scenery 🌿

Title: Bilby, Australian desert marsupial
Artist: Helen Page
Backstory:
Inspired after hearing a news story that Bilbies have bred in the wild for the first time in a century.
Childhood memories fled back as they are similar to Bandicoots. As a child on holiday, camping in the bush, one raided our tent at night!
A4 acrylic paint pens in my style

Title: Underneath
Artist: Cristina Kramp
Other Links: Artist Blog Post
Backstory:
Underneath is one of a three painting collection.
Icebergs are fascinating to me, they come in all shapes and sizes and they are made of frozen freshwater that has broken off a glacier.
The bulk of its mass lies beyond the surface. They are a perfect way to represent people. Most of us see each other in glimpses of time, and unless we really take the time to get to know somebody, we mostly touch the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to knowing someone.

Title: The hill
Artist: Elise Aabakken
Backstory:
One of my favorite watercolor effects is when it gets to flow freely in water and then settle where it wants to! Especially when the colors separate, l find it so fascinating, and this color just seemed so perfect for a spooky Halloween scene!

Title: Lakeside at Dawn
Artist: Ian Bristow
Backstory:
I was in the mood to splash color around the canvas and not many palettes compare to the colors of a sunrise or sunset.

Title: N/A
Artist: Emmanuelle Bru
Backstory:
(française) Envie de changer et de faire un peu de gouache. Bon, le problème, c’est que je ne suis pas trop équipée en gouache. Du coup j’ai utilisé celle de mes pitchous avec une qualité bof bof.
J’attends donc ma commande de Royal Talens France  @royaltalensfrance pour continuer un peu dans cette voie 😊

(english) Want to change and do some gouache. Well, the problem is, I’m not too well equipped with gouache. So I used my toddler’s with a blah blah quality.
I am therefore awaiting my order from Royal Talens France to continue a little in this way 😊

Title: Hidden paths
Artist: Kindel Page
Backstory:
“Hidden paths” This was the first drawing I did on the iPad with a reference photo! I did it fast just getting the feel so its very loose and rough…but if you don’t look directly at it..it looks okay!!

Title: Storm
Artist: Jelena Josipovic
Backstory:
This piece was part of a collaboration with another beautiful artists. We tried to interpret beautiful storm photo in our own way. I really loved working with salt here.

Title: Hummingbirds
Artist: Rachel E
Backstory:
I’ve wanted to do some bird studies for ages now. I guess I jumped in at the deep end with these guys but I think their colours and tiny feathers are so beautiful. I really wanted to have a go at making them as iridescent and stunning as they are. Maybe I kind of got there in some places!

These are just 7 of the 325+ species across the Earth. They all consume half their body weight daily in sugar, can fly up to 30mph and have a heart rate of 1200 bpm! Also the only birds that can fly backwards as they actually have a different wing structure to other birds.

Title: Beyond the clouds
Artist: Naska
Backstory:
My take on #dtiys challenge hosted by amazing Ally @alrun.art . I was so excited about this one. At first I envisioned it to be vibrant clouds and the girl on a cliff, but in the meantime got the better idea so I made a cloud forest instead. Because you know.. it’s a forest. A must in my paintings 😅
I really enjoyed the process and I hope you like the final look. You can check the speed paint as well.
Song: The song of caged bird (Lindsey Stirling)

Reference photo by Scott Rennie @scott_rennie_photo

Title: Discovery
Artist: Rufina Blackwell
Backstory:
‘Well well’, said the girl. ‘Well well’, said the cat. ‘Nobody’s here!’ said the pigeon.

I love it when an illustration tells a story. All my favourite artworks tell one, and the job is well done when after seeing it, you can imagine what happened before and after the drawn scene.

Title: Autumnal forest
Artist: Sofia Larsson
Backstory:
Summer is soon over, so I decided to simply paint a forest in autumnal colours 🍁🍂🍃

Title: The bluebell carpet
Artist: Rasa Vaiciulyte
Backstory:
I just love all shades of blues! This painting was one of my entries to an art challenge.

Title: Heron
Artist: Sarah Granville
Other Links: Artist Website
Backstory:
Grey Heron!
Not a Raven or a Macaw 🦜 definitely an Heron and not a Blue Heron apparently they have white necks 🤷🏻‍♀️. This has been going for about a week as life just gets in the way 🙄
Painted on rough Saunders Waterford paper using Winsor & Newton paints. I wanted a dramatic background and put that in first which was fun, used masking fluid put on using a calligraphy pen for more accuracy and to save my brushes. Sometimes I use a sharpened twig which works well too. A bit of white Gouache at the end and a white roller-ball to add some details. Ta Dah!

Title: Lake Michigan Pre Sunset
Artist: Maria Gehrke
Other Links: Artist Website
Backstory:
A sunset lake Michigan painting as a very very belated birthday gift for my friend and photographer Rose ( @randomcreativeart)
I used one of her gorgeous photographs as a reference (5th picture)
Who else here thinks that beach sunsets are so gorgeous and soothing? 🌅

I also made a couple of bookmarks for my stocking-stuffer stash.
One is essentially the sketch to this painting, where I was figuring out which colors to use. The second is half my daughter’s creation. She came into my work room and wanted to paint too of course. I added some golden leaves later to round it out.

Title: Regal Amidst the Grasses
Artist: Kristina Howitt
Backstory:
9×12, acrylic. This is part of the Enchanted Forest series.

Title: Through the Forest
Artist: Cara V
Other Links:
Backstory:
Sometimes, after a long nap, Bear takes a walk through the forest and catches up with old friends– today it’s Ladybug. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Title: Mother
Artist: Zahra Hasni
Backstory:
Incense and earthy watercolour of the mother archetype/mother nature.
Inspired by the nurturing and grounding energy mothering brings to us. Protect womxn.

Title: Reflection of leaves
Artist: Ghazaleh
Other Links: Youtube
Backstory:
“Reflection of leaves” is a beautiful colourful landscape with a nice lake in watercolour on paper, 12*16 inches.