Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Secret Santa's Surprise

I had a lovely christmas with many special gifts from my family including a selection of tiny brushes and an ingenious refillable clean water container which disposes of the dirty water and refills with clean at the press of a button. Its such a clever idea for clean water fanatics like me.

In addition to these lovely family gifts  I was also given a beautiful original watercolour from a very good friend. Each year, a group of artists who belong to  'Art Colony' which was formed by Jane Freeman draw names and we send a piece of art to one other member as part of our Secret Santa exhange. This year, my Secret Santa painting was from Christiane Fortin a fellow Canadian. I just had to share this painting from her with you all. Isn't it beautiful.

You can see that our younger dog Ella approves too. Thank you Christiane. I will treasure it always.

Just as an update...In moments between Christmas celebrations I have had a couple of opportunities to  work on my Ted painting. Hopefully I have it finished soon for you to see.

Ona

6 comments:

  1. Compliments of the holiday season to you and yours Ona!That water bottle sounds just what I need! What a great idea for a secret Santa...that painting looks wonderful.xxxxx((((huggles)))

    ReplyDelete
  2. yes, its great Pene. Here is the link to the one I have http://www.dickblick.com/products/masterson-fresh-water-rinse-well/

    Hugs to you too

    Ona

    ReplyDelete
  3. A beautyful painting. Lucky you!
    Hope you will have a great New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  4. These are some fantastic gifts indeed! Thanks for sharing the information and the link! In terms of art colony -- I really envy you guys have such a great community of comradeship and mutual support! Being a painter at times can be a very lonely journey. It is so great to have supportive peers and more accomplished artists to look up to! I'm just curious did this community first come into existence?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Guess I am the best one to answer that question Arena as I started Artcolony! ha!
    I use to be the Editor of an online art magazine called ArtCafe. It was quite large and in fact it was being looked at at the same time as Wetcanvas as a place for Northlight to own a webforum. But we really did not give in. However it was getting to be too much for me so I left that community. After a couple of years I began to miss that interaction but knew from experience I did not want anything similar to the present day forums...as there can be so much backbiting and talking down to one another...so I began only with the people I had known for some years and knew they would not hurt anyones feelings. Then I made it so no one else could make remarks but us. I wanted it to be a place that was totally supportive of the artists there. No critics because there are alot of places for that...did not need another forum doing that. This place was totally for support and that needed pat on the back we so often never receive, a place to nourish us. As was stated, when you paint all the time you become rather reclusive because that is the only way to get your work done. This allows one to interact on your own scedule for as little or as much as you need at the time. I decided that we would remain small so that we would hopefully become friends, and that is exactly what has happened. These girls are my best friends and we all enjoy each other for who we are besides being artists...we have develelped a sense of sisterhood and family that could not be achieved had we been large.
    I will add maybe one or so artists a year...we will see. But finding actively producing artists who will devote time to this project is not always easy. There is a very long list of people who would like to join but I also do not want 14 from Texas or whatever because then we could spinter into groups...I want us to work as a unit and we do that quite amazingly. I just love what we have and would not trade it for anything...it allows me to be social on my time schedule but I always know that when I check in, someone has passed through the halls of Artcolony and left a message to read and I love that...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you for answering Arena's question Janie. I knew you would do a far better job than me :)It really is an amazingly supportive group but one also that many other people can enjoy even though more passively.

    ReplyDelete