JeanR's Dec mailing - Portrait contest

 

This stylish set came from JeanR. Fun colors and clever way to tie the celebrate stamp into the winter holidays. The card has a very retro feel - and it is a perfect design for valentines - just flip those triangle over and  turn them into hearts. The star could become a rectangle - for the greeting.

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During my non-productive moments, I find some of the competition programs to be entertaining. For the longest time, Project Runway was a favorite because I learned to sew when I was 9 or 10 and enjoyed many years of sewing - until three kids transitioned me into the *mending and costume* years. Project Runway usually had very interesting challenges and I could relate to the process of interpreting a challenge while still making something that reflected one's own point of view. 

The Great British Baking show was about 50/50 of interest to me because I do enjoy baking. However, the time constraint bothered me. I'd rather give people an adequate amount of time to execute their vision. I stumbled across another British series, Portrait Artist of the Year. Oh.My.Gosh. As a painting major, I always wished I had had time to learn how to do portraits. There are a ton of videos on YouTube of the competition - and I have only watched two - so it is hard to know which one to link to. 

The first one I watched had 3 well known people, posing for groups of 4 artists. The artists were chosen to participate based on self portraits. Out of the winner in each of the 3 groups, one finalist was chosen and from those three - a winner was chosen. That person won a commission ($10,000) to paint a portrait of a very famous person and the painting would become part of a collection in a major portrait museum.

I watched a full hour of a most recent winner - and what he went through to produce a museum quality portrait. It was sooooo interesting -- to someone with an abundance of watching people push paint around - with skill. I will link to that video. You'd have to search around to find other videos. This appears to be the 3rd season - and there might be 9 episodes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoLbkpdu31M

The channel is All Documentary - so there are other topics. I tried the landscape series - but it didn't catch my interest the way the portraits did. But if you are fond of landscapes -- you might like it.