Running wth Brushes Charity

I have been following Vandy Massey's Blog for some time now and not only does she add some lovely paintings but I find I often learn something from what I think are thought provoking posts, so, well worth checking out!!

Anyway, Vandy came up with this idea to paint 1000.. yes 1000 paintings to sell for Care for Casualties. Her son is in the armed forces so it is a cause close to her heart and I had also been wondering about how I could contribute in some way to a charitable cause when this opportunity came up. I have donated paintings in the past to a couple of charities but nothing more so far and this seemed like something I could do as the thought of what a big task Vandy has set herself made me think I could also do a bit....

I did have a couple of paintings which were already suitable... Vandy had requested they were all postcard size... approx 6x4 as they wanted to keep everything standard and have mounts available in that size, so last week, I was in between pieces and mulling others over and I decided to do one or two more... I did get a bit carried away as I really enjoyed doing them, some I made up others I used references but it was an exercise that just let me play with the paint and I'm sure I will do a few more in the weeks to come. On this occasion I sent 10 and Vandy already has them on the website 

Running with Brushes

If you check to the left, under Artists you will see who has contributed so far and if you click my name you will see which ones from the home page are mine.

Here is a small selection of the ones I have sent

All 6x4 so only small, the first two are "made up" the third is from a photo taken by John Robinson.  John takes some amazing photos and his fb page is well worth browsing through. He is also a member of Paint my Photo. If you would like to use any of his images send him a message as he is only too pleased to help we artists and is delighted to see how his work can be interpreted. He also sells his photos so would ask that you observe his copyright and only use images for which you have permission!!

Check out the Running with Brushes site, it is somewhere you can pick up a well priced "original" from some up and coming artists and I hope Vandy will get one or two other people to help her out though I suspect she will continue with her 1000 paintings no matter how many others contribute. If you don't want to purchase anything why not send her a few paintings? I am going to have some paper already cut to size and whenever I want to have a little play I will use them and see what turns out in the hope that I will get some more to send... they can be done when you are waiting for something to dry or when you don't have much time but want to get the paints out, some of my quickest ones turned out the best!!  I might also use them to try out ideas for bigger paintings and perhaps consider cutting up some larger paintings which maybe haven't worked as a whole but parts of which I like.

So this is the latest little "first" of my art life which as some of you will know is littered with "firsts". Variety is the spice of life ( it is also crucial to an exciting painting... something I drone on about in my workshops!!) and all these new things certainly keep me excited and motivated as I never know what's going to happen next!!