International Artist Magazine competion finalist

I checked my emails this morning and there in my in-box was a congratulations email from my friend Penny Hill in San Diego. She had just received her copy of the April/May issue of International Artist Magazine and discovered my painting Mendocino Rhodies on page 13 along with the article I wrote about the painting.

To back track a bit, I entered a competition run by the magazine to find the best flower and garden paintings in December. For a month or more I watched all these wonderful paintings appear on the magazine's website as more and more entries came into the contest. My friend Kara Castro also entered the contest and I received emails from her husband mentioning one or another that he liked on the magazine's website. We often conversed about how tough the competition was, so you can imagine our shock when we learned that both Kara's and my paintings were among the 10 finalist! Our prize was that our paintings would be published in the magazine.

Now the magazine is finally published. My painting shown here is on page 13, Kara's beautiful painting of Daylillies is on page 18. Of course my copy of the magazine is not here yet (here in the country mail is slower), so I drove to my nearest Borders and bought 7 copies!

I was pleased to see that the reproduction in the magazine is not too far off from the original painting. It is slightly darker in the shadows and the variation in the backgournd does not show well. However, given my past experience with the printing process used in books and magazines, I was relieved to see that it looks this good.

The article I wrote about the painting follows a prescribed format given by the editor. However, the last topic Comments was omitted in all of the artists' aticles including mine. I presume this was due to a lack of space. So here is what I wrote that did not get printed:

"Follow your dream, your passion! I am.

Painting is my life-long passion. Teaching is fun and rewarding. Travel appeals to my sense of adventure and peaks my curiosity. I simply combined my dreams and created my dream job. Now I teach Watercolor Workshops in France, Italy, Greece, Bali and the USA. Like any good dream, it only happened because I believed in it, worked very very hard, and had the support of my family. Now I am living that dream! Have paints will travel!"

I have been encouraging my students to subscribe to this magazine, as it is such a marvelous resource for working artists. I love the fact that it is so global in its coverage of style, ideas, and approaches to art. I am very honored to have my painting published by International Artist Magazine.