Friday Art Smorgasbord - Fruitfulness

Greetings!  The past week has been a fruitful one for me in many ways.  I harvested from my friendships, my students' work, my garden, and of course, my art work.  It was exciting!

First of all, through the mail I received fruits from two of my blogging friends in the form of two letters bearing gifts.  The first letter came from Jessica Sporn, whom I traded "two for two" ATC's with.  Aren't these watercolor collages stunning?  The second letter came from Barb Cady, one of my teammates at Tag Tuesday.  It is a set of 3 beautiful prints by the re-known British artist, Beryl Cook, depicting Biblical scenes.  They are truly awe inspiring!  Thank you both, you made my week.

© Arnoldo L. Romero 2012

My next fruitful moment came when I completed these paintings for my Twenty Minute Challenge post.  I worked on Daler-Rowney 100% cotton paper with Royal Talens opaque watercolor pans and Sharpie micron pens.  I actually wanted to complete 3 different pieces of fruit, but my allotted time ran out.  I had to complete the 3rd piece of fruit, a cantaloupe, after the twenty minutes were over.  It actually took longer to complete the latter, due to a salt texturing technique I used.  I had a blast working with various techniques to achieve the fruits' textures, and was quite pleased with the results.

© Arnoldo L. Romero 2012

© Arnoldo L. Romero 2012

© Arnoldo L. Romero 2012

I used the watercolor fruits that I painted in these 3 pieces I designed for my Tag Tuesday - Autumn Fruits and Berries post.  I illustrated and designed two tags based on the Mexican bingo game, "Lotería," for two of my previous posts - The Mermaid and The Boot.  Therefore, I decided to start a series by adding the 3 fruits included in the games' card deck.  I am submitting this series to Artist's Playroom - Juicy, Illustration Friday - Burst, Paint Party Friday - Week 27 Year 2, Artists in Blogland, and Sunday Sketches.

© Arnoldo L. Romero 2012

Another fruitful moment this week was when I discovered this bloom on my strawberry potted plant.  This was truly a sparkle in my eye, since strawberries are hard to grow in Southwest Texas.  This small miracle reminded me of what Jesus tells us in John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."  How true this statement has proven to be in my life.  I am submitting this photograph to 52 Photos Project - Gallery 21 {Sparkle & Shine}, Word Art Wednesday Challenge #45, A Rural Journal: Your Sunday Best #35, and Take a Word Challenge - Hearts and Flowers. 

© Arnoldo L. Romero 2012

Some extraordinarily fruitful moments came about as my students completed their Zentangle hand designs.  I work with students in first through fifth grade, through a gifted and talented pull-out program.  This is one of the projects they worked on in their spare time, and they truly loved it.  I am submitting this to What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday 171 and Order of the Opus Gluei Challenge 139 - See You in September.  By the way, I won top 4 at Crazy Amigo Challenge - Catwalk Back to School for planning this project.  Thank you, Audrey!

Last, but not least, I am excited about an opportunity for fruitfulness.  My blogging friend Jennifer McLean, whose a contributing editor at FEATURING magazine, emailed me about the upcoming release of Issue 2 - Issue 1 is still available.  FEATURING is a quarterly publication that provides a stage for art journaling, mixed media, and other kinds of artists.  The articles include interviews, poetry, glimpses of studios, and more.  Featuring magazine is also doing a thirty inchies giveaway that closes September 21 - details here.  In addition, there are opportunities to submit your work for publication.  Cool!

As you can see, this was truly a fruitful week for me.  My blogging friend Anina Papirčkalnica even nominated me to receive the Child's Shoe - Blog Award.  Thank you, Anina.  I also want to thank all my readers for their encouraging comments last week, as well as everyone that is following my blog.  May your week be filled with the fruit of the Spirit, "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)