Time to Recognize Achievement

"When you compete with a person, you only have to be as good or better than the person to win. If you compete with yourself, there is no limitation to how good you can be."

                                                                           Chu Chin-Ning 

Memories

Memories, Still Life #3160

I invite you to walk in to the picture created specifically for a special man who is one of a kind.  So what better way to remember him than to create a still life fine art photograph that is as unique as he is.

A brown background is warm, loving and masculine surrounding the collection of memorabilia that was borrowed from shelves in his artist's studio.  Do you see the artist's business card that reveals his current talents?  Conversely, several other items take you down the memory lane of his youth, from his military dog tags to bullets and shotgun shells.  The cloissone decorated liquer carafe is empty of fluid but full of memories of a friend, now deceased and a symbol of much younger years.  The tiny little brown bear holding a camera has duo meanings: his bear totem and his life as a photographer.

Pick up the stack of books and skim through the titles so you have a small inkling of what he's passionate about.  The titles reveal his love of travel, road trips, cooking and gardening including raising roses, which is why the roses in the vase are significant.

It's lovely that this has been created now while the giver and the recipient are alive, healthy and happy.

Treasure all of the moments with your loved one when you're together in spirit or in person.

The heart hath its own memory, like the mind,
And in it are enshrined
The precious keepsakes, into which are wrought
The giver's loving thought.

                                                             Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Still life photograph is available for purchase at

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/memories-wendy-blomseth.html

Orange Lilies in June

Orange Lilies in June #3326

Beautiful orange lilies that grow in a south Minneapolis MN garden. 
Freshly clipped and immediately transferred to this elegant green ceramic vase. 
Simple Elegance.

Thank you to two of my neighbors who grow these wild lilies and share with us all.  

I had just finished a 250 mile drive, spending the better part of my day in the car.  As soon as I got home I caught sight of these lilies and knew I had to quickly walk down the street to clip them, put them in vase and photograph them.

The afternoon light was extremely harsh so I used my two light diffusing fabrics, my wedding veil and my patterned scarf.  I can see both of them when I know what I'm looking for.  

Image is available for purchase at

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/orange-lilies-in-june-wendy-blomseth.html

White Wildflowers in June

White Wildflowers #3307

Sweet white wildflowers that grow in south Minneapolis MN gardens are best when picked and immediately photographed before the petals start to fall. 

Available for purchase at

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/white-wildflowers-in-june-wendy-blomseth.html

Urban Wildflowers

Urban Wildflowers  #3303 

June wildflowers that grow in south Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

Freshly picked from the garden and photographed within minutes. 

Simple Elegance.

Available for purchase at

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/urban-wildflowers-wendy-blomseth.html?newartwork=true

Painting with Light

Painting with Light

Painting With Light 

Award Celebration

Video Demo:  Still Life -  Celebration


https://www.facebook.com/wendy.blomseth/videos/10213612312160833/

Award Celebration 

Coffee with Pearls (video)

Still Life Demo:  Coffee With Pearls


https://www.facebook.com/wendy.blomseth/videos/10213606645979182/

Coffee With Pearls

Father's Day (video)

Still Life Demo:  Father's Day

https://www.facebook.com/wendy.blomseth/videos/10213601387807731/

Father's Day 2017

Sighs and Sadness

Sighs and Sadness 2017

Walk into the picture and hold on to your heart. Feel whatever it is you're feeling today. Some days it's hard to think in vibrant colors and bright harsh light so the soft lighting and muted blacks and whites tells the story better of what you're experiencing. Breathe in the smell of the flowers. Close your eyes. Inhale. Exhale.

When you're ready, touch the big beautiful peonies and the tiny lilacs. Accept them for where they are in their life journey.  We love them when they're young, fresh buds and even while they're aging and turning brown around the edges.  But it hurts a little when we see them at their final stage.

Flowers are small players in the big picture of life but they experience the same cycle we go through. Hopefully, they can give us some comfort when we feel comfortless.

Sometimes it can all be so overwhelming. To hear of friends who are losing their deeply treasured love ones, humans as well as pets, is heart wrenching.  To see on screens the devastation of war and terrorism is staggering and can make us feel powerless.  Each have their own piercing pain that ebbs and flows, highs and lows.

The dread of future pain that is inevitably coming at some undetermined time can take your breath away.  So today, now, take big deep breaths and let it fill you up and give you strength.  

Know that this may be a time of sighs and sadness that no one can do anything about.  Be with it but also find gratitude in the love that you've been blessed with in the past and every second that you can feel joy in the present.

Some days I wish 

I could go back in life,

not to change things,

just to feel a few things twice.

www.Simplereminders.com

Limited edition reproductions of this still life portrait are available at:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/sighs-and-sadness-wendy-blomseth.html