I painted this portrait of a boy at the beach playing in the sand for a family who wanted a painting of their son playing at one of his favorite places. The boy and his family very much enjoyed their summer days digging in the sand and making sandcastles. They took a lot of photos while at the beach and wanted to also have a painting to always remind them of their fun summer days.
I did the artwork in watercolor and gouache paints and worked from photos supplied by the family. For this painting, as is often the case, the photos I had to work with were simple snapshots which were not the most clear or properly exposed as professional photos might be. I love working from snapshots like those, even if they are a bit more challenging, as it is a way to transform an ordinary picture that might be overlooked into a work of art worthy of display.
We all have photos like those, snapshot pictures that capture meaningful moments, but not captured with a quality that calls for enlarging, printing and framing. Sometimes those photos and moments can be salvaged and transformed by turning them into paintings! To demonstrate this I am announcing a special opportunity for a lucky subscriber to win a free painting:
- If you aren’t already subscribed to the website please see the “Subscribe” button at the top of the right sidebar menu.
- Go through your photos to find something special that you’d like to see turned into a painting.
- Use the Contact form to send me a link to where I can view the pictures. If you aren’t hosting your pictures on a photo sharing site then let me know in the contact form so I can help you submit photos by email instead.
- I will accept submissions of photos until September 15, 2017 and then pick the lucky winner who will be notified by email.
- A digital and print-ready version of the completed painting will be returned by email!
It is my hope, but not a requirement for you to enter, that the winner of the painting might allow me to share the artwork here so others can see the results.
Ready! Set! Go! – Start searching through your photos, recent or old, color or black and white! Good luck everyone!
Pamela Cherry
Oh, what a great idea Otter Boyd – I will have a look through my photos – what hosting site do you suggest? I used to love Picasa as it was so flexible, but now Google have closed it down and transferred to Google Photos which I don’t like very much. I also tried Flickr a few years ago, paid a subscription, after a couple of months I discovered that I couldn’t access my account. Numerous auto emails and weeks after that, I gave up dealing with them. I lost my sub and had no access to my photos. Paying doesn’t always result in good quality service. Do you have a preference of type of photo? You do reflect ‘the moment’ in your art, it is excellent.
Otter Boyd
Thank you, I’m glad to hear you like the painting and the idea to do this contest!
The type of photos I’m looking for would be ordinary snapshots rather than studio or professional shots.
I have no preference of photo hosting site. All that matters is being able to view the images. They may be hosted on a blogging site, Flickr, Google Photos, Photobucket, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest etc.
I’m sorry to hear about your struggles with some of the photo hosting sites. As I have always self-hosted images on my own web space I don’t have a lot of first hand experience with those other services. I do know that there are a lot of free options out there. Of those free options Flickr is the most heavily used photo site and Google Photos has grown in popularity and use too. There are many other free photo hosting sites out there, as well as a number of sites offering free web space and blog space which can be used for sharing photos too.
I imagine that most people entering this contest will likely already have some online space for their photos, such as a Flickr, Facebook or Instagram account. For those who don’t have anything like that already set up it may be easiest to simply use email.
Min
You have captured little boy’s fun in the sand – can almost hear the sound of the ocean – have an android browser and photos taken with the camera seem to be the easiest way for me to send photos via email attachment – your offer of a painting sounds exciting so will have to check through my album –