NuPlaza's Third Art Competition - Winter - VOTE -

[Drifa]

NuPlaza's Third Art Competition!

Welcome, one and all!
The theme for this competition will be Winter ( yuletide can be included in this theme)
As there may not be enough entries from each category, we can choose from them all and find one winner from all the entries!
Everyone will get to vote! Once we reach the deadline, I will ask a kind-hearted, gracious, lovely Admin to create a poll (or I will figure it out myself), and you can vote on your favourite entry! Even you own!

Deadline February 24th!

Rules:

• Two entries per person. You can post in as many categories as you choose, but only two will be official entries.

• It can be anything you consider art as long as you make it, drawings, photos, poems, short stories, and so on.

• It HAS to be YOUR work, no thieving folks!

• Post your contribution in this thread. Please make a note that it is an entry!

• Feel free to ask questions here. When it comes time to vote, I will ask one of those good-looking Admins to clean it up.

Let the creativity begin! Enjoy!

[Drifa]

Here is a little history regarding the photo I edited with some effects and posted in the OP. My husband and I were winter caretakers at a remote private fishing club in Northeast Quebec, Canada, for five years, from 2012 to 2017. The photo is of one of the club's cabins (The Guide Cabin). I had many more beautiful images of our five-year stint in the wilds of Quebec, but, unfortunately, I stored them on an external hard drive (WD Passport), and the hard drive malfunctioned, and I lost five years of photos. I still mourn for them occasionally, but I have the memories, at least.

Here is a photo to get things started. Please feel free to fill up this thread with other entries besides your official ones.

I am obsessed with knots, rot and fungus on trees and old wood. I always see some face of a creature or caricature created by these conditions. And sometimes the knots, decay and fungus are beautiful. Here is an angry fellow.

Can one of you gals @Winddancer, @Silky Gooseness, @Pele Alarion pin this thread? Thank you!

[Pele Alarion]

Done, @Drifa , I think it stuck. Might add some thing or other for the competition, later.

[Pele Alarion]

Entry #1

While there was a snowy winter... before it all melted away.

[Silky Gooseness]

*
Unbidden, gently drawn, the coverlet
of white has hidden that which lay beneath
the earth, and glossed it so your eyes are met
with only smiling dimples, gleaming teeth
still sharpened with a frosted razor’s edge
above a tongue now silenced by the night.
If you now took your spade, and dug a wedge
of hardened sod, uncovering the bright
and dying heart of gardens gone to glass,
the flowers caught in crystal shards, my hands
still curved around the jewelled ends of grass
and fragments of the bone, ground fine as sands
or snowflakes, sheets unwinding for the bed
wherein sleep angels, envying the dead
*

[Drifa]

Nice, Pele! I like the look of snow on branches, all cottony and fluff. Did you get more since it melted away?

That poem is beautiful and unearthly, Sil! You are such a talent! You should post more for us all to enjoy!

Unbidden, gently drawn, the coverlet
of white has hidden that which lay beneath

Let's see more wintery talent in here! I know you are out there!

I have not taken my camera out much these last few years. There never seems to be time to get outside. I miss the sky, stars, moon and most of all, the trees in all their states of being. I have so many photos of my stay in the woods of Northeastern Quebec during the long winter months that I have not shared. Here is one—pretty lichen looking like a flower on the tree.

Edit: This photo was taken on a winter day, obviously. You could see so much more when all the leaves fell in the forest.

[Pele Alarion]

Meh, there hasn't been any snow afterwards, so no more wintery pics for now.

[Drifa]

Red Whitcap (the splinter mouth maple above) has decided this completion should be extended so that those who wish to participate but are too bashful to do so can have more time to get over their cold feet. It is still winter, after all. And speaking of winter, remember not all winters are alike worldwide. It is not just about snow,

Deadline March 12th!

[Rivvy Elf]

Bring to me
an unyielding bitter wind
scattering water and freezing sea.

Behold the beauty,
A singular and many-colored sheet,
that to plants is cruelty.

By the twilight of seasons,
the herald of the new,
an ending without treasons.
So all things end, and begin again.

[Pele Alarion]

Here, just a tree from one of the evening walks.

[Romeran]

How about some spooky blue winter themed ghosts?

[Lirimaer]

Eh, I thought I'd have a play. Recently started playing with drawing maps, and discovered wintry inspiration in this frozen isle on a map of Middle-earth. Obviously, this is my interpretation of this last bastien of Beleriand still peeking above the waves.

Started as a pencil sketch, finalised with pastels. Tree included for scale, but I regretted it as soon as it hit the page. What can you do? *sigh*

Photographed in poor lighting ... in the kitchen, which seems to be much better light.

[Drifa]

Lovely poem, Rivvy! I especially like the line 'A singular and many-colored sheet'.

Pele, you have captured an Ent! And it looks like she is one of the lost Entwives! Can you see the face on the trunk? It is below the branches and just above the bushes. Two eyes, a nose, and a small mouth? Wonderful!
That blue does look wintery, Romeran! The kind of cold that could freeze you to the marrow. I like the flowery vine. Is that his/her lasso? Superb miniatures!
Your depiction is lovely, Lirimaer! It looks ever cold and desolate sitting above the waves. I wish I could draw/paint like that.

March is already upon us! How did that happen? There is still time to enter the contest or get a second entry. Don't be shy! The deadline is March 12th.

Rivvy's poem and the line I especially like brought to mind a photo I captured of the lake shore with its first layer of ice with the colored rocks and vegetation below it. I hope you don't mind me borrowing your line, Rivvy?

'A singular and many-colored sheet'

[Rivvy Elf]

Oh I love that you were inspired by my poem @Drifa ! Thank you for the kind words, and go ahead! Love the picture.

[Drifa]

Rivvy

This thread is now CLOSED! I am not sure how the pole is set up. I will be back.

Dear Admins, @Arnyn ,@Lailyn and @Silky Gooseness ! Can one of you kindly point out the how-to on making a pole? Thank you kindly!

[Silky Gooseness]

Hi @Drifa! I am on mobile so the way I do it is, I open a new topic, then scroll down to the bottom, and there is an option tab that reads “Poll Creation”. Press that and it should give you the options to make a poll! Let me know if you run into any trouble and I can help.

[Drifa]

Hi @Silky Gooseness! Thanks for the response. So will the pole be in this thread or a different thread?

[Drifa]

Oh, that was a silly question. I figured it out. Thanks, Sil!

[Melahny_oftheWoods]

Just wanted to say, everything is beautiful and I love it all. It was difficult to choose only one to vote for!

[Drifa]

And the winner is (drum roll), @Lirimaer and the pencil sketch, finalized with pastels. A great Tolkien-related piece! Well done, Lirimaer.
And to all the other entrants, hats off. Thank you for participating. Have a cookie!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was thinking. We could ask the winner to choose the next theme for the Fourth Art Competition. Do you have any ideas, Lirimaer?

[Lirimaer]

I'll have a cookie (well, a McDonalds' apple pie, actually).

How terribly exciting to win! Haha - thank you to the voters, very kind.

I'll have a think about a new theme ... I'm mulling over a couple that have presented themselves for consideration.

[Drifa]

Considering is good! I like that your island piece was Tolkien related—the idea of making entries Tolkien-related slips one's mind here in the Cottage. It must be all those Gong sounds at different times.

[Lirimaer]

On this site, I do find it hard not to be Tolkien-themed! ;)

I've been thinking about some themes and wrestling with myself a little. I do like adjectival themes which effortlessly lend themselves to different media: 'Forgotten' or 'Busy' or 'Wet' for example - but I think I am leaning more toward more structured ideas: Architecture, or perhaps, The Written Word (i.e. Calligraphy/Signage/Typeface) ...

As you can see, the brain is awash, so you may have the final decision! :)

[Drifa]

Thanks for the input, Lirimaer.