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July Monthly Challenge Color Palette

Our inspiration this month is Still Life with Seashells by dutch painter Balthasar van der Ast. The muted color palette is predominantly taupe and blue. Mix in bright pops of color this month with yellow, orange and dark berry red. I could see…

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July Monthly Challenge Prizes + Sponsors

Our Wonderful sponsors for the July Challenge. We will have 3 Lucky Winners this Month! Humblebeads Heather Powers of Humblebeads creates Handcrafted Art Beads Inspired by Nature and Art History. She is also the founder of Art Bead Scene, The Bead Cruise and…

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July Monthly Challenge

Still Life with Shells, 1640 By Balthasar van der Ast Pigments on Panel (NOTE: painting was lightened for more detail. Actual painting is much darker) About the Art Extraordinary shells from distant lands were highly collectable in the 16th and…

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June Monthly Challenge Winners

Congratulations to the June Monthly Challenge winners!  2 winners were chosen randomly from all the challenge entrants. 1 winner was chosen randomly from the InLinkz blog entries. Winner of a month of advertising on ABS from the Monthly Challenge Bead category. Our First lucky winner is Precious Violet. She…

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June Monthly Challenge Recap

The beautiful leaves and petals of the painting Feuilles, 1928 by Seraphine Louis seems to be shimmering and moving. It is vibrant and full of life. A perfect image to kick off summer, with the abundance of flowers blooming…

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Inside the Studio: Mary Harding

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you’ll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a prize each…

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Perfect Pairings :: Terri G + Suzy Q

This bracelet focal has just the right shades of coral and pink in it for this month’s challenge painting. I like the asymmetry of this style and the fact that it is completely balanced. That is sometimes hard to…