Hello 2017 ...

Welcome to a brand new year on ARTastic.  We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, spent quality time with your family and friends and are ready to get back into some crafty time for yourselves.

We have lots of fun in-store for you here on ARTastic during 2017.  Our new creative team will inspire you with their interpretations of our showcased works by amazing Australian artists.  We have wonderful prizes to give away each month and of course we will have more amazing tutorials and extra special guests popping by the blog.  2017 is going to be one awesome year!!

Just a little housekeeping before we get started on our first challenge.  

During 2017 we will have one main monthly prize pack selected by creative team vote.  Due to the excessive cost of international postage this will only be available to Australian and New Zealand based entrants.  And because we want to put the ART back into ARTastic, this prize is going to be special - this month featuring amazing products from Tim Holtz.

January Prize

We will also have a prize pack donated each month by one of our team where the winner is selected purely by random draw - so anyone could be a winner, no matter your style or your level of experience. This prize will be available to anyone, no matter your country of residence.

Donated by Kat Gray

Our first inspiration for 2017 is this fantastic painting by Ken Done called Sydney Night.

CRITERIA - A CITY theme

A little about Ken Done ...

Ken Done's first solo exhibition was held in Sydney in 1980. Since then, he has held over 50 one-man shows, including major exhibitions in Australia, Europe, Japan, and the USA. His work has been described as the most original style to come out of Australia, and his paintings are held in collections throughout the world.

Working predominantly in oils and acrylic, Done takes inspirations from diverse sources - the ebullience of the sea and sky, the transcendent emotions of a quiet garden, aboriginal art, Japanese poetry, the urban shout of Sydney, where he makes his home - but the sensibility that underlies his work is uniquely his own. The Ken Done Gallery was opened in May of 1994, in the magnificent heritage Australian Steam Navigation Building in Sydney's historic Rocks area. It holds the most extensive collection of Ken Done's works on canvas, works on paper, signed limited edition prints, and posters.

And now some inspiration from the first of our team ...

ELAINE

My son went on a digital media excursion to our state's capital city, Perth. His teacher took these photos of him and combined them to make one photo. I created a graffiti looking background with stamps, texture paint and a bit of watercolour. The night sky in the inspiration painting, drew me to using black as my main colour with a bit of colour added in.

TRACEY

I took the inspiration for the photo from the paintings subject matter and the background from the bright abstract style of the painting.

JUDY

I was inspired by the bright vibrant colours against the black background as well as the city of Sydney theme.

TANYA

The city buildings and the black and blue tones are what have inspired me to do my layout.

HELENE

A city theme with a difference ...

EVELYN

It´s a big dream of me to visit New York one day. May be in 2017? I was inspired by the dark background with the bold colors on top. I also tried to create a background in street art style. I hope you like it!

MARIA

My city is Saint-Petersburg in Russia. I like it very much! It inspires me. It provided beautiful scenes and backgrounds for many photos I've combined in an 8x8" album called "One city on a map. Saint Petersburg".

Over to you ......

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on January 31st, 2017.  We'd love to see your new paper, digital, mixed media or off the page entries. Why not try doing a pocket page spread?  Please no back-dated submissions.  

 Please note:- You may combine our challenge with a sketch challenge only - no other combining will be accepted.  Please include our inspirational picture and challenge details on your blog post as well as providing a link back to us at ARTastic. You may enter more than once in any month as long as each submission is with a different creation.  International entries are very welcome. 

Please call past on the 8th for our announcement of the December winners and our first ARTastic Tips, Tricks and Techniques for 2017.