A Liebster Award: Bloggers Sharing the Love

Last week brought good news in twos. First, I found out that my lionfish painting will be shown at the New Waves 2012 show at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. Second, I was awarded the Liebster Award by bloggers Lisa Thompson, Kavita Ramchandran, and Dana Carey (wow... thank you so much for this honor).

Interview with Pop Dog Designs Artist Lisa Kostrzynski

© 2011 Pop Dog Designs/Lisa Kostrzynski

Virginia Beach artist Lisa Kostryzynski makes eye-popping portraits of dogs. She captures each dog's personality while using striking patterns and colors. The resulting digital paintings are visually arresting and utterly compelling. She recently took time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions:

Pinterest: A Great Visual Blogging Tool for Artists & Illustrators

A selection of my Pinterest boards (http://pinterest.com/sylliu)

What is Pinterest? If you're a woman between 25 and 35, you know because you and all your friends are on it. (Interestingly, while women make up 80% of Pinterest users in the U.S., they are less than half of U.K. users). Pinterest is one of the fastest growing and most popular social media sites, generating more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, and Linked In combined, Mashable reports.

Illustration Friday: Fluid (Octopus Art, Part 1)

© 2012 Sylvia Liu

Yesterday I took a six-hour encaustic painting workshop by the talented Karen Eide at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. It was so fun to learn a completely different medium and be inspired by Karen and the eight other artists in the class. This octopus is one of four very different pieces that I did yesterday as I experimented with different techniques.

Encaustic painting is known as hot wax painting. We used hot beeswax and melted wax paints as our primary medium, adding layers and textures. We then embellished the paintings with paper, ink, Sharpies, oil pastels, and fabric. This octopus was painted with ink and the words are scratch on letters.

I will blog about the workshop in a week or so and will post my other octopus paintings.


If you liked this post, you may also like:

• Encaustic Painting Workshop (Octopus Art, Part 2)

And the Winners Are (Art Giveaway)....

(The winning entries, in the order they were generated. Each separate commenter was given a number.)

I decided to award three prints, because Random.org generated my sister's name as the first winner. I didn't want to raise any questions about impropriety and would have sent her a free print anyway, so here are the three winners of my art giveaway:

New Waves 2012 Show at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

"Separated" © 2011 Sylvia Liu

Great news: I have been selected to be part of the New Waves 2012 show at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, scheduled for March 22-April 29, 2012. This is an annual exhibit to showcase "up and coming" Virginia artists. I will be showing my lionfish painting, "Separated," which is part of a series of paintings about environmental ocean issues. (Lionfish are aggressive alien species that are threatening the  Caribbean coral reef ecosystems.)

If you're a local, come on by for the opening reception on March 22, 2012, from 6 - 9 p.m. Hope to see you there! You can view the online catalogue with artist statements.

How to Make a Contact Page in Blogger

Do you want to make a contact page in your blog so your readers don't have to leave your website to email you? 

Here's an easy way to make a contact form in Blogger -- using Google Drive (formerly Docs). I learned how from Blogger Xpertise, but I tweaked its instructions to make it even easier to create a contact form. I have also updated it for Google Drive:   

Giveway: Enter to Win One of these Art Prints (ends Feb. 17)

"Mesmerize" © 2011 Sylvia Liu

"I would stay, but I need to see what else is out there"
"Stay" © 2011 Sylvia Liu

Hello! To celebrate the opening of my new Etsy shop, Art by Sylvia Liu and my new Facebook page, Art by Sylvia Liu, I'm giving away two signed limited edition prints. Each one is a museum-quality glicee (fine art print), printed with the highest quality inks on acid-free, 100% cotton paper. The 10 x 10 in. paper fits a standard size frame. To see more details about each print, check out their listings on Etsy: "Mesmerize" and "Stay." For this giveaway, I will mail the prints anywhere in the world for free (international customs excluded).

Illustration Friday: Suspense

© 2012 Sylvia Liu

What now?

(This illustration was inspired by a comment on my other goldfish illustration, "Stay." Thanks, billkirkwrites).


If you like this post, you may also enjoy:

• Illustration Friday: Stay (more of these little goldfish)
• Illustration Friday: Bottled (sad creatures)