It's been a couple of years since I entered the annual Twitter Art Exhibit. (You can see my 2017 entry, my first year.)
There's something very appealing about this event. I think part of it is the timing; I'm always feeling a bit restless at the end of December and beginning of January. I'm exhausted from the busy holiday shopping (and shipping!) season and not quite ready to jump right back into work. This project gives me a strong purpose (it's for charity!), but it's also quite small (just a postcard!). This year the event's back in the U.S., which is nice for those of us who live here as postage will be a bit cheaper.
I admit that I always get nervous seeing the entries on Twitter as they come in. There are some seriously talented folks out there. I mean, hello, here is the house painting by Charles Evans, demonstrator of Daler-Rowney UK art products, author, and presenter on Discovery TV. Or what about this sweet artwork by Julie who has a business painting pet portraits? To reduce my anxiety, I try to always look at some of the collages the group creates along the way like this one with all the birds. Those seem to give you a better idea of the range of abilities and mediums than looking at the single highlighted images.
Dolphin Magic
Since this exhibit is taking place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina I thought I'd go with an ocean theme. My piece uses watercolors, acrylic, and ink. It's titled Dolphin Magic.
I always learn something new with this project. This year I added some metallic paints. The dabs of color in the ocean are a metallic gold and the white belly of the dolphin is a metallic white. The photo above was taken with a camera and the colors look rather flat.
Here's a close-up of the scanned version:
The colors look more true-to-life and you can start to see some of the texture with the metallic gold paint.
More Information for Artists and Buyers
You still have time if you'd like to participate this year. The deadline is February 17, 2020 if you want to be in the catalog and March 15, 2020 for the exhibit. It looks like this year they are accepting artists who have an Instagram account, as well as those on Twitter. Find more information about the art auction or register as an artist at twitterartexhibit.org.
P.S. Even if this event isn't for you, challenge yourself to think about the event's tagline: Through art we can change the world. What could you do to help make that true?