The Arte y Pico Award

I was recently contacted by artist Elizabeth Floyd, telling me she'd selected my Blog for an award called "The Arte y Pico Award".  She's a wonderful artist who has a blog I love visiting,(check it out!) and by day she's a residential architect, so I doubly admire her dedication to painting.

To quote her description of this award:

The Arte y Pico Award has arisen from the daily visits that I make to many blogs which nourish and enrich me with creativity.  In them, I see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, ART, much art.  I want to share this prize with all those bloggers that entertain and enrich me day to day.  Doubtlessly, there are many and it will be hard to pick just a few."

The Rules:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.
3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.
4. Show these rules and the paragraph (above) explaining the awards origination.

So... without further ado, here are my 5 picks (and it wasn't easy, I'll tell you!):

1.  Mary Sheehan Winn, because she inspired me to start blogging and is so open and encouraging and creative, and her paintings are so fun and expressive.

2.  Jeff Hayes, because is has such a clear focus, and is an amazing painter, also very kind and welcoming to other painters.

3.  Qiang-Huang, because he partings sometimes take my breath away, and he's so humble about his talent, and is a consistant blogger.

4.  Kathy Weber, because I've been a fan of hers since I first saw her work, and recently discovered her blog - you should too!

5.  Neil Hollingsworth, because even though he doesn't have to blog anymore (IMO) he still does, and has a great work ethic, not to mention gorgeous paintings!