5/6 Weekly Creativity Challenge and New Prompt

Flowers abound in our lovely entries this week!  The favorite is a gorgeous painting from Karen Winters, which blends so beautifully with our new header!  Karen writes:

Descanso Gardens, a renowned botanical garden in my home town of La Canada Flintridge, California, is beautiful in every season. In late spring, when the bulbs and roses are in bloom, it is at its most spectacular. As one of the featured artists at the Descanso gallery, I enjoy painting in the gardens whenever I get the opportunity.

The Descanso Rosarium includes roses from around the world – from the earliest wild roses to the latest hybridized AARS shrubs. Some are fragrant, some treasured just for their color or form. I would have a hard time picking a favorite among them. This impressionist landscape focuses on a crepe myrtle bush surrounded by roses and represents late afternoon in the gardens.

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From Nina Newton:  Here are a couple of things I’ve been working on this week with May Flowers in mind – actually I’ve been working on the kids for quite some time now, ;o) but love getting pix of them in all kinds of settings. So, when they came in with a bouquet of dandelions for Mama, I just had to take a picture of them!  The other little project is an embellished camisole that I worked on for my Etsy shop, but as I was working on the flowers, I thought I’d share it with you all.  It may not stay this way, as I like to change things up a bit before I’m completely satisfied with the results (maybe flowers all the same color instead of the gold and ivory . . . . . and maybe ivory lace instead of black) I was just thinking about my options.  Here it is for now with my rendition of May Flowers on a little summer top.  Thanks for all the fun, Nina @ Gossamer Wings Studio by mamas*little*treasures.

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From Cathy Coley: Just got back from New Orleans and picked the iris, rose and peony from my gardens, thinking of the challenge and taking a photo.  When I put them in the vase together, up popped the idea of three lovely girls so close; what would they say to each other?  Then America’s Next Top Model popped into my head, and here is the result:

Peony, Iris and Rose

Peony, Iris and Rose woke up one morning,
shocked they were in such close proximity. 
Iris piped up first, “Sheesh, you two stink!”
Peony, offended, shrieks,
“Oh, yeah, well, you sure are calling attention
to yourself – wearing purple and yellow together!”
Rose huffs in agreement, “Not a bit of subtlety in taste.”
Peony, throws in “Oh, and shocking pink is so subtle?”
Iris interjects, “Well, at least, I’m not fat.”

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From me (Kelly): These flowers grow in the marsh grasses by the water in our area.  I took these just outside our neighborhood seafood dive, Chowder Ted’s (the Cheers of Heckscher Drive), but they also grow all along our back fence line by the river.  The flowers are actually yellow (maybe a saltwater version of dandelions?), but I had fun playing around with them in Photoshop, turning them into an orange watercolor.  We are only five miles from where the river meets the ocean, so our little stretch of paradise is pretty much salt water. 

This week’s prompt: “Memories of Mom”
Use the prompt however you like – literally, or a tangential theme. All media are welcome. Please e-mail your entries to creativereality@live.com by midnight eastern time on Tuesday, May 12, 2009.  Writers should include their submission directly in the body text of their e-mail. Visual artists and photographers should attach an image of their work as a jpeg. Enter as often as you like; multiple submissions for a single prompt are welcome. There is no limit to how many times you can win the weekly challenge, either. (You do not have to be a contributor to this blog in order to enter. All are invited to participate.) All submissions are acknowledged when received; if you do not receive e-mail confirmation of receipt within 48 hours, please post a comment here. Remember, the point is to stimulate your output, not to create a masterpiece. Keep the bar low and see what happens. Dusting off work you created previously is OK too. For more info, read the original contest blog post.