Um. These are paintings. Really, really perfect PAINTINGS. Acrylic on panel. Ah-mazing. They are the work of Polish born, Boston based artist Pawel Przewlocki, and they have officially broken my brain…. so many perfect gradations of color, and oh, so many perfect lines. {insert audible exhale here}

Congratulations to … Rachele (of studiorah)!!!! You won all of these books!? I’ll email you to get your address. Thank you so much to everyone that entered! I hope your holidays are full of beautiful books for all of you, and thank you for making the pledge to #givebooks. ps. There are lots of other giveaways coming up in the next few weeks, so don’t be sad if you didn’t win today… lots of other chances on their way!

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So, who wants to win ten books? YES, I SAID TEN BOOKS! This incredibly generous give-away is all thanks to Chronicle Books and their amazing #GiveBooks campaign… all they ask in return is this:

Share the love of reading, support your local bookseller, and help promote literacy! For every person who pledges to #GiveBooks this holiday season, by sharing this intention through social media, Chronicle Books will donate a book to a child in need through First Book. Help us donate 10,000 books by TAKING THE PLEDGE HERE.

How wonderful is that?! I’ve already taken the pledge, and I hope you will too! Speaking of wonderful, Chronicle let me to choose ten of my favorite books to give to one of my readers {that’s you!}. I decided to pick an assortment of art books, and beautiful children’s books because a. I’m an artist and a mama, b. I’m quite sure a lot of you are too, and c. people of all ages should have access to inspiring, art-filled books, right? Right! Here are my picks:

1. I like to Draw/I like to Write – Love this! Half the book is filled with art prompts, flip it over and be a writer!

2. For Just One Day – Such a sweet book about a little boy imagining that he’s different animals.

3. All my friends are dead – Ha! So smart & funny … my son loves this book.

4. Press Here – I love this book soooo much… Absolute magic for toddlers {and grown-ups too!}

5. Watercolor – I own this one and it’s gorgeous! A collection of work by watercolor artists. Love.

6. Hello NY – A beautifully illustrated love letter to New York by Julia Rothman. So good!

7. Collage – Ok, yes. I put my own books on the list.

8. Duck! Rabbit! – So fun/clever… a sweet little trick for your mind. It’s a duck. No, rabbit. No, duck!

9. Creative Block – I haven’t read it, but I hear this one is FANTASTIC {wink wink nudge nudge}

10. Art, Inc. – A very smart/helpful book by artist Lisa Congdon on turning your art practice into a business.

Whoa. What a line up! So, just leave a comment below telling me who you’ll give books to this year, and I’ll draw one very lucky winner on Monday November 24th at 9am PST. Good luck!

ps. An extra little note from the lovely folks at Chronicle… “We would like to offer your readers 30% + free ground shipping (excluding personalized products) at chroniclebooks.com through the end of the year with offer code GIVEBOOKS”. Um, who loves Chronicle? Yep, me too!

Old meets new… and they fall madly in love! This is the work of Irish artist Sean Molloy … he paints very traditional, formal subject matter below the surface, and then POP! – graphic, colorful patterns right on top of all of it. Ah yes, a beautiful marriage of past and present. LOVE!

{via Saatchi Art}

I love this so much. I have written about both of these artists before… Claire Softley from the UK, and Polish artist Agata Królak. They’ve never met, but their portfolios are strangely similar – I’ve had to do the occasional double-take when I find their work around the interweb… Claire? Agata? Claire! Oops, no, Agata! Well clearly they must have seen the same similarities because now, thanks to the internet, they’ve connected and started this project! They’ve titled the series PING-PONG, as it’s “a game of visual ping-pong, each image created in response to the previous image.” So, Claire makes a piece and sends it to Agata. Agata makes a new work inspired by Claire’s piece and sends it back to Claire… and so on. Um, how fun is that!? Have a look:

And it goes on from there! I so want to do this… I just have to find my online art doppelganger and I’ll be all set!

ps. If there are any galleries reading this, I’m quite sure these ladies would love a space to hang this series {hint hint}

Flat, quiet backgrounds. Beautifully painted figures… sigh… sketchy perfection! This is the digital work {he also does traditional work} of Brisbane based artist Mark Feiler. I found that final piece {of the girl in the pink dress} through The Kennedy Prize, an art award competition in Australia. They asked me to choose my favorite piece as part of their People’s Choice category, and this was the one that got my vote. Clearly I had to go and check out the rest of Mark’s work… um, can I vote for his entire portfolio? I love it all!

This is either a series of stunning screenprints, or a party that I really want an invitation to… hm, I think it might be both! This is the gorgeous work of American artist Jeffrey Dell. Oh, I would love to see these bold beauties in person {most of them are at least 34″ x 26″}. Those shadows, those layers, those colors! Yep. I’m going to need an invite ASAP.

ps. Speaking of parties, a little birdie told me that today is Jeffrey’s birthday… I hope he gets the biggest layer cake he’s EVER seen!

Chocolate, cake, cotton candy clouds! Oh, I want to live in the sugary sweet, beautifully painted {PAINTED!} world of New York based artist Will Cotton. I wrote about him four years ago, but clearly it was time to write again. Mmmmm… oil on linen… delicious!

Oh, the sweet & whimsical drawings of Japanese artist/children’s illustrator Yusuke Yonezu. The only information I have about these pieces is this… I love them {his site is in Japanese so that’s all I’ve got!}. But hey, when you’ve got bean paste buns and knit vests, who needs more? Happy Monday ♥

Yes. I need to refuel my car here, and only here. “No.27 – A Nod to Ed Ruscha” is a street installation in Limerick City, Ireland. The artist behind this fabulous petrol station is Maser. Here are a few more of his installations. I would so stay in this motel, or climb around on that gorgeous sculpture:

Wait for me, kids!

Oh. My. This is the perforated, pokey, smooth, organic ceramic work of Irish sculptor Frances Lambe. Instead of trying to explain this myself, I’m going to let this paragraph, found on Frances’ site, do all of the work in describing these pieces:

The work springs from visual research into disparate areas of interest including geography, biology, botany and astronomy. She is fascinated by the visual ‘inter-relatedness’ of life on our planet. Life forms that exist underwater mimic those on land. Visual information distilled from a variety of sources is combined in individual pieces. Observed effects of weathering on surfaces influences the form and texture of the work.

Yes. Well said.