In addition to being accepted to the 2012 Paint the Parks Exhibition, Eyrie is now one of 50 Fabulous Final entries for Artist & Illustrator Magazine's Artist of the Year competition. Chosen from a record 4,000 entries by a panel of esteemed jurors, Eyrie is now up for popular vote.

We would certainly appreciate yours. 

You can vote for Eyrie by following this link --

 http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/artists-of-the-year-2012-landscape 

and scrolling down to the tenth painting, Eyrie, and clicking "vote now" under Steve's name.

Please consider passing on this link to your friends, family, and colleagues via word of mouth, Facebook, Google Plus, Linked In, Pinterest, and other social media sites you enjoy. On Twitter, if you incorporate

@aandimagazine http://bit.ly/Q4M16v #AOTY

into your Tweet, then Artists and Illustrators will retweet it to their followers. (The bit.ly link takes your readers to the voting page).

A sample Tweet would look like this:

Steve Henderson has been shortlisted for Artist of the Year! Vote for Eyrie @aandimagazine http://bit.ly/Q4M16v #AOTY

Please feel free to copy and paste the above sentence into your Tweet. Voting closes October 23.

Thank you!

"You know, it's not a sin to make mistakes, fail to succeed on the first (or 45th) try, or generally show that we're imperfect. The unspoken strictures that some businesses/churches/schools/establishments place upon their members/employees make following the 10 Commandments look pretty darn easy."

From Start Your Week with Steve, the free weekly e-mail newsletter of Steve Henderson Fine Art

Materials aren't free and time is precious -- that being said, if more artists would worry less about creating the perfect painting and more about experimenting and getting better at what they do, then they would sooner reach a consistency of quality and create paintings with which they are delighted, time after time.

But if you skip that stage -- that practicing and trying and saying, "Oh, what the heck; if I don't like it, I'm out a little paint, the canvas, some time -- but I've gained in experience and wisdom" -- then you'll find that you're so worried about perfection, that you never achieve it.

There are enough people in our lives expecting unrealistic things of us, that we don't have to be one of them. Falling down isn't failure. Trying and not getting it quite right isn't tragedy. Doing something completely different, just because, isn't a waste of time.

Go for it. Grab a different brush. Use a color you usually avoid. Shake around your subject matter. Play with your paint and see where it takes you on the next step of your journey.