The Beauty of Art, The Essence of a Runner

I love art. I love the emotions and passion that a painting can evoke.  I love how I can look at a painting or piece of art and feel so moved and inspired.  I also love how art is so personal. What one person might find beauty and meaning in, another person might not even give a second glance.  I love all kinds of art but I wanted to give a shout out to my favorite local artist here in Oregon, Cher Odum. Cher's work is colorful, vibrant, whimsical, and ENERGIZING.  Each piece is full of the passion, vibrant energy and peaceful mindfulness that she lives her life with.  When I see her work, it makes me happy.  It reminds me of the richness and glory of living.  Why I'm even more excited to introduce this artist to you is because she just announced today that she is going to be coming out with a new series of paintings inspired by the soul of a Runner!  In her own style, she will try to capture the essence of what running is to so many of us.  To many of us, there is a spiritual side to running and for most of us, running is our passion.  It gives us JOY and makes us feel fully and wonderfully ALIVE!  Cher's art already evokes these feelings in me so I'm thrilled to hear that she will be creating something that will relate specifically to running! I'm even more excited that when she does come out with this Running Series of paintings, she is going to give me a set of cards with prints of all her New Running Series paintings to use for my first blog giveaway to some lucky Runner that also loves her art!

I've included just a few small pictures sampling some of her different paintings.  Many of her pieces are in The Dragon Fire Studio and Gallery in Cannon Beach, Oregon.  You can view most of her paintings at the Fine Art America site. 

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I have a print of this on a card that I framed and put in my living room.

Dragon Fire Gallery In Cannon Beach

Our Many Faces Series

Nature All Around Us Series

Art On A Card

Art On A Card

She even has a series out for the animal lovers.  I love her abstract and colorful looking Cats!

*  All these pictures are protected by copyright law and use of them without permission by the artist is prohibited by law. 

This is a painting she was recently hired to paint for a birthday present for a friend's wife.  She was asked to paint the parents with their four children. The border is made up of pictures that represent meaningful things from this family's life.  Every image is something that holds a special memory to them.

Here's an idea of what her gift sets of cards look like.  This is just one boxed set of six cards that I bought where I got to choose my favorite prints to include.  If you know someone who has similar art tastes, it makes the perfect gift. I've often given these cards to people I know who will love them or I frame them in a 5x7 frame. 



In thinking about my first blog giveaway, I thought about giving a boxed set of her non-running cards and letting the lucky winner choose the prints they like but I'm not sure yet.  I think I might just wait for her to come out with her Running Series and see how that goes!   Definitely not for everybody but certainly art that speaks to me!  Such is the beauty of ART! 

Do you like art?  What kind of Art do you like and who is your favorite artist?

Amanda