Renee’s New Painting!

On March 1st DesignTies teamed up with abstract artist Matt LeBlanc to give away a unique, beautiful and original painting to one of our readers… all they had to do was come up with a name that captured the essence of the piece (click here to read about our giveaway). It was so exciting for us… our first blog giveaway was a FAB painting!!

So many fantastic names were submitted that it was a real challenge for the 3 judges to come to a unanimous decision! In the end it came down to a submission that 2 of 3 judges liked…

Worn - submitted by Renee at Cottage Lifestyle

Announcing the winner in our March 8th post was a real thrill for us!

But not as much of a thrill as it is to actually see the painting hung in Renee’s attic “hang-out” room!!

Renee writes (here) that she uses this top-floor space in her cottage to “quilt, blog, watch TV, Wii, read, and dream.”

We love how Matt’s art looks on Renee’s wall – the juxtaposition of the painting with her neighbourhood view is perfect; like they were meant to sit next to one another! We can totally imagine Renee sitting in this window, dreaming about… well… all the stuff she dreams about! :-)

How great to see where Renee has hung the painting in her lovely home!

We had so much fun with this giveaway that we definitely plan to do it again sometime soon. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Matt will partner up with us again!! Keep coming back for news…

Renee – we’re happy you love your new painting and that it’s now living in special part of your home!!

Kelly & Victoria

Kelly wrote a great post about Matt LeBlanc’s wonderful work – check it out! Of course you can always head straight to Matt’s personal site (click here) where you’ll find even more fabulous art!!

A very special Met Monday DesignTies giveaway!!!

Kelly @ JAX Decor & Design and Victoria @ EdinDesign Interiors

Thanks to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for hosting Metamorphosis Monday every week :-)

We’re SO EXCITED about our Met Monday post this week… because this week, our transformation is all about YOU and transforming YOUR space!! How?? We’re giving you the opportunity to win a wonderful piece of original art!!

Canadian abstract artist Matt LeBlanc has graciously provided us with a fabulous painting to give away to one of our lucky blog readers. You may have read about Matt a little while back in this post. If you didn’t read it before, go read it now!!

Thank you, Matt!!

The painting that’s up for grabs is 16” x 20”. It combines earthy colours with an interesting cross-hatch pattern and lots of texture (which you can see in the close-ups). Matt creates the majority of his paintings using a large brush that he’s dubbed Squeaky :-)

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NAME THAT PAINTING!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Come up with a name for this painting. The name can be only ONE WORD. Any word — a real word, a made-up word, a foreign language word — one word that you think captures the essence of the painting.
2. If you’re a registered user, leave us a comment with your name for the painting.
3. If you are NOT a registered user, send us an e-mail at designties@gmail.com with a name for this painting.
4. Only one entry per person.
5. Everyone is welcome to enter the contest, whether you live here in Canada or on the other side of the world :-)
6. All entries must be received by Friday, March 6^th at midnight (PST).

Three nonpartisan judges will select their favourite name from all the entries we receive, and the winner will be announced in next week’s Met Monday post. Matt will sign the back of the painting and include the date and the winning name with his signature. Matt will then ship the painting to the winner :-)

This is your chance to add a beautiful piece of beautiful original abstract art to your home… so get those creative juices flowing and come up with a name that makes our judges go WOW!! :-)

Check out some pictures of Matt’s work hanging in is client’s homes…

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And to check out some transformations that make you go WOW, head back over to Between Naps on the Porch and check out the list of other Metamorphosis Monday participants!!

You can read more about Matt on his web site and his Facebook group…

Matt LeBlanc Art

Matt LeBlanc on Facebook

Introducing.... Matt LeBlanc

Kelly @ JAX Decor & Design
No, not the Friends dude – better!!!! This Matt LeBlanc is a fabulous Canadian artist. He lives in Dieppe, New Brunswick with his wife and two kids. He works at an advertising agency, but his real passion is art. In his spare time, Matt creates beautiful abstract paintings in his little paint studio – I think he said it’s about 6’ x 10’. That’s even smaller than V’s little bedroom!! ;-)

I “met” Matt online couple of years ago on a home décor forum. I was immediately impressed with his work – it’s original and fresh, and has a wonderful energy to it. One painting in particular stood out to me – and now it’s hanging in my kitchen :-) (Unfortunately, my kitchen isn't photo-worthy at the moment, so no picture of the painting on the wall ~bad me!~). The photo comes nowhere near doing the painting justice.....

Matt also painted a commissioned piece for me for the family room. We worked together to come up with the right scale, the colours, the texture…. it’s great to work with an artist who can see your vision and put it onto canvas :-)

When I first met Matt, he was just starting to get his toes wet in the painting world. In less than two short years, he's achieved amazing success.....

Best Western Hotel in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia commissioned Matt to create a series of six paintings that are featured on each floor of the hotel and in the lobby (here are two of them):

Kramer’s Corner, a restaurant in Moncton, NB, features a couple of Matt’s paintings:

His first art exhibit was held in November 2008 at Sandstones Artisan Gallery in Moncton, NB:

A designer on Save Us From Our House (W Network) purchased one of Matt’s paintings and hung it one of the makeover houses featured on the show:

And Matt's Facebook group currently has 1,098 members!!

On top of being a talented artist, Matt is a really nice guy. He's passionate about his painting, and strives to make his customers happy. He's also very supportive of other artists - he has a great sense of camaraderie and wants his peers to be as successful as he is.

Here are some more examples of Matt's fantastic work.....

Matt is proof that if you have a passion for something and you put your heart into it, you can achieve your dreams :-)

To see more of Matt's paintings and to learn more about him, check out mattleblancart.com