Relaxing Pink Contest Winners!

Just a few weeks ago I presented my 3 stage process for getting through decluttering by minimizing the emotional chaos. One of the tools I introduced was using colors to calm down and relax while decluttering. In my blog post, Creating Calm Using Colors, I talked about how I did this to get myself from decluttering stress to organization success. In our blog post, Relaxing Pink Contest on Fine Art America, we discussed our first contest along these lines. We focused on looking for art in calming, relaxing colors. When we are overwhelmed, in the midst of decluttering, we can use these pieces to just take a break, find something beautiful to look at, and remove ourselves from the emotional and mental chaos that comes from decluttering. We tend to intermix the terms calming and relaxing so our promo graphics advertised for the contest Calming Pink instead of Relaxing Pink because we were so relaxed we just interchanged the words. I apologize if this caused any confusion. 

We ran our contest, and what an absolutely amazing contest it was. 448 artists competed! Each artist could submit up to 8 pieces of art. We received 2,302 submissions. There were so many wonderful art works, it was truly inspirational. If you would like to see all 2,302 artworks you can find them here. There was no way we would be able to judge all the pieces, we definitely needed help with voting. We opened up the voting to anyone, so members or non-members of Fine Art America could go online and vote. In total, there were 3,415 votes. A really big round of applause to all of our top 10 finishers. It is really impressive to place in the top 10 in a contest like this! Congratulations!

Here are our winners, in order. There were a few artists that had 2 or 3 art pieces in the top 10! If you would like to see their piece in more detail or see more pieces by that artist, just click on the link to be taken to their artist site on Fine Art America:

Kaye Menner took 1st place with Spring Raindrop: 

Gary F Richards took 2nd place with Reindeer Haven:

John Rogers took 3rd place with Rosebud Reflections:

In 4th place, Elaine Manley presented us with Heaven Sent Peony:

Sarah Irland took 5th place with Welcoming Spring:

Joan Han finished in 6th place with Soft Pink Rose:

In 7th place, we had a tie. We had another piece from Gary F Richards. Here is

Perfectly Pink Orchid Black and Bokeh:

The other 7th place finisher was Lori Deiter with Pink Dreams:

Our 8th place finisher is Rebecca Herranen with Pretty In Pink:

In 9th place, we had a 5 way tie!

Anna Serebryanik presented us with Lavender Happiness:

This is Blush by Bonnie See:

Tara Turner presented us with The Pink Boulevard:

Our first place contestant also had a piece finish in 9th place. 

This is Art Of A Pink Blossom by Kaye Menner:

This is another piece from Sarah Irland, who had her piece finish 5th. This piece below 

is called View From The Bridge:

We had a 4-way tie for 10th place. As well, some artists showed they really excel in this contest format by placing again. Larisa Fedotova presented us with Queen Of The Garden:

Sabina Von Arx presented us with Swiss Mountains Early Morning:

This is another piece from Joan Han and is titled Pink Dream:

Gary F. Richards ended out this contest with his 3rd piece in the top 10. This is 

Chinese Orchid Japanese Garden Hawaii:

We will be following up in a few weeks with an in depth interview with our winner, Kaye Menner. We will also be highlighting the top 5 pieces in a YouTube video so that you can see them in a larger format. I find the YouTube videos played continuously can really provide a calming effect. As well, we will be featuring all the artists and their pieces on our website and will provide an update when it is ready to be viewed. 

If this artwork inspires you to begin decluttering, our course is now live on Udemy. You can find Decluttering Without The Emotional Overwhelm here.  

Our Online Course Is Now Live: Decluttering Without The Emotional Overwhelm

We are now live on Udemy! As someone with a brain injury and disabilities, I find decluttering really difficult. I have to be careful before I begin. It is easy for me to begin, with great intentions, and then get overwhelmed or fatigued and stop in the middle. The chaos that is left can only be described as at least 3x more mess and clutter than when I began. I learned over the years that I needed to do a whole process prior to decluttering, to ensure to be able to finish what I started. Years later, I am sharing my method of decluttering in a course that is now on Udemy! 

Intrigued? Here are some questions the course asks to see if it is the right course for you:

Our Udemy Course: Decluttering Without The Emotional Overwhelm

Do you struggle with decluttering?

Does decluttering make you feel exhausted, overwhelmed, or anxious?

Do you begin to declutter only to get overwhelmed and end up have even more mess than when you started?

Do you struggle to organize your home because you have chronic medical issues or other life stressors?

Do you find many courses or resources on decluttering, or organizing your home, to go too fast, to be too involved into the process?

Do you feel lost when you try to organize your home? Not sure where to start?

Welcome to the Inside the Clutter Method! This method involves 3 stages for decluttering. Stage 1 is planning and preparing to declutter. Stage 2 is preparing for the emotional overwhelm that comes from decluttering. Stage 3 ties everything together, and approaches decluttering using the work we did in stages 1 and 2.

I understand how difficult it can be to organize your home, to declutter, to make decisions about what to keep, what to throw out, and what items can be donated. I am a multiple brain injury survivor with numerous medical conditions. When I first began decluttering, I could only do the top drawer of my desk. It was so overwhelming, I had to nap after and could not think about decluttering again for months. I spent many years working with different organizers. Through it all, I found what worked for me and what didn't. I can declutter now much more easily and quickly. I eventually created the Inside The Clutter Method. I hope you enjoy it and find something inside that works well for you.

If this sounds like a fit for you, check out the course here:

Decluttering Course On Udemy

The course promo video is here:

Promo Video