Being a fairly active member of the art Discussions (forum) at Fine Art America<\/strong> I have been involved in several “Art Challenges” over the last year. These involve posting one new piece of art based on a theme, one piece per day for a set number of days. The Forum Moderator, Abbie<\/a> (a talented painter and photographer), creates these challenges along with the help of another uniquely talented artist, Donna<\/a>. These challenges help us, as artist-participants, focus for a period of time on a particular theme, which encourages new creativity. We all get to see how colleagues interpret the theme, creating a win-win activity for all involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The current challenge is “7 Day Kitchen Macro Images<\/strong>” and has about 30 guinea pigs, er – participants, creating close-up images of things in\/around a kitchen. I started off with my morning kitchen routine of making a pot of tea for my wife and a cup of coffee for me. My only change in routine was to have my camera in hand affixed with a macro (close-up) lens. My first image was of the fire used to heat the teapot full of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n