Archive for May, 2010
Abstract Art II
Western art, from the Renaissance to the mid 19th century, largely used perspective to create an illusion of visible reality. That all changed with the beginning of abstract art. According to Wikipedia, “abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references to the world.” Abstraction indicates a departure from reality – be it slight or complete.
Artwork that takes liberties by changing color or form that is easily recognizable would be said to be partially abstract – as in the art movement known as Fauvism, popular in the early 20th century, in which color was deliberately changed. (There were a lot of red tree trunks.) Artwork that bears no resemblance to anything recognizable, as in the art movement known as Cubism, popular a little later in the 20th century, would be total abstraction.
Selling a Home in a Tough Economy
How can a homeowner make their home as appealing to potential homebuyers as possible? That’s a question on the minds of all homeowners looking to sell in this tough economic climate. The bottom line, success is often based on whether the home is move-in ready, or how much effort the current homeowner is willing to put in to make it ready.
Expensive upgrades and fresh paint won’t pay off all the time, but all sellers can benefit from a little reorganization. Much of what will spark a potential homebuyer’s interest is their first impression of a space. For example, does the home have a foyer or vestibule? If not, create one with a shoe and coat rack, and a nice landscape painting.
Painting at Pemberton Park
For a while, I have been thinking of going to Pemberton Park and doing a large landscape painting of Turtle Island. I have already painted it 3 times. First, I did a realistic painting, and with the help of a wonderful teacher, it looks great and hangs above my mantle. The second and third times, I outlined the important parts and painted them in a solid color, so those paintings look rather like stained glass windows.
Today I started by outlining (lightly) the main parts of the painting, but adding texture with lights and darks and a variety of colors. And this time, I had lots of company as a group of first graders and their teachers and helpers were having a field trip and all stopped by to chat with me. What a fun time I had talking with those delightful children and their chaperones!
Getting Organized
Just as Monet’s style was different from that of Rembrandt or Botticelli, so my style is different from Monet’s – and not so well accepted by the local populous. So I began this journey to having a web site because I was collecting a lot of paintings. My closet was full! I also know there are people out there somewhere who really like color and whimsey, and I hoped that some of those folks just might purchase some of my landscape paintings.
One of the helpful tasks in organizing the paintings is to give each one an item number or SKU#. I have been carefully cataloging each painting with an SKU#, name, size and date of creation. On the back of most paintings I already had a name and my signature, but still had to put the size and SKU#. Even so, it has taken me a while.
But tomorrow, my group will meet and paint the marshes! Then I will have another to catalog!
The Book – Part 2
The book I received a few days ago, “Starving” to Successful by Jason Horejs, has everything in it that an artist would need or want to know about preparing a body of consistent gallery-ready work, creating a portfolio, pricing, controlling inventory, researching art markets to find the right galleries and successfully approaching the gallery for representation.
I looked up Jason’s web site at www.xanadugallery.com and found many paintings and 3D pieces (He must have a huge gallery). I even ordered some software to help me keep track of my inventory.
Oh, yes, I found out that the person who sent this gem to me is my long time friend from Illinois. She’s the one with whom I go landscape painting in the wintertime – and it’s a birthday gift! How lucky I am!
The Book
Yesterday, when I went to the mailbox I was pleasantly surprised. In addition to the usual bills, promotions and notices was a small package – a book.
Now, I had not ordered a book and the only return address was the book seller’s. The book: “Starving” to Successful by Jason Horejs, son of a landscape painter who truly experienced the “staving artist” syndrome.
At this point Jason has been a gallery owner for 17 years. He has written an artist’s guide to getting into galleries and selling more art. It contains myriad insights into the business in order to help the artist fine tune every aspect of his/her career. How I would like to thank the person who sent that book to me!
The Web Site – Part 2
A few days ago I told you that I was moving from my second web site back into my first site because it is easier to add and change things. For the past few days, I have spent some time copying the product descriptions from my second site back onto the first. However, for the photos, I just went to my photo program, Picasa, which was a free download, and copied them from there. Today I learned that all those photos just went into the site builder – the program I work in before it gets put “up front” where the viewer sees it, and a particular photo did not go to a specific description page. I needed to do one more double click! So now, I have to sort that out.
Yesterday, when I spoke with the Mall owner, he sent me specific directions for getting my site seen by the search engines. Dealing with keywords and meta-tags was only the beginning! I have learned that if you want to be seen on the internet, it’s a lot more difficult than just doing landscape paintings!
My Daughter, the Artist
My daughter is an engineer by profession, but an artist at heart. She lives in the art district of a large city in the South and opens her expansive living room as an art gallery on the Second Friday Art Walk each month. She has had musical and dance artists as well as 2D and 3D shows.
She has a very creative streak. Her latest was a black light show where she even over-painted a couple of my smaller landscape paintings in fluorescent colors. The featured show was a group of previously purchased used wedding gowns from local thrift shops. She then asked local artists to paint the front of each gown in the style of a of famous artist with fluorescent paint. This was a great hit and even received a write-up on the front page of the local news. Right now the dresses are being housed by the local Arts Council and will be auctioned this summer.
Painting the Rye
Since today is Monday, my artist friends were scheduled to meet. Suzanne had received an honor by being asked by a local gallery owner to do a landscape painting with a group of locally well known artists and donate the painting to the Coastal Hospice on behalf of the gallery. So she wanted to practice painting marshes, as that is what she expected the group to paint.
The day turned out to be cloudy and the tide was low, not conducive to a good marsh painting, so we had to paint something else. As it happened, there were two fields of rye near her house. I had never seen rye up close, but today it had yellows and purples in it as well as greens and browns. It was absolutely lovely – especially with a little purple Vetch in it (a weed)! I don’t know if my painting will do the scene justice, but I had an interesting challenge!
Finishing a Painting
During the last few days, I have spent a fair amount of time finishing my landscape paintings. That means writing the name of the painting, where it was painted, and the date, as well as signing it on the back of the stretchers which support the painting.
Also, I must put in the eyelets and attach the wire with which to hang the painting. Fortunately, the wire is covered with a plastic which makes it easy to handle. If a frame is to be used, I must drill holes for screws because these latest frames are oak. The screws hold a metal piece that keeps the painting in the frame. So all-in-all, it takes a while just to “finish” a painting, and if several are waiting to be done, it can amount to a considerable amount of time.