Posts Tagged ‘painting’
Plein Air – Easton!
Plein Air – Easton! Is a BIG EVENT for artists and it is happening in Easton, MD, only about an hour away. “Plein air” means “open air” or outdoors and is a favorite way of painting for many artists today. This year 58 artists from all over America have come to Easton July 20-23, having previously been juried into the competition, and can paint anywhere in Talbot County during those 4 days.
The Collectors’ Preview Party is on Friday, July 23. The cost is $150, but that total amount is applied toward the purchase price of a painting. Each artist may submit 2 paintings, but when one is sold, another may replace it.
The Grand Prize Award is $5000, 2nd Place is $2000 and 3rd Place is $1000. There are 12 other awards, several in the $1-2000 range. For more information, visit http://www.pleinaireaston.com .
Creativity – Part 2
Is the process of creating important to our existence? Why? What do you think? Perhaps because we, like every one else in the world, were born to create – to express ourselves in our own unique way.
We tend to see an artist as “talented” and set them apart from our own selves. This makes our own creating less important, because we don’t feel “talented”. This becomes a belief and becomes real to us, and creativity becomes something we don’t personally have.
If you are to become creative you must learn to nurture yourself with encouragement while weeding out self criticism – much like you would nurture a young plant. You need to ask yourself: 1)What do you dream of doing? 2) What is your secret desire? 3) What creative thing did you enjoy as a young child? 4) Were you ever interested in painting?
Creativity is letting go of certainties, being open to new possibilities. Take a class – a challenge that will forever benefit you. “Creativity gives the soul life, its vibrancy. Creativity is where your soul wants to sing”….Gwen Fox
Richard Robinson, New Zealand Artist
Friday’s letter from Robert Genn was about Mastering Colour. He explained some of the difficulties of same, and from the comments, a lot of people must have difficulty mastering color.
He noted that a subscriber and friend, Richard Robinson, a New Zealand artist, has an excellent downloadable video called Mastering Colour, with printable lesson notes. All is free! Go to www.livepaintinglessons.com and sign up for your free painting videos and then confirm from the email they send you. When I clicked on the link to confirm, I landed back on the page to sign up. That seemed odd, but it must have been OK, because I found Lesson #1 in my inbox!
Gauguin: Life is Color
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) lived in Peru as a child and spent 6 years before the mast as a young man. He became a prosperous Parisian stockbroker with 5 children for a period of 10 years before he took up Sunday painting in 1873.
By 1883 he ditched his family for his new love - art. He headed for Brittany, a backward province of France, where he hoped to find the “savage instinct.” He proceeded “to restore painting to its sources,” meaning primal emotion and imagination. And when Brittany was not primitive enough, he moved to Tahiti.
He refused to reproduce surface appearances, instead transforming colors and distorting shapes to convey his emotional response to a scene. “Life is color,” Gauguin said. “A painter can do what he likes as long as it is not stupid.” He freed us from the restraints which the idea of copying nature placed on us. He flattened forms, used color arbitrarily for emotional impact, and – above all – presented his subjective response to reality. “I wanted the right to dare everything,” he said and he dared to portray an internal reality. It is no wonder he is among the founders of modern art.
The Salon
The governments of most European countries sponsored official academy exhibitions for artists throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. These exhibitions were usually the only venues in which artists could show their work and they typically showcased art that followed the rules - painting theoretical topics and using many layers of paint.
The Salon was established in 1667 by the French Academy and was named for the room in the Louvre in which it was held. It was the only public art exhibit in Paris and, as such, the jurors held great power in standardizing taste and preserving the status quo.
In 1863, jurors rejected 3000 paintings out of the 5000 submitted. As a result, Napoleon III established a Gallery of the Refused for artists whom the Salon rejected and it was held periodically over the next 20 years.