Learning How to Use Social Media

I started blogging as a student who wanted to reach past the halls of learning (for me it was Kwantlen University Polytechnic). I needed to know beyond my small personal circle about art making and I found wonderful people who are generous in giving me feedback and encouragement and sharing their experiences through their art, writing and life. 

Having graduated I still need that greater circle but I also want to develop my art practice including looking for opportunities to share my art through exhibits and hopefully sell my art. So to that end I've been researching social media. I came across this resource about Best Times to Post on Social Media  from http://www.fannit.com/ via Lori McNee at her site Fine Art Tips

Hope this is useful to some of you trying to make sense of how to use social media. 

Please include attribution to http://www.fannit.com/ with this graphic.

Shipping Your Art

I have been researching various topics in order to answer the question "Who am I?" and "What do I need to know and do?"  after graduation. I came across this tutorial about shipping your art work. It is a slide show from Harriete Estel Berman from her Professional Development Seminar. She gives clear directions and information about packaging artwork for an exhibit or consignment.

PACKING one-of-a-kind artwork for SHIPPING

View another webinar from Harriete Estel Berman

I thought some of you may find it useful information. Berman not only notes what not to do but also provides instructions on how to construct your own box for shipping one of a kind artwork.

Have a lovely week my friends.

welter schaferhund: Saatchi on line , the site of the Saatchi Gallery ...

Caio Fern, my bloggy friend had his painting chosen as "Painting of the Day" on Saatchi Online Gallery. Congratulations Caio!

Follow the link to see his painting.




welter schaferhund: Saatchi on line , the site of the Saatchi Gallery ...: "http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Painting-Acrylic-No-Tittle/85288/1309748/view Saatchi on line , the site of the Saatchi Gallery chose this..."

The Value of Learning from Others

I now have time for reading, reflecting and taking notice of things beyond the studio walls. I'm looking forward to visiting my friends blogs at a more thoughtful leisurely pace. 


As I was going through my emails I found an article, called "The Value of Learning from Others" by Chris Tyrell in the Opus Art & Community News.

Tyrell wrote a book  Making It: Case Studies of Successful Canadian Visual Artists and he talks about what he learned from interviews with twenty artists, ten self-represented and ten represented by galleries. A short interesting read that I thought might be useful no matter what country you're living in.

Painting Surface

Another recommendation from Rebecca Crowell is lightweight  multimedia artboard

Accepts oil and water-based paints. No priming required. Can use on either side, flat or textured finish. Archival and non-buckling. Works with adhesives. 30"x36" Pack of 5 - White List - $83.50 Your Price - $70.98

I think I'm going to try these this summer. There are a variety of sizes and some specifically for plein air.

Moving Forward

Well the first four weeks of the semester is finished and I've already had a creative block. I'm working with cold wax again but this time on board. I'm doing several small pieces. To save money I used the cradles from small cheap canvases by removing the canvas and replaced it with door skin. It turned out to be more time consuming then I thought but the price was right.

I was looking for inspiration to overcome my wall and came across a slide show by Rebecca Crowell talking about her process in her abstract work. It was just what I needed to move forward. She talks about her residency in Spain and how it influenced her painting reminding me of my own experiences in Spain. Loved the architecture, textures, colours and landscape.

I've included the slideshow below. For full screen viewing go to the Slideshare site.

Source: Catalonia

View more presentations from Rebecca Crowell.

Saatchi

Harry Kent told me about the Saatchi online  resource for online display of your art. I registered but didn't have any decent images to display my art. I have since made a portfolio and took some images with a high quality camera thanks to my Professional Practices course. You can view them here You'll also find my artist statement I crafted for my portfolio.


It was an enlightening experience (making a portfolio). I was able to see threads in my work from my very first self portrait and landscape. Neither are on the Saatchi site but are somewhere on my blog.


Saatchi has a contest called Showdown where you submit one of your pieces and the one who gets the most votes wins the $1000 or $500 prize plus the works will go on display at the Saatchi London Gallery. So the person who can rally the votes has the advantage. haha

What's Not to Love, Winter Guests

I have two piece remaining in the Performance Art studio and am researching ideas when I came across this trailer of Winter Guests dance company, choreography by Alan Lucien Oeyen. Something about it just appealed to me. Maybe it's the sentiment. Maybe how voice, music and dance are combined. Anyway thought you might like it.

What's Not to Love

Still from trailer on youtube

Ross Bleckner

Just was revisiting items about Ross Bleckner and came across this video in which he talks about his art and also about his U.N. Ambassador experience with Ugandan children at vimeo site.


Ross Bleckner from Howard Silver on Vimeo.

The Elements of Art:Form, Content and Context

I came across this reference thought might interest some of you.  It was recommended by Dorothy Barenscott on her blog Avant-Guardian Musings. It's called ART HISTORY: A PRELIMINARY HANDBOOK, by Dr. Robert J. Belton. It is online and free to use.
It looks like an excellent resource for persons like myself who are studying art history and in the process of defining my own art practice.
Thank you Dorothy for sharing this resource.

More on The Wilderness Downtown

This piece is interactive. Before it begins you put in the place where you grew up, then Google puts live video from there into the video. At one point you are asked to send a postcard to your young self. When the video is finished you can send it to share with others in the project. I think you can be anywhere in the world that Google has satellite to participate. Let me know what you think of the experience.
It is designed to be used with Chrome browser that can be downloaded from Google. However you can try it with your usual browser and see if it works.

The Wilderness Downtown

What is Art

Here is a video of Bob Gregson's work. I discovered it through the Thea's Encaustic newsletter. It is fun to watch and it challenges the view of what is art. His art is fun and interactive and he certainly has me thinking in a different direction. Here's a link to his website.

Encaustic Bath

Since I was asked what an encaustic bath entailed I looked up the link where I got the idea. It was a link in an encaustic newsletter I subscribe to: Thea Haubrich who is a B.C. artist residing in Penticton.  Check out other items or subscribe to the newsletter.

I didn't use this exact method. Instead I brush cold wax onto the digital image then when dry I fused it by placing the image between layers of parchment and used an iron to fuse wax to the paper.

Visual Culture Blog

My Art History professor has just put up a blog called Avant-Guardian Musings,

  "Avant-Guardian Musings is a curated space of ideas and information, resources, reviews and readings for undergraduate and graduate students studying modern and contemporary art history and visual art theory, film and photography studies, and the expanding field of visual culture. For students currently enrolled in my courses, this blog also serves as a place of reflection and an extension of the ideas raised in lecture and seminar discussions"


Drop by her blog there is everything from film to performance art to photography to paintings, you get the picture. There are also links to various art publications like NYT, Artforum, Canadian Art. It has a wealth of information of the visual arts.

Open Studio continued

I got so involved with looking into the artists on page one I didn't realize that our journey would go on to another theme. The next project is "The Night Project" and we will be looking at the artists Daniel Richter and James Turrell. The parameters are the examination of our reactions and observations of night. Hmmm this will be interesting. I have been known to scare myself when I'm alone at night.

The next framework is our choice from Surveillance, Voyeurism and Social Media. We will be looking at the artist, Nan Goldin, photographer.

 

She said of her work:

My work originally came from the snapshot aesthetic…. Snapshots are taken out of love and to remember people, places, and shared times. They're about creating a history by recording a history. 

http://www.biography.com/articles/Nan-Goldin-40567 

The last project will be our choice.

I will be mulling over all of this and then some before the first class next week. It's going to be an interesting journey.

P.S.  As I was galavanting across the internet I came across a virtual tour of Satchi gallery's new building in London and was curious of an institution that sold art for millions of dollars. Here's the link

Open Studio Preparation

I just received the course outline for Open Studio.  The parameters are steeped in the theme nature/environment/human. Some of the artists we will be looking at are Andy Goldsworthy, Richard Long, Peter Doig, David Milne, Group of Seven, Edward Burtinsky, Sally Mann, Robert Longo, Robert Smithson, Tony Cragg, Jim Dine, Elizabeth Magill (her bio and technique), Isamu Noguchi, Horiso Sugimoto, Jeff Wall, Stan Douglas, Fiona Bowie, Myfanwy Macleod.
 

I've made links to the artists i have looked up, I'll add additional links as I explore more. Their works reflect a range of artistic styles in a variety of mediums. It looks like it will be challenging studio work but also exciting.

Perry Milou

I'm always looking for free workshops online to guide me into new territory for subject matter, mediums or just to give me something to practice. As a beginner I don't always see things immediately in my work so I find watching others very helpful.

I found this artist at a free video lessons site. His name is Perry Milou, an American contemporary pop artist. The two lessons I watched: one from his pop series and the other a children's art project. I then visited his website and found another lesson on painting Van Gogh Style Portrait. Have a look here on YouTube. He has several lessons on YouTube.

Sadie Jernigan Valeri

This is another thing about networking through blogging. You get to meet in virtual space very interesting and inspiring artists. Here is one I discovered this morning.

Sadie Jernigan Valeri

Getting Started

I did a still life drawing in colour pencil which I found at one of the blogs. It was easier because they gave step by step instructions to follow. I was pleased that I did it instead of thinking about doing it, LOL. I found another site offering weekly challenges at Paint and Draw Together and will paint each one but I'm not ready to commit to sending it in. I 'll post them here instead. I don't think I could keep up.

I saw this video on YouTube about glazing.


Shawn Barber Glazing Techniques to link to the video.