Thinking Outside the Box with Collage Media

From the Daniel Smith website:

One of the many reasons why I like turning to the art supply company called Daniel Smith is because their published catalogs always contain great articles and technique tips for various kinds of mediums. They also have many articles available on line (their on line instruction site).

Here are some various articles on working with collage as a medium:
"Painting Outside the Box" by Pat Weaver.

Or, how about a watercolor stained paper technique demonstrated by Brenda Swenson?

Explore other possibilities with artist Dixie Parker-Fairbanks.

Sandra Duran-Wilson lives up in Santa Fe is a mixed media collage artist. I love visiting her blog and she sometimes does demos for the Artisan Art Supply Store. You can also take classes at her studio in Santa Fe. Her background is very extensive, so if you want a lot of 'bang for the buck' so to speak, consider taking a class or scheduling a class with her.

I could go on and on with the list of sources for exploring collage as a medium. But, I won't! Aren't you glad??

Studio Tour 2009 at Lucky 13

Images from a happy group of studio tour participants.
Linda working oun her next project while hanging out between customers.

Delma and Friend

Michael Shaw's metal sculptures

Paula visiting with the photos

www.alanmitchellphotography.com

Digits, Numbers and Memes

I participate in several weekly memes. What's a meme? From Wikipedia:

A meme (pronounced /miːm/ - rhyming with "dream"), a postulated unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, gets transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena.

For an expanded explanation, click here.

Here are some examples of the memes that are out there (and there are many more than this):

Ruby Tuesday

ABC Wednesday

Inspire Me Thursday

Illustration Friday

Sky Watch Friday

Shadow Shot Sunday

One Word Project

I am a regular with Shadow Shot Sunday and ABC Wednesday.

It's good to see what others do with the same subject matter. It keeps the creative process fresh. And, along the way, I've developed some great friendships with others from around the world. My readership base has increased tremendously. Over 3500 hits since December.

For the ABC Wednesday meme (where we go through the alphabet and each Wednesday is the next letter) this week's letter was "N". I would encourage all of you to go to David Mcmahon's blog and see what he posted for the letter, "N" which has to do with digits and numbers. David lives in Australia. He always has something profound and insightful to say. Which is why he gets over 250 hits a day! Google had listed his blog as a "blog of note". But, really, go visit his blog and read his post. Truly enlightening!

I would also encourage you to leave comments at the blogs you visit. It's a nice thing to do in "bloglandia". Including this one! ; )

Chinese Brush Painting

Wistful Wiseria by Nora Curran

Artist Statement:

"Wistful Wisteria gently blowing in the breeze of New Mexico. The gnarled and twisted stem belies the softness and elegance of the flowers but I love the contradiction: something beautiful stemming out of the dry, twisted old trunk. To the Chinese, Wisteria symbolizes prosperity and good luck in one's job and career. The media used: Chinese ink and Chinese water colors on Xuan paper. The red square on the right is a seal with my Chinese name and signature."

Nora will be demonstrating her brush painting technique at the next Rio Rancho Art Association membership meeting on Monday, May 4th at the Destiny Center in Rio Rancho. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. You need not be a member to attend.

Empty Easel Dot Com

Every now an then I stumble across something that is "the greatest thing since sliced bread".
I ran across a website for artists that is rather comprehensive, called Empty Easel. This website has only been up for two years and as far as I'm concerned, they get a whole bunch of thumbs up. They have something for everyone in every medium you can think of. I found them while doing a quest for tutorials on stretching canvas.

There are quite a few tutorials, you can submit articles, submit your art, learn how to sell your art on line, a business advice section, research, featured artists by medium, an electronic newsletter to subscribe to, and on and on. I hope you check it out and go back often as it is NOT a static site at all! The two geniuses behind all of this have also sell a website service called foliotwist. If you re looking for a way to get your own website up and sell your work on line, and want full control over managing your site (and you really should), this is a great way to go. I've looked at what they have to offer and one of the features that really has me sold (other than having full control over the site with the ability to send out an electronic newsletter to your clients) is that there is no limit to how many images you can have on the site. The list of bells and whistles goes on and on-I am truly impressed. Especially with the flat monthly rate which is affordable. I won't tell you what that rate is; you'll have to click on the link and find out for yourself!

Even if you don't utilize their web services (which is foliotwist), the Empty Easel site is chock full of information and many great resources. I would encourage each and everyone of you to take advantage of what is there and perhaps to submit your art or an article to them. Who knows what will happen?

I should also mention that Daniel Smith has a great section of on line instruction and video demonstrations. Do you have other on line teaching resources and sites that you would like to write about and share?

Donations

Artists are continually hit for donations by worth causes, and RRAA as a group is no exception. With our dual goals of A - Promoting art and artists, and B - using our art to aid people and the communities in which we live we are presented with some interesting questions on how to best present donation requests. Do we simply present any and all requests from legitimate organizations or do we only present those from art oriented organizations ? or only ones that help kids? or? Do we request they do a few things for our artists, like returning the art that does not sell? Do we ask that the minimum bid and the value set by the artist go untouched?

The outreach committee is weighing this issue, and would love to have feedback from one and all. Any thoughts?

JUST FOR FUN...

Just for fun...if you would like to watch a video of VanGogh's masterpieces put to music (kindly provided by Noah, grandson of Sue Hanauer) go to:
vangogh.pps It's great!!

About artists blogs

Just a quick note to show you a link to a new blog I have started reading.

An Art Producer's Perspective

Naturally it has more to do with photography but hey that's the way this post goes. There is one post that I found interesting and you may also regarding Artists with Blogs. You will find a selection of art related blogs that she likes which you might like.

Have fun reading
Alan

www.alanmitchellphotography.com