Holy Cows! Popular Paint With an Artist Program at Esther Bone Library

The community outreach program sponsored by the Rio Rancho Art Association called, "Paint With An Artist" at the Esther Bone Library on April 28, 2012 is now full and so is the waiting list!

Rio Rancho Art Association will be doing another "Paint With An Artist" program at Esther Bone Library in October, so be sure to keep track of when that is posted and sign up early for it (as you can see, it fills up quickly).

This is not the first time Rio Rancho Art Association (RRAA) has done a "Paint With An Artist" event at the Esther Bone Library. There was one done back in Feb. 2009 where a live Anime model was used. In October, 2008, an plein air "Paint With An Artist" event was hosted by RRAA which also proved to be a big hit. You can view some of the images taken of this event at RRAA's Flickr Photostream.

Upcycling Flatware to Make a Chandelier

I am a big advocate of recycling, re-purposing, finding other uses for things. Anything to keep so much STUFF from going in to the landfills!

I forget how I ended up subscribing to Barry Belcher's You Tube videos. I think because he subscribed to my You Tube channel, I checked out his channel and liked what I saw and ended up subscribing to it. he produces quite a few videos. This one in particular was great fun since just about anyone can do this and end up with a unique piece. Variations on a theme always welcomed too!

Check out the video and see for yourself-you might be inspired to rummage around your house for components to make a chandelier with!

Channeling Hoarding Behavior

Let's face it. Many artists-especially those who work in several mediums, tend to be hoarders. You almost have to be so that you have handy what you need when the inspiration hits you. And, I've no doubt that somewhere in your stash you've saved those metal cookie tins and mint tins. Anything pretty that came in a metal box.


Now you can re-purpose those metal tins into totally cool and hip earrings (if you want to be even hip-er, you'd call them upcycled earrings).

Witness:

these are earrings made by Kate Wadsworth

You can read how to make these earrings (and more) at Jewelry Making Daily-it's simple and a great way to use up that stash of stuff sitting around your studio!

TERRI GARCIA

Terri Garcia will be feature artist for the months of April/May at the Galeria de Corrales, where she is a member of the co-op. Terri is a jewelry artist working mainly in sterling & gold, but also alternative metals like niobium and titanium. She studied under & subsequently worked for master goldsmith William Howard as a bench jeweler and teaching assistant at the Howard Academy for Metal Arts while living in Wisconsin.

Artist reception is Friday, March 30th from 5 - 7 PM. The Galeria is located at 3923 Corrales Rd. on the corner of Coronado and Corrales Rd. behind Quilts Ole.

Painting Clouds

I had been working on a project that involved using oil paints-a medium I don't normally work in. I wanted to learn how to make clouds, so I went to You Tube and typed it in. I found two videos that I thought were pretty good. Maybe you'll gain something from it too:

This one is from an artist affiliated with Jerry's Artorama:




And this one, although done on a similar vein, is done by an artist not affiliated with any art supply company:





Perhaps you have not been successful in the past in painting clouds. I think with these two tutorials, you've got it made in the shade.

Derivan's Liquid Pencil

Every now and then I stumble upon a product that wows me even before I've tried it. Such is the case with this liquid pencil product by Derivan. It looks like this has been out for a couple of years (so, maybe not so 'new'), but I've never run in to it before. And, the applications for it would be versatile. I plan to experiment with it in my encaustic and mixed media works and can't wait to do so! It's a great way to do large expanse of graphite without having to use a pencil.

I've embedded a couple of videos for you so that you can see the potential that lies within:






I also see the potential of laying down all your values with this product and then going over it in color (don't know if it will work, but worth a try!). Please leave a comment if you've tried it and what you think of it.