Delma's 64th Birthday

Today would've been Delma M. Petrullo's 64th birthday had she not left us so suddenly at the age of 60. Yet, in the short time that she lived here in the city of Rio Rancho, she left really BIG tracks! Positive ones, at that. She had an incredible way of bringing people together for a single cause and also had an incredible gift of vision for our city and what it can become. She had thoroughly 'infected' my husband, Mark and I with her vision.

And, how I wish she were here to see all the positive changes that have been occurring. The Art Commission that she so dreamed of having is now in it's 3rd year.  Read the rest of the article here...

A Sensible Approach to Writing an Artist Statement

Over the last few years, I have managed to curate a handful of art exhibits. In the process, I ask artists to submit an artist statement. I am always surprised at the variety of what I get-from the all too brief to a novella.

I remember all too well, my own personal struggles in creating my first artist statement and others that followed. Over time, I got better at it-I still have a ways to go as far as arriving at the doorstep of what I think is my 'perfect' artist statement.

In the process, I have read many articles on line as to how to write an artist statement. Half of them make my eyes glaze over and my head spin and find that the writing block is still there.

Cate Prato who is the editor and writer for Cloth, Paper Scissors and Quilting Daily   introduces writer, Jane Davila's ebook based on articles that Jane wrote for Quilting Daily called, "Art Business Strategies".

Cate writes, "What does your artist statement say about you? Oh, you don't have an artist statement? That says something right there.
A lot of artists don't think they need an artist statement unless they have an art business or plan to show their art. But an artist statement can help you focus on the art you truly want to make and what you want to get out of making it. Once you know that, you can turn to the question of whether you want to sell art at all, sell art online, or if you think your work is more appropriately gallery art."

To find out more about this article and the eBook, you can read about it here....

I love the tips that Cate highlighted from Jane's book-that in itself is enough to get you off to a good start. I also find that for each show and exhibit that I am in, I fine tune and customize my artist statement for that exhibit.

After all, we know that one size really doesn't fit all!

(photo by Paula Scott)

Harvest Artwork Using Fruits and Vegetables

Happy Fall Rio Rancho Artists!

I am very happy that Fall is finally here. I found this cute video to share with you all today from Daily Candy Kids on painting with vegetables.


There is the basic apple and pear patterns but look what you can do with celery,  a potato and okra!

The possibilities are as endless as the vegetable aisle or the offerings at the farmers market.

Expanding on the Golden MXR Post

In a post previous to this, Annette introduced us to a new on line tool that Golden Paints has created to help artists mix paint colors.

After viewing the video that demonstrates this, I would like to emphasize what a GREAT tool this is. Haven't you ever been frustrated when mixing paints to achieve an exact color that you find yourself mixing too much paint in order to achieve the results you are after? Or, ran out of the custom color and did not have good notes on the color mix ratio and experiencing another level of frustration in trying to recreate that custom color.

Now, Golden has made this process as easy as pie...well, I think pie isn't easy to make, so, as easy as boiling water!


View the video here to get a full grasp of what we are talking about-and perhaps get as excited as we are to have access to this kind of color mixing tool:





If you'd like to have new blog postings come directly to your in box (spam free), sign up for the email notification on the right bar on this blog and then you won't have to remember to check in here for new postings.

Golden Artist Colors Fun!

Golden Artist Colors makes great acrylics and a huge variety of mediums to use with them -- creating nearly limitless possibilities with their paints.  They also produce the Williamsburg hand made oil colors. 

Now they have come up with a very handy tool for any painter.  They have a webtool called GOLDEN MXR where you can mix paints and see the results on line prior to using the paints themselves.  Check it out at: GOLDEN MXR

Creating Monoprints Without a Press

Gelli Arts makes 'gelatin' plates that one can easily do monoprints from. Without having to invest much by way of money or equipment. Granted, one can make their own gelatin plates to do this technique with, but the drawback is in the prep time, storage issues and shelf life of a home made gelatin plate.

What's a monoprint you ask? It is a printmaking technique where the image created is an original-instead of printing the image from an inked up matrix (plate), you 'paint' your image on the plate. The results are very different from painting directly on to a substrate and the layers one can build lends itself to some exciting results that are one of a kind.

If this explanation isn't enough, check out this exciting video by Gelli Arts that clearly demonstrates what a monoprint is and how one can achieve exciting results:





I've got a few plates myself and now see that they offer a square size, so I might just have to get that one too. If any of you out there order some too, I say, let's get together and 'play'!

And, for those of you that teach, they also offer teacher kits.