Artist Resources

There are many resources on the web for artists from written articles to videos. Sometimes there are so many resources out there it can be confusing or you end up spending all your time on the web instead of creating!

I subscribe to a couple of art sites that email links on a regular basis to articles, products and tutorials on techniques, etc. One site Artists Network TV has links to their latest artist videos for sale. One such link I found informative was an excerpt from an art workshop video by Liz Haywood-Sullivan.

Just from this short piece there is a wealth of useful information about how to paint the effect of light on a subject. Also I was interested to see someone using alcohol with pastels. You can find the excerpt and how to purchase the video here:
Painting Realistic Landscapes in Pastel: Mixing Greens.

Another very informative article about paint manufacturer's labelling of their products was in a weekly email from the Empty Easel website. It was written by Maureen Ryan where she discusses the paint series numbers and their relationship to the pigments used, or number of pigments used, in a particular paint.

She clarifies the difference between the term 'hue' used by the paint manufacturers as being a mixture rather than a 'pure' or a single pigment. How these 'hues' behave when mixing colours as opposed to mixing single pigments I found particularly useful, something I had not heard discussed before. Find it here:
Understanding paint series and numbers when buying artists paints.

Sketch Books

Have you noticed how sketch books multiply? Or just drawing / painting pads flock together? I bought a lovely spiral bound hard back book for keeping an art  journal after seeing my friends Sue and Rhea doing some fantastic techniques with theirs. Well I did do some painting techniques directly in the book, but also glued in other small finished pieces I didn't want out on display but wanted safe. So it is quite a 'tidy' book that I keep 'tidy' pieces in.

One day on one of many trips to my daughter's college which always involves time awaiting her appearance, I explored the university bookstore and found the art supplies shelf! Bought the cutest little hard backed sketch book, some inexpensive oil pastels and happily filled forty minutes or so. I take it with me now on car journeys when I am passenger and sketch to fill time. I use it for thumb nail sketches for bigger works and just for fun.

The pen and ink drawing below is from a photo I liked and had done a pastel painting from a couple of years ago. Need to practice drawing and this was just for fun while killing time again.

Pen and Ink sketch for fun

Of course it hasn't stopped there, another book has sneaked its way into the house. Art journalling, yes that's the culprit! Sue was giving a lesson in Art Journalling at the Art Experience last week while I was running Open Studio. They were having way too much fun, I succumbed finally to the call and another large spiral bound sketchbook has joined the others. Only this one is not a 'tidy' book. Oh no, definitely messy, pages covered in all kinds of acrylic medium and collage paper already. Definitely not tidy, probably end up twice as thick as it started.

Foxes on Boxes!

Leaping Foxes Hand Painted Boxes

I  love foxes and would see them when living in England, slipping between the houses and golf course when living in the suburbs. Or I would watch them across the fields and wooded areas when living in the countryside there.

I have had foxes visit the backyard here in Michigan too. In fact a one eared fox that used to visit and sit under a the crab apple tree inspired the design of the box below and the fox on my hand painted fox mailbox.

Fox Decorative Box

It's been a while but I hope our red coated friend will come visiting again.

Country Primitive Sheep

We have a new flock in town! Country Primitive sheep are joining the Funky and the just plain Country on the country decor wall plaques with hooks page over at my Art by KC site. They have a lot to bleat about - how they can help you keep things tidy back at the farm with a place to hang those little things that cause clutter. Somewhere to hang your keys, your tea towels, or even those hanks of wool you have to roll up in a ball.

Country Primitive Sheep - Wall Plaque

A great gift idea for the crafty person who knits or loves yarn. You are sure to bring a breath of the country into someone's primitive country home with these wooly friends.

Music for February

Keeping in the Celtic theme beautiful I have chosen songs by Loreens McKennitt the Celtic songstress as my February music choice. She has the most fabulous voice and her music played on a mix of ancient and modern instruments is amazing.  
The Lady of Shallott:

Another treat: The Bonny Swans by Loreena McKennitt

Celtic Boar Hand Painted Box

Celtic Boar Hand Painted Box

 

 I have just finished a new Celtic boar hand painted box in a different style than my classic masculine boar jewelry box. This one has a wild boar in metallic gunmetal paint against a blue background on the lid. The sides have oak leaves and acorns - favourite food of the wild boar - on the sides. Front and back have gunmetal chain link detail.

A rugged looking box for the modern day warrior, maybe a valentine's gift for the hunter in your life! The designs are burned into the wood before painting. The inner base of the box is lined with blue felt and the outside has been given four coats of acrylic gloss lacquer.

Celtic Boar Hand Painted Box

The Boar was a symbol of strength to the Celtic people. Warriors respected it's fearlessness and often wore amulets of the boar as protection. The bristles were always defined in the Celtic symbols as it was believed that the boar bristles carried an innate strength.

If the wild boar symbolized victory and courage to the warrior, the Celtic hunter certainly respected the boar with its cunning and ferocious nature. Their presence, once common in the British Isles and Europe, must have made a walk in the woods really interesting in early Celtic times.

 My classic wild boar Celtic symbol for strength box   a favourite country style, masculine jewelry box can still be made to order from my Art by KC website.

Book for February

I was browsing in the local library in the art section the other week and came across a little book called Art and Fear Observations On The Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland. The back cover describes the work as An Artist's Survival Guide followed by the questions: What is your art really about? Where is it going? What stands in the way of getting there? All questions I think most artists have asked of themselves, if not openly certainly subconsciously.

The book touches on assumptions about making art that puts the responsibility for doing so in our own hands. It discusses fears surrounding art making and what reasons we give for either continuing and becoming artists or giving up; fear, uncertainty, about ourselves and others.

The authors state "art is made by ordinary people". Yes talent plays a part but it is the perseverance of working through our doubts and fears, hard work, to become the artist. One passage that touches a chord:

".... expectations based on the work itself are the most useful tool the artist possesses. What you need to know about the next piece is contained in the last piece. The place to learn about your materials is in the last use of your materials. The place to learn about your execution is in your execution." This passage goes on and is quite liberating in its simple statement about letting your work be your guide and letting go of your fear.

The Backyard

 

Cardinal in the Backyard

This winter has been the mildest I have experienced since coming to Michigan a decade ago. We have had snow but not on the usual 'Michigan snow' scale. The snow shown here at the close of January, making the cardinal puff up his feathers to keep warm, has disappeared. The temperatures showing on the thermometer the past couple of days have more in common to the start of spring. In Michigan the mercury doesn't usually creep up much above freezing before April.

According to Punxsutawny Phil this could all change. In case you hadn't heard it's Groundhog Day and Phil (the groundhog) saw his own shadow indicating another six weeks of winter. So maybe it's not quite time to pack away the winter woolies, snow shoes, mittens and shovels. Nature will do its thing!