I am in the middle of an artist deep funk, as I like to call it! ; ( I'm having a hard time getting motivated. I don't think it's the sunny weather, but who knows! So after cleaning up some of my messes, although it still looks messy in here, I cut mats last night for the photo transfers I did recently as I was tired of looking at unmatted and unframed paintings. I think I made a decision, that I'm not going to frame these, and just mat them, put them in cellophane sleeves and sell them that way. Matted, they are 11x14, a standard frame size, and the buyers can purchase their own frame. Change it up a little at the gallery.
There are quite a few competitions/shows coming up. An international one in northern California with a deadline of March 18. I'm hoping to get in on Auburn's Art in the Park in May, and I'm still contemplating the Lodi National Juried Art Show. I've got to decide SOON - the deadline is Saturday!! Placer Artists League (PAL) also has their upcoming 30th Jubilee Juried Show. I have a good month before the deadline on that one. So many options, which ones to choose?!
I finally finished up with the High Hand Gallery's Artful Bra poster and related documents. That's a load off. Now I'm just concentrating on myself. I still need to complete the documentation I've been working on as hand-outs for the ArtFest at High Hand Gallery next month - March. Never a dull moment around here, even when I'm not "in the mood".
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
High Hand Gallery - Artful Sunday
A busy last few days. Sunday was Artful Sunday at the High Hand Gallery. I also was taking photos of all the early entrants for the upcoming Artful Bra Show scheduled for May 25th. These images would be the lucky ones that would have the opportunity to be used on all the posters and other mailers. Of course I had to set up the lights and a table with a backdrop for the artful bras that I would be photographing. And then because it was Artful Sunday, I was there to also take photos of the day to post on Facebook, which I actually haven't done yet! Ooops!
Monday I spent the majority of the afternoon in my studio with a friend of mine. She painted while I was downloading and re-sizing images from the day before. (I was supposed to be painting with her!) However, when I got done with the photographs, I did put on a layer of modeling paste onto a 15x30" canvas that I am going to be painting on - hopefully the subject will be trees. I love trees and I have several images of my own and other images from art magazines - between the two I should be able to come up with something. This will be a first for me to paint onto a canvas that has 'texture'! I have actually added texture to paintings before, but not like this.
Today - while it was snowing - I worked on the computer, creating the posters, the fliers, and other pictorial fliers for the Artful Bra Show. All day loooong! I'll say one thing, I'm learning about Power Point and PDF files all over again. It was starting to feel like I was back at work - and I've been retired now for almost eight years! It was a long day, but I got it done. Tomorrow I'll attend the Wednesday meeting and hopefully there won't be too many changes to these documents!
Monday I spent the majority of the afternoon in my studio with a friend of mine. She painted while I was downloading and re-sizing images from the day before. (I was supposed to be painting with her!) However, when I got done with the photographs, I did put on a layer of modeling paste onto a 15x30" canvas that I am going to be painting on - hopefully the subject will be trees. I love trees and I have several images of my own and other images from art magazines - between the two I should be able to come up with something. This will be a first for me to paint onto a canvas that has 'texture'! I have actually added texture to paintings before, but not like this.
Today - while it was snowing - I worked on the computer, creating the posters, the fliers, and other pictorial fliers for the Artful Bra Show. All day loooong! I'll say one thing, I'm learning about Power Point and PDF files all over again. It was starting to feel like I was back at work - and I've been retired now for almost eight years! It was a long day, but I got it done. Tomorrow I'll attend the Wednesday meeting and hopefully there won't be too many changes to these documents!
Friday, February 15, 2013
Digital Inkjet Prints
I have had many moments of frustration over an issue that some of you may have experienced with digital printing. The 'fogging' of the inside of the glass of a framed piece. Have you ever framed a digital piece, only to have to remove the matted image and clean off the glass - again? That is the result of an improperly dried digital print. I knew the images needed time to dry and I usually allow them to dry flat for a couple of days, but apparently sometimes that's not long enough. Or it might be long enough if you put a piece of paper over the image to help absorb the moisture that emits from the drying image. This is called an out-gassing fog from the glycol (a wetting agent that is used in all ink jet inks) and more specifically affects the RC photo ink jet papers Even though the fast-drying micro-porous papers like Epson's 'Premium' line, there is still water and glycol under its super-absorbent coating trapped inside. (I'm quoting some of this from a search I performed on the internet from Inkjetart.com).
On occasion I have been known not to always lay a piece of paper on top of the newly printed image, so now that I know the 'why' I will be more careful. Just an FYI for those who have had this issue. That's your small lesson for the day!
On occasion I have been known not to always lay a piece of paper on top of the newly printed image, so now that I know the 'why' I will be more careful. Just an FYI for those who have had this issue. That's your small lesson for the day!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
More Photo Transfers
It appears I have too many competing interests right now for me to 'plow' into my darkroom! ; ) New gallery in town I discovered with a friend, three upcoming events, having fun with my new Galaxy phone and it's photo options!, and more! I love the 'cartoon' setting! I took an image of an image of an image! Let me explain that one:
So I took an image of a garden setting in Carmel a couple years ago. I printed it out and turned it into a photo transfer. Then when I was playing around with my new phone and the cartoon setting, I made another piece of artwork! Crazy!
Over the weekend I did whip out a couple more photo transfers from my Zen garden stash of images. They came out really great! One thing I noticed was that ink jet ink can sometimes look dull on water color paper especially some of the transfer images that I don't add water color to. So I headed to the art supply store and found a digital finish gloss clear protective coating to spray on them. Well, it did work in that it toned down the flatness and gave it more rich-looking colors. However, the smell was unbearable! Yikes, next time if I have to use it I'll spray outdoors!
The other task I performed was that I created a 'gallery' on my web page for the Photo Transfers. That's also when I found out my website was 'full'. I've been wanting to design a new website anyway, since I've had this one since 2001, but just haven't gotten around to it. I don't know if I really have the time for that right now, so I just deleted several of my old galleries to make room for the newer stuff. Pretty easy fix!!
So I took an image of a garden setting in Carmel a couple years ago. I printed it out and turned it into a photo transfer. Then when I was playing around with my new phone and the cartoon setting, I made another piece of artwork! Crazy!
 |
| Transfer |
 |
| Original Photo |
 |
| Cartoon |
Over the weekend I did whip out a couple more photo transfers from my Zen garden stash of images. They came out really great! One thing I noticed was that ink jet ink can sometimes look dull on water color paper especially some of the transfer images that I don't add water color to. So I headed to the art supply store and found a digital finish gloss clear protective coating to spray on them. Well, it did work in that it toned down the flatness and gave it more rich-looking colors. However, the smell was unbearable! Yikes, next time if I have to use it I'll spray outdoors!
The other task I performed was that I created a 'gallery' on my web page for the Photo Transfers. That's also when I found out my website was 'full'. I've been wanting to design a new website anyway, since I've had this one since 2001, but just haven't gotten around to it. I don't know if I really have the time for that right now, so I just deleted several of my old galleries to make room for the newer stuff. Pretty easy fix!!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Digital Photography
Returned home from Monterey and Carmel for a little R&R. We were lucky to have great weather the whole time while we walked on the beach, went shopping, checked out the sites, and spent time just relaxing. I took a few pictures while on the beach. There was one - my favorite - of a young girl walking with her family and she was carrying a pretty bright lavender umbrella with a ruffle! Too cute. Waited for her to pass, and then she passed too far, so I had to put on my zoom lens. But I clicked off a few images and here's my favorite one, best of the four I took of her:
We managed to do some "art shopping" in our favorite gallery in San Juan Bautista called The Mission Gallery. Maybe you've been there. Awesome gallery as they deal mostly in etchings from artists located in California all the way to New York and France! I think the owner said there were less than 20 artists in the world, in this medium! Crazy stuff. Crazy awesome, that is! I love going to galleries as they are so inspiring - makes me want to get home and get creative! Here's another beach scene shot that I got on the last day. It's actually in color, but because of the time of day, the sun shining directly down on the scene it does look black and white, a silhouette.
We managed to do some "art shopping" in our favorite gallery in San Juan Bautista called The Mission Gallery. Maybe you've been there. Awesome gallery as they deal mostly in etchings from artists located in California all the way to New York and France! I think the owner said there were less than 20 artists in the world, in this medium! Crazy stuff. Crazy awesome, that is! I love going to galleries as they are so inspiring - makes me want to get home and get creative! Here's another beach scene shot that I got on the last day. It's actually in color, but because of the time of day, the sun shining directly down on the scene it does look black and white, a silhouette.
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