Family at the Comic Con 2014 Toronto

The family went to the Toronto Comic Con last week and was I impressed with all the artists there. They had over 5 alleys of Artists with many Action Hero Illustrators but I found myself most drawn to the below three artists.

Shilin Illustration

Talking to Shilin who's work was so delicate and beautiful, she said its hard being an artist and she actually studied to be a music teacher and art was her hobby. Now she is illustrating full time and creating some amazing comic books. Her sketch book was for sale at $35 and I was so tempted to buy it.

Rebecca Yanovskaya

The lovely Rebecca with her amazing work

Rebecca's work was done in ball point and gold leaf and I loved the ethereal characters and representations of the god-like characters. She was so sweet and helpful, even gave me a contact for a good art printer in Toronto. Le Pix if you are looking for one.

Lamin Illustration

I didn't get to talk to Lamin but his work was just as beautiful and I was standing there just drooling over the details. I so envy these artists who have mastered digital art. I am still mastering manual art so really don't know when I will get to the Wacom.

My babies Aaliyah & Layla along with me in the Artists Alleys.

I was most pleased to see that my daughters were as interested in the Artists as I was. The older one is studying Visual Art in High School, and the younger one is into cartoon illustration..........what can I say - the apples don't fall far from the tree.

LIFE is............

Halloween greetings you skeletons you!

via Shiny Plastic Hag blog

Garage sale find !!

Vintage Top Hat 

Original hat box 

Original hand written script showing hat was purchased for $4.00 back then

This is why we love garage sales! because you walk away with a Vintage Top hat in excellent condition in original hat box. I squeaked when I saw this lying at the garage sale we stopped by last weekend. It was covered in a beautiful black velvet and lined in red silk. Not a scratch on the hat but can't say the same about the box. I still am keeping the box though as the print and text is so cool. D will make me a stand for the hat which will go on my showcase alongside the sconces.

The funny thing was the hat was purchased back then for $4.00 and that was the exact same price I paid some fifty years later.

Summer time and the living is easy...........

Image via Oh Hello Friend blog 

With the great weather we have been having lately I have been thinking of the summer bbq's we will soon begin hosting. I would so love to have a set up like this.........with the oversized cushions and rattan shades....and projector....so perfect! 

Another world....

Google Art Project

If there is a company I would like to work for it would be Google..such innovators. The newest project they have come up with is called 'Google Art Project'. It allows one to view the artworks in various museums around the world from your desktop. Not only can you view the artworks but you can also take a virtual tour around the entire museum.

For artists like moi it allows us to zoom in on each painting to such a degree that I can analyze the colors used to paint the eye. Helps very much when studying value and brush strokes. Click here to read the article written by one of the innovators at Google and click here to get to the Google Art Project home page.

To give you an idea of the level of detail one can zoom into, see the pics below:

Marie-Antoinette de Lorraine-Habsbourg, Queen of France and her children

Beautiful Quote

Via the French By Design blog

Quotes

Via the Sacramento Street blog

Romaine Brooks

I have noticed my paintings are developing into a similar range of muted colors. I find I cannot use bright colors and end up graying my colors quite a bit. I also find my clothes and furniture are in a similar palette.  I guess this is what they mean by "Life imitates art or Art imitates life".......... Discovered this artist whose palette I can very much relate too, she is definitely bold in her choices for that period but I am loving the subdued palette and subject matter - ROMAINE BROOKS. Quite a life she led - read more here. 


Romaine Brooks (May 1, 1874 – December 7, 1970), born Beatrice Romaine Goddard, was an American painter who specialized in portraiture and used a subdued palette dominated by the color gray. Brooks ignored contemporary artistic trends such as Cubism and Fauvism, drawing instead on the Symbolist and Aesthetic movements of the 19th century, especially the works of James McNeill Whistler. Her subjects ranged from anonymous models to titled aristocrats, but she is best known for her images of women in androgynous or masculine dress, including her self-portrait of 1923, which is her most widely reproduced work.^[1]

Self Portrait (1923)

The Black Cap (1907)

Peter, a Young English Girl (1923–1924), a portrait of the artist Gluck

All images via the Little Augury Blog.

Madame de Sévigné's Gallery

via Parisatelier.blogspot.com

I want to paint this so much.....I have half a mind to source the 19th century dress from ebay and enlist one of the models from my art school..................hmmmm maybe I just can. My fingers are just itching.........the set up below is so period............

I know now what they meant when they said "When you start painting from live models you just cannot go back to painting from photographs.......I know exactly what they mean".

Paul Reeves - Ice Dancer

Have you ever heard a piece of music where you felt like closing your eyes and imagine yourself floating, you want to hear it over and over again and you desperately wish it was more than 2 mins long.............


................this piece does that for me. I have played it around 30 times today alone, got the girls humming it, playing it in my head and D royally pissed off! 

ENJOY - Ice Dancer by Paul Reeves.

What would you say to an artist just starting out?

What would you say to an artist just starting out?

Build up your self esteem to the level that might seem unwarranted. This will help you ignore both positive and negative responses to your paintings. Both are usually misguided, since they come from the outside. Be your most severe and devastating critic, while never doubting that you are the best thing since sliced bread. ~Alex Kanevsky


Alex Kanevsky is one of my favorite artists and often times I find myself going to his blog and spending hours staring at the layers within the layers. I am very drawn to impressionistic art and his work is like a cross between graphic + abstract + impressionistic. His website shows how he develops his paintings and it appears to change with each layer. So much confidence in every brush stroke. 

Perception Is Everything

This story was shared on Etsy and I want to share it with you...

Perception is everything:Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007.

A man played six Bach pieces on a violin for about 45 minutes. During that time approx 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:A3 year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly, as the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced them to move on.

45 minutes:The musician played. Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace.He collected $32.

1 hour:He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.


This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context? One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ....

How many other things are we missing?

From this thread on Etsy

Air Stream lust.........

So D and I have always wanted an Airstream.....last year at a vintage sale we were seconds away from committing to an aluminium skinned 1960s Airstream 25 feet land yacht with original fittings BUT our practical brains stopped us (seriously practical brain realized we don`t have a garage so where the hell would we park it!)

Anyway every time I see an Airstream I start drooling again...imagine turning up to an art show in an airstream that holds all my art......swoon!

Wanderlust is a vintage store that sells out of their vintage trailer............makes me so jealous. But seriously is she not the cutest thing ever!

Love your LIFE

Busy Bee that's me

I have decided to pursue my art full time and last Friday was my last working day in the corporate world. Today I have been busy cleaning up the studio, packing away my craft supplies as I make more room for my art stuff. D will be revamping the studio completely to make desk space for both of us as we both will be running our own businesses from home. He does contracting work while I will be selling my original artwork.

So the plan is to create desk space for both of us, increased storage for dedicated craft, art and screen printing supplies. I also need a racking system to store the finished oil paintings and somewhere to dry them. Luckily the studio is in our lower level and I can control the lighting with track lights. I think next year calls for a big yard sale and getting rid of everything that is piling up in the crawl space.

I don't have an image for this post but leave you with a link to one of my favorite artists Carol Marine - such a talented lady with such a distinct style.

www.carolmarine.blogspot,.com

via the blog 'When I grow up'

And today begins my creative journey..............!!

Here's to the Crazy ones

The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.


Back in 1998 my old boss sent this to me saying the words 'fit' me. Today August 20, 2010 I came across it in another blog.....exactly 12 years later...........


It's amazing how others can see 'us' more clearly than we see ourselves. 


To all the crazy ones...............

Change

Via The dreamy giraffe collection on etsy