(this article was contributed by Jade)

A had promised us an “entertaining” games session, and the air was filled with anticipation of perhaps, having to flex our muscles a wee bit more in the outdoors. There was that hint that it was an “outdoors” thing…

Well, surprise us he did, with an “outdoor” activity that involved each of us, being given our set of brushes, a wooden artist palette, a mini stand, canvas and also an acrylic paint set to paint! There was also a special “guide” on painting, provided by Artmakr, which guided one step by step on how to paint. (more…)

(visit alisha)

Just as there is a sort of prestige and heritage attached to ‘Oil Painting’. Acrylic paintings tend to be associated with ‘cutting edge, contemporary, high culture’.

(more…)

Can Art History be simple? Not likely. Yet these series of artworks by “the wine guy” manages to very humorously update and explain art history through a series of artworks in language that art geeks and tech geeks can understand.

See ART HISTORY FOR GEEKS flickr set

 Here are 3 of my favourites:

1. pwned
2. scream
3. God

 (I heard about this from 2 blogs that I follow bad language and Drawn , apparently alot of people are talking about this)

 Question:If this series of photos were in an art book, would they be considered art? and if so, what kind of art?

 Artwork copyright: Debbie Lincoln

We’ve BEEN TAGGED~By Jennifer Young

Here are the rules: 1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. 2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. 3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. 4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

 Five funky facts about me:

1. When a top art gallery snubbed my work, I almost stopped painting altogether.
2. This is the first time I’ve ever been tagged.
3. I am Chinese, but I don’t speak Chinese and I’m not from China
4. I have a personal blog
5. I try to wake up at 5 am every day. I don’t always succeed.

The 5 links I tagged below are artist (not all painters) I follow via rss.

• Edward B. Gordon
• Dave Walker
• Ashley Cecil
• Luis Colan
• Laurelines

 It’s really enjoyable to share some of the art I love. Share yours?

And even if you are not on the list, but reading this consider yourself tagged, and start sharing art!

This post  is part of a series called ‘Critiques On The Painting a Day Movement’.  By Elijah. You will find more of his excellent art critiques at Art&Critique.com

Where there is light, there is shadow

We all know how daily and frequent painting can benefit artists. It helps to develop commitment and self-discipline, it can prompt the systematic study of one particular theme, it can prove to be financially profitable and, it generally teaches about the sacrifices involved in constant creative labor. However, each one of these advantageous consequences withholds a darker side, which could potentially become more and more dominant and eventually transform the advantage into a disadvantage.

In this series of articles I would like to focus on the pitfalls of the One Painting a Day movement, and hopefully mark them as thought provoking — and avoidable.

The nature of success

Apparently, it may take up to a year, and usually less, to make it in the Internet art world. This is an incredibly short amount of time, especially considering that it will often take decades for an artist to build him or herself a reputation in the real world. It seems that it is easier, at least for now, to launch a painting career on the web. Basically, if you make good art and market it effectively, sooner or later you will begin to sell, receive compliments and even invitations to real tangible galleries — all of the indications of success.

Once achieved, it can inspire, but it can also dishearten. It may sound odd, but some artists may have real difficulties coping with success. It may pose psychological barriers that arise just as high as those of its opposite, the failure. Many artists are sensitive souls by nature, and sudden massive recognition may stifle a blooming career just as a continuous lack of attention would. But this doesn’t mean that one should avoid success: on the contrary, one only needs to keep the sense of proportion — something that shouldn’t be a problem for a painter.

What’s next?

I would like to take a closer look at those obstacles and suggest strategies on how to break them down, or walk around them, when possible. We will discuss the trickiness of financial success, the problems involved in mastering and exploiting a single niche, the addictiveness of One Painting a Day, the compatibility of the practice with the artist’s individuality, and so on and so forth. We will examine known examples not only from painting, but also from other creative spheres, because, after all, all artists make up a single great community.

Although not a painter myself, as an aspiring art critic and writer I draw from personal experience in relation to these fields. To familiarize myself with the topic, I took part in a “One Short Story a Day” initiative, which although lasted only for a week, gave me insight, perspective and a general deeper understanding of the subject. I hope that my detachment from painting will bring a touch of objectivity and dispassionate credibility to the reached conclusions. Though, I will be the first to admit, passion is what drives us all in this complicated thing called “art.”

A band of some of 12 Daily Painters, have formed a website: Dailypaintworks.com

This Band of artist include some of my favourite daily painters, as well as some painters, that I am happy to discover for the very first time! The artist featured are:

MICHAEL NAPLES - Solid Brushwork And Fresh Colours
 
SARAH WIMPERIS - Masterful Water Colours
 
KARIN JURICK - Rich Colour and Intriguing Subjects
 
PETER YESIS -Tender Oilpaintings
 
JUSTIN CLAYTON- Bright Light , Subtle Brilliance
 
TOM BROWN - Masterclass in simplicity
 
DARREN MAURER - Time Stopping
 
J MATT MILLER - Lively Still Life
 
QIANG HUANG - Light, Shadow and Colour
 
CAROL MARINE - Strong Brushwork
 
AARON LIFFERTH - Designer Paintings
 
BELINDA DEL PESCO - Dreamlike Paintings

THE SITE

Think of the new site, as a gallery of like minded Daily Painters. Latest works are available for sale, and the site also includes videos and workshops by the artist. There are other ‘Daily Painting Guilds’ like these, and each seem to have a subtly different collection of artist, while some artist appear in more than 1 group.

I look forward to following the progress of these individual Artist, as well as the progress of the various groups.

Here is a short list of Daily Painter Groups:

The Daily Painters Guild

Daily Painters Webring

Daily Painters Dot Com

and now

Daily Paint Works

Do YOU belong to a daily painter group? Give us a shout out in the comments!

+In Depth Art Critique +Themed Online Art Exhibit +A different kind of daily painter

Consider this an invitation… 

Click Here to Learn More!

photo credit: brian

     IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS (something like three or four years ago), we wrote news releases in hopes that they’d get us a big splash in a metropolitan newspaper or get picked up by the evening news. In other words, we wrote news releases for the traditional press. Notice that I didn’t call them press releases.  That’s because these days, news releases are dispersed on the Internet to an audience that is much larger than the traditional press.    These days, you write news releases for the world. Better put, you write news releases for your target audience.

Have an exhibit? Write a news release.

Receive an award? Write a news release.

Tackling a juicy topic on your blog that’s generating discussion? Write a news release.

Teaching a class? Write a news release.

Giving a gallery talk? Write a news release.

The format of the news release goes something like this.

1. Your name and contact information at the top. Always provide a phone number and email address and be prepared to respond to requests immediately. When your release piques the interest of the traditional press, they’ll want action ASAP.

2. News releases used to announce FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, but I understand this is no longer necessary when you’re immediately releasing them online.

3. A catchy heading with appropriate keywords and phrases that will get picked up by the search engines. Don’t be afraid to make it longer and spill over into a second row. You can even do a subheading if you find need for it. The subheading is an additional place for your keywords and phrases.

4. The body of the release (under the heading/subheading) opens with your location and date (called the dateline)–e.g. “Golden, Colorado, June 1, 2007–” and then launches into the text right after the “–”. It answers the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How that readers will be looking for. Those answers no longer have to be outlined in the first paragraph. Instead, you want to use that first paragraph to grab attention. Because releases are now online, they no longer need to be double-spaced nor do they need to stay on a single page. Aiming for 500 words or less might be a good goal for your release.

5. Signify the completion of your news release by typing “–END–” at the very bottom

Copyright 2007 Alyson B. Stanfield. Alyson takes the mystery out of marketing your art and making more money as an artist. Visit http://www.ArtBizCoach.com to get articles just like this one delivered to your inbox.

Everyone has heard of Leonardo DaVinci. But have any of you heard of M. Vänçi Stirnemann. By the end of this article you will have, but first:

What is an ATC?

(more…)

But before that, let me clarify what I think I know about daily painting .(and you’re all welcome to jump in and add your 2 cents in the comments below)

(more…)