After reading an article in the newspaper about the closing of a local gallery, I am reminded of years past. Through out my history as an artist, I have spent a lot of time perusing in various gallery settings. What I have learned in that time about art has been extremely beneficial to my personal artistic goals.
One of these situations that stands out is a local gallery that I worked in for a short time. What I learned from this gallery owner has carried over into my own art sales and other exhibits (both as curator and exhibiting artist). In my life as an artist I can’t recall ever learning as much as I did in the short time I worked in this gallery.
The gallery owner I am referring to was the biggest catalyst in helping me to begin painting after so many years of no longer being able. We were friends for a time until my code of ethics and her group of ambitions collided. (That’s a nice way of putting it) In this situation business and friendship didn’t mix; or rather “All is fair in love and war”. That statement is not a business practice I will ever adopt.
Furthermore, as I have spent so much time building websites and promoting events of other artists and art galleries I have taken great part in development of these careers. But as much as I may have helped, ultimately each person is responsible for whatever success they have achieved and for me to stake claim in developing those careers; to say that I was responsible for them would be a vanity move and incorrect. It would be classier to say I felt fortunate to have been a vehicle to helping those careers rise.
Sometimes galleries fail because you give up on them and no longer wish to keep them alive. It isn’t the neighborhood. Aside from learning what to do in the art world from this person, I also learned what not to do. That information has also been very valuable in building my own career.
Although I will always be grateful to this individual I understand why things work out the way they do. My future is heading where it should. I belong to growing galleries and my future is bright.
Good luck to her in all her endeavors.
Its interesting the the compositions you find exploring . I have spent the last few days covered in a layer of introspection. I have been trying to give credit to where I have been so I can continue to move forward. Like many artists, I don’t always see the value in my work as much as others. But there are some images that I always enjoy.
Looking back on things I have painted and things I have drawn- it is my digital art that always gets me jazzed to continue to create. I have only been a digital artist for a few years, where as I painted for a lifetime. But my digital art is a much more complete body of work that truly represents directions I am moving in.
This particular image is one of my earlier fractals. I use that statement loosely as I have only been creating fractals for a few years.
There are a whopping 11 layers that create this composition. This is a fractal created from the Mandelbrot set of complex numbers. I have tried my hand at tinkering with many public formulas but Mandelbrot still remains my favorite.
“Egyptian Haze” full image size is 24×36. And it prints beautifully at full size and smaller sizes. Most of my images have an organic feel, but this one appeals to me because of the hard lines of the geometric shapes that create this composition.
Created in “Ultra Fractal” Render time 18 hrs and 47 minutes.
Well, I believe that the First Friday Receptions went rather well. It was quite hot on Friday but not near as hot as it was on Saturday. I spent the first part of the evening at The Upstage Gallery for the “History of the Cinema” reception. There was a really good turn out and the crowd got larger through out the evening. We were joined by the Irie Tribal Dance Company for entertainment. The crowd always loves them- they are a lot of fun to watch.I have already begun working on this juried art competition for next year. I am shooting for a bigger turnout for entries and spectators.
I spent the second part of the evening at The Eclective. At that gallery I have quite a few images on display including the image in this post entitled “Bouquet”. I got quite a few nice comments on this image. Its a fractal image created with 4 layers. The print on display is 24×36 priced at $400. As usual, The Eclective receptions are fairly large being apart of the NOTO Arts District.
I definitely had an art filled weekend. I spent Saturday hanging out with Renee at The Mulvane Art Fair. It was unbearably hot! The best part about the event was the collective talent of the artists showing. Renee is still their today but it was too hot for me to go back.
In any case, for this month I have almost 30 images on display at The Eclective that will show through June. But I am already working on images for July shows. Not to mention a few new ideas that I will post later.
Well…this year’s first annual juried art show “History of the Cinema” has been judged. There were some interesting entries, although not as many as I would have liked. In any case, I was particularly pleased with the works submitted. What was most interesting about this show was the cinematic interpretations that were submitted. The gallery is now riddled with images of Marilyn Monroe, silent film stars and tribal dancers.
This show was judged but Angela Lexow and Fernando Pezzino. It seemed an odd match at first, but in the end I was happy with the judges I chose. I had no doubts about Angela, as I know her personally, but I had never met Fernando.
As curator of this gallery, I was present for the judging but stayed out of their way. In a short amount of time they agreed upon the winning entries and on Sunday we will announce the winners at the reception in the gallery.
After working really hard to put this show together…we are nearing the end. And as the show hangs for spectators to appreciate, it is now time to focus on the next Upstage Gallery exhibit for August and September: Robert Ash and Renee Johnson.
I expect this next show will be a lot of fun but also a lot of work.
To be able to create beautiful visual designs, you must first learn about the elements and principles in designing. What are design elements and principles? Elements refer to the basic units of a design, while design principles comprise the structural characteristics of the design’s composition. Both elements and principles are applied to all disciplines of visual designs, they may even sometimes overlap. There are many fields of visual design, to wit, fine arts, graphic design, architecture, industrial design, among others.
A design is basically a structured display of various design elements and principles. It is made in such a way as to serve an intention.
There is a wide variety of design principles. They largely depend both on the beliefs of the individual designers, and the many points of view of different art groups.
Design Elements
Let us first learn about the design elements.
- Space
Space alludes to the part you will use for your design. Space could be two dimensional- that is with a height and width; or three dimensional with a height, width and length. It also involves a foreground space, middle ground space and a background space. It could also mean areas or distances within, between and around components of a piece.
Space is of two types: positive and negative. The space that holds the subject is called the positive space. While the space between and around the subject is the negative space.
- Line
Line as a design element refers to any unbroken movement of a point on a surface. For example, a brush or pencil stroke that forms the edges of shapes. Without lines and curves you cannot create the forms and shapes for your design.
There are different kinds of lines such as horizontal, vertical, curve, zigzag, diagonal, wavy, dash, parallel and dotted lines. Each line is characterized by its thickness, length and direction.
- Color
Colors are grouped into primary, secondary or tertiary. Colors on opposite sides of the color wheel are called complementary colors. These are usually employed when you want to create contrast in your design. If the colors are adjacent to each other on the color wheel, they are referred to as analogous colors. These are useful in making harmony. Monochromatic colors, meanwhile, are different hues of one color. Red, yellow and orange shades are classified as warm colors. Cool colors, on the other hand, are shades of blue, green and purple.
You can see colors by light bouncing off of a surface or by using light sources with colors. You may use color, specifically contrasting color, to put focus on a particular point in the design.
- Shape
Shape is basically a space that stands apart from its surroundings due to a boundary set around it. This boundary could be explicit or implied. Boundary could be made by drawing lines or curves, of by contrasting colors, texture and value. Shapes can be organic or geometric.
In design, shapes can be used to define perspective by overlapping them. Shapes in interior design and house décor are used to define the style, theme and interest. It really depends on the function of the object. Natural shapes such as wood and stone patterns improve the visual appeal in interior design and decorating. In landscaping, natural shapes like trees can be used in contrast to geometric shapes like houses.
- Texture
Texture refers to the quality of the surface. There are two kinds of texture in art- tactile texture and implied texture. Tactile, or real, texture refers to the actual feel of the surface. Real texture can be felt on rock, fur, tree bark, cotton, sand paper and the like. Implied texture, on the other hand, alludes to how the surface seems to feel, visually. This kind of texture is employed by artists in their drawings or paintings. They can create objects that look like rough, gritty, fizzy, even if they cannot be actually felt.
- Form
Form refers to any object that has length, width and depth. The dimensions of a form are measurable. A form can be organic (a.k.a. natural), or geometric (a.k.a man-made). You can make a form by joining at least 2 shapes. Forms can be constructed into 3D creations or they could be drawn. Forms can be modified using color, tone and texture.
- Value
Value is also known as tone. It refers to the balance or contrast of dark and light on an object or surface. It enhances form as it provides depth and perception to the object.
Principles of Design
The principles of design administer all the elements used in an art work. They put to order the composition of the work. A good visual design is able to achieve the artist’s intent with the use of both design elements and principles. There is no set of guidelines or rules in using them. The right combination of elements and principles depends on the artist’s purpose.
The following are the design principles:
- Unity
Unity renders the work complete and unified. It refers to a feeling that everything in it are truly in their right places. By using repetition, harmony and/or balance, you can achieve unity.
- Contrast
Contrast makes use of opposing elements, such as size, value, color and others. It is important in drawing attention to a focal point in your work. It adds interest.
- Variety
Variety, or alternation, utilizes different elements to create distinctiveness and fascination. In interior design, variety is applied to prevent monotony. For example, by placing a painting on a wall or adding color to a house décor to enhance beauty.
- Emphasis
This is also referred to as dominance or focal point. Emphasis guides the viewer toward and out of an image. This is accomplished with the use of varying levels of focal points, such as primary, secondary, tertiary focal points, and so on. Emphasis, thus, means not giving all objects in a work the same treatment. One object is more dominant than the rest. You can give more emphasis to an object by any of the following: putting it in the foreground, increasing its size, making it more intricate or sophisticated, and others. Emphasis makes the art work more organized and gives it direction. Remember, the biggest emphasis should be given to the primary focal point in a design.
- Balance
Balance gives the art work a feeling that the dominant focal points are not placed in any one part of the work. You could employ symmetrical balance, asymmetrical balance or radial balance. Balance in a design could be accomplished by strategic placing of things, varying sizes and volumes of objects, and different colors. You can balance bold colors by adding lighter, neutral colors. While light colors can be balanced off by dark colors.
What is Contemporary Fine Art?
This is a good question for discussion; what is contemporary fine art? We are contemporary to modern times. No one should be sneered at for not knowing that The Art World has its own separate definitions for each of these terms.
Are modern art and contemporary fine art different?
In any other instance, the English language pretty much allows for “modern” and “contemporary” to be swapped at will, but not in this case. As you have already guessed, the single most important thing anyone needs to know about Modern Art is that Modern Art and Contemporary Art are two different things altogether.
A good rule of thumb is:
- Modern Art: Art is the period from the Impressionists (say, around 1880) up until the 1960′s or 70′s.
- Contemporary Art: Art is the period from the 1960′s or 70′s up until this very minute.
In Art History, Modern Art started with the winding of the Impressionists While this is acceptable, strong arguments can be (and have been) made that Modern Art does not have a fixed date in particular and that it began at a variety of different dates. Depending on the survey course that a person has taken, Modern Art can be said to have begun with:
- The early 1800′s Romanticism,
- The 1830′s Realism,
- Daguerre’s announcement, in 1839, that a direct positive image method was invented by him.
- The writer Baudelaire who, in 1846, called upon artists to “be of their time”,
- 1874’s The first Impressionist show or
- The “-isms” of the 1880′s (Tonal-, Symbol-, Post-Impression- and Neo-Impression-)
So then, which of above is right? Well, all we can say is that none of them are “wrong” for sure. (Here, it was simply a case of “1880″ working out well, for me, in terms of organization.) To keep it simple, let’s just agree on the fact that Modern Art began in the 19th-century, and ran through a whole slew of “-isms” up until the end of the 1960′s.
Regardless of chosen starting date, the crucial factor is that Modern Art means: “The point at which artists (1) felt free to believe in their inner visions, (2) express those visions in their creations, (3) use Real Life (social issues and images from modern life) as a source of inspiration and (4) experiment, innovate and be creative as often as possible.”
I know it’s wordy! Art has gone its own mess to deal with. It’s often easier to make it, than to try to explain it – and making it can be about as natural and easy as childbirth, it just takes some days. But that’s Modern Art (and Modern Life) for you. Say, now that you’re sure about the meaning of contemporary fine art, why not go have some fun poking around in all of those delicious “-isms”?
We are having an art sale online! Our images can help provide a visual and aesthetic appeal to your home. This is an opportunity to buy art from artist at a much lower price. Ranging in styles from abstract to figurative, it will not be hard to find a print that suits your tastes and styles. We provide you with the option to purchase a print that is large enough to cover an entire wall or smaller prints.
All or our prints are affordable which will allow you to make a firm statement or tell a story to your guests. We make it possible to collect fine art of high quality that is colorful and full of life.
These prints are of contemporary prints printed on museum quality papers.
Drawing facial features ( just as drawing feet and hands) is not easy. It takes a lot of practice and even then it is still hard.
A good rule of thumb when drawing figures is if you can’t draw it then don’t draw it- suggest it.
What I mean by that is if you draw every little line and wrinkle if it is not photo perfect detail it may hurt your drawing rather than just using a few significant lines and gestures placed just so to give the viewer the feel of the feature instead. Like some of the impressionists and post-impressionists did. Specifically artists like Seurat.
Here is one for Seurat:
http://www.artic.edu/artexplorer/search.php?artistname=40810&tab=1&just=2
Your drawing might have more impact with suggestions. You don’t always need all the details. The viewer will still read it as the feature that the lines represent.
To get a good idea of where or how to place a line that suggests the feature- try squinting at it and that will help you see the shadows and outlines as opposed to the feature as a whole.
If you are reading this you are wondering where to buy art online. Fine art prints offer a wonderful opportunity to give your home an aesthetic appeal that has an elegant quality. You will also be able to add an ambiance that provides a homey, comfortable feeling that tells a story about your personality.
If have been asking yourself “Where can I buy art online?” ask no more. Each of the prints that we offer will offer possibilities of adding charm and new life to your space. These fine art prints are affordable in an effort to allow every the pleasure involved with building an art collection.
At long last- my digital artwork for sale is finally online! It has taken some time but I am pleased to announce that my fine art digital prints can once again be purchased safely and securely through this web site. All of my works are created with Ultra Fractal, Bryce, Poser, Groboto, Corel painter, Photoshop and combinations of these programs.
I like to create large images that are full of color and detail. I will continue to add images and other prints as they are available. But for now- I am just happy to be back online! Please visit my galleries to view fine art digital prints
