Have You Ever Felt Like Starting Your Own art Group?

Some 20-25 years ago, I took a short nightschool class in painting. Afterwards I wanted to continue in a less formalised group but found that local groups did not cater for what I required. A few other students from the class felt the same way and so we decided to start our own group. A momentous decision since none of us had any experience of thjis sort of thing.

This was to be called The Knowle Art Group, read our web page to find out about us

I have been involved in running that group for most of this time, and in fact also joined a second group for a few years where I was involved with committee work and so had my share of experiences from there. This was a learning experience, I had never done anything like this before but it has worked out very well and that first group has become a successful, not-for-profit undertaking. It has gone up and down in numbers ( 6 to 40 at various times) but has proved an ability to last the course. Only last month a similar, small art group requested to amalgamate with us as they could no longer finance themselves due to a fall off in numbers. This has improved our own situation and so we were glad to agree for them to join us.

How do you start such a group, and how do you manage it? With this experience I thought I could answer the main questions and so have written an article on Squidoo to explain how we did it and also how you could too. Read: How To Start And Run You Own Art Group. This covers deciding on the aims, the venue, financing, administration and building the membership.

I did it, you can too

Some of the members concentrating on their latest art work.

For us one of the biggest benefits is the ability to hire professional demonstrators three or four times a year to help with development of our skills. This supplements the support and encouragement we provide for each other. But there is nothing like hanging your art in an exhibition for the world to see and admire and maybe even buy the odd piece of art. In order to make it easier (and less expensive) to hold exhibitions the group designed and created  our own exhibition boards. I have also written a Squidoo article explaining how and why these have proved very useful and giving details if you find that you would like to make some for yourselves. Read: An Inexpensive Display Board For A Leisure Painter's Group.

 

The boards in use at an exhibtion:

 

 

Hope these articles help you to start your own group successfully.

How to use the colour wheel - for artists

Well as it is the holiday period I have not managed to get any painting done, but I thought that I would remind you of a squidoo lens, How to use the colour wheel for beginners. Use it for a little revision, to bring some sparkle into your paintings.

And on the subject of revision - do you paint abstract art? It is a great practice genre for ensuring that you fully understand and make use of composition, including the use of colour. Try this simple introduction if you need any help to get started.

I have also created two squidoo lenses on a technique or methodology which you can use to practice abstract painting. Let yourself go - its great for relaxation anad surprisingly it really does help to loosen up your art work. Try:

• Learn to paint abstract art
• A step-by-step method for abstract art

I do stress that they are not intended to create masterpieces (and I have deliberately used poor paintings as examples) ; rather it is a method for helping to free up the way a painter used to realistic representation creates art. It is purely for practice.

Of course, it could be used for finished work but then the artist could probably have done it anyway.

Hopefully more new work next time.

Pastel Painting -Spring

This painting is in my normal style for pastel paintings but the subject is not one which I am really happy with. The background and water are fine but the bank on the LHS contains many individual flowers. I have not drawn/painted them in any botanical detail but still I was not in my comfort zone.

I have attempted to vary the size and tone to create some recession but not sure wether I am happy with the outcome, also it is far too divided into the four zones; forest on the far bank, sky, water and the yellow flowers on the near bank. I have used colour, sparingly, to try and bring some sort of overall belonging to these four zones. I am not however sure that the compostion works. Still, I am always happy to post my failures as well as my imagined successes. Let me know what you think.

New page on Squidoo, Texture with Pastels

I have just published a new article (=lens) on Squidoo. I have posted a number of times on here about pastel paintings and the wonderful texture that it is possible to obtain. I have decided to share this technique more widely and have written the article with examples of my own art work to demonstrate the technique.

The article can be found under the title, Creating Texture With Artist's Pastels.

Of course I have posted all of the examples in this blog before but I have written a much more joined-up article to describe the technique in detail. From an overall initial layer, often in a complementary colour to the process od adding details and texture a little at a time. Sometimes using a little blending, but always fixing the pastels right up to the very light, final stages so that mixing of colours on the paper does not happen.

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I mentioned that I had had difficulty finding another source for the ATC sized canvasses which I have been using lately. Problem solved, the original supplier has now got replcement stocks. I am going to stock up with them, enough to last me for sometime to come.

More Zazzle products with the same pastel painting - Moonlight

I posted my new painting in the last post, called "moonlight" and showed it on a stretched canvas available from Zazzle. I have now put it on a few more products of which here is a small sample.

Moonlight and tree poster by artyfax
Browse other Moonlight Posters

Moonlight Birthday card by artyfax
Design unique personalized note cards from zazzle.com.

Moonlight and tree postcard by artyfax
View more Artyfax Postcards

Moonlight and tree pillow by artyfax
See more Pastel Pillows

I would usually not include so many examples of products but I am very pleased with this painting and have started designing many products using the image. You can of course see a much larger image of this painting on my flickr account.

Although it is typical of the way I use pastels to create texture in the painting, in the large image you can actually see the texture as the fixing agent has dried and shrunk if you look carefully. Almost like a crackle paint finish. This in itself is not typical and I put it down to the paticular ground I have used for this painting. I am not careful about the board that I use, often using any old card that happens my way. Sometimes these can be around for a very long time and I forget where they come from. Maybe this is not a good approach?

Texture in pastel paintings

I am writing an article on the way that I achieve texture in my pastel paintings. I have posted many of them here on my blog but do not often include images of work in progress. In the article there are at least two with more than four stages included and some with two stages. It should be available in the next few days on Squidoo. I will include a link to this as soon as it is complete. In fact it will be here but will not be available until it is published.

I work in layers so that I can work the colours of the layers against each other as I build up the painting. It is a process I found for myself whilst learning how to use pastels but it is probably not new or unique but does give excellent results. As I worked it out for myself I like to think of it as "mine" but don't bite my head off.

My work space at the art group

set up for pastel work

note the pastel sticks, I always work with a limited palette

This shows the work after two layers of pastel, note the texture

After red and purple and black colours added, the start of the detail layers

At this point all layers are fixed

The moon is painted 

The sillouette of the tree is painted (these last details are not fixed)

You will be able to read fuller details in the article on Squidoo, I hope you will find it interesting.

This painting is now available on Zazzle as a canvas print and will soon be available on posters and other products.

Moonlight Gallery Wrap Canvas by artyfax
View other Pastel Canvas Prints

Beach Scene: miniature acrylic canvas

I am still going strong with these miniatre canvases, only one this week but the group had an influx of fourn new members and I had a little "admin" to take care of. A small group, even smaller than us, had decided to wind up as it was difficult for them to pay their Hall rental. Still wanting to paint every week they had decided to ask if they could join us. We of course were delighted to welcome them into our fold, as it eases the financial issues for us of course.

Anyway back to the point of this posting, an empty beach with a stand of trees in the near distance. there should have been a couple of bathers but I am still wondering how to best depict them on such a small scale. I may pluck up courage next time and will update the image if I do.

The one thing that I have to say about this image id the overall lack of contrasts of tone. Colour contrasts are fine but we all know that tonal contrasts are what makes the image zing. I toned down the beach and the clouds and am unhappy. Here again, I will be trying to make up for this. Something that can be done in acrylic I am happy to say. Maybe I had other things on my mind.

What do you think?

So there it is: more tonal contrast on the beach and in the clouds and a couple of bathers in the mid-distance. Shouldn't be too much to ask?

I think I now have enough of these to write a Squidoo lens on the subject. My experience with a new medium and how I approached painting miniatures. Why not? Oh and yes they will be going up for sale sometime soon, just trying to settle on a selling price - or in the case of Ebay an opening bid. I will be posting results when (and if) I sell my first miniature canvas.