Art for the Office

We recently had carpets replaced at my workplace. This meant my furniture needed moved out and to those friends who know me well, you know that I love to rearrange furniture! Unfortunately, my office has a modular desk which can't be moved without taking it apart, so I jumped at the chance to figure out a new arrangement. In the past, the President of the company had to approve anything hung on the walls.  Even though he retired a number of years ago and the new President was not as strict, I have been hesitant in putting art on the walls because it is a large room and it would take a lot of art. I didn't want to hang my own art because I like to have them available for exhibits. After things were in place, my direct supervisor told me I really needed to personalize my office, so I thought it was time to figure it out.

I knew there was a good spot beside on one wall for a good size painting, but I didn't want to buy a new canvas. I had a piece of older 'ready made' art which was used in my previous house. It was a factory made, printed stretched canvas. I thought about just hanging this, but I really wanted something newer. I figured since it was just in storage anyway, I might as well see what I could do with it. I coated it with gesso and started messing around. Here are some process shots and the final painting. I think it is much better than the 'ready made' art and now I can say I have an original piece of art in my office.

"Ready made" - factory 'art'

 

My original office art

Beets me!

I decided to join the group painting at the MAC today. I had prepared a homemade pastel surface and toned it using gouache, ahead of time. I had gone to the grocery store with the intention to find some interesting produce to use for a reference. I found a pleasing bunch of beets with leaves and brought them home to take a number of photos.

I'm also practicing using the Blogsy App on the iPad. So we'll see how this goes! Process shots below.

 

 

 

 

 

"Beets Me!, pastel on homemade ground.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Worthington Area Art League Exhibit at High Road Gallery

I'm part of an exhibit with the Worthington Area Art League showing at the High Road Gallery this month. I didn't make it on Sunday to the reception, but yesterday on my lunch hour, I stopped by to see the show. It is a really nice show with a wide range of mediums.

I have two oil paintings in the show, and I was really excited to see that one of them is SOLD!

Cat Tails at Water's Edge  (SOLD)

 There is still one available (below) - the show is until Saturday, Feb. 23rd.

Triple Pears

Distractions....and finding Blogsy

I've been pretty distracted recently from the studio. I got rid of cable, but that hasn't kept me away from the TV.  I have discovered all the great things on Hulu Plus, let alone the Angry Birds game that came free on my streaming video device.... ;-)  and I haven't even bothered to subscribe to Netflix yet...

 

Then I got the new iPad mini and have been playing with that quite a bit. I really bought this to use on my upcoming vacation in April, so I wouldn't have to haul my laptop. I wanted it to be able to post on my travel blog (http://nartizttravels.blogspot.com/). Learning just how to work on the blog on the iPad has taken lots of time and investigation. Because my blogs are on the Blogger platform, one would assume that the free Blogger App from Blogger would be a simple thing. I found it very frustrating and SO limited in functions that it was a joke. I really think it is meant for an iPhone where you'd just want to take quick snapshots and load those to your blog. Certainly not useful for grabbing lots of photos from an album and writing text. I couldn't find ANY information on how to use the app, which is surprising as it is a Google product.

I messed around trying to find a different way of doing things, but eventually settled that I needed to purchase an App. You get what you pay for!I found that the most popular paid App for iPad is Blogsy. The app costs $4.99. I read the reviews at the App Store, and then went to Blogsy's webpage (http://blogsyapp.com/) and watched some of the video demonstrations. Because I am a visual person, seeing the videos were very helpful instead of just 'reading' how to use it. Blogsy works on 12 different blog platforms, so most people can use it. I have played around with the app a couple evenings, and it seems to be a really great product. I probably will use it most for the travel blog so I'll have to wait to see how that works out, as I tend to really take lots of photos for that.

If you are looking for a great app for blogging, check out Blogsy!

Second painting of the day.

I did this one quickly and wanted to keep it fresh. Love texture!

iPad Mini and Snow Painting

I bought an iPad Mini last week and have been figuring it out. Today I used it to display the photo to paint while using the Accuview app. You can see the grid and the value checker that is in the app. You can move the value checker around and resize it. I think it will take some practice to really use this tool correctly, but it was really nice to work from the digital photo..

I'm still enjoying creating my textured surfaces and this week found Peter Davidson's pastels online. He uses a homemade surface also, generally with a dark background. I decided to try this too, but using black gouache to tone my surface. You can see process shots following.

I really like how this one turned out. (I'm also trying out the Blogger app and need to figure out how it works!)