Hithergreen class montage

I was so pleased with the watercolors put on my table for critique today that I grabbed my camera and shot a montage as seen in the demo mirror. I flipped the picture so you could see how the paintings actually look. Next time I'll pay more attention to how they're arranged on the table to show them off better.

They're working on my latest challenge now--to prepare a composition, select colors, and sketch it before bringing it to class on April 12 and painting it from start to finish in two hours. No pressure, eh? I can't wait to see what they do.

Taos Photoshoppers still at it

Rick Finney, Bev Teagle, and Jerry Walter are still creating awesome artwork based on ideas from The New Creative Artist, using Photoshop digital editing as their medium. Now that I'm taking a Photoshop Elements class I'm even more amazed at what they do. The abstract is "Planetary Surge" by Rick Finney. Here he describes some of his Photoshop techniques.

Next is Jerry Walter's "On Oak Avenue, Elkader Iowa." He used a watercolor effect on a photograph through many layers. I've never seen a Photoshop watercolor that looked so much like the real thing. I love the intense color. The details of the trim on the porch and roof are wonderful. Here's a video interview with Jerry that describes his process and photography.

Bev Teagle has made a collage-style Photoshop artwork, combining several photographs and blending them together. This is something we're learning to do in the PSE class, along with how to restore old photographs.

I know Photoshop Elements isn't as powerful as Photoshop, but it's amazing what you can do with it, from composing a painting to value sketches to planning color schemes. Your photo can be the art or it can be part of the planning process for a painting.

All hat and no horse

The g-kids spent an afternoon with us recently and talked Granddaddy into pulling a couple of his cowboy hats off the closet shelf. This is the only photo I got where you could see Daniel's face. The crown of his hat is bigger than his head. Very funny.

The Red Paper Series

Town & Country Fine Art Center announces THE RED PAPER SERIES 2010
· Wednesdays, April 7th - May 26th, 2010 - Time: 1 - 3pm
· Eight weeks of free art classes for adults affected by life-altering illnesses
· Location: Town & Country Fine Art Center, inside the Town & Country Shopping Center at 300 E Stroop Rd in Kettering, Ohio - back, center entrance
· Contact Town & Country Fine Art Center 937-293-5381 to sign up for classes
· Classes will be introductory sessions designed for the enthusiastic beginner.

Materials will be provided.

I highly recommend this program. A fantastic group of artists will teach the classes:
· April 7 - Karen Benedetti - mixed media/collage
· April 14 - Trish McKinney - watercolor
· April 21- Leonard Williams -drawing
· April 28 - Bonnie Kuntz & Ardis Macaulay - mixed media
· May 5 - Sharon Stoltzenberger - watercolor/drawing
· May 12 - Lynn Herron - colored pencil
· May 19 - Jana Song Bobo - jewelry
· May 26 - Rosie Huart - bookmaking/poetry

TheArtsMap.com

I received the following email from collage artist Jonathan Talbot about a new Web site that has some interesting possibilities. The message below is excerpted from his email:

These challenging times call for new ways of connecting artists with clients, collectors, curators, and each other.

Imagine that you are traveling to a part of the country you have never visited before and you want to find artists whose studios you can visit or whose works you can see in galleries. Imagine how difficult that would be and then imagine how difficult it is for people to find you. Most people want to search for artists by location and medium and up to now there has been no internet site which made that easy. That is why my colleague Robin Colodzin and I have created theartsmap.com.

theartsmap.com is an interactive worldwide map of artists, studios, arts organizations, museums, and more. The Arts Map allows users to search by medium, location, educational opportunities, type of organization, etc.

Clickable map markers provide detailed information about artists, their work, their studios, art galleries, museums, art schools, and arts organizations. Most markers also contain an image and a link to a website or blog.

Map markers on are user-generated. It takes just a few minutes to input information about your artwork or studio.

During the website's start-up phase, 12-month listings on theartsmap.com are free and completely without obligation. You are invited to visit theartsmap.com and see how it works. To create your map marker, click on "create account."

In order to receive your free 12-month listing you will need a "checkout code."
Please use the checkout code: FYFJAN. Please know that Robin and I believe
that theartsmap.com will become a valuable resource for all of us and
eventually we do plan to charge a modest fee for listings but right now 12-month listings are still entirely free and you cannot be billed.

I hope you will visit theartsmap.com and put your art, your studio, or your gallery "on the map." I also hope you will forward this e-mail (including the checkout code) to as many folks as possible so that www.theartsmap.com can realize its potential.

Check out the maps: Jonathan and Robin have subscribers from all over the world in every imaginable art medium. TheArtsMap is in Beta version and its future will be determined early in 2011. As Jonathan says in the paragraph above, you can help this project realize its potential by registering now for a free listing at theartsmap.com Pass the word along to your Facebook and Twitter friends, as well.