Review of Confident Color book

Charley Parker posted an insightful review of my book over the weekend. Here's the link to his Lines and Colors blog. While you're there, mark Charley's blog as a favorite. His commentary on artists of the past and present, including fine artists and designers, as well, are always informative and entertaining.

Art Babble

Charley Parker of linesandcolors blog discovered this great site that offers "Play Art Loud," a collection of museum and art-related videos. The selection looks really interesting and I can't wait to get some time to watch some of them. Go on over to Charley's blog to read his commentary, then check out the site from there.

Disk cleanup

I've spent two days doing computer chores I haven't had time to do for months. Last year I bought a 200G backup drive to be sure I had the artwork for the book safely backed up. Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of tinkering with files, so every time I changed a directory or file name, the whole thing was backed up again on the hard drive. I don't know how many copies I had of all those images, which were TIFF and CMYK files--huge. That big hard drive was almost full. So I cleared out the duplicate files and removed my HP printer from my computer to make room for a new Epson that's on the way. Add/remove balked. It took me a long time to get rid of all the printer files on both hard drives and I finally got rid of the printer by putting in the installation CD and clicking all the .exe files until I found the uninstaller. Why do they make it so hard? That done, I defragged the C drive, which took a couple of hours. The backup drive is almost finished, after six hours. Now I remember why I haven't done it for months.

By the way, Charley Parker has a great blog on Walt Kelly , father of the Pogo comic strip, one of my favorites. Not to be missed.

Caravaggio on the Power of Art tonight

Read what Charley Parker has to say today about Caravaggio on Lines and Colors. I'll be interested to see which of Caravaggio's many personalities is revealed in the PBS show tonight (Monday). This artist's paintings have always seemed larger than life to me and apparently that was what he himself was like.

Frida Kahlo on Charley Parker's blog

What would I do in these trying times without Charley Parker's lines-and-colors blog? He has a blog today on Frida Kahlo that is his usual well written and researched material, complete with links. Frida Kahlo is not a favorite with me. If she were alive today, she wouldn't be one of my best friends. But there is no doubt that she has her place in the history of art. Charley does a good job of summing her up. Check it out.

How not to design a web site

Every artist who has or would like to have a web site should read Charley Parker's rant on web site design. He hits the nail on the head on nearly every point. I reread it this morning, including the 88 comments, which were interesting, too. Most felt the article was right on. Some didn't like the negative approach and sarcastic tone (which, by the way, isn't at all typical of Charley's posts). A few were highly critical or downright nasty, almost as though they missed the point entirely.

Take some time to read the entire article and the comments. There's a lot of valuable information there and it's free. It looks like Charley is planning to follow up this post with helpful how-to articles, soon to be released. Stayed tuned.

Charley Parker on Edward Hopper

Charley Parker has another great blog, this time on Edward Hopper, with lots of links for more information and images. I couldn't begin to put together all the links Charley does in his informative essay. Thanks, Charley!

Charley Parker reviews The New Creative Artist

One of the blogs I read on a regular basis is lines and colors. Charley Parker writes in depth of contemporary art, artists and illustrators and also of museum exhibits and master painters. His reviews include links to many images and references. I learn a great deal from his blog and have linked to it often.

Charley has reviewed The New Creative Artist. His blog audience is probably an edgier group of artists than I wrote the book for, but he nevertheless found it to be worthwhile. It takes a lot of time to do a book review. Thanks to Charley for taking a good look and writing about my book.

Jan van Eyck

Charley Parker's blog describes van Eyck's Arnolfini double portrait in some detail, and also explains early techniques of tempera and oil painting as used in the 15th century. He links to several other van Eyck paintings and museum sites worth exploring. Sit back and browse awhile.

Drawing book review

Bert Dodson's new book Keys to Drawing With Imagination. (North Light, 2006) is subtitled "Strategies and Exercises for Gaining Confidence and Enhancing Your Creativity." This may be my new favorite drawing book--sounds like a perfect fit with The New Creative Artist. The book is reviewed on Charley Parker's Lines and Colors blog.

Georges de la Tour--One of my all-time-favorite painters

Charley Parker on his Lines & Colors blog features Georges de la Tour. I'm amazed at his mastery of chiaroscuro and his representation of light. Follow the links at the bottom of the blog for more images.

Americans in Paris at the Met

Charley Parker has a great article about the current exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Read his article and check out all the links. Delightful!

Rembrandt on Lines and Colors

Charley Parker is celebrating Rembrandt's 400th birthday. He lists great resources on this amazing artist. You'll want to bookmark this one.

You can draw!

Charley Parker posted a great blog today on Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. If you think you have no talent or creativity, read Charley's blog and then get that book. You can use it as a self-study course if you're really motivated to learn to draw. My son taught himself to draw this way when he was in his thirties.

Rembrandt: Don't miss it!

Charley Parker has posted another winner: Rembrandt: life, paintings, etchings, drawings and self portraits. Read Charley's commentary before going to the site. Allow plenty of time to browse and study the elegant drawings and paintings of one of the greatest masters of European art.

Essential Vermeer

Charley Parker of lines and colors blog describes a fabulous site on artist Johannes Vermeer. Read Parker's column before exploring several links to the world of Vermeer and his paintings.