Book news

I have much to catch up on, but will start with these tidbits about Confident Color. The Painting for Pleasure Book Club in the UK has bought the book for its main selection. I received copies of the book from my publisher yesterday. This is such a thrill. Four of my books have been translated into foreign languages (German, French, Chinese, and Dutch), but this is the first international book club.

Also, The Watercolour Gazette published by Eileen Korponay of Manitoba has reviewed the book. I received a copy of the print edition last week. Thanks, Eileen for your informative review. The current issue also includes a review of Aquabord Claybord (Textured) and suggestions for its use. Eileen's Workshop in this issue consists of 3 pages on Painting Zinnias. Other articles include artist features, brush tips, online tips and essays. There are also listings of shows and workshops. Watercolour Gazette is an amazing little magazine.

Celebrating 14 years

Eileen Korponnay has come through with another tip-filled issue of Watercolour Gazette, a magazine that she has published for fourteen years in Manitoba, Canada. We've never met, but Eileen and I go way back on the Web. We've shared ideas on publishing and art marketing and I've written some articles for her magazine in exchange for book reviews and advertising. Her magazine is small but jam-packed with watercolor tips and tricks. It was originally more like a newsletter, but now is up 26 pages on heavy magazine stock with illustrated articles, plus workshop and exhibition listings. Eileen has a loyal following in Canada and I hope she will continue to publish her helpful magazine for a long time.

Digital image delivery

I just finished an article over the weekend for Watercolour Gazette magazine, a Canadian publication produced by Eileen Korponay of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The mag started over thirteen years ago in a newsletter format and has become a very nice, useable resource with lots of ideas, tips and techniques. I've written several articles for Eileen over the years and she has reciprocated by reviewing my books. I used snail-mail to send small illustrations to her for my articles, but this time I had some digital images I wanted to use. I converted my high-resolution tiff files to grayscale and adjusted the value range where needed. Then I resized the files to 200 dpi at a print size of about 5" x 8". The files were still pretty big--between one and two MB--so I sent six emails with a different file in each. I have broadband, so I could have put more than one in each email, but I wasn't sure Eileen has it. She says they came through just fine and she was able to set up the article quickly with the digital files. Wow, this is the way to go. The article will appear in the September issue. The title is "All Art is Abstract."

Prioritizing in my art studio

Now that the books are shipped, I need to get my studio in order. I'm trying to figure out what to tackle next. First on the list is a looming deadline for an article for "Watercolour Gazette," a Canadian publication. The article is mostly written and I'm getting some art together for the illustrations. I still haven't cleared out the boxes of books from my used-art-book sale. They must go, and soon. I'm tired of looking at them and they take up too much floor space. Hithergreen Center, where I teach my watercolor classes, has a small library, so I may donate the books to them if they want them. There are two unfinished watercolors on my drafting table, one of which is the poured painting I blogged about a few weeks ago. My desk is covered with miscellany, I have bills to pay, and on and on. However, when our daughter showed up unexpectedly with the Little Artist this afternoon, I gladly gave up my afternoon in the studio to play ball, read stories, and field hugs for a couple of hours. I've been smiling broadly ever since they were here. They made my day.