Friday Finds: Paintouts everywhere

A little warm weather, some budding trees and paintouts are popping up everywhere. Here are possibilities for next three weekends:

1. Sketchcrawl No. 31 is Saturday, April 16. Go anywhere. Paint. Submit jpg of artwork to http://www.sketchcrawl.com/2011/04/ww-sketchcrawl-31/. It's that easy.
2. Wildflower artist Betty Wagoner will lead a T.C. Steele Art Trek Saturday, April 23, at the T.C. Steele State Historic Site, which is located between Bloomington and Nashville. Bring a sketchbook and your choice of drawing medium. Betty says it's an easy two-hour walk that will allow you to see the beauty that inspired T.C. Steele a hundred years ago.
3. The Bloomington Watercolor Society will paint together at McCormick's Creek arched stone bridge on Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you want to go in a group, e-mail nancy.davismetz@gmail.com.

Get your paintout bag packed so you'll be ready to go when the muse calls. Here's a handy checklist:

Traveling light:

• sketchbook
• paint (in weekly pillbox container for portability)
• palette
• pencil
• kneaded eraser
• 2 brushes (1 flat/1 round)
• water and container
• tissue pack

Painting add-ons

• paper/painting board/tape OR watercolor block
• easel
• spray bottle
• digital camera
• small trash bag

Comfort add-ons

• lawn chair or camp stool
• lunch
• drinking water
• hat with brim
• insect repellent
• sunscreen
• handiwipes
• cell phone

Friday Finds: Heads up to give you head start

Mineral Springs Hotel, Paoli, Ind. (Photo by Dan Davis)

I'm posting this week's Friday Finds a little early because you might need a "heads up" to take advantage of the information.

Paoli's spring art show
Delta Chapter of Tri Kappa sponsors an annual art show at the historic Mineral Springs Hotel on the Paoli Square. Tomorrow is the delivery date, but you should call Mary Limp at 812-723-3030 to let her know you want to enter. You are allowed two entries in each of the three categories: Oils or Acrylics, Watercolors, and Drawings (pencil, ink, charcoal, pastels, etc). You will need to drop off the work at the hotel Friday, April 8, between 5:30 and 8 p.m. Pick up is on Sunday, April 17, between 1 and 3 p.m. The show has cash awards of $75, $50, $25 and $10 in each category.

Inspiration at the IUAM
Who doesn't need an occasional quick injection of inspiration? Get yours in a one-hour exhibition at the IU Art Museum Friday at 3 p.m. The program features urban documentary photographs by Weegee, Brassai, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Andre Kertesz, Robert Frank and Gerry Winogrand. The program is free and you do not need to pre-register. Space is limited, however. Meet at the museum's third floor office.

Friday Finds: A little R-E-S-P-E-C-T

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
One of my favorite blogs is Alyson B Stanfield's ArtBizBlog. Yesterday's post, "7ways to establish that your art has value," included this advice: "Don't ever belittle your art. Don't talk disparingly about what you have created. Don't point out the flaws. Don't reveal how easy it was to make." Now that's good advice. I don't know whether it's insecurity, false modesty or an attempt to lower expectations, but I hear such comments all the time. Let's vow now to respect our work. For more of Alyson Stanfield's tips go to
http://www.artbizblog.com/2011/03/art-has-value.html.

Gallery North on the Square
First Friday in Bloomington means good art and good eats in good galleries in downtown Bloomington. If you're going tonight, make sure you visit Gallery North and take in Rose McCay's exhibit of orb photography.

Shift work at the gallery

Last week I did my first shift at the Kentucky Watercolor Society Gallery at Louisville's Mellwood Arts and Entertainment Center. I successfully opened the door, adjusted the lights, reset the thermostat, talked to the few people who wandered in, reset the thermostat, adjusted the lights and locked the door!

It was a pretty uneventful first day, but exhibiting in a cooperative gallery has been pretty exciting overall. The deal is a $20 monthly rental for the half-space; plus, I work two five-hour shifts a month. KWS takes a 10 percent commission on paintings sold but nothing from the card sales.

A few weeks ago I traveled to Louisville with paintings and notecards in tow for my first Gallery Committee meeting. After chatting with some old friends and introducing myself to some new folks, I eagerly climbed the stepladder to hang my three paintings. After all, what could be more important than getting those paintings hung, right?

WRONG!
I now know that the No. 1 task at those meetings is to schedule my work shifts. While I was hanging those paintings, the calendar was filling up. By the time I got to the calendar, I had precious little to choose from, especially if you remove Wednesdays and Fridays, the days that I teach for IU and Ivy Tech. I'm hoping to get back-to-back days during the summer months, but for now I drive to Louisville, do my shift, visit my in-laws or niece and head back to Bloomington.

The "do my shift" part is a lot more fun than it sounds.  Last week's "shift work" included some painting and art book reading in between customers. I compiled a whole list of future blog topics, so stay tuned.

Friday's Finds: Three spring greens

It's spitting snow -- a hard pill to swallow after a week of temps the 70s! To fend off winter's return, I spent a while this afternoon looking for a nice mixed green evocative of that gentle greenish cast the woods take on this time of year and the crazy wild yellow of forsythia. The photography doesn't do the colors justice, so I'll add some commentary.

The best combos were:

• Winsor Blue (Red) + Winsor Yellow
• Winsor Yellow + Cerulean Blue
• New Gamboge + Cerulean Blue

All three were light, fresh and especially interesting when mixed on the paper instead of the palette.

New Gamboge also worked well with Winsor Blue (Red), but appeared weak when compared to the rich granulation that the Cerulean provided. (I never thought I'd label Winsor Blue "weak.")

I had no success with any combos including Quinacridone Gold, Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna. They all seemed too warm. Cobalt Blue with New Gamboge (the next to last sample in the picture) starts to skew warm but might work depending on the subject matter.

Please click on Post a Comment below and share your favorite mixed greens for spring.

Friday Finds: Gone fishin'

Got a bad case of Spring Fever.

Friday Finds will return March 18.

Friday Finds: A personal touch



Design your own stationery with a few

practice strokes.


Make your mark
While preparing a class session on brushwork, I was searching for ways students could apply their newfound skill. That's what inspired this stationery idea. All you need to do is apply a pale wash of any color to watercolor paper and let it dry completely. If you choose, you can splatter or sprinkle salt or use some other device to create texture, but you need to remember that you will be writing on the surface so keep the background simple. Choose a corner for your simple design and paint it with as few strokes as possible. Once that is dry, put it on a color copier and print it out. If your printer doesn't print all the way to the edges, trim off the white margins.

The one pictured here is an imaginary bunch of berries and leaves, but I have plans for shells, irises and maybe even a palm tree.

Family Arts WeekEnd
The IU Art Museum has family events Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. History and science will be featured in 30-minute gallery sessions and hands-on work stations on Saturday. Sunday's topics will  be math and literature. Families will take home the hand-on projects plus resource materials to extend the museum experience to the home. The events are part of Bloomington's ArtsWeek 2011 celebration.