Networking?

Today I met Amity (allthosethrees) from Etsy, who I found out lives practically down the road from me! When I suggested we meet for a coffee we also found out we even show our work (my paintings, her jewellery) at the same gallery in Greenwich. (The Red Door Gallery) It's a small world. (And we're sure there must be more London Etsians, even southeast London ones. Get in touch!)

So we had a couple drinks today along with her lovely partner, in Greenwich. We chatted about her house, our work, where we show, Etsy, silly Etsy threads, and meeting for coffee or something again now that we know we're nearby each other.

I think a lot of artists forget that friendships are as much networking as so-called "proper" networking. Most of my events and new places have been discovered through artist friends. We may all do different things but makers of all kinds just live in the same world - we notice the same kinds of places and events happening. My friend Leila is a jewellery designer but she recommends galleries she sees to me, used to work in photography, and even helps me out at art fairs. I do the same for her. I told Amity a few things I knew from Leila and hopefully can pass on more info later. We talked about other online venues and now I have to go check out a few! (though admittedly I might shop more than I consider selling at them)

But don't get too focused about it. That comes across as trying to hard. It puts people off. Just meet people. Just get to know each other. Don't do it with an overt mission. Just chat. Plus you'll make some nice new friends!

The friends of friends cliche isn't a myth. Yes we need to network at focused events, with gallery owners, collectors and other business people generally. But someone you know or could know might know someone else who works in a gallery. Another Etsian's good friend might have a jewellery shop. Someone's partner may work at a creative institution. Best friends might have done a lot of art fairs. Grown kids might live in another city and know some trendy spots with great boutiques and galleries. Of course no one may think to mention it for ages.

Tonight I'm meeting a few Skylark artist friends for drinks. So can I call my day of a coffee and pints a networking day? Hoorah! *grin*

The system works... only if I do

Is a broken system better than no system?

Trying to sort inventory for these gazillion commitments I mentioned yesterday and I went into Flick to look at what paintings were where and make some decisions.

I knew I was behind in my updates - I hadn't changed the status of paintings that came back from the Picture Room Gallery (now closed). I hadn't added new 5" horizons in a while. I had two new coast paintings to add (Weightless and Two Trees Island).

On top of this I also had to add all the new pieces to my website, but what was "new" in Flick and on the website were different. Plus I had rephotographed all the newest Nereids paintings before the Chelsea Art Fair but hadn't updated their images anywhere, Flick or the website. So I have a few dozen shots waiting to be edited and added. This creates chaos. The website had some updates that Flick didn't have (the 2 new coast ones were online). The horizons are just a mess. The Nereids are in an odd state of being in the database but with poor images which gave me the illusion they were properly recorded when they're not; I can't even remember if they're on the website yet.

But the real worry?
On top of this I realised something was missing, but I didn't know what. The biggest mystery of all! I was certain there was another coast painting missing entirely from the files.

Now it is worth saying that I DO photograph everything. And I have a system of 3 folders for all images - so if it exists it's in one of those.
The folders are:

• 1. All images
  Works automatically - files download directly from the camera to here
• 2. Flick
  Done manually - I have to crop and edit and move the "slide" quality images into the Flick folder
• 3. For web
  Both - image must have been edited for Folder 2, then run automatically through a script to be in here and ready for adding to the website

Fortunately, anything from the camera starts out in Folder 1. If it was photographed it's in Folder 1 so won't get lost. If it's not in Folder 1 then I have edited it and moved it to the next folder! Folders 2 and 3 is where things can fall down. If I edited for a "slide" image then it's in Folder 2. But I also should add it to Flick at this point. But every once in a while, usually when I'm very busy, I edit for Folder 2 to wizz something off to a gallery and leave the Folder 3 and adding to Flick for later when I'm "less busy". Which is never, of course.

• On the up side, I never really lose images. (Folder 1)
  
  
• On the down side, I waste more time trying to rectify the missing pieces if I don't do the Folder 3 step and Flick right away.

The good news: I found the missing painting. It was Overcliff Beachhuts.
The bad news: I sent Overcliff Beachhuts out to a competition without any record of its existence in the database. It's at the Royal Academy. (Just got my letter after typing this, it wasn't accepted.)

The conclusion? Flick works. I've been using Flick and my image/update system since January. This is the first time it's gone very wrong and that was entirely due to my own complacency. But most importantly: because I had a system I could see something had gone wrong and could actually quite easily find that lost information and painting.

Broadcasted Silence

Broadcasted Silence
Originally uploaded by ian.crowther

No podcast this week. Sorry. The four days of illness set me back, but I also think StudioWaves might be every other week. Pondering it.

But if you have things you want to hear about then let me know and I'll see what works for all of us. Techniques? Events? Interviews? Some particular insight? History? More ramblings? A podcast is for you folks with the headphones after all! I can ramble to myself in the studio for myself anytime. And do!

Flick o' paint: A sad event

Artist Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo killed on "peace pilgrimage" project
Article at The Art Newspaper

One after another...

Today was an "office" day as I catch up on things. So I pulled out my 'year at a glance' (which is pinned to my wall), my diary, and sorted through messages on my mobile and in my email. Somehow, without realising it, I've committed to several events and shows in close succession. It's doable but I should have kept on top of it better. So I need to sit down and actually work out what will go where, and then hope there's something left for open studios!

• My show at the Dartmouth Arms is still going, organised by ArtDog
• There will be a charity art auction (pdf link) at The Dolphin on 24th June, also with ArtDog
• MetaContemporary Gallery is taking my work to the Cambridgeshire Art Fair, 6-8th June
• The Greenwich Open Studios group is having a pre-event exhibition at Bardsley Lane, 31st May - 12th June
• Then Open Studios itself is 14th/15th June and 21st/22nd June
• Straight after Open Studios I need to send off paintings to The Masham Gallery for the Coastlines exhibition, 11th July – 18th August
• then start preparing for Urban Art which is 19-20th July

And start the Isle of Wight paintings???

Last week Jo Oakley asked me if I was getting ready for Urban Art yet. Haha!

Before you think I was trapped at a desk all day, don't worry. I was also working on a large photoshop file so as layers rasterized the studio became a fashion runway. Using rastering time for tidying breaks, I was pulling out warm weather clothes, packing away winter ones, and decided to go through boxes of stuff that's been packed for years. It was even packed in the loft before I moved into this house! So some of my fancy dresses and things got hung up briefly (in front of my 120x150cm canvas! yikes!) and photographed. It was fun to see them again.

Up all night

Ironically, after 4 days of sniffling and coughing and just wanting to sleep I'm now awake at 2am unable to sleep. Was hoping that after 4 days at half-speed I might get a proper full days work tomorrow - I have much more than studio time to make up for. Do you ever get the feeling the universe is against you?

So here's a photo of the drawing session from the weekend. To prove I have done something.

And it is thunderstorming right now, which is kind of cool.

Back into the fray

Hope you all had a nice holiday weekend! I was home ill the whole time. (still am) But we all have to get back into the fray of real work once again...

Speaking of frays, I decided to give my ACEO paintbrushes a bit of a haircut. They do end up fraying or get whittled down to a fine point from my painting and scrubbing with them. But of course it's hard to give up an old favourite!

I have two favourite brushes for my ACEOs which were are some point nice filberts. (bristles slightly curved along the top rather than squared off, for the non-artists out there) One was fraying a lot - random bristles sticking out to sides, and the other was scrubbed away to a very fine point. No good!

So out came the scissors. I see no point in being precious about these things. I also see no point in throwing away a brush that still has life in it. Even if the "haircut" doesn't go well it can be kept for gluing or blending pastel or charcoal. So here are my trimmed babies! Perhaps I could go on Shear Genius?

What to do with a cold?

Today I'm huddled up on the sofa with my feather duvet surrounded by big pieces of paper, photos, little bits of paper, sketchbooks, charcoal and pastels. In between sneezes, sniffle and short naps I'm working out drawings for the Isle of Wight paintings.

I blame the cold on living with someone else. When I was living alone I never got sick! Housemate brings home germs from his little minions. (the kids at school, that is)

About glazing

A reader, Diane, emailed me about my "The Steps to Two Trees Island" post last week asking how I got from the first image to the last. Questions about how I glaze come up fairly often so I thought it would be useful to share my reply to her with all of you.

Hi Diane,

Great question! And I get asked about my glazing a lot, so I hope you don't mind if I copy this all into a new blog entry.

Firstly I should be clear about my use of the word "glaze". I consider any technique glazing that applies a thin transparent layer of colour. So a mixture of lots of water/medium and a touch of paint is a glaze. A very dry scumble that just barely brushes some paint on the surface, perhaps just catching the edges of the canvas weave, is also to me a glaze as long as the layer is so thin that the underlying layers are still somewhat visible.

I use acrylic and glaze mainly with water. (I used to paint in oils.) I don't use any mediums, except occasionally as a barrier layer, when previous layers have little binder so I need a medium layer in order to not lift off previous glazes. I generally work 2 ways and alternate between them depending on what is working that day. ;) I either use quite a lot of water with a little bit of paint and do very wet glazes, or I work more in a drybrush way and scumble on paint with a very very dry brush and only a touch of paint on it. Either way you usually don't see much of a change with a layer. For example between the first and last images in the blog there were (this is from memory):

• A couple of glazes (possibly 3 or 4) of cobalt blue
• Sap green glazes
• At least two glazes of raw umber in the dark line areas
• Then a couple glazes of Hooker's green in the dark line areas
• Another glazes of raw umber to soften the Hooker's green

Then I started the over blue:

• Fairly solid, for me, scumbles of a touch of cobalt + zinc white around line areas
• 3-4 scumbles of cobalt + zinc all over

• Then I attacked the sky with a few cobalt blue glazes
• Then probably 5 or 6 glazes of zinc white
• Then back over the zinc white at the top with solid cobalt scumbles
• Then scumbling back over the edge of that cobalt with zinc white again
• Repeat those last 2 steps (I do a lot of back and forth reglazing to soften and lose all edges)
  

• Then I went back into the "land" area with 2-3 dry scumbles of cobalt + zinc

Most of the glazes in this paint were dry scumbles rather than wet thin glazes. Which approach I use really varies and there isn't always one approach that is right.

A lot can depend on:

• the feel of a brand of paint (I glaze with Liquitex cerulean much differently than Daler Rowney cerulean for example, as they have very different textures)
• how much paint is already on the surface (I need canvas weave to dry scumble)
• the temperature of the room (affects drying time)
• the size of the canvas (less room for error the bigger you go - I tend to use more wet glazes than scumbling for because dry scumbles can dry too quickly to soften out quickly enough on large areas)

Sometimes it's just a feeling. One way works better than another for no explicable reason. *grin* Some days I just can't scumble. No idea why, my hands won't do it. Or I'm not coordinated enough to wet glaze and keep it under control. And of course there's the limitation of working with no medium - lifting previous layers. This can easily happen so I have a pretty good sense of how long something needs to dry or if I need to put down a thin barrier layer of medium. Lifting results in "holes" in the consistent haze of colour and if anyone ever hears me swearing in the studio it's usually because I suddenly am getting lifting and have to quickly fix it! Fortunately I've learned how to in most cases. The later it happens in a painting however the more likely I can't fix it with over-layers.

I also work with the brush VERY quickly. Not that the painting are quick, but my brush work is more like scrubbing or sanding than brushing. Very very fast, repetitive swooshing of the dry paint (and pressing quite hard) into the texture of the canvas. With acrylics there's a definitely time limit, and one I can predict pretty exactly now. I don't even use retarder because it drives me nuts if I don't feel the pull of drying paint at exactly the right point in a scumble. A friend of mine says I'm doing the same thing an airbrush artist does, but just making it much harder on myself, haha!

Well, that's a long reply but it means my blog entry for today is sorted. :)

StudioWaves, Drawing and Sketching

Welcome to episode 8!

Sketching and Drawing
An insight into my notebooks and different ways I sketch ideas

Click Here to Listen

Mentioned on this week's show:

• Muji passport sketchbooks
• Moleskine sketchbooks
• Making a Mark (Katherine Tyrrell)
• Terry Watts' paintings
• Anthony Gormley drawings - link to the talk and slides
• Humphrey Ocean drawings
• Dulwich Picture Gallery

"Not podcast day" & Blackgang

I've come to the realisation that Tuesday just isn't a good day to release the podcast. Sorry! I'm a slave to my own routines and since I tend to work over the weekends by Tuesday I'm about ready for a break, and take Wednesday off. Which just means I'm usually working a bit nonstop around the time I'm supposedly meant to edit the podcast.

Of course it's all arbitrary. Tuesday just happens to be the day I posted the first few. So henceforth it will be later in the week! That way I can spend my "weekend" day mid-week editing it, since the podcast is meant to be a bit of fun for me. Oh, and why work weekends? I don't know really but it works for me.

So instead of editing audio what have I been doing today? Pondering the Isle of Wight photos, in particular the Blackgang photos I took over the cliff edge.



I'm giddy with excitement about starting these! So much so that I've decided they need to be huge pieces, to match the place itself. So I'm ordering a set of 120x150cm canvases and really really hope they fit up the stairs and into the studio. (That's 48"x60" for you yanks.) I already think it needs to be a diptych.

The steps to Two Trees Island

First, a confession. I know I took more progress pics of this painting, but I think in my haste I thought I'd downloaded them from the camera and reformatted my disk before going to Isle of Wight. I now realise that I did download them from the camera, but since I wasn't going to post them I deleted them from my working images folder until I was ready to blog about it. So they were lost into byte heaven.

Still, I thought it worth sharing the few images, which give a nice contrast between the first underpainting layer of bright colours:


And the effect after many layers of glazing over the initial colours to harmonise the painting and soften the image:


After just a few more grey and blue glazes over the entire painting I had the final result, not a lot of difference from the previous image but in real life the changes are significant:


Two Trees Island is a real triumph for me. I'm so pleased to have gone from so many working ideas and sketches, through a failed canvas, to an entirely new size and composition. Next time a painting is struggling, or rather next time a idea gets put aside in the reject pile, I must remember that part of the problem might actually be one of scale.

Flick o' paint: Color as Field

I'm so excited, the Smithsonian American Art Museum is having an exhibition of colour field artists: Color as Field: American Painting, 1950–1975. Only through May 26th!

Of course, I can't make it to Washington DC but rather hope the exhibition will travel to London or Paris. Until then, I was very pleased to see there's a whole series of podcasts that have been produced for the exhibition by the AFA. Fantastic! I know the Tate does this too, and it's a trend I hope more galleries and museums will follow.

We Brits, however, can still catch the Coming of Age of American Art: 1850s-1950s at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, until June 8th. They also have a few podcasts online too!

Feet Up!

Okay, you might think I've run away and stayed on the Isle of Wight! Oooh, how tempted I was! But no, I'm back. Cogitating all the ideas in my head. Having about 175 photos developed. Cleaning the bike. (hahahaha, as if!) Unpacking, doing laundry, catching up. Apparently if I go away for three days southeast London starts to fall apart at the seems. Multiple phone calls from Skylark gallery (all the same message, clearly they're just completely disorganised). Manic last-minute design work needed from me. Urgent request to view paintings, so I got to varnish the day after I got back. A slew of open studios tasks and emails.

Can I just go back to the island now? Please? Thanks.

The trip was wonderful. And a huge shout out to Vintage Vacations who gave me accommodation at "The Shack" to fuel my creativity! I cycled the west side on the first day, from Thorness Bay down to the Needles, then over to Freshwater Bay before heading back. I had a little paddle in the sea at Freshwater, it was so hot out! I wouldn't have made it back if I tried to go along the Military Road; just by numbers the mileage was fine, but it was very hilly mileage.

The second day I cheated. What can I say, my butt hurt. So I cycled up to Cowes and locked up the bike then got an all-day rover ticket and hopped on a bus to Newport! Then took a double-decker bus down to Blackgang, which was certainly the highlight of the trip. Jaw dropping coast there (and all falling into the sea at a phenomenal rate, a local told me it was about 6 feet a decade). I was actually very glad for the bus ticket because most of this stretch of coast is footpath only, so I would have ended up cycling a lot of hillside without views, and having to walk the path anyway for any reward. From Blackgang to Ventnor, there to Sandown, then up to Ryde. (Unfortunately I couldn't quite catch the once an hour bus connection into Bembridge.) I sat on the seafront at Ventnor to put my feet up again and have my lunch.

A few very specific places and images are the first round candidates for paintings. I need to do a lot more sketches, then get the photos and work out some colour studies. But the strata at Alum Bay, the cliffs at Freshwater, the strange concrete sea barriers at Ventnor (sort of tetrahedron with conical points?), Blackgang (which I already think will be a series unto itself), and the sunset over Thorness Bay. Pictures to come during the week...

Somewhere on the isle....

Today I'm somewhere along this route ...

Riding, resting, getting sunburnt, finding coffee and cake, sketching, taking photos, possibly dipping in the sea!

And no doubt will be happy and exhausted by the time I get back to the Shack. Huge huge thanks to Vintage Vacations who are kindly hosting me for two nights in their shack on Thorness Bay.

Check them out! And in case you can't get enough of their wonderful retro goodness they have a blog and an Etsy shop too!

StudioWaves, getting ready for a coast cycle!

Welcome to episode 7! Getting ready for a coast cycle
Today I'm getting ready to go cycle the coast of the Isle of Wight!

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Mentioned on this week's show:

VintageVacations on the Isle of Wight
Original Isle of Wight plan! July 2007
Designs on Demand
Google Maps and not mentioned but the immensely useful to track my routes and mileage Gmaps Pedometer
Sustrans the sustainable transport charity
Ordnance survey maps

New! Click here to subscribe in iTunes.
(please note this currently may not work for UK listeners, I have no idea why)
If you like StudioWaves please take a moment to review the podcast on iTunes too

To subscribe through iTunes manually: just open iTunes, go to the iTunes store, and search for "StudioWaves". My podcast comes up in the list! Click to view details or leave a review, or hit the subscribe button to get new episodes downloaded to your iTunes automatically.

Summer heat in May?

It's too hot outside. So I thought I'd bring something to cool off the blog.

Snowstorm on the Lake
20"x16" acrylic on canvas (and still available)

This is an old favourite of mine, one of those paintings that gets a lot of admirers but I can never work out why it hasn't sold yet. Trying to capture the sweeping, blinding white of the snow in Chicago whipping across the lake. Before I moved to Scotland I remember walking along the lakefront in the icy cold, and knowing I had to remember what real cold was. Real cold is when your nosehairs freeze!

Calypso and islands

Calypso was the Greek sea nymph of the island of Ogygia who imprisoned Odysseus, her name meaning "to conceal".

This week I shall be visiting an island, the Isle of Wight, delayed from my originally planned trip to cycle its coast by only 10 months. (I had planned and mapped my journey last July, only to have flooding in southeast England prevent my trip.)

But until Tuesday the studio and a podcast still beckon. And it's warm. Too warm (about 80 degrees F). I've been hiding in the house with the blinds drawn, sitting in front of my fan. In fact, it's too sunny even to photograph work because I need a nice overcast day for that. Like in this photo of the new Nereids painting Calypso. But I suppose at least the herbs on the windowsill are enjoying the weather.

Hangin' round the studio

My English Coast project has grown in scope enough that I decided I needed to recruit an assistant. Today Lt. Col. D. Watts arrived at the studio (so keen was he that he holed up at the neighbour's place until I got home!) practically bursting at the seams to take part in my journeys!

The Lt. Col. came with a fantastic letter of introduction from one Siansburys of Sheffield. She says:

"Leiutenant Colonel D. Watts is [was] the commanding officer
of Siansbury's own fusiliers, a regiment of sock monkeys which has been instrumental in peacekeeping missions in times of Plush unrest. When not deployed operationally, the regiment provide guard outside Siansbury's castle, while Lt. Col. Watts indulges his hobby of carving scale model tanks out of banana cake."

So I reckon I need to learn how to make banana cake but in exchange he can guard my gear, watch for cars from the back of the bike, and of course give directions (I couldn't be any worse off in that respect). He considers himself something of an art critic, especially of tank sculptures, but we'll see.

And yes, seriously, he will be travelling on the back of the bike. Even hermit artists need a bit of company on the windy desolate coast...

Oh, and is it worth mentioning that he's hanging above the finished Two Trees Island painting? Just completed today.

Printmaking craving

(original 3-plate linocut print, The Gypsy Moth, copyright Tina Mammoser)

The topic of Gocco printing comes up often on Etsy. I miss printmaking. In the past I did a lot of linocut prints, probably as much as I did oil paintings at the time. I loved them, I loved how their linear marks countered my soft glazing in paint. Occasionally I still do linocuts but no so often. (Perhaps I should).

At one point I even had a lovely etching press that printed up to about A3 size paper. It was very reasonably priced, handmade by someone in England whose details are long lost. I also had a wind-down book press, from the same maker, for my relief prints like linocuts. A long-lost friend still has it, though I never was quite happy with the printing. Not a fault in the press, I just prefer my prints to be absolutely solid ink. (A tip for that was to lightly sand the surface of the lino.) Printing by hand with a japanese baren gave me better results.

And now there's Gocco. A sort of home screenprinting set-up. I've never tried screenprinting and it's intriguing. The Gocco basically seems to use a flashbulb (like old cameras) to "burn" the screen design after you've drawn it. Cunning! The company in Japan nearly stopped producing them until there was an outcry by artists everywhere.

So that printmaking itch is back. Should I try gocco? I certainly can't afford an etching press. Or carry on with some new linocuts (I have lino and tools). I'm just in one of those indecisive moods, feeling the need to try something new though. And summer is coming, I won't be able to paint when it's too hot.

Anyone out there have a gocco? Tips? Tricks? Advice?

StudioWaves, Painting Stories

Welcome to episode 6! Painting Stories

Click Here to Listen

Today I talk about the story behind four of my coast paintings: the places they're from, how and why I painted them that way. Today's podcast refers to the images in this blog post, to show you the paintings, photographs and sketches that explore the whole seascape.

Mentioned on this week's show:

About the painting: Near Plumpudding

Where are Plumpudding and Coldharbour? Both are on the Thames Estuary near Reculver. Google map here.



About the painting: Coldharbour



About the painting: Brighton Wave

Where is Brighton? Google map here.



About the painting: Climb to Beachy Head

Where is Beachy Head? Google map here.

Flick o' paint: Delay

non-structural delays, By bok_bok on Flickr, Thanks!

The podcast won't get done tonight. Will be posted tomorrow. So sorry. But stay tuned!

Mix it up: Greens

Green appeared suddenly and unexpectedly on my palette in 2005 (04?) when Golden introduced their historic colour range, including Sap Green. I was having my usual shopping "trip" through Jacksons Art Supplies online and usually I treat myself to a new colour. I chose Sap Green. Little did I know that it would become my next colour obsession! Before this I didn't even own a tube of green of any kind. I rarely mixed it. My palette was primarily blues and purples.


On my studio door I have wall charts that I made with my own swatches of colour mixes: a purple one, a blue one, and all 'warms' on one. The greens were added on later to the purple one and the number of them is a good indication of their importance in my work. There are 17 variations of purples and purple blues on this chart. I added 3 greens: Liquitex sap green, Golden sap green and Liquitex Hookers green deep. In fact I stopped using the Liquitex sap green almost immediately, I hated it.

But nowadays the Golden sap green ends up a predominant colour in almost every painting. It's like an addiction! (though possibly more pleasant than my years of purple addiction)

But do I have a greens chart? No. Why? Because I still only use those two greens from the tubes. With small mixture variations sometimes of course. (A favourite "black" is sap green + dioxazine purple.) It's time to break out of the two-tubes blinkered view.

And the timing is right. I do still love that green but am getting frustrated with the limitations in my finished work. I want to vary it, get some warmer tone greens, get a good variation so I can bring back more of my watery blues or even the purples.

So today's task was a greens colour chart. I've actually done only my tube greens mixed with my yellows. I had a good ol' dig through my tubes basket to find any I might have bought in years gone by! So we have :

• Golden Sap Green
• Daler Rowney Hookers Green (I seem to own 3 tubes even though it's a horrible colour; Cass Arts had a huge DR sale and it seemed a good idea at the time)
• Liquitex Hookers Green deep
• Golden Gold Green
• Liquitex Pthalo Green (blue shade)
• Daler Rowney Cobalt Turqoise (hue, again a sale grab)

My Liquitex sap green was actually dried up. My only yellows (another colour I use very little of) were:

• a strange tube of Daler permanent yellow (I suspect the sale again)
• Rubens gold ochre
  
• Golden transparent yellow iron oxide

So mixed each green with each yellow, full strength and with a touch of white. I do all this with my fingers so there's no scientific accuracy whatsoever!

Small note: I do not use the Daler Rowney or Rubens brand paint in any of my gallery paintings, only Golden and Liquitex. But it's nice for studies. The Daler is all Cryla and is probably fine quality I just don't like it's feel when working large or its colours generally; Rubens I know too little about in terms of quality.

Close Up

Because you deserve some pretty pictures this week and they're not quite ready.

A progress shot, early stages close up of part of the Two Trees Island painting. It's nearly done now!

I've decided not to put progress shots up of this canvas and the birds painting. I have been taking the photos, but decided that posting the work in progress on the last batch really seemed to hinder me. I was constantly aware that I would be photographing and felt a need to be able to explain the glazes and progressive layers. That kept me from possibly pushing the paintwork a bit further or taking some risks.

So I will try to post work-in-progress images because I know everyone likes them, but they'll probably be after the painting has been completed from now on.

Bringing it all together

Everything about my paintings in one place?

The Cycling Artist hits Squidoo!

This weekend has been spent creating my new (and first of a few, I have more ideas!) Squidoo lens. Over the last year or so I've seen other artists and art people using Squidoo but couldn't quite work out why I should use it, how it could work for me, and more importantly how it could work for my collectors and fans.

Last week while watching some Twitter posts I re-visited Squidoo and suddenly it clicked. It could "lens" all my sites together. (yes, I know how blindingly obvious this now seems to those of you who use Squidoo)

Over the last year I have been growing online and trying a lot of new things:

• Blurb books
• A studio podcast
• My Twitter account
• Improved my Etsy store
• Flickr galleries
• Even more blogging here
• Networked on Wetcanvas
• Started blogging and reviewing on StumbleUpon
• Joined the Accidental Creative community

All this social networking is getting out of hand!

Don't get me wrong. It's great. I'm enjoying it. I'm honing it down to what I like most, what works best, and what fits in my schedule. But to you my readers it must seem like a whirlwind of sites and links to keep up with. Not to mention figuring out how to find my work out in the real world.

So Squidoo at long last seemed a good idea. A central point to access everything, without having to find the right link, search for the right page, or remember my member name somewhere.

Do let me know what you think, please. It's definitely a work in progress. If there's something in particular I've forgotten, don't need, isn't working right, you just want to leave a smiley face, or maybe you think the Squidoo lens is above and beyond and too much - please leave a comment. I want to know what YOU want.

A day in the life...

Actually a fairly easy day of running around, collecting bits, and catching up with other artists.

Narration: top up Oyster card, walk up hill to catch bus to Lee Green. Stop in at Stark Gallery to chat to Amanda who now works in my old studio before heading to Jenny Wiggins' house to collect my paintings (she brought them home from Chelsea since she had a car). Met the frog in her pond, and her lovely doggie. Walk with trolley and baby plant (gift from Jenny) back to Stark, talk to John the framing guy, raid the rubbish bin for offcuts of hardboard and cut them into squares to take home for small paintings. Then a quick chat with Jo about life and her new publisher (Love Your Art), before waiting in the rain for another bus back down to Greenwich. Running late so walk down Maze Hill to my local pub to meet Terry for lunch and talk about our cameras, computers, how our work is going, pricing, and pretty much everything but quantum mechanics for a change. Home for a quick cuppa before unwrapping my pretty new framing gun (which I had to collect from Stark who ordered it for me), and then wasting some time on the internet.

Flick o' paint: RSS Awareness Day!

May 1st is RSS Awareness Day!
Well, it has to be more interesting than May Day.

Kudos to CommonCraft who have had their RSS video used as part of the celebrations (?). Since I mentioned that I subcribe to everything via RSS in my podcast on Tuesday I thought it would be good to also share their fantastic visual lesson about what RSS is and how to use it.



And yes, you can subscribe to this blog or my direct podcast site with RSS! Just look for the little orange RSS button (or Feedburner button) on either of them in the left side bar.