Gallery

Click for 693kb image

The Painters of the Flinders Ranges exhibition that I am involved in will be held in this large shearing shed near Wilpena Pound in September. It is not a working shed anymore and belongs to the National Parks. It is hired out for a range of functions; the exhibition being one of them for a period of four weeks.

This photo was taken last year and as old as the shed looks it makes a very good venue to present our artworks representing the Flinders Ranges. It is really great listening to the positive remarks as visitors walk through the door. Even though the shed hasn't had sheep pass through it over a number of years, the lanolin smell from the wool still remains.... oh and the sheep poop aroma as well.

Tess arrived in the mail safely from New Zealand Tuesday just in time for Malcolm's birthday yesterday (Wednesday). Malcolm was thrilled to receive this gift with plans to frame it as soon as he has finished cutting out moldings, mats and glass for myself. Wendy if you are reading this I can't thank you enough for your effort that you have put into the drawing of Tess. What I see on your blog is what I received and can recommend your work to anyone that wants a portraiture of their pet.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

• Take a look at my SnapShots Blog

• Arts and Stuff with Susan Borgas website

technorati tags: exhibition, photo, image, snapshot, dog, shearing shed, birthday

Copyright plus a Giggle

After a full on day in the office I am going to quickly do a post here now to share two links with you.

The first one is Copyright Explained. Check it out as it does answer a lot of questions about copyright which we need to be responsible about, especially when publishing information on the internet.

Ok the next link is for a giggle and if you have a mischievous nature you can play ticks on your family and friends. An example is as follows....

˙ʇǝuɹǝʇuı ǝɥʇ uo uoıʇɐɯɹoɟuı ƃuıɥsılqnd uǝɥʍ ʎllɐıɔǝdsǝ 'ʇnoqɐ ǝlqısuodsǝɹ ǝq oʇ pǝǝu ǝʍ ɥɔıɥʍ ʇɥƃıɹʎdoɔ ʇnoqɐ suoıʇsǝnb ɟo ʇol ɐ ɹǝʍsuɐ sǝop ʇı sɐ ʇno ʇı ʞɔǝɥɔ ˙pǝuıɐldxǝ ʇɥƃıɹʎdoɔ sı ǝuo ʇsɹıɟ ǝɥʇ

Well you could stand on your head to read it!

Here is the link so that you can do the same.... Flip

I better post this so that I put my own family out of their misery and the mystery solved with how the upside down text is done.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

technorati tags: copyright

Bloglines and Google Reader

Do you know what a Feed Reader is? Simply they will keep you up to date with your favourite blogs or websites without actually visiting the site. There are other readers around but two that will often come up in conversation are Bloglines and Google Reader.

Why bring a Feed Reader to your attention now? I mentioned in this post that my blog is going to suffer with updates not happening on a regular basis. Not all of us are into some of the geek side of blogging but rather than having you popping back to my blog to find no updates it is so much easier for you to be alerted that a post has been made by a Feed Reader. This way you won't be wasting time loading my blog or any other favourite blog for that matter who has not updated.

Take a look at the first image which is part of a screen print from this blog and you will see a square orange button. By clicking on this button (in my column) a page will come up with a drop down menu for you to choose a Feed Reader that you would like to use. If you haven't signed up with Bloglines or Google Reader and you would like to use one of these, you will need to register with them, which is an easy process.

If you want to add this blog to your Bloglines Reader simply click on the button that you see below the orange one.



Firefox makes it easy to add feeds to your readers as well. Click on the second image so that you get a good view of it. This is the address bar in Firefox. You will see the orange button to the right and once more this is how you can add Blogs or Websites who provide a rss or atom for your Feed Reader.

Would you rather get an email update instead? I have made that easy for you as well. You can subscribe to my blog by placing your email address in the box provided then click on the 'subscribe' button. You will see this facility in my column, which also can be seen in the first image that I have provided so that you know what you are looking for. Your privacy will be respected and you will not receive any spam mail. It is also easy to unsubscribe. If you choose to receive email updates from me make sure you verify the first email that FeedBurner sends you so that they know you have entered the correct address plus this is an extra precaution that it is you that has submitted the email address.

For those that are familiar to Feed Readers you might be interested in a script for Greasemonkey, which is a Firefox add-on

This script is Google Reader Preview Enhanced v1.07a and is the best thing I have come across for a very long time. You will need Greasemonkey installed to use this script.

What this script does it allows you to view full feeds in Google Reader. I have tested it and it does work, in fact very well indeed! I do use full feeds for my blog although there are those that do not because their posts are scraped/stolen and used elsewhere without permission. I wrote a post called Full or Should it be Short Feeds? with my thoughts bearing in mind that I do understand why blogs do use the short feeds. Anyway as you will see by this last image, even though I use full feeds I can actually see my blog in all it glory by clicking on the preview button at the bottom of the feed.

Also I will bring to your attention that the icon of a monkey at the bottom right of the image is the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox. Another script for Greasemonkey allows me to smile at you as well with the use of emoticons!

Well I think I have given you plenty to digest in this post so until next time.......

Related Posts

• Business Card

• Full or Should it be Short Feeds?

• emoticons

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

• Google Reader - Getting Started

• Bloglines

• Firefox

• Greasemonkey

• Google Reader Preview Enhanced v1.07a

technorati tags: emoticons, bloglines, google+reader, rss feeds, atoms, greasemonkey, short feeds, blog, blogger, firefox

Business Card

A new business card was on the agenda for today with pamphlets and other administration work yet to be done for my main exhibition that is held at Wilpena Pound each year during September with a group of artist. The focus of this exhibition is promoting the Flinders Ranges and of course ourselves as artist but gee there is a lot of work involved leading up to the opening.

Why do I need to start so soon? In a months time I will be heading off with my husband and a caravan in tow to Central Australia for twenty five days along with four other people doing this same tour. After this trip there will be a week home then three weeks will be spent as Artist in Residence at Wilpena Pound.

This blog is going to suffer because of my work load as there is also farm administration work that I have to do, which means spending time in the office. SnapShots will fair much better over the next month because I do have many photos to share with you.

Somewhere in amongst this I want to free up some mini video tapes for our trip and yet to learn how to go about this as they still have our previous holiday still recorded on these tapes. Oh and tidy up a couple of paintings plus frame works that are waiting to be done. My husband and I both do my framing and because we are fussy we do spend time making sure the final product is presented the best way possible. I also have to pack for the weeks I will be away from home as well because it will be more involved this time as we are tenting as well as caravaning when our camping party heads into Central Australia.

Getting back to the business card you are seeing a front and back view. Yes there is two different email addresses with a default one for 'info' that has an auto responser when making inquiries while the other one does not have an auto response attached to it, which can be a little friendlier for those that stay in contact with me.

I laminated the cards although I printed a few off that do not have the text on the back and left these free of laminate. I will carry these in my pocket at all times during the exhibition so that I have something to write on, for example an appointment or some other information a potential client may need. The laminated cards will be left on a table along with all the goodies us artist provide to the tourist who visit our exhibition.

So there you have it; hopefully my head wills stay above water and I won't go around the twist in the mean time trying to get all my jobs done.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

technorati tags: art, artist, art exhibition, business cards

Stone Jug - Sketch

I have always referred to this item as a stone jug. Maybe it is pottery but one thing I do know it is a great shape to draw and has been part of my kitchen for at least thirty years.

There are some highly skilled artist out there that do incredible work using charcoal, carbon and graphite, not necessarily all together.

J. D. Hillberry is one of these artist that I honestly thought the drawings were computer generated using software like Photohop until I started reading the tutorial properly. There is also a second tutorial by J. D. Hillberry here as well.

Do you know of any good online tutorials using charcoal, carbon or graphite? If you care to share them please leave the links with a comment in this post.


Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

technorati tags: sketch, sketching, draw, drawing, art, artist, graphite

Tess and Secret Art Business

Tess - 8x10 inches on drafting film in coloured pencil -

Copyright - Wendy Prior
With permission by Wendy Prior to publish on this blog

In my last post I mention that Wendy Prior is using a reference photo from my SnapShots blog and drawing a portraiture of Tess with coloured pencils on drafting film. Wendy has given me permission to post the completed drawing here and hasn't she done a magnificent job! Pop over to Wendy's post called "Tess, completed" and click on her thumbnail to see a larger image of Tess and while you are there, leave a comment as I am sure Wendy will appreciate it.

My husband Malcolm was quite taken with Tess's eyes when I showed him the first stage of Wendy's drawing asking if there was any further updates as each day passed. With this the idea came to me to buy this portraiture of Tess from Wendy if she hadn't sold it as a gift for Malcolm's birthday later this month. Thankfully I was in time and Tess will be posted tomorrow to my sons address so that Malcolm doesn't find out. Just as well my husband doesn't surf the internet nor use a computer or he will find the emails Wendy and I have been sending each other as well as Tess plastered all over the internet.


Yes Tess is plastered over the internet! Take a look at these two threads at WetCanvas and you will see what others have to say about this coloured pencil drawing.

• Animal and Wildlife thread

• Colored Pencil thread

Gee I nearly was caught out as Malcolm just brought Tess in to see herself on the internet. Bit of quick thinking to bring up a image without Malcolm reading any text going on here.....phew and he was so busy trying to keep Tess calm that he didn't get a chance to see Wendy's post before I clicked on the thumbnail of Tess so that the large image came up. Did Tess see herself? No she was so busy trying to get my attention that the laptop was ignored.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

• Take a look at my SnapShots Blog

technorati tags: dog, coloured pencils, colored pencils, art, artist, draw, drawing, wetcanvas

Tess is Famous!

For those that follow my SnapShots blog you will have seen this photo of Tess, the working dog.

Why am I showing this photo here? Well Wendy Prior is using this photo as a reference and drawing a portraiture of Tess with coloured pencils on drafting film. You can find the first post of this work in progress by clicking here so why not hop on board and follow Wendy's progress.

This is a timely subject as well because I do encourage you to take a look at my SnapShots blog because the photos are free for artists to use and sell there artworks afterwards. It is good to get feedback from those that are using my photos because it encourages me to find the best photos that I can present to you.

Also something else is happening! I had never done a blog interview before and thought it would be a good learning experience and said yes when Vyoma from kalaalog Blog asked if I would participate. The resulting interview can be found here.

The last item I want to bring to your attention is about my recent Blog Carnival because it has quite a bit of activity in the comments section. If you are considering submitting a post to my Carnival, you may find answer to your question by reading the reply in the comments of the Carnival post. If you would like to know more or add your own thoughts, please leave a comment at that Carnival post.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

• Take a look at my SnapShots Blog

technorati tags: interview, pencil drawing, dog, free images, free photos, photos, images, snapshots, carnival

Arts and Stuff Carnival - July 12, 2007

Welcome to the July 12, 2007 edition of arts and stuff carnival.

I would love to see more 2D artists submitting to this Carnival that relate more to my own blog. It is a chance to see your articles/posts published and gain more exposure. It isn't hard to do and when you give it a go you will realise how quick and easy it is to do.

So come on, have you a watercolour, oil, pastel, pencil or any other medium that you would like to talk about, perhaps with advice, works in Progress or what you have learnt that you could share with us. There is so much out there that you artist are already writing about, Carnivals are about sharing it with a community that otherwise may never get to see your work or your blog for that matter.

If you would like to submit an article my next edition deadline is 12 August 2007 and will be published 14 August 2007.

Click for carnival submission form and see how easy it is.

Art Creativity

Sarakastic presents Home Decorating Bargains » Blog Archive » I’ve been missing out posted at Sara, saying,

"It's been a year since I've done any painting & I realized how much I missed it"

Harriett Hilton presents Want To Achieve Your Dreams? posted at artistic musings, saying,

"A post about getting yourself motivated, being the artist you are meant to be"

Vyoma presents How To Paint Tomato posted at KalaaLog, saying,

"The tutorial walks through the simple process of creating a digital painting of a tomato, from scratch. The tomato, in spite of being a simple subject, provides a beginner with a bright color to play around with light. With this tutorial, and a raster graphics editor like Photoshop or GIMP, you should be able to create a painting of tomato."

Samir presents Rediscover The Pure Pleasure Of Paper Crafts And Pop Up Cards posted at SamirBharadwaj.com.

artThailand presents New work from Vichian Boonmeemak posted at artThailand.

Miscellaneous Art

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Cashing In With Doggie da Vincis posted at Mad Kane's Humor Blog, saying,

"Limerick and commentary about dogs "creating" abstract art."

Vyoma presents Digital Painting posted at KalaaLog, saying,

"A article that puts down what digital painting is as a subset of CG and also presents a juxtaposition with traditional mediums."

MissMalaprop presents Aria Images Art Photography posted at Miss Malaprop - independent, sustainable, eco-friendly shopping, film, art, fashion, crafts & design, from New Orleans with love, saying,

"This very talented (and generous!) photographer and artists offers her work for sale on Etsy."

Kilroy_60 presents Fear and Loathing - The Gonzo Papers - A writer, spiritualist, business consultant, explorer and photographer looks at life - A Strategic Alliance posted at Fear And Loathing - The Gonzo Papers.

Lexi Sundell presents Jewelry Energized for Healing Grief posted at Energies of Creation, saying,

"Jewelry can be created that carries healing energies in unusual ways."

artThailand presents artThailand: We Put The World Of Contemporary Art From Thailand Within Reach posted at artThailand.

Hints, Growth, Learning & Bloggers

TherapyDoc presents That Softness Gene posted at Everyone Needs Therapy, saying,

"When the music gene presents at 16 months, it's pretty amazing."

Mike Harmon presents Article Syndication- The Sky is The Limit So Explore and Aim for the Sky posted at Basic Accounting, saying,

"Article syndication is a very simple process wherein one gets to share their article among various online sites which helps to impart knowledge through the web."

Penelope Trunk presents Try being a dilettante before changing careers posted at Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
arts and stuff carnival using my carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on my blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

arts and stuff carnival, blog carnival.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

• Take a look at my SnapShots Blog

• Arts and Stuff with Susan Borgas website

Chambers Gorge Rock Pool "WIP" ten

Although not perfect the image for todays update is much closer to the real life colour of the Chambers Gorge Rock Pool, where as yesterdays was saturated with a lot of red.

Todays progress consists of more glazing over the still water along with grasses amongst the rocks. Also another layer added to the foliage of the trees in the background along with some timber. More flicks of colour were added to the mat of grass in the middle ground.

Strangely enough the more I do to this painting; another area then needs to be worked on. It is like playing 'catch up' at all times and yep that means I will be catching you with another post once more on this subject.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

technorati tags: oil, wip, grisaille, landscape, art, artist, landscape artist

Chambers Gorge Rock Pool "WIP" nine

Finely a long overdue update for you to scrutinise. Having never used this grisaille technique before I have to admit to being out of the comfort zone, especially when working on a painting of this size.

The addition of flora as well as glazes over the water area is now starting to really breath life into the painting that I can now see the long awaited finish line approaching.

The image colours are not quite correct with the reds coming through a little strong on the right as well the shadow colour in the rocks are brighter than they should be. In real life it does look much better but with a dark dreary day here for photos and wanting to post to my blog; this photo is it for today.

What next? More glazes along with flicks and dabs to refine areas that need attention, so until then I have plans for another update tomorrow..... grrrr and watch out who ever gets in my way of this happening!

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

technorati tags: oil, wip, grisaille, landscape, art, artist, landscape artist

Horsing Around

Horse - Sketch
Copyright, Susan Borgas

The last day and a half I have done little painting. It isn't for lack of trying, just a lot happening in the background here that you guys know little about.

One thing that I was very happy with is a framing job that my husband and I did yesterday. Malcolm made the frame up and I did the mounting of the work. We also do my own framing as well and because I am so fussy we have had to learn how to achieve a professional finish to the job. As much as I would like to show you yesterdays finished framing job I don't have permission to take a photo so you are going to have to take my word for it.

As a landscape painter I do get very little opportunities to paint animals. To stretch my mind outside of my comfort zone, sketching an horse will certainly do that. Maybe I should concentrate on the family farms working dogs rather than a horse that we don't have so that I can study the animal a bit closer.


Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

technorati tags: sketch, sketching, draw, drawing, art, artist, horse drawing, horse sketch

Grisaille - What is it?

As some of you know I am working on an oil painting that is worked as a grisaille then glazes of transparent colour layered over the top. Because it is a landscape I am also introducing opaque colour as well with texture and the two seem to be work together; probably as the scene is water, smooth rock and native bush.

For those that wonder about the pronunciation of grisaille it is grizz-eye; French for grey.


The grisaille technique can be used in any colour that an artist wishes to choose although shades of grey or brown is more common. What you end up with is a monochromatic painting done entirely with a number of steps of values in one colour. This technique was common among the artists of the early Renaissance.

Using the grisaille technique the values are all worked out before any colour is added, not that hues are always introduced to the work. If you choose to go to the next step and add colour, the rest seems to take on a life of its own with changes happening very quickly because you don't have to concentrate quite so much on the values as they are already mapped out.

There are two artists at WetCanvas who's work I do admire. They are William F. Martin and Martin Clarke; both generously demonstrate there grisaille techniques on WetCanvas.

Samples of William's work in progress:

• Purple Iris

• New Rainbow Bridge

Samples of Martin's work in progress:

• The Shrine

• The Wrath of Grapes

I personally would like to study this grisaille technique in depth and if anyone has good links on this subject that they would like to share with me and my readers please leave them in the comments of this post. I have to admit I found searching the internet rather lacking when it comes to information on this subject.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

technorati tags: grisaille, grisaille technique, sketch, sketching, art, artist, draw, drawing, graphine

Sturt's Desert Pea - Sketch

This is going to be a very quick post because a short one is better than none at all, especially when this artist is up to her neck working in the studio.

While working on my Grisaille painting my mind is already planning the next painting. Sturt's Desert Pea has always been a favourite flower of mine and now that I am armed with a lot of reference photos; a few sketches will be put into action.

I had better get back to work, so until the next post...... be good!

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

• Take a look at my SnapShots Blog

technorati tags: sketch

Thinking Blogger Award

Harriette from Artistic Musings has tagged me and because I do have blogs that get me thinking decided to play.

Note: I do not expect these bloggers to play along because they have either participated in tags before and there is only so many we can do. Also these blogger's are busy in their own right with tagging not perhaps fitting into their blogging routine.

Congratulations, you won a

• Darren Rowse - Problogger Darren's blog was the first RSS feed that I had listed outside of my artist listings. To this day Darren Rowe's blog is still one of my favourite reads with his typing finger always alerting my thinking brain of ways to improve my own writing, promoting my blog and generally a more professional approach to blogging.

• Alyson B Stanfield - Art Biz Blog Alyson is another blogger that any artist that is serious about their work should be reading. Alyson's posts will often give that much needed kick up the backside to get me thinking about what I should be doing as a professional artist.
  

• Making a Mark - Katherine Tyrrell It isn't unusual when I am looking for art related information, my thoughts go straight to Katherine's blog because so many of her posts really do get me thinking about the content that she provides. Many links to art related information, copyright information, blogging, drawing and so much more that makes me think so much more as an artist and blogger.
  

• Greywaren Art - Margaret Stiefvater Maggie is a no nonsense professional artist who injects her wicked sense of humour into many of her posts. Maggie has been a regular read of mine for so long now that I can't recall when I did start. Maggie is a very hard working artist and many times a post of hers has made me think about what road I want to take my own artistic endeavours.
  

• Dummies Guide to Google Blogger (Beta) Using blogspot/blogger for my blog I do like to tweak my template so that it looks the way that I want. This blog gets me thinking about adopting ideas that I see posted at Dummies Guide to Gooogle Blogger (Beta) to improve your experience when visiting my blog.
  

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

• Take a look at my SnapShots Blog

• Arts and Stuff with Susan Borgas website

technorati tags: tagged, awards, problogger, art biz, blog, blogger, blogspot

Pastels

Something a bit different to what I have done in the past when showing you a 'work in progress' (WIP). These pastels that you see here are what I have used on Water's Path - Willochra Creek.

I Said I would post images of my pastels in this thread at WetCanvas so decided to post larger photos here on my blog because there is a limited size for the WetCanvas Forum to view and will point them to this post.

On completing the pastel work the first image shows the pastels that I was constantly picking up and putting down in a given day. They are resting on soft foam in a pull out drawer of my easel. The foam is also used to wipe the pastels against to keep my colours clean. These two images show you all the pastels for my last project that I did use.


I am right handed and this second image displays my pastels that are on a trolley to my right. Usually what I do is at the end of my days work, give a final wipe to the pastel on that piece of foam that you see in the bottom left and place in the plastic tray (recycled from supermarket) for a fresh clean start at the easel the next day. In other words there will be no pastels left in the drawer as you see in the first image. The white charcoal pencil was used to sign my name. The dark shape at the back is kneadable eraser, which I knead while working to keep my hands clean. It is also handy for erasing mistakes when I am working.

Now all I have to do is give a final clean to the pastels and place them back into their special boxes for another day when I start a new pastel project. First though I am going to finish the grisaille that I started some time back.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

technorati tags: pastel, pastel artist, art, artist, pastels