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

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:

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

Just like Dominos Falling

When trying to juggle a few things at once my mind just will not always spread thinly to concentrate on all at one time. It started when I burnt the spuds for mash followed by the peas and they were in separate saucepans! Then I rejected Bart’s comment from "I Landscape" for SnapShots for the "Sherrard Falls, New South Wales" post, which Blogger does not give a second chance to avoid the mistake. I emailed Bart with a copy of his comment and asked him to comment once more, which he did. Thank you Bart for understanding! What was next….oh yeah then I sent the wrong phone number via email to my kids so that they could phone their grandfather. Thankfully they were on the ball and noticed the number wasn’t from the area of my dad and curious to know ‘who's’ number I did send them. The common factor with the numbers was the two people have the same Christian name in my phone and didn’t double check the remainder of the information. All of this happened in the space of half an hour so that it had my head spinning.

After yesterday I think it will be either finish earlier in my studio or have a later evening meal so that my old brain can keep up with the jobs that I am supposed to be doing.

That will teach me not to laugh at another artists run of bad luck. Want to see which post it was? Head over to Maggie Stiefvater post "Slapping Fate About the Head and Face" at Greywaren Art. Maggie is a professional artist and also a ball of energy and I love to read her blog in the hope that some of it will rub off onto myself..... but I did not expect the 'bad luck' stuff to happen to me.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

artists artist blog blogger bad luck dominos

Happy Easter Everybody

I didn't work in the studio today as one of my dreaded migraines caught up to me today. I still have to pack food and clothing for the gathering with family and friends as we do each year in a caravan park. This blog will not have anymore posts until 9th of April.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my blog readers and email buddies a happy Easter. Please take care on the roads if you are traveling.

Cheers, Susan

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: Happy Easter, traveling, caravan park

I do consider myself reasonably organised person but it is a shame that the unforeseen keeps interrupting my plans demanding my attention for this past week. As much as I tried to complete the sketch for my next painting on a 840 x 960 mm canvas to post today, it didn’t happen and I don't want to stuff it up by rushing.

I am quite excited about this planned oil painting of the Chambers Gorge area in the Flinders Ranges and if you haven’t checked my SnapShots blog, do take a look at these following links because it will give you an idea of the area for my next work.

• Chambers Gorge

• Chambers Gorge Snapshot with water

• Chambers Gorge, looking back

There will be more photos posted of the Chambers Gorge area over the next week so don't forget to check that blog out if you are interested (and why wouldn't you be!).

Anyway if you are reading this you have made me a happy artist because I know you haven’t given up on my post altogether.

Catch you tomorrow!

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

• Take a look at my SnapShots Blog
  

technorati tags: Snapshots, chambers gorge, oil painting, flinders, flinders ranges, blog, excited

A quick note

Just a quick note to let you all know if you have a look at my SnapShots Blog you will see that four photos have been added.

Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

• Take a look at my SnapShots Blog

• Arts and Stuff with Susan Borgas website

A Tale of Two Cockies

Tomorrow my husband and I leave on our two week holiday. Not much in the way of art supplies are packed other than pencil and papers, art magazine and of cause camera and laptop. These two weeks are going to be used to recharge my batteries in readiness for the year ahead, which is going to be the busiest ever. Most important of all this holiday is to have some quality time with my husband, as he also has been extremely busy and so often when two people are working we forget to put time aside just for us.

I would like to share this story with you that a family member passed onto me. It is about a story of Love, Compassion, Friendship & Loyalty. It makes one think about our own relationships and how many have to overcome obstacles along the way. There are many images that help tell this story but even though I am on dial-up I had to be patient so that I could read the story right to the last page. Click on A Tale of Two Cockies and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

So my friends unless I can find a user friendly Internet Cafe, this will be my last post for the next two weeks. Take care and think of my husband and I relaxing by a beautiful beach sipping red wine, Cheers!!!



Quick links:

• Free Subscription to Arts & Stuff by Email

• Take a look at my SnapShots Blog

technorati tags: Cockies, holiday, beach, red wine, relationships, love, compassion, friendship, loyalty, family, husband, pencils, camera, laptop, story, art magazine

Are you in Shock?

Hope you like the lighter background on this blog without going into shock as the black was bothering me that it may cause problems for visitors to read so much text on such a dark coloured design, especially when some of my posts are for the most part now around 250 words, sometimes more. If you are considering changing the colours of your website or blog this website Mandarin Design has examples of web safe colours. The one I am using is snow # FFFAFA.

Before I made my changes I did post a question about it on WetCanvas with the title Black or White blog background? . As you can see it is neither black nor white. A girl can change her mind can’t she! I do thank the WetCanvas members for helping me to come to a decision. The New Blogger also makes it easy to change the colours of my blog so be prepared, you might see an over the top coloured version down the track.

A change of subject now. This watercolour painting is one that was promised some time ago that would be posted here on my Arts & Stuff blog. I completely forgot all about it until I spied it in my drawer for my art paper. I don’t consider myself a watercolourist because I haven’t had much experience using a watercolour medium. It is rather fun to see what evolves when working with such an unpredictable paint and admit to being a bit surprised that the end result isn’t always a complete loss. Even though some of the trees have been left out because the area is so dense in this part of the creek at Wilpena Pound, the likeness is still there that I would recognise it in an instance when walking upon it.

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: Watercolour, watercolor, shock, painting, wetcanvas, web design, web safe, watercolourist, wilpena pound

Family and celebrations

Tuesday has passed and Wednesday is well on the way with no post done as promised. There will be two celebrations of Christmas for my family, one has passed with another fast approaching on Saturday with my husband’s large family. The grown up children take in turns at hosting the affair with four generations celebrating the festivities together. For my own family along with other siblings there will be a number of hours to travel as my sister in-law is host this year.

It was by way of disappointment with myself that my last commission wasn’t completed prior to the festivities because it would have been so much easier not to have it to worry about. As much as time is scarce for painting, the work that I am doing at the moment is one of my best and realizing this there possibly will be more oil paintings by my own hand in the future. Two more days should have the commission completed then let it sit for awhile to harden before adding a glaze over the surface.

Not sure if I am just getting old or what because I had one glass of wine for Christmas and yet my mind and body feels so hung over. I put it down to life is so fast with so much to fit into it, especially towards the end of the year. I do hope you all are fairing a lot better than myself. Perhaps my mistake was only having one glass of wine….wink!

technorati tags: Christmas, family, celebrations, holidays, commission, festivities

Merry Christmas!

To all my visitors to this blog I sincerely do wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Do stay safe over the Festive Season and take care if you are out and about in the traffic.

As I am busy preparing for my family Christmas there won’t be another post until Tuesday.

Until then take care, Cheers!

technorati tags: Merry Christmas, Christmas

Pencil Sculptures

Thought I would shock my visitors by posting for the second time day.

I just came across this website that makes sculptures from coloured pencils. This link will take you to the website. Jennifer Maestre Pencil Sculptures

I would hate to be the one to break one of the points off.

technorati tags: pencils, sculptures

Painting from Photos vs Plein-air

I have always read with great interest the argument of painting from photos vs Plein-air. I always say what works for one does not necessary work for another.

The bulk of my work is from photos that I have taken myself of the Flinders Ranges region. I will consider a commission from a photo taken by a client but do prefer my own. I would never paint a landscape that I am not familiar with, especially an area that I have never visited. Photos to me are a tool to remind me of what I saw.

Most of my work comes from my photos simply because I cannot afford the time away from the farm or the money spent on accommodation to work throughout the Flinders Ranges. This is not an excuse; it is just the way it is.

I do love to sketch and paint Plein-air. My early days of painting consisted of quite a bit of painting outdoors in my local area. Personally I think that it is a must to have these skills to get the best from your photographs.

Often in the past I used to feel guilty about using photos. I think that comes from reading so much from artist that have never gained knowledge how to handle painting from a photograph themselves, don’t want change or just plain think it is bad bad bad!!! The guilt is now gone, I do what I do and tough if someone says it is wrong. :D

Painting from an image on a computer monitor works well for me. Sometimes I will have three photos stitched together so that I am reminded of the vastness of the area that I am painting. It is from those three photos that I pick out the most interesting views/essentials, concentrate them and sketch them onto paper to work out if it will work or not. More often than not, the colours and atmosphere I use are from my memory of the scene when witnessing it at an earlier time rather than the photo that I had taken at that particular time. A commissioned work though is worked similar to a photograph unless the client gives me creative freedom to do as I want.

I am lousy at sharing my images that I work from along with the painting though will post an photo with a watercolour painting tomorrow, which will show you what a bit of creative license can do when working from a photograph.

Want to know what others are saying on this subject?

Dion from Art News Blog posted a story on Art & Perception about painting from photographs. There is further reading with many comments posted after Dion's story.

Wikipenia - Plein-air

technorati tags: Photographs, En plein air, plein-air, plein air

Tess the working dog

Last Noverber I nearly lost my finger when I caught by wedding band on the striking plate on a door frame. Thinking about that I realized Tess, the pup that I spoke about at that time will be 12 months old at the end of September. If you look way down the page at Sue’s Musings you will see a photo of Tess when she was only a baby along with the original story of my finger dated 19th November 2005.

Well it is time for a grown up photo of Tess and here she is. She is like a tornado when she gets around; only one speed and that is flat out. She travels on the back of the farm ute to check the sheep with her master at the wheel. She is funny to watch when she jumps onto the ute as not one part of her touches the sides of the vehicle when she flies through the air. Most dogs would jump up and grab the sides of the vehicle to aid themselves onto the ute. At the same time it gives them a clear view of what is there before heaving themselves onto the bed of the vehicle. But no not Tess, she has to find out the hard way and may end up on the top of anything that is on the back of the ute.

She is just too strong for her own good and can create comical things happening. Not funny though when she collects my legs when she is running fast and then all of a sudden realizes she has miss judge the distance when trying to put the breaks on. At times it makes colourful bruises on my legs.

Even though she has a lot of energy she has been easy to train. Hopefully by the time she reaches the age of two she also will have slowed down a bit….. chuckle. Puppies are also a possibility sometime in the future and of cause they will be posted here as well.

technorati tags: dog, sheep dog, working dog, pup, puppies

Titles and Prices

Today I spend a considerable amount of time fine tuning titles and prices for two exhibitions that I am involved with during the month of September and October.

I know buyers prefer consistency in price with artworks and do feel it is more professional as an artist not to price paintings up and down in value. Even my past buyers are happy to see my paintings increase in price, as it adds value to their own painting, which I also respect when I have sold them a painting.

But how much I should raise my prices isn’t any easy decision to make, especially when the economy is very hard on so many families. I have always been lucky to have younger people buy my larger works and would like to see that continue. With that said I have increased my prices on large works but made it affordable for some buyers with smaller works on offer at a reasonable price.

I have to admit it would be sad to see some of my paintings part company with my home although at the end of the day they have to be sold before they do.

blog, blogging, price, title, art, artist, Susan Borgas, exhibition

My day off

I had time out for myself today and loved every minute of it, as I felt like I was running out of energy with my art: Been a long time since I have closed the doors to the studio from from myself.

I didn’t waste my time altogether. I added another Lens to my Squidoo, which can be viewed by clicking on Artist Links.

I mentioned earlier in my blog about my laptop being sick. Yesterday after some research I found out what the motherboard model was and updated the Bios in the hope that it would solve the problem but alas no. I have never pulled the laptop apart before and convinced it was a heat problem switching it off, proceeded to do just that last night. The fan was very dusty and after cleaning it thought yep I have fixed it. Maybe I had but didn’t run it long enough afterwards to find out. Anyway today I found another website instructing further cleaning that should have been done and oh dear did I find some yucky bits. All done and the computer has been running for three hours without any problems with software that normally shuts it down. The computer is much quieter as well with the fan not running flat out. Touchwood all is now well…… hope I haven’t jinxed things now by telling you all…….stay tuned!!!!

Squidoo - Makes life easy!

I have often wondered what would be the best way to index my Works in Progress on my blog so that they can be easily found at a later time.

As a frequent visitor to Making a Mark; Katherine Tyrrell has solved the problem for me. Until I read her blog I never knew about Squidoo. Katherine is now using Squidoo and she explains what it is all about at her blog. If you are interested please visit and take a look as she explains some of the how’s and why’s she is using it. The thread is Squidoo - a new approach for my links


I am listing three of my own “Lens” in this thread below that I did some work on yesterday evening as well as a tidy up today. More is planned for the future and will be listed in the right column of this blog.

Arts and Stuff
Work in Progress - Pastel
Works in Progress - Oil

Nothing to post with a WIP today though I am sure that the above will give you something to ponder over.

Technorati tags: squidoo,art, blog

Color Chart

I couldn’t get into the mood to paint today so decided to make pastel sticks from the dust that I had collected in the bottom of a gutter at my easel; they are now drying.

Also made pastel coloured charts then laminated them for future reference when I want to order new stock. The printed charts from the pastel companies are not a true colour match. I regret not doing this at the beginning when I purchased my Winsor and Newton box of pastels, as some are now missing or rather the label is non existent on the smaller pieces that I have left. It is going to take a bit longer to work out what is what with them.

Click on the image below of the scanned laminated colour chart for a larger view.
Ops! Just noticed two numbers are missing..... never mind I know what they are.



pastel, colour, color, color chart

Bart's Blog

Some of you might be aware of a regular contributor to my comments who goes by the name of “Bart”. I have been visiting Bart’s blog now for some time and also made comments. Some laughs have been generated along the way.

I find Bart’s blog very good reading and it can be found at I Landscape.

Bart also thanks for signing my Guestbook at my website. That potato soup that you found there is very yummy. I really need to add some "very quick" recipes for the busy artist.

Technorati tags: blog, blogging, comment, recipe

My Website has a new look

For some time now I have been considering giving my website a new look but put if off because of the work that was involved.

With a big exhibition that I am involved with approaching quickly I thought it was time to put into action my ideas.

I feel that the new look is much more professional from a gallery point of view than the previous colours. The easy access to links is still listed on the left hand side. The banner has a new look. The time consuming part was making new thumbnails without drop shadows. Also font colours and text were edited. I also removed some unnecessary “junk” on the homepage so that it loads quicker for those on slow dial-up.

Have a look by clicking on Arts & Stuff with Susan Borgas. If the page looks no different to your last visit or mixed up, refresh your page and all will be revealed.

Technorati tags: web, website, artist, painting

Aussie Humour

A friend sent me these and just had to share.

LOG ON: Adding wood to make the barbie hotter.
LOG OFF: Not adding any more wood to the barbie.
MONITOR: Keeping an eye on the barbie.
DOWNLOAD: Getting the firewood off the ute.
HARD DRIVE: Making the trip back home without any cold tinnies.
KEYBOARD: Where you hang the ute keys.
WINDOW: What you shut when the weather's cold.
SCREEN: What you shut in the mozzie season.
BYTE: What mozzies do.
MEGABYTE: What Townsville mozzies do.
CHIP: A bar snack.
MICROCHIP: What's left in the bag after you've eaten the chips.
MODEM: What you did to the lawns.
LAPTOP: Where the cat sleeps.
SOFTWARE: Plastic knives & forks you get at Red Rooster.
HARDWARE: Stainless steel knives & forks from K-Mart.
MOUSE: The small rodent that eats the grain in the shed.
MAINFRAME: What holds the shed up.
WEB: What spiders make.
WEBSITE: Usually in the shed or under the verandah.
SEARCH ENGINE: What you do when the ute won't go.
CURSOR: What you say when the ute won't go.
YAHOO: What you say when the ute does go.
UPGRADE: A steep hill.
SERVER: The person at the pub who brings out the counter lunch.
MAIL SERVER: The bloke at the pub who brings out the counter lunch.
USER: The neighbour who keeps borrowing things.
NETWORK: What you do when you need to repair the fishing net.
INTERNET: Where you want the fish to go.
NETSCAPE: What the fish do when they discover the hole in the net.
ONLINE: Where you hang the washing.
OFFLINE: Where the washing ends up when the pegs aren't strong enough.

Technorati tags: joke, humour, Aussie