Painter's Block?

Do you ever get painter's block? I sure do. Sometimes I can go for hours without an idea. Or worse yet I'll work on several pieces of art and since I'm not inspired they turn out terrible and end up in the trash can.

So in one of my art block moments I was looking for ideas online and found some interesting ideas that I'll share with you. I found them at Suite101: 14 Creative Ideas for Creating Art: Two Weeks of Painting Exercises

The  site suggests going on nature walks, picking up pebbles and painting them. I was thinking with all these trees dropping their leaves it might even be fun to do one of just leaves. And another suggestion, looking out your window and paint whatever is there. I have done that on occasion but you can only have so many paintings of your backyard LOL!

Another tip was to  look through your frig for some pieces of fruit or vegetatbles or to paint just blades of grass.  I was thinking well even anything just close up could make a good piece of art. One time I just painted a zoomed it, closeup of two Christmas ornaments. It is pictured to the left.
Now if you like the steam punk kind of thing this idea might speak to you (but not to me). The idea was to take a natural element and paint it as if it were made from a man-made material. Like painting a flower as if it was made of metal. That just sounds strange to me but I'm sure there are people it would appeal to.

The webpage also talked about ideas for painting humans. Like painting a human form no bigger than 2” tall. Well we ACEO artists know all about 2.5 inch sized subjects! LOL

One idea that I thought might be fun to try one of these days was to paint  a human form by painting only negative space or painting just half a face, filling the whole canvas with the subject. It kind of reminds me of some of those profile photos on Facebook.

Well hopefully these ideas will help stimulate your creativity. It did mine!

Read more at Suite101: 14 Creative Ideas for Creating Art: Two Weeks of Painting Exercises http://www.suite101.com/content/14-creative-ideas-for-creating-art-a138290#ixzz151Qqisw4

Fun in the Dawg "Pound" Art Group

Fun, that is what I want everyone to think of when they join and participate in the Dawg Art Group!

We always have fun things going on in the group, Do you like to do ACEO's and Love the Lord and of course you are a woman, Then why don't you think about joining our Online Group.  We have wonderful ladies from all over the world!!  Friends forever because the love of our art and aceo's brought us together!

We have a monthly Art Quest "challenge" to truly keep everyone on their painting toes!! :)  This month is
Roosters, Cows or Chinese Brushstroke!!


We are now voting on the March Art Quest and we need Votes badly, anyone can vote if you are on facebook here is the link
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=114354985245453&index=1


So Come and Join in the Fun http://www.designingartists.ning/   We have many fun mini groups too!

Conceptual Art Painting a Tribute to Lucio Fontana

All art is in a sense conceptual, all art relies upon images and utilises the imagination.
Lucio Fontana was born in Rosario city, Argentina in 1899. The artist left Argentina for Italy to study at the Brera Academy in Milan.
Soon after he was taking part in shows and competitions in Italy, Spain and Argentina, including the Triennale, Milan, the Venice Biennale and the Quadriennale in Rome.
He also began to work as a ceramicist, winning various competitions for his sculptures. In 1946, Fontana collaborated with young artists and intellectuals in Buenos Aires on a draft of the White Manifesto, which signaled the birth of Space Art in 1947.

I was born and I live in Rosario City, Argentina. The city were Lucio Fontana was born. And he has left to the rosarinos artist a way to follow.

As a sculptor, he experimented with stone, metals, ceramics, and neon; as a painter he attempted to transcend the confines of the two-dimensional surface. In a series of manifestos originating with the Manifesto blanco (White Manifesto) of 1946, Fontana announced his goals for a“spatialist” art, one that could engage technology to achieve an expression of the fourth dimension. He wanted to meld the categories of architecture, sculpture, and painting to create a groundbreaking new aesthetic idiom.
From 1958, Fontana purified his paintings by creating matte, monochrome surfaces, thus focusing the viewer’s attention on the slices that rend the skin of the canvas.

'Concept Spatiale', 1959 painting by Lucio Fontana, 100 cm. x 125 cm.

• The evolution of art is something internal, something philosophical and is not a visual phenomenon. Lucio Fontana 1972

The following painting is my tribute to the Rosarine Artist Lucio Fontana. I have titled my painting: Cosmic Couple.

The 'what if' question

Inspiration to get your creativity rolling is all around you. All you need to do is cultivate the 'What if' question.

Maybe you're reading a short story about a history professor and an actress on the topic of kick-boxing or orchid growing. You might think to yourself - what if that's not a history professor but a salesman, not an actress but a young girl and instead of kick-boxing or orchids the subject is homelessness*. What might your creativity come up with given these different characters and different situation?

Or you might be studying a picture, photo or painting of a summer's day landscape of a lake surrounded by trees with mountains in the background, all in shades of green with a blue sky and fluffy white clouds floating around. What if it were autumn? How would the colors change on the trees (which would also change their reflections in the lake); what color would the sky be; what color the far hills? Think of these things and another great painting will be eager to leap from your brush.

One of my favorite materials is polymer clay. It's so versatile and there are so many different techniques you can try out with it, all leading to differing results. But, what if that were marzipan or sugar paste and you had a birthday cake to decorate?

For example, the decoration for this cake was created from hours of practice using polymer clay - it's not a professional finish, but the birthday girl was pleased with it... (she's a keen gardener and flower lover)



Ideas in one area of creativity lead to ideas in others and as the ideas lead, the confidence follows. Once the confidence in your creativity grows there'll be no stopping you!

Creatively yours,

Susan

*You can read the story mentioned above about the salesman, the young girl and homelessness here. It was one of my first short stories to be published and I'm still fond of it.

Artist Trading Cards - inspiration

Artist trading cards, or ATCs, are more than works of art in themselves - they are sparks to a whole new world of creativity.



Just like fans might collect baseball, magic or cigarette cards, art appreciators collect art cards featuring their favorite artist's work. Sometimes, rather than collecting just one artist, collectors will concentrate on a particular subject, eg wedding cakes, dogs, landscapes, fantasy worlds - the range is as limitless as your imagination.

Originally, ATCs were created by artists who traded these small works of art with each other. Then 'art cards, editions and originals'(ACEOs) were created to be sold to collectors rather than just traded by artists.



The official standard size of an art card is 2.5" x 3.5" (64 x 89 mm) - any card that is a different size is not considered to be an ATC or ACEO. These art cards fit into the clear plastic sleeves that are used for baseball cards, and they fit all the other things made for them, too, eg, the pages of pockets, albums and little frames.

ATCs can be original artwork, or prints. They can be made from collage, photographs, eggshell mosaics, fabric, pasta, glass, polymer clay - you name it - you can make an art card from it. They can be painted in ink, watercolor, oil, acrylics, poster paints - painted with brushes or fingers! And they can be in any style.



These cards are bought, sold and traded globally - trading them is such a brilliant way to meet (in real life, or online) other people with similar interests in any country in the world, whether you are nine years old or ninety.

What do you actually do with them once you've got them? Well, you can trade your art cards for other artist cards or keep them in their collectors' sleeves or pages, or frame them up as an unusual and unique art collection. Some people put them in clip frames and hang them where they work, so that they can change their own personal art exhibition on a regular basis. You can make slits in a plain greetings card and insert an artist card into it to give as a lovely and generous present of art to some lucky person.



This is a cheap, popular, rapidly-growing trend in art collecting. Having said it's cheap - if you get an artist's work now that is growing in popularity, you might find that in a few years' time you have something worth quite a bit of money.

Looking through your own collection of art cards (however big or small) can spark your own creativity just as much as a visit to your local museum or art gallery.



This article was first published on the Creativity Site at BellaOnline by Susan Alison, Creativity Editor - Click here to read other articles to boost your creativity and this link will take you to the associated forums where you can chat about creatiity.

Click here for ebay auctions and Buy it Now items - which includes t-shirts, tote bags, fridge magnets, greeting cards, prints and paintings.

All ATCs/ACEOs within this article were painted by Susan Alison - her artwork can be found here:

- Today's Susan Alison Artwork blog - Spring is busting out all over t-shirt

- eBay store now with dog art t-shirts, sweatshirts and tote bags galore

and here for her Etsy shop

Makin' Eyes.... October 13

....that's exactly what I thought when I took this picture at the Maryland State Fair. This horse was flirting with me! LOL........And he seemed to like the fact that I was taking his photo....when I got home I just had to put it to painting. So here it is, "Makin' Eyes" in Watercolors.

This ACEO is available in My Etsy Shop JYWheeler.etsy.com....here's the direct LINK

Not Quite Ready...

The days are shorter and the kids are back to school. The nights are cooler and leaves are already falling off the oaks in my yard. I know what's coming but I am not quite ready for fall, just yet.
Just hanging on to the last blooms a little while longer.

White Poppy