IN THE STUDIO, ON THE SHORE

Friday for Artists: about juried shows

2012-01-27T08:30:00.000Z

St Oswald, Acrylic on Canvas,
entered in John Moores Painting Prize 2012 competition

Today's post is inspired by a great blog from from Joanne Mattera who sums up well juried shows and when to enter/not enter. A must read for any artist!

Joanne Mattera: When do you stop entering juried shows?

By coincidence, I drafted, and then lost, a podcast about juried shows last week. Since I've been working at the juried ArtErotica exhibition it seemed a timely subject! So here's my take on it...

This year I've added more shows to ones I won't enter. I didn't enter ArtErotica even though it would have been fun. Because that isn't my niche, it won't move my career forward with my usual art. It has no value on my CV given my typical exhibition subject matter. I won't enter Discerning Eye again just because I'm not feeling it would have great benefit. Yes it might, and it's a great show, but I'm happy to focus instead on galleries and exhibitions right now. I won't enter the Royal Society of Marine Artists again because I know they simply aren't suited to more contemporary work. That's okay, I'll take that desire for a marine focused society and work towards it another way.

This year I'm entering at least one competition: John Moores. This is because it's the one competition I still really am drawn to and want to achieve. The price is right and you can only enter one piece so I feel the odds are fair. The reputation of the show is one I'd like to add to my CV at this point. It reaches an entirely new audience compared to my current exhibiting.

All in all it's about balancing benefit vs effort. By effort I mean a combination of entry fee, delivery, and keeping a work on reserve for whatever time period is required.

Don't enter every show you can, enter the ones you think you have better odds at (for example: local shows, specific themes, lower entry numbers) or ones that your work is really appropriate for (themed shows, or competitions for a certain type/age of artist)

Better to be more selective, save your money for the ones you think are most important, and focus on the shows that would be of most actual benefit if you're more experienced.

My advice is beginner artists can be a bit more general because I do think if you keep focused it can be good experience to enter shows for learning the ropes - just stick to a budget! You can learn a lot though having to prepare and present your work, going to see the shows afterwards to see how it was hung, and then honing your presentation or application for next time. (or deciding it wasn't meant to be, that's a perfectly valid conclusion)

See the coast paintings tina-m.com

Fun at the gallery! Cartoons

2012-01-25T08:30:00.000Z

Last week of ArtErotica and I'm not in the gallery much this week but haven't taken photos yet of the new work in the studio. So instead I thought I'd share some little cartoons I've been doing during the Erotica show, all about working at a gallery or dealing with artists. Heehee!

This one is about why we need to be good sales people, even artists. And why artists need to give their galleries statements and CVs!

See the coast paintings tina-m.com

42 reasons to carry on

2012-01-24T08:30:00.000Z

View of London From Greenwich by JMW Turner (my local view by my favourite artist!) via Wikipedia

3 new blank canvases on the wall! I've even adapted the walls. Starting fresh - 2"x4"s down from one wall, canvas stretched flat on the plasterboard so I'm not restricted to a particular size. Then I can just buy stretcher bars afterwards to suit what I've painted. A sense of freedom!

And with my fresh start I thought I'd start totting up my achievements from 2011. Not an official "business plan" activity since really I'll do that in April. But fun and reassuring that I'm on a track of progress. So here are a mere 42 accomplishments, since 42 is what life's about:

Forty-Two 2011 Accomplishments

Getting the work out there:

Three exhibitions at Blackheath Gallery
Booked first 2012 exhibition of "Sublime" work at NoFormat gallery
Accepted for Cork Street Open for fourth year in a row
Showed at Urban Art for 9th year
Showed at Affordable Art Fair, spring
Showed work at the Fulham Palace Art Fair
Showed at the Parallax Art Fair
Licensed my work for a cover with Leaf Press, Canada
Sold out the Greenwich Park series

Creative development

Incorporated ideas from geology into the artwork
Started building light boxes for studies
Drawing residency in New Jersey
Saw John Martin exhibition at Tate Britain, wow!
Completed (and passed with distinction!) geology summer school in Durham
Saw real dinosaur bones!
Visited Turner's paintings of Venice to research my Venice series

Professional development/investment

Joined the Contemporary Art Society
Researched and organised a successful Kickstarter project (for a filmmaker)
Bought new dSLR camera for photographing artwork
Got photography lessons
Started business coach meetings
Worked as gallery assistant for Open Exhibition on Cork Street, twice
Bought new Macbook Pro for business
Updated my artist statement
Invested in a high-end giclee printer and started offering prints

Doing the work

Created new Vertical series
Created 14 works in the Shakespeare series on paper
Created 9 new works in the Coast series
Created 8 new works in the Venice series
Made 200+ drawings!
Completed 100 small paintings for my 100for10 project

Connecting

Added 110 new subscribers to my contact list
Wrote 190 blog posts
Had two open studio events
Tried a print ads in Coast and Time & Leisure

Other Achievements

Created my first calendar for 2012
Paid all my taxes in advance
Created new leather journals featuring my drawings
Declared an end to the Horizons series - and sold out
Declared an end to the Lake Michigan series
Completed a commission of Michigan lighthouse painting
Completed a commission of a Dark painting - Centre, Marigold

See the coast paintings tina-m.com

Art business software - all the free stuff!

2012-01-20T09:00:00.000Z

For all your biz folk! (yes, artists, that's what we are)

I recently posted this on a few artist forums and the response was good so I thought I'd share it here too.

It's a roundup of FREE software you can use for all your business needs. Yes, that's right. You don't need to spend lots of money to have your virtual office! :) yay!

Office - documents, spreadsheets, database, etc

OPEN OFFICE - www.openoffice.org/
Review: This has been around quite a while. I've tried it on and off over the years and it is finally at a point where even as a self-confessed Excel junkie I can finally say it's the equal of MS office. Took a while but they're finally there. :) And completely cross-compatible too!

Photo editing
(I haven't tried all of these but they are often recommended by fellow Etsy sellers)

GIMP www.gimp.org/ (recommended for PC, Mac installation can be tricky)
AVIARY advanced.aviary.com/ (a whole suite of photo tools including editing, effects, vector, mark-up, audio and music tools. They also have a mobile device version of the software!)
PIXLR pixlr.com/ (online software)
PICNIK www.picnik.com/ (Google image editor, also works online)

Desktop publishing/DTP
(both highly recommended by online reviews, I haven't used them personally)

SERIF www.serif.com/desktop-publishing-software/
SCRIBUS www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus

Accounting/Bookkeeping

SPREADSHEET Yes, you can just keep track in a spreadsheet! Like in OpenOffice (or Excel if you have MS Office)
TURBOCASH sourceforge.net/projects/turbocash/

Website design/html

NVU net2.com/nvu/ I've used this and taught beginners how to update their site with it. Initial design is a bit tricker than with good software or knowing html, but it works very well for starters
COFFEE CUP www.coffeecup.com/freestuff/ I only tried this briefly some years ago so can't vouch for the current version. They also have other good tools too like FREE FTP (which I do use)
SERIF (yes, again!) www.serif.com/web-design-software/

Productivity
General organisational tools

Evernote: http://www.evernote.com/

See the coast paintings tina-m.com

The sublime - March exhibition

2012-01-19T09:00:00.000Z

"The visible deformation towards formlessness observable in the paintings made by artists working in the pseudo-mystical tradition of the sublime like Mammoser, enables an observer to derive multiple and ambiguous meanings from such artworks that includes both an empirical conception and an aesthetic feeling of the sublime." --Quote from Tina Mammoser: Testing the sublime limits of vision © Stephen Baycroft, 10/01/2012

The Crumple
Acrylic on canvas, 100x80cm £1200

EXHIBITON:

Testing the Sublime Limits of Vision

Paintings and light experiments by Tina Mammoser
with art writer Stephen Baycroft
Opening night - Thursday 15 March 5-9pm
Exhibition open: 16-18 and 23-26 March (two weekends including Fridays), 11am - 5pm
Details on NoFormat/SFSA website

See the coast paintings tina-m.com

And now for something completely different... ArtErotica

2012-01-18T08:30:00.000Z

After Rorschach © Mary Rouncefield

All this week I'm working, once again, at the Gallery on Cork Street - this time as social media guru and general dogsbody for the brand new annual ArtErotica Exhibition. It's not a genre I paint but I do have a small collection. Unfortunately I live with two gay men so can't really hang my naughty pictures around the house!

Lust © Jill Sutcliffe

From an exhibition viewpoint it's really interesting to see a different representation of mediums. With abstract work, or even landscape/seascape work the vast majority tend to be paintings, with printmaking next, and then usually a smaller selection of drawings. For this exhibition by far the majority of submitted works (it's a competition, the final round of judging is tonight) is drawings. Only a handful (I can see three) of textile works have been shortlisted, sort of in contrast to the increase in that medium's popularity generally. Whether it's because life drawing is a more enjoyable way to capture the subject, or if there's just a larger number of submissions from amateur artists who attend life classes, the difference makes for a challenging curating job.

Dante Deo © Annie Ridd

The show makes for an amusing setting too. Works in the large window aren't very explicit but you can still see people stopping for a double-take, then grinning. A man came in to speak to the gallery manager and stopped and got a bit speechless while asking us a question then realising the artwork around him. "I guess I've come on a slightly racier day than usual!" was his amused comment!

Helping hang work I've already been inspired by some different methods of painting or different presentations I've seen. So regardless of the subject matter it's always interesting to just interact with more art. I'll share with you a few of the safe-for-work images, as a staff member, to perhaps tempt you to come see the show!

If you'd like to see the show it's free, and there's a whole series of lectures and a poetry evening too!

Art Erotica Exhibition
19–27 January 2012
The Gallery in Cork Street

28 Cork Street, London W1S 3NG

http://www.arteroticaexhibition.com

Lectures, breakfast talks, and art poetry evening tickets can be booked on this page.

All images used by contract permission; posting as ArtErotica Exhibition 2012 staff.

See the coast paintings tina-m.com

The long drawings

2012-01-17T09:00:00.000Z

Something I played with in New Jersey was these drawings on long pieces of watercolour paper - leftovers from printing. It was odd, and I'm not sure I like them, but it definitely made me look at things differently. Instead of looking at the horizontal expanse of water I was forced to look along the line of the waves going into the distance... so the further up the paper the further away it is.

These haven't been snapped up yet in the drawing sale either!
Original drawings $35 each, includes int'l shipping
Click here to buy

See the coast paintings tina-m.com

Photos reminders, not reference

2012-01-13T07:30:00.000Z

Oh Photobox, how I love you! I ordered the prints from New Jersey online on the final weekend. They arrived Tuesday morning! 24 hours at home and I already have my 110 reminder photos.

I say reminder photos because while photos are an important part of my resources, I don't paint directly from photos. When they are on my studio walls they're a tool to use in conjunction with the sketches just to spot colour, tone, or lighting. Maybe the direction of a line. They aren't reference photos in the usual sense - just a reminder. Painting directly from photos can often be seen in paintings - the perspective is slightly wrong (camera lenses curve the image - more or less depending on the quality of lens), a sense of depth is lost, focus is either inconsistent or too consistent (because cameras can have multi-focus, unlike our eyes). So I just use photos as a trigger, to remind me of what I saw and how I felt. As a quick check or colour swatch.

There are two "camera" characteristics that I do use in my paintings actually, though these aren't ever from the photos themselves. (or rarely) One, is that I do like to lighten or darken a sort of halo around the side edges of my paintings. Two, I'm convinced my horizon lines are often gently curved because of my strong glasses prescription. Of course, I'm not sure because they look straight to me!

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

Drawings - experiment successes and failures

2012-01-12T07:30:00.000Z

For the A4 drawings done in New Jersey I had a bit of fun playing with new materials.

First, I decided to bring a pad of a different sort of paper. Actually a semi-transparent paper intended for technical and architectural drawings. Not quite as transparent as tracing paper, bright white, and very smooth.

This proved a bit challenging for the pastels and charcoal! Meaning, it really didn't work at all. There was just no tooth to the paper to take a powdery medium. However, ink, marker and pencil just drew beautifully on it. I probably most enjoyed the pen work.

Second, I brought no paint. So it was pencils of various types, pens and markers, pastels, chalk and charcoal. The latter didn't work, as I've mentioned. It turns out I also didn't particularly like the look of the soft dark graphite - it was too "mushy" in appearance for me. Perhaps because I was trying to draw a lot of fine wiggly lines, so the softness meant a loss of precision.

The pens were my great surprise! I brough a pack of drawing pens and just love love loved using these both in my leather sketchbook and on the smooth white paper. I could draw sharp wiggly lines galore. I could cross-hatch dark areas. Just... yummy.

Third, in a fit of frustrating with the lack of "white" in my sketchbook (the pages are an off-white laid paper) I desperately wanted some white paint to cheat a bit. The best option I found was a white enamel paint at the little local hardware store. So I foam-brushed this on some of the white paper to try (mainly because it was easier than propping open the sketchbook for wet paint). Well, it didn't occur to me it would take an entire day to dry! heh. But when it did, it was off-white. Drat! But it did look cool on that pure white paper.

And surprise - it had texture! Suddenly the pencil marks were darker, and I could smudge them. It was like working on a textured art paper. Though I didn't try the pastels at this point, because I was past wanting to work with them. The texture combined with the off-white colour actually gave a new kind of interest to the drawings. So at that point I painted quite a few pages.

This is the kind of thing I feel a residency is about. (Me calling this a self-created residency.) Taking something new, limit myself, push myself to try something different by necessity. Even on my last couple days where I was bored still by the still water and sunshine, I made myself do some drawings of calm. Try to change the way I looked at it.

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

So many drawings!

2012-01-11T07:30:00.000Z

In three weeks of "vacation" I managed 16 A4 drawings, 5 long drawings (pictured), and 63 smaller sketches. Not too shabby. (can you tell I like to count stuff?)

And of course it would be remiss of me not to remind you that you still can buy either giclee print sets for $69 (if you'd like more line for your buck) or an original drawing for $25 (ooh aaah, more originalness for your buck).

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Post 14 The end is near

2012-01-07T07:00:00.000Z

My time in New Jersey is nearly done! So a couple views of reality.

I'm in a good place with all this - tons of ideas for paintings, lots of ideas generally about the direction of my work, with a dose of confusion too which is always good. And to top it off I'm returning to London with some employment of sorts awaiting me. Immortal Longings will be happy to have me back for packing orders, but even more exciting than that I'm working as the social media staff and "greeting artists dropping off work" staff member for the Art Erotica exhibition on Cork Street - from 19-27 January (though I'll be working from the 13th or 14th). Looking forward to this because I love working with Kathryn and Rodney, enjoy being in the gallery environment, and it's such a different niche from my own work! (and a niche I enjoy as a viewer/collector)

So 3 weeks of creative inspiration and research followed by a bit of guaranteed income on my return. Can't complain I suppose!

New Jersey artwork pre-orders: Drawings | Print Sets | Paintings

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Post 13 Twilight waves

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000Z

New Jersey artwork pre-orders: Drawings | Print Sets | Paintings

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Post 12 Science artist, geeky waves!

2012-01-05T07:30:00.000Z

The geek came out one night. Noticed the wave foam resembled sine waves in width vs. height. Then drew my own wave in the sand.

Edit after seeing blog post today by Ben Goldacre (how's that for timing?): turns out I may not have just been hallucinating this. Fluid does move in sine waves when encountering resistance/viscosity/etc. (I didn't really do much fluid mechanics in my physics study.) I don't know the exact mechanism at work with tide waves but will look it up later! Some cool videos:

Water sandwiched between air flows (shows sine waves)
Viscous fluid hits moving surface (more sine waves!)

New Jersey artwork pre-orders: Drawings | Print Sets | Paintings

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Post 11 Night drawing

2012-01-04T07:00:00.000Z

Drawing in the dark!

New Jersey artwork pre-orders: Drawings | Print Sets | Paintings

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Post 10 Progression of waves

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000Z

From on the pier

To drawing from the window

To abstracting in the sketchbook

New Jersey artwork pre-orders: Drawings | Print Sets | Paintings

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Post 9 New year stargazing

2012-01-02T17:55:00.001Z

New Jersey artwork pre-orders: Drawings | Print Sets | Paintings

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Day 8 Night swimming

2011-12-30T09:00:00.000Z

ok, not swimming really... but it's still a favourite REM song!

My rather sad attempt at taking photos through the binoculars. Didn't work nearly as well as my photographs through the microscope in the summer. But I've been loving staring out at the waves at night, and have tried to sketch the dark water several times too. I actually did have to use Photoshop's 'auto mode' on these in order to get any image - they just look all dark in the original photographs. Which goes to show how much information a camera actually captures even if we can't see it!

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Day 7 Wave studies

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000Z

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Day 6 Look to the skies

2011-12-28T06:00:00.000Z

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Day 5 Under the boardwalk

2011-12-27T06:00:00.000Z

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Post 4, Boxing Day!

2011-12-26T09:00:00.000Z

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T09:00:00.000Z

Merry Christmas from Ocean Grove, New Jersey!

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Post 3

2011-12-24T09:00:00.000Z

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Post 2

2011-12-23T09:00:00.000Z

Flock of seagulls. (heh) This flock seems to live on the roof of the fishing club I see outside my window. They didn't flock anywhere... just flew back and forth for about an hour. The ink drawing came first until I realised the evening sea was far too soft and grey for strong lines.

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com

New Jersey - Post 1

2011-12-22T09:00:00.000Z

The view out my window.

See the coast paintings >> http://www.tina-m.com