Secret of Vintage Jewelry

Dear all



I am very pleased to announce that I have a new artist joining the main website. Lyn Beaumont makes delicately detailed greetings cards in pastel colours, presented in her own handmade decorated boxes. Her cards could be framed and put on the wall - almost like a card and gift in one. She is often asked by friends and family to make them for special occasions, and has now decided to sell them publicly as well.


At art group, we have been deciding what events or places we could go to this year. We are fortunate to live within striking distance of the Peak District National Park. Maggie wanted to paint on location, and Kevin recommended a local beauty spot that unfortunately doesn’t have any public loos, so we are planning a visit to a tearoom or two on the day. I have recommended the Sheffield Open Studios event, but people seem to prefer the countryside. Still, I’m happy to go on my own to Sheffield, especially as I know some of the exhibitors.


I’ve promised to add something about how I’m progressing with Twitter, so, here goes. This week I downloaded Twitter Local, in the hope of finding other local people using Twitter (especially businesses), but it wasn’t working properly. It shows up as a small box on the top left of the screen, rather like Tweetdeck, but it couldn’t seem to find the webpage. I’ll have another go soon. I’m sure it will be useful, as I’ve found Tweetdeck more or less indispensable. I have gradually been accumulating followers and now have over 60, so welcome to anyone new to following me, or indeed my blog.


Have also joined Yahoo’s “Blog Log” this week - no tittering at the back there, and perhaps that will help me get more readers. The e-book of my blog was published on Myebook last week, and I’ve just had a look to see whether anyone has given it a review yet – well, it has been viewed 200 times apparently, but no one has “favourited “ it. Perhaps I need to review more books on that site, doing so might help people find mine too. Have only reviewed one so far, a gorgeous book of photographs– Mike Moran’s Impressions of Venice. Highly recommended, but turn the sound off if you view it at work…


More next weekend,


Jewel

Deadline: 05/15/10. Submit to: Knocking at the Door: Approaching the Other. Send via attachment (RTF or DOC) to: poetryeditors@buddhapussink.com. Theme: Reconciling and/or coming to an understanding with the Other as it appears in all aspects of life: personal, political and societal. Type: Poetry (5 poems, 10 pages MAX). URL: http://lisasisler.com/journal/2010/02/15/submission-guidelines-for-knocking-at-the-door-a-poetry-anthology

Deadline: 08/01/10. Submit to: Rattle. E-mail (via pasted-in text) to: submissions@rattle.com. Theme: Masters of Mental Health. Type: Poetry and essays (5,000 words MAX). URL: http://www.rattle.com/callsforsubs.html

Deadline: 09/10/10 or until issue is full. Check Web site below. Submit to: Workers Write! E-mail to: courtroom@workerswritejournal.com, or send a hard copy to: Blue Cubicle Press, PO Box 250382, Plano, TX 75025-0382. Theme: Tales from the Courtroom. Type: Short stories (5,000 words MAX). URL:

http://www.workerswritejournal.com http://backwaterpress.com Deadline: N/A. Submit to: Hunger Mountain, Vermont College of Fine Arts, 36 College Street, Montpelier, VT 05602. Theme: Responses to stage and screen. Type: Manuscripts (10,000 words MAX) or a video submission. URL: http://www.hungermtn.org/submit

Deadline: N/A. Submit to: editor@dreamofthings.com Theme: Various topics based on one of 15 themes. See http://dreamofthings.com/workshop-2 for more details. Type: Personal essays (500-5,000 words MAX). URL: http://dreamofthings.com/guidelines

I went to see Ghost Writer, suspense thriller that has wonderful character development, complexiy of plot, subtle clues, and unfolds slowly even though your attention never wavers. A real salute to audience intelligence. However, several of the people in the theater didn't get what was going on, so they asked, loudly of course, "What does this mean? That mean?" I've got an idea. How about a device like a listening device, excpet instead of enhancing the hearing, it will have a narrator telling, a la Cliff Notes, step-by-step, everything that is happening? Yeah!

Dear readers

Don’t miss my review of “Dominate your Market with Twitter”, on my Librarything widget below. Whilst in a Twitter vein, I will say that I have gone against the advice in the book and followed quite a few people in order to get followers, but I hope that I will in time get people following me on my own merit. The most useful Twitter application I’ve found so far is Tweetdeck. This free download brings up every tweet in a little box on the top right of your screen, then fades them away again after a few seconds. I have just downloaded Twitter Local, and hope that will be useful in finding other local businesses. Have any of you tried it? I’m also now on Linked In, but haven’t yet found anyone else on it.
At art group, I’ve completed my second Venice painting and put it onto Flickr as “Venice 2”, so you can compare it with the first one. Both are in the Water set. I’ve made a start on my second industrial picture, using the oil pastels I bought recently. They are only cheap ones, and do not show up that well against the black background, They are OK for trying new ideas out, but I’ll try and get some pastel paper or better oil pastels when our group go to the “Patchings” festival in June. Meantime, chalk pastel pencils seemed to stay put reasonably well, even on smooth black card. “Patchings” is the biggest art and craft fair locally, and is held near Nottingham. We like to visit stock up on our art requisites and watch the demonstrations. Sue can only buy her favourite Chroma colour paints from there.

I’ve joined “Blog Frog”, a listing site, and am hoping to get some new readers for my blog. I like to look at other people’s blogs sometimes, but really would like more readers without having to plough through too many. To that end, I’ve had my blog made into an e-book, “Arty Adventures of Jewel”. I wanted something that began with an “A” in the hope that made it easier to find, and “Jewel” is my blogging name. I reviewed someone else’s book on Blog Catalog (on Back Pain) and am hoping he will do the same for me. His book costs $10, but mine is free, and can be found at the Myebook.com site. I have illustrated it with some of my artwork and photos and welcome reviews.

I saw CITY iSLAND and really recommend it. The woman behind me kept crinking her bag of whatever she'd brought in to eat so that she didn't have to pay for it at the movies and commenting on each line to her husband. Shush did no good. So I piled my coat and my husband's on my seat and sat on them, making myself at least 6'4. She shut up. I recommend this too

So, I was at the MOMA today at the sixth floor exhibit: The Artist in his Art: lots of videos of naked artists running against restraints, grimacing, and in the doorway, two naked statues, a man and woman gazing at each other, as real as Dwayne Hanson's fiberglass sculptures. I went through the door. My bare arm (I was wearing short sleeves) brushed against the female statue's breast. Her breast was warm as embarrassment against my arm. Yoiks, the couple weren't statues after all!

When I recovered, I went into another gallery where an artist: male, young, blond wavy hair, lay naked on, what looked like a funerary bier, a skeleton draped over him. It was lthe opposite of a near-death experience. Instead of the soul rising from the body, the bones did. It was also like a momento morre, the skull in still lives to remind the viewer that death will come soon, so be good!

Dear readers

Firstly, the book review of “Know me like me follow me”, mentioned in my postings on Blog Catalog and Twitter is on my “Librarything” widget, on the right of the page. I do feel this book could be beneficial for anyone wanting to get their blog more widely read.

At art group this week, we are moving our equipment to another building, from the cricket pavilion where we meet, as the cricket season has begun, and this takes most of the session time. So, by popular request this week, I am going to include some wildlife, but in mostly in relation to painting as this is an arty blog.

Many art group members turn to their own gardens for inspiration, and I am no different. I have always done this and, indeed, my A level art project was on the Dutch flower painters of the 18th century. My painting “Tribute to the Dutch Flower Painters” can be viewed via my Flickr widget on the right, in the “Inspired by Nature” set (where you can also see my other nature-inspired artwork). I began this large painting in my teens, then put it on one side for many years, although my mum kept asking me to finish it, so she could put it on the wall. I finally completed it when I joined the art group – I had it done within a month – only for it to be too large for my parents’ house, so I had a smaller print done, which they have put up instead. Most of the flowers are from their garden.

My “Poppies” painting was difficult - the flowers kept wilting once picked and put in a vase. Maggie at art group has the right idea - painting her poppies while they were still growing outside, and you can see the results on the “Artists of Derbyshire website”. Painting flowers and plants is not easy and takes time and practice. I start by drawing the shape of the plant, adding a bit of detail, then carefully adding colour – I used to worry about doing this in case I messed it up, but not nowadays.

The “Butterflies” painting began with a butterfly I photographed in our garden. The great thing about painting is that you can make the subject look more attractive than in real life, especially when photography is not your strong point. Butterflies in particular tend to look a bit scruffy after a time, but in a painting you can make them look perfect again (or you could use Photoshop, but that’s another story).

We have a large garden, backing onto fields. There used to be two ponds, but they were filled in by our predecessors when they sold the house to us. We are now reinstating one pond as our son is old enough to be safe around it. We’ve lived here three years, and every year, frogs have made their way to our garden to spawn. They have to negotiate a busy road or fields, but still they come. Next year, they will find there is actually a pond for them, so they will be in froggy heaven, and there will be a slope at one end to make it easier for wildlife to get out. The pond should also help attract dragonflies, which we also get occasionally. Bearing in mind how popular Maggie’s lily pond paintings are, I am going to insist on having some lilies in ours.

I feed the birds all year round, and mostly we just get sparrows, starlings and blackbirds, in spring we have two or three nests in the hedge at the end of the garden. We also get robins, greenfinches, bluetits and pied wagtails occasionally, none of which hang around for long enough for me to photograph, and the black pheasants (though, being black, they might not photograph well). We also had an unidentified bird, which is on my Flickr “Wildlife” set. Does anyone know what this is? Finally, a hedgehog often visits us at night - a shy creature but we sometimes hear it snuffling.

Bye for now

Jewel

Usually, at our Easter exhibition, I’ve had to race off by Saturday lunchtime because of family commitments, but this year I was lucky enough to be there on the Sunday afternoon as well, and find out what paintings were selling best, as well as what people were voting for in best in show. People vote for different paintings to the ones they buy, I sometimes wonder why this is.

Subjects - What people seem to go for is anything with water – waterfalls, the sea, lakes, ponds or rivers, or a sunset, or water with a sunset thrown in. They also like close ups of flowers and small, dainty animals like birds, and also like clear, bright colours, not muddy ones. Most of the artwork I’ve ever bought myself has been scenes involving water or sunsets or both (one has both the sea and some flowers), so I suppose that confirms it.

Media – Oils and acrylics proved the most popular.

I was art group this morning, and those members who have sold anything would often have spent the proceeds on some art equipment. This was my third year of doing the Easter exhibition, and as my paintings hadn’t sold previously, I’d had some greetings cards made of my work, to help me gauge what people like. I am not obsessed with selling and usually just paint what I like. Still, to sell something does not go amiss, and one of my cards did sell, a copy of the painting of Venice. This particular painting wasn’t on sale – it was part of a display I’d done for November’s trade fair which showed four different stages in a watercolour, and I’d put the display up to fill a gap. It did make me wonder whether, if I I’d had that actual painting for sale, it would have sold – Sod’s law isn’t it? I do have a spare part finished painting from when I was creating that display (there wasn’t enough room to add it in), so am going to complete it and use that on the display board. The original is already on the Artists of Derbyshire site for sale. I’ve uploaded it onto Flickr, so you can view it via the blog widget or directly on Flickr.

And what, you might ask, did I do with the £1.50 I got from my card? I wouldn’t have got very far trying to spend that amount in a normal art shop. Instead, I found some 99p oil pastels on E-Bay – never mind that the postage and packaging blew the budget. They arrived yesterday, and I’ll be using them for my next project, another industrial picture of the inside of a forge in Sheffield.

Any arty readers out there, what sells best for you? And non-arty people what do you buy? Does anyone else feel a bit torn between wanting to produce something that sells and wanting to do your own thing? I would welcome other people’s comments on all this, so that we can share this and perhaps create a thread. Any Twitterers, feel free to retweet this to anyone you think might be interested.

Bye for now

Jewel

Just a quick posting to let all readers know I’ve put photos of the recent exhibition and some of my recent work onto my Flickr page – I’m on under “Artistofderby” and my Facebook page “Julie Baugh”. Hopefully, most people will be able to view them this way.

Jewel

The dust has now settled and I think I can safely say our group have had another successful Easter exhibition, with a few paintings sold, and funds raised (about £100 of which will go on overheads). We’ll need to spend a bit on replacing some of our wooden exhibition signs that we put around the town, as they tend to get vandalised. Here I am back home, and I have just ordered some new oil pastels, to use in my next project.

There were plenty of people I knew at the show, including our local author Beth Winchcombe and her husband Geoff, fellow trade fair veterans. When I arrived to help out on the Sunday, I was pleased to see Elizabeth had felt well enough to come along for a bit. She had picked up a bug on holiday recently, and was still recovering, so I’d taken along her paintings to display for her. There was aIso someone called Lyn, whom I met recently. She has just started making very pretty handmade cards and wants to sell them. She gave me a DVD of her work, which I had a look at that evening and was impressed by.

Meanwhile, I have had the annual “Best in Show” report through from Kevin. Every year, people visiting the exhibition are given a small form to vote for what they think is the best picture. This year Sue swept the board with her painting “My Turn Next” (SC29 on the Artists of Derbyshire website) polling 19 votes. Her husband is a keen ornithologist and photographer, so she always has plenty of bird photographs to drawn on. I had one for “Magna”, a surprise choice from my son - his inherent good sense of taste seems to have overcome the fact that he didn’t like the place (see the posting about Magna at the end of February).

I will be uploading some photos of the event onto my Facebook page soon. Although I am on Picasa, I would actually have to e-mail them from there to readers. I hope Facebook is an easier option for most of you. As well as my own “Julie Baugh” page, I have also created a fan page called “Artists of Derbyshire”, and am always grateful for new fans.
Next week, I plan to start my next “industrial” picture – this time on a black background.

Bye for now

Jewel