Monday, 17 October 2011
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Guest Artist, Mary Anne Cary, from Maine
" I find that, living in Maine, I am supplied with endless possibilities for paintings. I see intriguing studies every time I take a drive, whether down the street or up the coast. I love having my camera ready to record the many compositions and ideas I see around me."
She has attended workshops with local and nationally recognized artists and enters regional juried art shows. Her blog displays her current paintings at maryannecary.blogspot .com
Mary Anne, starting at the beginning, when did you begin to be interested in Art?
I was interested in art as a child and in high school, which prompted me to go to art school. I feel that when I was in college, it was just an introduction to art in some ways. I was young and not sure what direction to go in. Graphic art is very different than fine arts where I took more photography and calligraphy type courses. A lot of my fine art is self taught. Now, as an adult I would love to be in art school again full time! I would appreciate every minute, I was not serious enough when I was "younger!"
Do you have a favourite artist?
I don't think I could choose a particular, favorite artist. I am definitely more interested in contemporary art,
and I am strongly attracted to artists who paint with strong colors and bold, looser styles. I love paintings
where you can see paint strokes. I tend to study their work and try to learn from these working artists, the internet has become a great teacher.
The internet is full of 'daily painters' - do you manage to paint regularly?
I don't know why I am so busy, I am not painting nearly as regularly as I would like. Recently, I have been
painting intensely for a couple of days, I stock up for some postings and then I return to my busy life. That is not a healthy way to progress and grow, but sometimes we grab what we can. I would like to get back to a point where I am painting almost daily.
I am a 'fast and furious' painter, where my pastel paintings are concerned, and looking at your paintings, I suspect you work in a similar way?
Yes, I paint fast and furiously! I make a mess. I really need a large studio and I know I could fill it in a couple of days. I am never that meticulous, I do need to consciously slow down. I work well with messiness and then I start the cleanup process and do it all over again. (I probably would not make a good studio mate!)
It was your pastel paintings that first made me sit up and take notice, but do you have a favourite medium?
I go back and forth between pastels and oils. I really like pastels, but I feel I get more response from my oils, even though I personally feel my pastels are fresher.
Is there any particular subject matter that draws you to paint it?
I am moved by the coast here in Maine, it has endless possibilities and diversities along with such different light throughout the year. I am painting mostly from photos, with a little memory and plein air added in.
I will sell almost any pieces of my work, I feel I can always paint another. There are one or two I will not part with.
Finally, do you have any particular future projects or plans in mind? Where do you see your artistic journey taking you?
I always have painting plans going on in my head. Right now I would like to start painting larger and begin to put together a more cohesive body of work. I feel so inspired by other successful artists, but I still feel I don't have a true direction. I believe that takes a commitment of time and serious planning, something I am
still struggling to work out. It is a commitment I look forward to making.
Thank you, Mary Anne, for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us, as well as some of your wonderful paintings! There has been many a time that, seeing your work, you've tempted me to put aside my greeting cards and get out my soft pastels again. Seeing how you use them, what you 'get out of them', is truly inspiring!
You can see more of Mary Anne's pastel and oil paintings and contact her about purchasing details, over at her blog, maryannecary.blogspot .com
Alternatively, go straight to her Etsy shop or, to feast your eyes on even more of Mary Anne's fabulous work, visit her website.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Pet Peeve Week
I've come across some bizarre 'holidays' since I got involved in the Greeting Card business. But here's one I rather like - Pet Peeve Week!
It's the second week of October according to one source and another says it's around October 5th. Either way, I discovered it too late to make any cards to celebrate it - maybe next year? - but here are some of my 'Pet Peeves' that I've jotted down, in no particular order.
And I hope you'll share yours too!
- Unsolicited telephone callers in general but in particular the ones who start off brightly asking me how my day is going. It's obviously not enough to interrupt me when I'm trying to do something difficult and 'technical' (like fathoming blogger!) but they want to keep me hanging around making small talk too!!!! My answer, I'm afraid, is usually that I'd be enjoying my day much better if they'd go away and leave me in peace.
- Dog owners who, when their huge, wolf-like furry friend bounds up to me, call out, 'he won't hurt you!' As if that makes everything all right! They really need to realise that, as well as the many people who are terrified of dogs, there are a lot of people who simply don't like them. I grew up with a dog that I liked very much and there are a lot of dogs that I have no objection to - from a distance. I've even found myself smiling at dogs when they are well under their owner's control. But I really hate the smell of some of them; it turns my stomach over. And the thought of being pawed by them, not to mention slavered over, in their excitement, fills me with revulsion. But that apart, a huge hound, however well trained, bearing down on a small child playing in the park, is always a worrying sight . . .
- Politicians who repeatedly talk about 'working families', 'families across the land' and so on when they surely know that a large percentage of the population doesn't live in a 'family' situation. You can read about it here. What about the rest of us, Prime Minister?
- 'Thank you for not smoking' notices,'Thank you for not walking on the grass' notices etc. I'm not sure why this irritates me so much - it has a kind of faintly passive aggressive feel about it. What's wrong with 'NO SMOKING' and 'KEEP OFF THE GRASS' - I'm old enough to remember 'Spitting Prohibited' notices on the buses! Tell that to the Premier League footballers!
- People, usually families of the bereaved, who talk about getting 'justice for their loved ones'. Quite apart from the fact that their loved ones probably aren't in a position to care any more, I often sense that it's really revenge or retribution that they are looking for. And it's not for their loved ones, it for themselves. Nothing wrong with that, if that's what you believe is right, but why not say so?
- Shop assistants who chat amongst themselves while they are supposedly 'serving' me!
- Having to make expensive (0845, 0870 . . .etc) phonecalls to Customer Services to inform a company of an error they've made! Sometimes I can find an normal number for them on a website devoted to helping us to avoid these expensive non-geographical numbers, but I don't always have time and it's not always possible.
- Junk Mail. I think most of us would prefer to do without it but setting my preferences to avoid it doesn't seem to work. Apparently it depends on the postman looking at a list. Junkmail costs a bomb in waste disposal charges but I heard that the Royal Mail wouldn't survive without it.
- Chilled food that has the cooking instructions on the underside of the packaging, causing me to have to choose between spilling the food as I turn the package over or risk putting my back out, trying to read the instructions from underneath!
- Food waste recycling. Enough said - here!
- When giving my details or filling in a form, being asked whether I'm 'Miss' or 'Mrs'. Why is this relevant? Men manage perfectly well without being asked about their marital status.
- People who make a virtue of getting up early and look down on us 'Night Owls'. Yes, I know they say that an hour's sleep before midnight is worth a lot more than several hours later but if you're in the habit of staying up late because you can think straighter late at night than you can first thing in the morning, I'm not sure that this holds true!
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
How do you draw?
The urge to draw seems to be something we are born with.
Along with prehistoric man, young children seem to be driven to mark-making and they do it without inhibition. They don’t question whether their scribbling is ‘good enough’ or whether they are going about it the right way – until much later!
I must admit, I’ve worried about my drawing. I often don’t seem to be able to get the line that I wanted the first time round. I often seem to ‘feel my way’ to the line I was looking for, with the result that my drawings can be messy in the extreme.
So I was really heartened when Ann Buckner, a watercolour artist whose work I admire, described on her blog how she achieves that most tricky of drawing challenges, the perfect ellipse! She describes the process here.
I think it would be wonderful beyond words to always be able to hit the right spot first time round. Some artists can – I suspect Durer did - although we don’t know for sure whether he actually did. Maybe he just had a very good eraser!
Annigoni, on the other hand, lets his initial exploratory marks remain – giving people like me hope that our art can still be worthwhile, even though we draw in a way that may seem to suggest less confidence.
So – how do you draw?
Do you work slowly and meticulously, revelling in getting tiny details correct first time?
Or do you prefer the increased energy of a quickly carried out sketch?
Does it really matter?
What do you think?
Along with prehistoric man, young children seem to be driven to mark-making and they do it without inhibition. They don’t question whether their scribbling is ‘good enough’ or whether they are going about it the right way – until much later!
I must admit, I’ve worried about my drawing. I often don’t seem to be able to get the line that I wanted the first time round. I often seem to ‘feel my way’ to the line I was looking for, with the result that my drawings can be messy in the extreme.
But I actually think there are as many ways of drawing as there are personalities.
And even within my own drawing there are two distinct types, depending
on whether I’m standing at an upright easel, or doodling on my lap,
half-watching tv! When I stand to draw, my lines are much more definite
and confident. I draw from the shoulder and sometimes it feels as if I’m
drawing with my whole body. A far cry from when I sit down with a pad
of paper on my knee!
(That laptop certainly has a very strangely shaped lid!!!)
So I was really heartened when Ann Buckner, a watercolour artist whose work I admire, described on her blog how she achieves that most tricky of drawing challenges, the perfect ellipse! She describes the process here.
I think it would be wonderful beyond words to always be able to hit the right spot first time round. Some artists can – I suspect Durer did - although we don’t know for sure whether he actually did. Maybe he just had a very good eraser!
Annigoni, on the other hand, lets his initial exploratory marks remain – giving people like me hope that our art can still be worthwhile, even though we draw in a way that may seem to suggest less confidence.
So – how do you draw?
Do you work slowly and meticulously, revelling in getting tiny details correct first time?
Or do you prefer the increased energy of a quickly carried out sketch?
Does it really matter?
What do you think?
Monday, 3 October 2011
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