Ask not what art can do for you....

What are you doing to support the arts? I mean, not just creating your own work and marketing it, but what are you doing to promote art in general? Do you belong to a local art group? Do you attend Artist Receptions at galleries? Do you volunteer at a guild, a museum, at your local school? How many people a day do you meet that don't know you're an artist? Do you always carry business cards and at least photos of your work? Are you doing everything in your power to make friends, relatives, co-workers, and even complete strangers realize how precious art is? Take an informal survey among people you know. How many of them own even one piece of original art? A signed print? A sculpture? In times of economic difficulties, art has always been a refuge, a protest, a way to raise public morale, and an indicator of political involvement, either for good or bad.
Make a statement. Make a stand. Make a difference. Make Art!!

Goodbye Summer, Hello Studio

Summer is officially over, and I'm feeling a little melancholy. It's time for moving indoors, looking inward and creating a new body of work. I'm going to try and integrate both my styles of painting in a new series, not exactly sure where this is going, but it should be interesting. I'd really like to start on this immediately, but this week I'll be concentrating on the upcoming milestone birthday party for my bestest honey. So, in the meantime, I'll have to settle for creating a spectacular birthday celebration for him!

I could cheerfully spend all my time flitting from one art reception to another, attending shows and scoping out galleries. I always get so inspired from seeing all the great art that is being made. I love that all my artist friends are so generous with advice, and the conversations are always lively and funny and interesting. Since creating art in the studio is such a solitary business, I am grateful that we can get together and discuss our creative blocks and breakthroughs, and how to ignore the voices that threaten our commitment to keep on going. I love what I do, most of the time, and I especially love the all wonderful people in my life who, in one way or another, drive me to continue on this crazy, beautiful and scary ride called Life.

Jimi, Inventories, and Challenges

I just finished printing my art inventory for the show on Saturday, and realized I never took photos of "Jimi Hendrix". I painted a very nontraditional portrait, sort of "other-worldly". It was a challenge from my dearly beloved. We had been sitting in the studio, and a Hendrix song came on the radio, and he said, "Why don't you paint a picture of Hendrix?" Now, you have to understand, I don't do portraits. Ever. So of course I couldn't get this idea out of my head. I tried to paint him all serene and happy, kinda stoked on life, so to speak. It just wasn't working. So I started talking to the painting, saying, "What do you want me to do, Jimi?" (This was not an isolated moment of insanity; I talk to inanimate objects all the time.) I was totally frustrated with the painting, so I changed the face to a scowl and sullen stare, and voila! Now it had some emotion. I put him in a psychedelic swirly cloud and the whole painting changed. I don't think I'll do a series of dead rock and roll musicians, though. But as a challenge, it got me thinking outside my usual box, and if you don't stretch, you don't grow, right? So here's the painting of James Marshall Hendricks, from the other side.

"Jimi Hendrix", Oil on Canvas, 30H x 24W, (c)Jean LeBaron

Free entry into competition

For those of you who could use a little extra cash, here is a link to a juried art competition with prizes totalling $12,000. It is free to enter, and takes about 4-5 minutes or less, depending on your computer skills. What have you got to lose?


Utrecht Art Supplies is proud to announce our 60th Anniversary Art Competition, in appreciation for the patronage of Artists over the past six decades. All Artists are invited to submit works created in Oil, Acrylic,Watercolor or Mixed Media*.Winning entries will be judged on quality, creativity and originality. Editors of American Artist, Utrecht Resident Artist and Artists from the Ridgewood Art Institute will serve as jurors.
*The mixed media category is open to two-dimensional, unique, original works of art created with more than one drawing or painting materials. Sorry, we are not able to accept works of art that include three-dimensional, computer-generated, or photographic images.

http://www.utrechtart.com/contest/


Hope you enjoyed the 2 hours of sun we had this afternoon. I was at work. I did sneak outside for about 5 minutes, it was glorious. Now it looks like we're going to have rain again till Sunday.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

I could use a little Mexico in my life today...we've had rain for 5 days now. My brain is getting soggy. I am sitting here thinking about neon-aqua water and palm trees in 80 shades of green. Mmmmmmmmmm. Add in a mango-colored sunset sky, and I can almost smell the lime in my margarita. ah, well.

The Art and Music Fest in Toms River is shaping up, and hopefully we'll have all this rain out of the way for May 16. Last night we did a dry run setup of the display (in the living room, cuz, well, it was raining) and it seems as though everything is good to go. I just have to decide what paintings to display.

I am planning several paintings in my head at the moment; you know, the preliminary stage before you actually put something down on paper, pre-thumbnails, pre-value sketch, pre-everything. But they are not going away, so I know that these will end up as oil on canvas in the near future. So I suppose you will hearing more about them, and possibly even seeing pictures. I think I'll go gesso a canvas, and see what happens.

this just in.......


The Artist's Magazine Annual Art Competition Deadline Extended to May 8
Because of an extraordinarily high volume of traffic on our site last week, some artists experienced difficulties in submitting digital entries to our 2009 annual contest. We're sorry! We are therefore extending the deadline a week. The deadline for entries to The Artist's Magazine's 26th Annual Art Competition is now May 8th, 2009.Click here to enter.
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