The business of getting noticed (part 2)

The second in the series has Lisa Woolfe running a session on how to create artist websites and how to use Facebook.  I must admit I skipped this because I had attended her seminar previously – hence the website I have now created (www.mengwoo.com).

A good website is essential but where I’m not clear is how to utilise Facebook as an artist?  Lisa’s opinion is that a personal Facebook account can double up for family and friends as well as art contacts.  You just need to know how to organise it accordingly. 

The third in the series featured Sara Leonardi McGrath, Glenn McGrath’s second wife.  Sara opened a contemporary gallery in Chippendale (www.mclemoi.com) last year and came to tell us what gallerists do and how to approach a gallery.  Sara is refreshingly honest and open.  What I gathered is that a good gallery is a publicity machine for their artists.  They’re constantly on the phone, ringing up potential buyers and answering emails.  They are basically the people who chase the sale.  And if they do everything that Sara does, they more than deserve their 50% commission!

As to how to approach a gallery, her advice is to scout around and get to know the galleries and what they specialise in.  There is, for instance, no point at all for me to approach her gallery as I’m not a contemporary artist.  But if the gallery was as approachable as she was, I’d be very lucky!

The musician

Due to some mix up with dates, I was able to make this fortnight's sketch club. The format was unusual in that we are having a single long pose for 2.5 hours hurray! At last somebody understands what it takes to paint or sculpt.

It turns out that we have a second convenor Matilda who is keen to try different things from Sarah. Our model is the refreshing Mary Jane who is a professional musician (cellist and guitarist). She brought her cello (also named Matilda) with her as prop. Beautiful instrument - all golden wood gleaming. In all, I was set up for a treat!

I knew I'd not have time for a detailed painting so deliberately chose an impressionistic style to capture the scene. It's quite liberating to paint with bold strokes.

Sculpture making workshop

As a birthday present my hubby bought me a workshop for sculpture making with a life model. He even did the babysitting as part of the deal and so that was great.


Our model Tash was reclining on a pile of cushions and she held that pose in 20 m sessions for 4 hours. It was the first time I had a model posing for long enough to sculpt!! Hooray! It really made a difference as I was able to correct things from all angles. We moved around continuously to appreciate every view.



What I noticed was the detail that I could get with a life model that is imagined when sculpting from sketches. Also because I did not have to get it fired, I was able to relax about air bubbles. Our tutor Linda said a mould would not be difficult for my sculpture and suggested the Sydney Sculpture School as a place where I could explore my interests.

Discovering watercolour

The gregarious Susie Murphie was a delight in this one day workshop I attended this week at Art Est. Susie is a 5 colour is enough watercolourist and all shades mixed with these limited colours will 'go' which makes sense. Previous workshop focussed on drawing with watercolour lending an interest. Now I want to learn how to paint watercolour without the pen as a guide.

The first thing we learnt was that the more dilute the watercolour, the less intense on paper. It all makes sense of course but there are 5 grades of consistency and ways of telling which by how runny they are on the palette.

We did still life as it's the easier subject. But here is the reminder of what I have been taught time and again, shadows look most vibrant when the complementary colour is used. Put purple with yellow, green with orange and blue with red.

Watercolours and the art of travel sketching

Having planned a trip to Uluru in a couple of weeks, I was thinking hard of how I'd pack a compact set for the purposes of travel sketching and painting. The problems with photographs are manifold, the colours never come out as what you see. Darker colours vanish into a uniform shade and bright colours just take over the image.
The solution is to sketch something on site - but this has to be done quickly and all art materials must be compact and highly portable.  My aim is to get a set together that will fit in a backpack that I can just sling on and get going by bike, bus, boat or train. This was what the Sydney artist Tom Carment was said to have done and how he managed to so many cameos of Sydney that we all identify with and love.
Previously I had done sketching using soft pastels. The problem with that was the colours are limited - not easy to mix pastels. The dust and mess plus the need to fix the image are off-putting. The other issue was that fixative is highly flammable and therefore not allowed on planes. Watercolour was the most common media used for travelling artists and I had to bite the bullet and enrolled myself in a one day workshop on watercolour and the art of travel sketching at Art Est.

Susie Murphie is a gregarious teacher, with a love for watercolours.  Her mission is to "spread the word about water colours". The key thing is to leave white (contrary to the acrylic painter, who is urged to cover every surface with paint as soon as practicable).  Watercolour paper is lovely in texture and so I guess there is a need for white to be left.  I took to it like a duck to water - mainly because I love gestural work - where one line can convey immense amount of information and for the rapidity of execution.  I do not think that it can be the final product though - lovely as it looks. Although Susie showed some beautiful books where someone's journal was published.

The first exercise was to copy an image and to try out the watercolour.  And then to paint some cumquat branches that Susie brought in.




After that we went to a street near Art Est and sketched 6 small cameos. We didn't paint on site, as the southerly had arrived by then and it was extremely windy.

Gable roof window with flowering grevillea	Parked boat
Red front door	Striped awning and yellow letterbox

Trees

After lunch, we did an exercise in cropping.  Travelling artists seldom have much time - the bus might go in 15 mins.  One way to capture something quickly is to zoom into an interesting bit.  Susie put up a row of photographs and asked us to crop and render a small part. 

Flying buttresses

Reflection