First...here's a tiny fellow on the easel right now.
I walked out to the mailbox today and when I opened it up, there was a bright light and angelic singing... Turns out, it was the Blick 2010 Art Supply Catalog. Woohoo.
It was reminiscent of those days when that huge Sears catalog would arrive and I'd sit somewhere comfy and look at every page of the toy section and dog ear pages and make a note for my Christmas list. Yesterday was kind of like that. I made a cup of tea and curled up in the big chair and dived in.
Some people might flip right to the oil paint page, or the canvas, or to printing supply. Not me. I look at every page. I read every description of the product. There are paint companies that I didnt know existed. There are ones I thought were long out of business. There are ones that probably SHOULD be out of business. I scan paints I never heard of to see how much their Cobalt Blue was (always the pricey one).
I think we as artists can easily get stuck in a groove. I use THIS paint, and THIS brush and THIS canvas or whatever and we forget to look around at all that is possible. Forget that there are new advances and old techniques. New equipment and old favorites.
Through the years, I switched mediums every few years or so. I did charcoal, then pen and ink, then ink like watercolor, then pastels, colored pencils, illustration, still life, animals, portraits, abstracts....The bad part of that was that sometimes I feel that I dont have a particular 'style'. That if I showed 20 works in a variety of the range that I can do...people wouldnt necessarily be able to say, "ah, that's a Karen May...I like her work). For example, I recently showed 4 works at a financial centers open house shindig. I went to the open house and listened to people tell me what artwork they liked and yadayada. More than one person said "I really like these" (pointing to my 2 photorealistic oils), but I also like those (across the room were two oil landscapes that I'd done). I was flattered that they picked out my work as their favorites, but they had no idea that they were the same artist.
Anyhoo...I digress. I think that we should remember to look around and try new things. It doesnt have to be goofy and dangerous or expensive...just pick up some oil pastels for a change and sketch. Grab a travel watercolor set and do a few florals. God forbid...pick up a pencil and practice drawing again.
The catalog keeps me in touch with that. Just look at what's out there. Every new page and section I was like "ooooh....ahhhhh". What's next? what havent I tried? Silverpoint? Encaustic?
I am like the buffet at the Belagio. Give me some of EVERYTHING!!!!
It was reminiscent of those days when that huge Sears catalog would arrive and I'd sit somewhere comfy and look at every page of the toy section and dog ear pages and make a note for my Christmas list. Yesterday was kind of like that. I made a cup of tea and curled up in the big chair and dived in.
Some people might flip right to the oil paint page, or the canvas, or to printing supply. Not me. I look at every page. I read every description of the product. There are paint companies that I didnt know existed. There are ones I thought were long out of business. There are ones that probably SHOULD be out of business. I scan paints I never heard of to see how much their Cobalt Blue was (always the pricey one).
I think we as artists can easily get stuck in a groove. I use THIS paint, and THIS brush and THIS canvas or whatever and we forget to look around at all that is possible. Forget that there are new advances and old techniques. New equipment and old favorites.
Through the years, I switched mediums every few years or so. I did charcoal, then pen and ink, then ink like watercolor, then pastels, colored pencils, illustration, still life, animals, portraits, abstracts....The bad part of that was that sometimes I feel that I dont have a particular 'style'. That if I showed 20 works in a variety of the range that I can do...people wouldnt necessarily be able to say, "ah, that's a Karen May...I like her work). For example, I recently showed 4 works at a financial centers open house shindig. I went to the open house and listened to people tell me what artwork they liked and yadayada. More than one person said "I really like these" (pointing to my 2 photorealistic oils), but I also like those (across the room were two oil landscapes that I'd done). I was flattered that they picked out my work as their favorites, but they had no idea that they were the same artist.
Anyhoo...I digress. I think that we should remember to look around and try new things. It doesnt have to be goofy and dangerous or expensive...just pick up some oil pastels for a change and sketch. Grab a travel watercolor set and do a few florals. God forbid...pick up a pencil and practice drawing again.
The catalog keeps me in touch with that. Just look at what's out there. Every new page and section I was like "ooooh....ahhhhh". What's next? what havent I tried? Silverpoint? Encaustic?
I am like the buffet at the Belagio. Give me some of EVERYTHING!!!!
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