Thursday, March 15, 2012

Isn't that Pinteresting?

Study of Lemon and Mug oil on panel 8x8
Happy Spring everyone! Hope you're enjoying the same great spring weather at your studio. Here are just a few things that have been keeping me busy as spring approaches...
  1. New much quieter, faster laptop. Loving my new HP Pavilion--but file transfer, keyboard adjustment, software learning, etc. has taken me a while thus my delay in posting. 
  2. New plein air (outdoor) easel. Time to retire "Julian." After extensive online research, I chose the Coulter outdoor easel. I choose the "medium" size --which I'm hoping will be "just right." Looking forward to testing this in the park soon. Am also excited to have a good stable easy for demos, etc. I was planning to try at the Plein Air Convention in LV next month but when the Red Rocks hotel sold out I'm now on the fence. Also as a poker player--I might get distracted.
  3. Have you been Pinning like me? Finally a social "experience" that's perfect for artists. More on that below. .
  4. Enjoying the new art bytes on Daily Paintworks as well as the DP Pinterest Boards.  Be sure to check those out!
  5. Hunting for my favorite brush cleaner and eco turp by Demco...So far can only find on Canadian sites that won't ship. If anyone knows a US site where I can order these please let me know. In the meantime, recommend the Winsor Newton Non Toxic Brush Cleaner--not the same but pretty good.
  6. Practicing the basics--sometimes like to take a break from a more formal painting to really study all the subtle value and color changes in simple live still life like today's posting
  7. Having a blast teaching lots of spring students (thanks all!) and enjoying being an art student myself in Kevin Weckbach's six month master oil class. Intense but highly enjoyable.
So it's kind of hard to avoid all the Pinterest hype. I've just started to "pin" on Pinterest--some of my Scarlet Owl Pinterest boards include My Favorite Art Books, My Favorite Masterpieces and Owls (of course!). Like many artists, I'm just starting to learn about Pinterest best practices, etc. In the meantime, I welcome the exposure so please feel free to "pin" any of my blog images. And if I don't post before Saturday--Happy St. Pat's to all!