Wednesday 14 December 2016

NOVEMBER ART CHALLENGE

This post is long overdue, please accept our apologies. The Fall season has quickly been taken over by cold and snowy days. Although the  fall colour has long waned, we take one last look at the  richness of colour that is harvest time.
There is no challenge for December as everyone is busy with preparations for the holiday season.  Here are the paintings we completed for the challenge.



Pat Hayden Ryan  "Celebrating the Harvest"  8" x 10"  watercolour




Joan Roberts  "Pumpkins"  5" x 7"  alcohol ink




Dora Cooper  "Thoughts of Rose Hip Jelly"  6" x 9"  watercolour




Michelle Whitten LaCour  "Indian Corn"  14" x 20"  watercolour

Friday 21 October 2016


A new season for Art Challenges!


This month we usher in fall, a delightful time for an artist. Rich in colour, fall inspires us to get back to painting after our successful fall show on October 1st.
We are restarting our monthly art challenges with a theme of "Harvest Time".  As usual, the medium and style of the painting is left to each artist to decide and we are free to interpret the subject in our own way. The challenge runs until Nov 20, 2016 when we will unveil our paintings to you.
Feel free to paint your interpretation and share it with us.
Happy Fall and Happy Painting!!!!

Tuesday 19 July 2016

Our 5th Anniversary Exhibit & Sale - October 1st

On Saturday, October 1, Arts Northeast will be celebrating their 5th Year Anniversary with an Art Exhibition & Sale in support of the School Lunch Association.

The event is called “5 Artists 5 Years 5 Visions” and will showcase the varied styles of the artists of Arts Northeast. The event will be held at the Hampton Inn & Suites on Stavanger Drive. Thee is FREE ADMISSION and NO TAX.


It is a chance for the public to come together and appreciate some local artwork while helping support the School Lunch Association. The artwork will appeal to the general public and are offered at affordable prices. A portion of proceeds from all artwork sales will be donated to the School Lunch Association.


Saturday 4 June 2016

May Painting Challenge - "Something Hanging"




Our May challenge has been completed for the theme of "something hanging."  As usual, we did not know what the others were painting until the end of the month. These challenges have been very interesting, but we are halting them for the summer months. Between summer vacation, gardening, and spending time with family and friends, the summer will slip by so quickly. And last, but not least, we have to concentrate on finishing our paintings for our fall show on October 1st. We do expect to start again after the show. 
Thanks to those who have participated thus far and have either shared them with us, or kept them private.  Making art is a wonderful activity, and we hope you get to make some over the summer, whether it's a sand castle at the beach, a wonderful salad, or maybe even a fairy house for your garden.  


Pat Hayden Ryan  "Hanging Out in the Algarve"  
pen & ink/watercolour   7" x 9.5"


Brenda Rowe  "The Hanging Paradigm"
acrylic  11" x 14"


Dora Cooper  "Wash Day on the Island"
watercolour  8" x 11"


Joan Roberts  "Whispers on the Wind"
watercolour  11" x 5"



Michelle Whitten LaCour  "Anticipation"
encaustic  12" x 6"

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Five Tips for Describing your Artwork to the Average Person [by Autumn Tompkins]

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but unless you can articulately describe it, the average person won’t buy it.
When selling your art, the verbal description is just as important as the visuals. Thorough, thought provoking descriptions are an essential piece of the selling puzzle. These descriptions tell the average person more about the piece.
Supposing you studied art and its history in a formal setting, then you probably learned the proper way to describe your artwork. Mainly, the visual elements including form, composition, medium, techniques, and subject matter.
Unfortunately, these formal descriptions don’t translate well for the average person. They’ll understand very little about your artwork which won’t translate well for you in terms of sales.
Your duty as a successful artist is to not only make a person feel through your work, but also make them feel through your words.
For the average person to understand your creations, you must describe your own art with more of a marketing approach. You must describe its features and benefits to make a connection between your art and the average person in order to make a sale.

Tips for Describing Art to the Average Person 

Describe your artwork as if you were talking to someone who couldn’t see it.
Pretend the average person is blind. They can’t see anything. Not even shadows. Just because they’re blind doesn’t mean they can’t use their four other senses to feel your artwork.
Suppose you were trying to describe your painting of a bunch of stars. Instead of describing the color, describe how the stars would feel.
To accomplish this, tell your prospect that in order to feel stars they should put their hand out when it’s raining. Then, they can feel the little points fall down on their palms. Because rain falls so quickly it has the effect of ‘twinkling’.
The average person will become strongly connected to artwork they can feel using their imagination.
Describe the mood of your artwork as well as the visual characteristics.
Mood is an internal and rather subjective emotional state. Grammatically speaking, mood is a feature of verbs that’s used to indicate modality. There are several types of grammatical moods including indicative, interrogatory, imperative, emphatic, subjunctive, injunctive, optative, and potential. As an artist, you’ll want to grammatically describe the mood of your artwork using the indicative type. This type is used for factual statements and positive beliefs.
As you know, the visual characteristics of artwork are lines, colors, values, shapes, textures, space, and movement. To describe them, you must think beyond straight or curved, red or orange, light or dark, round or square, striped or polka dot, shallow or deep, and small or large. Instead, you must talk about these characteristics using much more descriptive adjectives.
To describe the mood and visual characteristics to the average person, ask yourself these questions:
  • How does its ambiance feel?
  • What undertones does it evoke?
  • How does its essence effect your spirit?
The average person will become enchanted with your artwork when you talk about its mood using descriptive adjectives.
*If you have trouble with this, ask your friends to describe their feelings about your artwork using descriptive adjectives.
Always mention the colors, but make sure you use words that describe the colors and their effect.
For example, green is the color of grass, the leaves of trees, and seaweed. Green represents growth and healing. Red is the color of blood, roses, and hot chilis. It’s a very passionate color. Red can mean anger or desire.
Use words such as lustrous, shadowy, radiant, glossy, and saturated when describing colors. These words articulate the depth of the color.
The average person will see your artwork in a different light if you describe it using words that connect your artwork to the smell and feeling of everyday objects.
Put yourself in the mindset of the average person.
The average person knows little about art and your art-making process. For them, it all boils down to dollar bills.
The bad thing about the average person is that they earn money by doing things they don’t love. They have a lot of bills to pay. They don’t have the luxury of being creative. They don’t have a lot of money to spend on art.
But the great thing about the average person; they see money through the eyes of emotion. If they want something bad enough, they’ll find a way to get money to buy what they want.
What you have to do is create that emotional connection between your artwork and the average person.
Think about how you can make them FEEL your artwork with words.
The average person isn’t looking for a landscape painting filled with farmland and barns. Their soul’s yearning for a striking piece of artwork for their entranceway that’ll greet visitors with a warm blast of dazzling sunlight which conjures their memories of the many summer times they spent on grandpa’s farm. Complete with the intoxicating aroma of a freshly cut hayfield, and the glistening golden blades of hay.
The average person can feel artwork if it’s vividly described, creating an unwavering emotional connection.
Art isn’t passive. Use action words to describe it.
Richard Serra once said, “Drawing is a verb.” Using only sheets of paper, he created a list of the infinitives of 84 verbs including to roll, to crease, to fold, to store, etc. This list also provided 24 possible contexts within which these verbs could be used including of gravity, of entropy, of nature, etc. Serra described this list as a series of actions related to the artist and the creative process. He used it to guide himself while creating in multiple mediums.
To determine which action words to use when describing your artwork to the average person, ask yourself these questions:
-What does the piece do?
Perhaps it charms and inspires.
-What’ll the average person do with it?
Perhaps they’ll luxuriate in it.
-Does it make a statement?
Perhaps it creates a serene atmosphere.
The average person isn’t passive when it comes to buying art. They either love it or they don’t. Describe your creations using action words so the average person will take action and buy your art.
The use of words to describe artwork is completely subjective, and artwork may mean different things to different people. However, with effort, imagination, and practice, you can give the average person a more lively and interesting experience while viewing your art.
Autumn Tompkins is the owner/lead writer for ink well copy. She’s a nail-biting, Southern Comfort-loving, poker-playing, adventure-seeking, animal-adoring, tattoo addict who has a way with words. Writing to increase your revenue is her passion. You can find out more about her at InkWellCopy.com

Tuesday 10 May 2016

April Painting Challenge - "The Kraken"


First, an apology to folks waiting for the unveiling of our April Challenge.  Other commitments kept us from our May 1 posting. However, all paintings are completed and we are ready to show you how
each of us interpreted the poem "The Kraken" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Thanks to Pat for a very interesting challenge in honour of National Poetry Month.  This month we all worked on the challenge in mediums we don't normally use. This was coincidental as none of us were aware of what medium the others were using.

Some of these paintings will be available for viewing at the Marjorie Mews Library on Saturday, May 14th, from 1pm to 5pm.

The Challenge for May is "something hanging."  Let's see what we come up with for this one!

 Enjoy the paintings below.

Joan Roberts   "Kraken"  3" x 7" Alcohol Ink



Brenda Rowe "Kraken Head" 5" x 7"  Pastel


Dora Cooper "Far Beneath the Abysmal Sea" 8" x 10" Liquid Acrylic


Michelle Whitten LaCour "From the Depths" 4.5" x 7" Alcohol Ink


Pat Hayden Ryan "In Roaring He Shall Rise" 8" x 10" Mixed Media

and a bonus one from Pat
Pat Hayden Ryan "Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep"
8" x 10"  Mixed Media











Thursday 28 April 2016

Art Quote of the Day


This caught my eye not just because of the quote but the strong colour. Similar to the vibrant colours one gets using Alcohol Inks. This is a new medium that Arts Northeast is currently experimenting with... results to come soon.

Friday 1 April 2016

March Painting Challenge - "Something shiny from the kitchen"



Something shiny from the kitchen proved to be a diverse subject for the paintings this month as you can see by the paintings below.  Thanks to Dora for selecting this challenge.


April's challenge will be something a little different! This month, in honour of National Poetry Month, we will interpret Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Kraken". Thanks to Pat for this month's challenge. It is sure to be an interesting one! 


Feel free to paint your interpretation and share it with us!



Dora Cooper
Coffee Buddies    7" x 8"   Watercolour


Michelle Whitten LaCour
Nan's Egg Beater  13" x 18" Watercolour


Brenda Rowe
Cubed   5" x 7" Acrylic 



Joan Roberts
Old Kitchen Door   4" x 5.5" Watercolour/pen & ink



Pat Hayden Ryan
Great Grandma's Gravy Boat - AKA "The Ferret"  5" x 7" Watercolour

Wednesday 30 March 2016

Alcohol Ink Painting

Joan recently completed a two day workshop in alcohol inks with well known American artist Cathy Taylor.You can view her work at www.ctaylorart.com.  Joan learned to drop, drizzle and guide alcohol inks and some amazing pieces resulted. She will share some of those techniques with our group in an upcoming session. 




Monday 29 February 2016


February Painting Challenge - BLUE



February's challenge was "blue" and here are five pieces of original art showing each artists interpretation. It is interesting to see how everyone interpreted the challenge at the end of each month!


March's challenge is "something shiny from the kitchen" if you would like to join the fun! 



Dora Cooper
Shades of Blue  8" x 10" Acrylic



Brenda Rowe
Never Forgotten  6" x 6" Acrylic



 Joan Roberts
I've Got the Blues  14" x 6.75" Watercolour 


Pat Hayden Ryan
Atlantic Blue  8" x 10" Acrylic



Michelle Whitten LaCour
Turn of the Tide 20" x 20" Acrylic
















Friday 29 January 2016

January 2016 Painting Challenge - CANDY

January Painting Challenge

 We’ve started a monthly painting challenge for 2016. Each of us will have the opportunity to pick the topic of the month and we are all free to interpret the subject in our own way. The medium and style are left to each of us to decide. These topics are generally broad so there is room to be creative; the results will be posted here at the end of each month starting this month. 

January’s topic was “candy” and here are five pieces of original art showing each artists interpretation. Enjoy and stay tuned for February’s challenge. 





Michelle Whitten LaCour
Encaustic

"Candy Knobs"
Brenda Rowe
Acrylic

Dora Cooper
Oil

Pat Hayden Ryan

Joan Roberts
Acrylic

Thursday 28 January 2016

Welcome 2016

Welcome to the new year from the members of Arts Northeast!

2016 will be a milestone year for us as it will be the 5th anniversary of our group’s inception. While there have been some membership changes in the past five years, the group is still strong and continues to fulfill its mandate.

The group was formed to provide support to its members, to provide a forum for us to learn and create together, and sometimes to exhibit our work.

Creating art can be a solitary endeavor and the opportunity to connect with others, compare notes, critique each others work, and learn new things is very valuable.

We teach and guide one another, provide support when needed and push each other to be better artists.

As part of recognizing our milestone, we are planning a show for this coming fall but you’ll hear more about that later. We are also going to be undertaking a monthly painting challenge. Each of us will have the opportunity to pick the topic of the month and we all interpret the subject in our own way. The medium and style are left to each artist to decide. These topics are generally broad so there is room to be creative; the results will be posted here at the end of each month.

So stay tuned and join us as we celebrate 5 years of Arts Northeast.