Naive Art: Grandma Moses Art

Grandma Moses

Grandma Moses was a primitive painter that delighted art lovers with her wonderful rural scenes. She taught herself to paint, and had previously done embroidery. Artist like Anna Mary Robertson Moses, are also called folk artists As she continued to paint she created her own particular folk style.

She painted homey scenes, the countryside, summer and winter landscapes, and her community. She painted from a kitchen table in her studio, a storage room.

An engineer and art collector, Louis Caldor, saw some paintings of Anna Moses sitting in the window of a drug store. Her paintings impressed him, and he purchased all of her finished paintings and went to her home to meet her. Caldor helped Grandma Moses sell her art to a larger audience. He discovered her work in 1938. In 1939, her paintings were shown in "Contemporary Unknown American Painters" an exhibit of the Museum of Modern Art. She had a solo exhibition at Galerie Saint-Etiene  in 1940.

Gimbels Department Store showed fifty Moses pictures in November on the heels of the Museum of Modern Art exhibit, and the famous store spread a table by the paintings showing off her cooking talent: jams, breads, and cakes. Moses became a famous painter and a beloved homey figure--an American icon appearing on the Edward R. Murrow TV Show.  In 1953, her face dubbed Time Magazine.

She painted prolifically creating 3,600 paintings in thirty years.

Note: Grandma Moses pic from Library of Congress: Gifted by the New York World-Telegram & Sun; all rights dedicated to the public



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5 Ways to Promote Your Art

You've created numerous paintings, drawings, perhaps sculpture or pottery. Maybe you are happily creating anime. But how do you sell it? Selling art online seems to be the thing, but can you really sell art online?

Some artists are selling locally, but want to expand their reach to art buyers worldwide. This article explains five ways to sell your art online.

Selling Artwork

You can publicize your artwork. Let's look at how to sell artwork.

1.  time
2. networking
3. updates
4. artist statement
5. portfolio sites

 Time

Time? You say, what do you mean? It is very important to spend enough time getting your art exposed to the art buying public. If you have a website or have your work online at a portfolio site you need to promote it every day. How?

• post links
• blog
• social networking

 Networking

Start your own art blog and link to your art website. Submit your blog and website to search engines each month. You post links, blog, and participate in social networking. When you post links to forums add an image of  one of your works, offer a free small print to someone that buys a painting or use another creative idea to attract buyers. Maybe let them name a sculpture or suggest an idea for a piece of work.

You pick the best name or idea and blog about why you picked it. Encourage people to share the best name or best idea link with others. This could be a winning viral marketing idea for your art promotion.

Artist Statement

One of the traditional things an artist does is come up with an artist statement. It tells about your concept of your art...what you create and why you create it. This statement should be understandable to people who are not artists. You want to garner their interest, intrigue them, so they want to look at your artwork and buy it. Some brick and mortar galleries hang the artist statement by their work. You can put your artist statement on your own website to engage your visitor in your creative concepts.

Updates


Make YouTube videos of your work or work in progress and add a new video each week as the work progresses. This idea would work well with a large project. You can put your website address in your profile at YouTube. These updates can encourage interest in your painting, sculpture, pottery etc.

Portfolio Sites

There are numerous portfolio sites on the Internet. They usually have free and paid memberships. You can upload pictures of your paintings, digital paintings, photography, sculpture, anime and so forth. many of these sites will make print your drawings and digital paintings. They print them onto posters, cards, t-shirts, mugs, and calendars. They sell these items with your work on them and give you a percentage.

Some art sites charge for your membership and leave the selling, mailing of your work, and collecting the funds to you.

Other art sites give you a profile using their database and with paid membership you can have a separate portfolio besides the free gallery.  Some are hosting sites for art and have templates for you to build your site. Some of the art sites promote digital art or photography specifically or traditional art.

There are art sites specific to selling traditional art. A quick search for portfolio sites or art websites will get you started. You can look at some sites and see which one is best for your art promotion.

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Digital Artwork: Is it Real Art?

The question is still asked by some, if digital art is art or not. The answer depends on the opinion of the artist or art connoisseur. If he accepts new art mediums it is art, and if he doesn't it isn't art. Photography wasn't accepted as an art form at first, it took awhile to grow on most people interested in art. Film endured a  period of not being accepted as art too.

That said, not all photographs are art, not all film is art, think of B grade movies and everything done digitally isn't art. We could get into a discussion of high and low art, but let's leave that alone for now.

First, art requires originality. Is the creation original? After that criteria is satisfied, it can be considered art, but skill level has something to do with how good it is.Yet, there is something else, the style of art or art movement. What if the art connoisseur doesn't see merit in surrealism? So, the arguments go. My style isn't your style is someones favorite art movement.

But copying of the masters is a tradition and practice, and a good one, but this is derivative, not original to stress my point. That is, going to a museum and drawing a master's painting or drawing.

Control of the medium or media is another factor. With traditional painting and drawing implements, the artist is working hands on and has a lot of control. When the artist paints a digital painting , he has more control of his drawing or painting using a graphics tablet and pen than a painting program. The pressure-sensitivity of the pen is what gives the artist a more natural feeling when drawing or painting.

This means how the surface of the drawing tablet reacts to the pressure the pen puts on it. The pressure level is gauged by a number; the higher number has more sensitivity. This level controls how thick or thin the line is, making special effects directly to image, and allows you to make works free hand with the stylus and more pressure is more paint, and less pressure is less paint.

With a graphics tablet, you can get the control that is lacking with a painting program. so control isn't an issue. Using the pen is a more hands on approach that helps the artist to create with a more traditional touch, and make use of current technology. Is is real art? Well, artist are painting realistic images, fantasy images, and surrealistic images, and so on using the digital art form.You decide.

History of Thanksgiving and Pictures to Draw

 "The Pilgrim Fathers incorporated an early thanksgiving day among  moral influences... it blessed and beautified the homes it reached."

Sarah Josepha Hale, 1865

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together."

Edward Winslow, 1621

Thanksgiving, originally celebrated in 1621, is hot on our heels; the Wampanoag Indians and the colonists at Plymouth ate a meal of thanksgiving. It was an English tradition to commemorate a bountiful fall harvest. They acknowledged God during this banquet for blessing them. Massassoit, Squanto, and Samoset were Indian chiefs that attended the festivity. The celebration lasted 3 days.

The colonies generally had a special day or days for thanksgiving; this time of thanksgiving wasn't the same for each colony. These times were marked with people fasting and saying prayers. Thanksgiving for good crops, a colony subscribing to a state constitution, and military triumphs were celebrated.

• In 1671, the governing body of Charlestown, Massachusetts decreed the 29th of June as a special day to give thanks. It was the first officially registered Thanksgiving.
• On the 3rd of  October of  1789, George Washington endorsed a proclamation dubbed General Thanksgiving. He said it was a day of publick  thanksgiving and prayer.  This was the first time it was proclaimed since the constitution was in force.
• In 1863, President Lincoln set forth the 4th Tuesday in November as the day of  Thanksgiving.
• In 1777, all of the colonies observed a thanksgiving to rejoice and commemorate the British surrendering to the colonies during the Revolutionary War. 

Sarah Josepha Hale advocated for an annual day set aside as an official national Thanksgiving Day. She continued her campaign of 30 years, and requested of each president to adopt a particular date because the official recognition was done by states; the federal government didn't hold a national observance, even though Washington had made his proclamation. Hale was the editor for Godley's Lady's Book. Her efforts paid off when Lincoln set a national observance, and it remained the national official day proclaimed by succeeding presidents. Congress declared it a national holiday in 1941.

So what has this got to do with art? Well, many artists have produced Thanksgiving art, and it is a good thing to know history, and why we celebrate Thanksgiving, which inspires the art. Your children may enjoy making some Thanksgiving drawings.

You may be interested in this article: Thanksgiving: Norman Rockwell
 
Drawing Sites

• How-to draw Thanksgiving turkey and pilgrim girl
• Pumpkin Drawing Lesson: Highlights & Shadow

Amazon

How to Draw Thanksgiving Things (Doodle Books)

How to Draw Thanksgiving Symbols (A Kid's Guide to Drawing)

How To Draw A Pumpkin In Six Easy Steps

DeviantArt: What They Have for You

DeviantArt is a great site to join and upload your art for viewing and buying. If you are a pro member, you can request critiques of your work. In my experience, I can say that I've gotten views quickly, and some critiques.

They will print your artwork as photo prints, canvas prints, wrapped canvas, and specialty products, etc. DeviantArt has forums, chat rooms, contests, journals, and groups. You can submit your art to groups. I suggest going to the site and looking over what they have to offer.

There is a writing group. You can summit your poems,stories, and  novels to be read and critiqued. They also have resources and groups for photography, film, and animation.

It is a good place to find art various styles of art. There is something for everyone that would like to buy prints etc.

In my opinion, it is a fun, useful, and friendly site.

Article: : DeviantArt Offers Variety in Art

Article: DeviantArt: Deviations by Deltachord

Post:  Deltachord at DeviantArt.

Picasso and Braque: Films and Cubism

Recently, I watched the movie Picasso and Braque go to the Movies. This documentary opened up my eyes to cubism a bit, and made the concepts of cubism interesting to me for the first time. It isn't the type of art that strikes me visually as wow, I really like this, and it never grew on me either.

But learning how the very early movies influenced Braque and Picasso prompted some interest in cubism. The influence of the still images, repetition, and moving images of the early films that these artists watched can be seen in their work. They were big movie fans. Films were a completely new art form that they thoroughly scrutinized down to the cameras and projectors. The light source in some of  the paintings suggest blinking light of early movies.

Many things were changing in this era, and a lot of new inventions were created during this time period and right before it. Picasso and Braque synthesize one of the big changes into their artistic mills and produce a new art movement.

Fan dancers were popular during this era, and they had created a sign language used sometimes while dancing. Some movements meant things like "meet me at four o'clock' and so forth. The fan dancers are featured in some of the early films, and Picasso is particularly interested in this. It is an art form of Spanish origin. His interest shows up in some of his paintings.

In the film, art historians and artists talk about the concepts of cubism in relation to early film. Their comments are very interesting. For fans of cubism or anyone trying to understand it, I recommend this documentary.

Article: Some Favorite Painters

Boho Wirewrapped at Artfire

Emeradl Pebble Earrings

Boho Wirewrapped is a highly gifted jewelry artist. She designs fabulous items from chain mail anklets to bride's earrings to sweater shawl pins and the list goes creatively on... You can indulge yourself in handmade necklaces, pendants and even suncatchers at Boho Wirewrapped






Article: Lapidary Art: Cabbing

Article: Lapidary Arts: CabNFever At ArtFire 

Lamp in the Night1 Mug from Zazzle.com

Lamp in the Night1 Mug from Zazzle.com      

This is an original design by Deltachord. The image is composed of 2 original photographs altered with a painting program.

Artwalk: Baldwin House Artwalk

The initial artwalk at the Baldwin House will happen on 11/5/11. The Baldwin House is situated in Malbis, Al. near Highway 181. Artists from Daphne, AL will exhibit their artwork. The hours of this showing are from 4 p.m. to 7 p. m. It is a charitable event as the monies from the wine and cheese will go to Baldwin House Assisted Living.

The Eastern Shore, meaning across the bay from Mobile, AL is going to burst with art exhibits this particular  weekend (11/4/11-11/6/11) with the artwalk  bringing on new exhibits at The Eastern Shore Art Center, wmCM Studio, and the Lyons Share Gallery.

Lapidary Arts: CabNFever at ArtFire

Sodalite Rhombus Cabochon

Plume Agate Cabochon

My friend, Roger, is so gifted in the lapidary arts that I had to start a buzz about his creativity, and say you should go to CabNFever at ArtFire to gaze at his creations. Check out the samples shown here and go to his shop to indulge in viewing more beautiful cabochons: agates, labradorites, opals etc.