April 2015 - Robin Wellner, Artist

Monthly Archives: April 2015

American Women Artists

Well I took the advice of a fellow artist, Lesley Powell, and joined the American Women Artists organization. They (obviously) are trying to help promote us as women artists. “Our goal as an organization is to broaden recognition for women artists through yearly juried competitions, member shows, museum exhibits and educational opportunities. We raise awareness about our mission and profile our member artists with a year-round social media and marketing campaign. All of the activities planned and presented by American Women Artists are the mission in action: the inspiration, celebration, and encouragement of women in the visual fine arts.

Anyway I decided to go ahead and enter their 2015 online juried show and happily my painting, “Kalvin” was chosen as one of the finalists. I was surprised and honored! Hope you take a look at some of the wonderful work in the show.

It’s one of my missions this year to enter more shows, hopefully gain some recognition that will eventually allow me to sell more paintings! Much as I love just to paint, I also like to eat and have a roof over my head — so I’m working on ways to get more exposure and hopefully more sales and commissions.

Any suggestions always appreciated! All the best to you and yours!! Hope you’ll take a moment to look at the American Women Artists 2015 Show: https://www.flickr.com/photos/84043860@N07/sets/72157651957533845/

Painting from a Computer Monitor

I just recently started painting from a computer monitor when working from a photo reference. I love to paint from life, but sometimes that’s not a option; or, I’ve started a painting from life and I want to work on it some more to complete it. That was the case here. I have gotten frustrated with trying to work from photo prints. First of all the ink is really expensive. And typically I have to do many prints to arrive at one that I’m happy with — right color, contrast, size, etc.

Here are the advantages to painting from a computer monitor as I see them:

Closer to real life than print
I can resize the photo at will at any time. Choose a part of the photo and blow it up if need be.
Adjust color right then and there
No ink costs

Disadvantages:

Initial outlay of cash for monitor and the rest of the setup
When measuring I’ve managed to get some paint on the monitor! LOL! Cleans off with Alcohol usually. I may put some clear acetate over it to protect it.

It took some research to find the articulated arm to mount the monitor on. The next challenge was finding a way to mount the whole thing and make it flexible enough to take down if necessary. My husband came up with the brilliant idea to get a wooden ladder. It’s stable enough to handle the weight and it’s easy to take apart if need be.

The only other consideration I might mention is that I went with a cheap monitor to start out. To make sure this whole concept was going to work. It doesn’t have the greatest resolution particularly for color — especially compared to my Macbook’s resolution. So eventually I’ll probably upgrade to a better monitor. In the meantime I’ve found if I use my photo editing program I can boost the colors so that they look better on the big monitor.

Here’s the result from the painting you see in the photos.

I would say that my painting from a computer monitor experiment has been a success. Now I’ll be keeping my eye out for a monitor with better resolution. Happy painting!! All the best!!

Washington, DC

A couple of weeks ago we went to Man with a Cat Washington, DC with some dear friends who have the fortitude and discipline to run half marathons. It was especially impressive since it was raining and pretty chilly to be out there, but they did it and I’m impressed! I was “impressed” all weekend with Washington. The museums there are just amazing. My husband and I walked about 20 miles on Saturday and still didn’t begin to see all the art that was available to see.

The painting above “Man with a Cat” was done by Celia Beaux — one of the few female artists of her time who was recognized and appreciated. It continues to be one of my very favorite paintings. We went through the Portrait Gallery on Friday and somehow I missed it. So it was my mission on Saturday to see it. I finally found it. It so moving to see some of these old masters in person. In fact when I first looked at one of Mary Cassatt’s paintings I got all teary — can’t really explain why. I saw Sargeant’s, Degas, Van Gogh, Cezanne, etc. etc. So fun! Not so sure it was as fun for my hubby, but he embraced it and didn’t complain.

I would love to go back and see what I missed. Washington, DC is truly a gem. The Metro makes it so easy to get around and there are so many things to do I could spend weeks discovering. Of course I couldn’t wait to get home and paint. All the best to you and yours!