Pat On Art Video

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to have a video crew offer to interview me about my experiences in the world of art.

This is the final edit of the footage taken on that warm sunny July day in our backyard garden.

I hope you enjoy this conversation about the place of art in my world, and that this prompts you to give a thought to the place of art in your world, too.

Thanks a million to videographer, Justin Upshaw, and interviewer, Adam Leclaire, for their kindness and generosity.

DoodleWash Featured Artist

How cool it was to be invited to appear last week as the November 3, 2017 Featured Guest Artist on the Doodlewash website. Click here to see the feature for yourself.

You’ll be able to read about: my philosophy of art, my creative process, how art evolved in my life, how I market my work, and my favorite materials.

Doodlewash is a website coordinated by Charlie O’Shields. It and Charlie are dedicated to all things watercolor. One of the services that Charlie provides is profiles like these on various watercolor artists and their work.

So far, some 340 watercolor artists from around the world have been featured on World Watercolor website. This map shows you who has been featured in the past and where they live. It also offers live links to their feature articles.

I hope when you enjoy these peeks behind the scenes in the lives of artists around the world.

I’d be delighted if you’d share link to my Guest Artist Feature with the art appreciators in your circle of acquaintance.

  • PS – A special welcome to all the new PauseWorks Studio blog subscribers who have joined in to follow news from the studio as a result of the DoodleWash feature. I look forward to staying in touch and sharing more of my art and my world with you.

Visiting With Artist Nicki Ault

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. – Walt Disney

Amidst It All by Nicki Ault

As my interest in art grows, I find myself reaching out to connect with other artists to learn more about their paths, perspectives and philosophies.

Recently, I visited with Saskatoon artist, Nicki Ault, in her studio.

She paints in the company of a group of artists at the Studio on 20th.

Nicki works in oil on canvas focusing on landscapes – prairies, lake scenes and sunsets.

A couple of samples of her recent work are shared here with Nicki’s permission.

Our conversation covered a lot of territory, and here are a few of the take-away insights I picked up along the way:

  • Saying yes to one opportunity can help open the doors for others to follow.
  • Put your work out there in many different ways and trust it will find the audience that appreciates what you have to offer.
  • Give Instagram a whirl. It’s a great way to feature visual images.
  • Sometimes art shows pay off and sometimes they don’t. Although you can spread the word to your own followers, much depends on the marketing done – or not done – by the sponsors of an event.
  • All it takes is one person – the right person – to see and love your work for a sale to occur. You never know who, when or where that will be.
  • One sale often leads to another. The purchase of a small piece can lead to interest in a larger work.
  • Working in a series helps you better understand your subject and lets you hone the techniques that get you the results you have in mind.
  • Stepping away from a work in progress for a while will often help you see what you need to do next.

Delicate Balance by Nicki Ault

Thanks, Nicki, for the visit and the insights.

I love talking art with other artists, and Nicki was very generous in spending her time with me.

If you’d like to see Nicki’s work for yourself, you can find her paintings at the Darrell Bell Gallery on 21st Street here in Saskatoon.

You can also follow her work and learn more about her art by subscribing to Nicki’s blog or following her on Instagram.

 

Eggs-aspirated? Art For What Ails You

Art has long been used as a form of therapy to improve well-being.

The central idea is that expressing ourselves creatively in artistic ways helps us improve self awareness, manage feelings, and reduce stress.

It’s often a way that we can explore in images what we hesitate to express in words.

It matters not what the product looks like. The product is really the process of working / playing things through.

I loved this recent ‘prescriptive’ post by Neeti Chopra:  15 Simple Art Hacks You Can Use To Control Your Mind & Channel Your Emotions.

Have fun with it. Doodle to your heart’s content!

Art Nouveau…Who Knew?

 

The more I learn about the history of art, the more fascinating it becomes.

This post links you to a brief article on the Art Nouveau Movement of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

English designer and businessman, William Morris, is the person credited with being the philosophical father of the movement.

He described Art Nouveau’s main goals this way:

“To give people pleasure in the things they must perforce use, that is one great office of decoration; to give people pleasure in the things they must perforce make, that is the other use of it.”

Simply put, I interpret this to mean:

If you have to MAKE something and you have to USE something, why shouldn’t it be beautiful as well as functional?

What a concept!

Of course, there were and are many different ideas about what constitutes beauty and good design. Central to the early Art Nouveau works were inspirations from nature – curling vines, tendrils, and other organic forms.

Aubrey Beardsley, Gustav Klimt, and Louis Tiffany (he of the stained glass lamps) are some of the more well known artists who played with these ideas and contributed to the movement.

Hector Guimard, who designed the entrances to the Paris Metro stations introduced for the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, created one of the best known examples of Art Nouveau still alive and well today.

Hope you have as much fun reading about this period in art as I did.

PS – It’s fun to think that when I was drawn to sketch this Paris Metro light standard, that I was actually inspired by Art Nouveau efforts from a century before.

Neat? Tidy? No Way?

Studio Mess-400w

Wanna make art? Gotta make a mess! A typical day of fun in the studio!

Copyright © 2016 - Pauseworks Studio - Patricia Katz, Optimus Consulting
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