As a self-taught artist, a lot of my knowledge has come from books. I have also learned a lot through videos, most of them from YouTube, but books offer a more permanent and practical reference. Very often, I will learn about a book from the artist in a video, and that will trigger my quest for that book!
Thankfully for my budget, several years ago I discovered an online used book store called Awesomebooks.com. Located in the UK, it is a great source of older and very reasonably priced books. The shipping costs have gone up slightly over the years, but it is still a really good deal, and it helps to keep books out of landfills! I also love to browse used book stores for special finds, and I needed a practical way to keep track of what books I had already bought (I did still manage to buy one book twice, but in my defense, the author had sneakily changed the title from one edition to the next!!). So I found a free App called Libib, which allows me to scan the book’s barcode and keep my book inventory on my phone (they also have a Web version). More recently, I have found a few sources for free electronic versions of books, particularly older books whose copyrights have expired. I have occasionally downloaded copyrighted books to check out if they are worth buying, and I have found some that were and some that definitely weren't!! I also have a short wish list of a few books that I really want to buy, but that are, even in used form, prohibitively expensive. One that comes to mind is “Alla Prima”, by Richard Schmid, considered by many to be the best book on painting ever written. I have read it and agree, but I can’t justify for now the hundreds of dollars it would cost to get it, even used! Recently I subscribed to Amazon Prime, mainly for access to Prime Video, which has a good selection of things to watch, certainly compared to what we can get on regular TV…. Included in the subscription is access to a lot of free electronic books, including a good selection of older art books. So right now I have about 20 books in various states of “readingness”, some physical, some electronic. They include: “The Pastels Book”, by Bill Creevy, “Composition in Art”, by Henry Rankin Poore, “Classical Painting Atelier”, by Juliette Aristides, “The Creative Drawing Course”, by Richard Taylor, “A Color Notation…”, by A.H. Munsell, “Keys to Drawing with Imagination”, by Bert Dodson, “The Elements of Drawing…”, by John Ruskin, “The Art Spirit”, by Robert Henri, “Sacred Geometry”, by Robert Lawlor, “The Art of Composition”, by James Cowman (also a wonderful website all about Composition), “The Practice and Science of Drawing”, by Harold Speed, “A Treatise on Painting”, by Leonardo da Vinci, “Composition and Outdoor Painting”, by Edgar Payne, “Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures”, by Henry Rankin Poore, “Vision and Design”, by Roger Fry, and “Composition”, by Arthur W. Dow. As you can see, most are not about painting per se, but rather about the fundamental, and to me elusive, building block: composition. Simply put, composition is the arrangement of shapes in an image, and largely what makes or breaks a painting. It is what makes an image, even an abstract one, “look right”. You know good composition when you see it, but I find it very hard to create. That’s why I have so many books on the subject, in the hopes that one of them will open that tiny door to my brain and give me the AHA! moment I have been searching for! I have included a few pictures of my current art bookshelves. If you see anything you would like to borrow, or if you have any book suggestions, or if you just happen to have a copy of Alla Prima gathering dust, please let me know! Also, if you try out Awesomebooks or Libib, let me know what you think! (I get no commission from them but I wish I did! ;-) )
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Since the beginning of the pandemic, and even before, I have relied on online shopping for a lot of my art supplies. There are many very good and affordable online shops that carry a variety of supplies. In addition to being able to compare prices, you can also take time to read up or even watch videos on how to use the products. I suffer from serious loss of control whenever I enter an art supply store, so this relaxed atmosphere is a lot better for me. I can take time to analyse my purchases and not (often) get suckered into buying something I don’t really need.
Normally, I would make a list of things I needed (wanted?) during the year, and then when we went down to Florida for the winter, I would put in a couple of orders at my two favorite art stores, Jerry’s Artarama (I know!!) and Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff. They would usually have a few really good sales while I was down there, so I could stock up and take supplies home well within my “import” limit. Well, we won’t be going to Florida this winter, unless the promise of vaccines turns out to be much better than expected. So I have been looking at alternate sources for the supplies I want (need?), because the international shipping costs for my two favorite US stores are outrageous! There are a few good Canadian online stores. Curry’s Artists' Materials comes to mind, but they seem to be suffering from serious supply problems. De Serres is really bad too, having many many products out of stock. Also, they often don't even carry the brands or products I am looking for. So two of the suppliers I have been trying out are English. One, Rosemary Brushes, manufactures their own lines of paintbrushes. I bought a few this summer, and they are amazing quality for the listed price, but once you pay for the shipping and the taxes that Canada Revenue collects, the price almost doubles! Another supplier, Jackson’s Art Supplies, carries a very wide variety of products, including many under their own house brand, which are generally really good value. The biggest problem with both of these suppliers is the time it takes to get the products!! My latest order, which includes single pastel sticks from a wide variety of manufacturers, as well as some sample papers for use with soft pastels, was placed October 20th, and there is still no sign of it! I even paid extra to get tracking, only to watch the tracking data stay the same since October 27, when the package had a bit of a holiday in Malmö, Sweden!!! A couple of days ago, the tracking page had sprouted a new button, hopefully labeled “Local Tracking”. “Woohoo!” I thought… but it only means that Canada Post is now officially in charge of having no idea where my package is … I guess the pandemic has reduced the number of available international flights. But surely packages don’t need the same care as passengers, and indeed there must be a lot more packages traveling as so many people can’t! You would think the airlines would be jumping on the opportunity to use their planes, but apparently not! So, in addition to learning to paint in oils and pastels, this pandemic has also taught me more patience! And planning! But be warned: if you are thinking of using postal or other carriers for your Christmas gifts this year, you had better plan for it early if you hope to get it there on time! This will be the first time in years John and I won’t attend the Armistice Commemoration in Ayer’s Cliff. The public event was canceled to keep everyone safe. We will just have to remember in private ….
I am busy these days making the 27 Christmas ornaments for my family members. Not sure if and when we will be able to see any of them, but luckily this year’s ornaments are relatively light and unbreakable so they can be mailed out. They are a surprise so I can’t tell you what they are, but I make something different every year, so I can tell you they are not small watercolors, origami, papier maché, spice paste, painted wood shapes, clay, painted glass balls, marbled glass balls, needle felting, air dried clay, painted initials, wire-wrapped beads, personalized perfumes, cork, or zentangle covered balls. I am forgetting a few. I never thought I would be doing this for so long (19th edition this year!) so I didn’t keep track! Well, I attempted to remedy that to write this blog; thankfully I kept one of each so I will be able to complete my list when I take the ornaments out this year! We haven’t been home for Christmas for many years, so we haven’t been getting our decorations out of storage, but this year will be different! I talked about this tradition a bit in my October 7 blog, and credited it with my rediscovery of art. I mentioned that I started it in 2002, the year my mother died. She had been giving her grandchildren an ornament every year at Christmas. I thought it was a great idea, because it meant that by the time they left home, they would already have a good number of ornaments for their own tree, and with very special memories attached. I didn’t want the tradition to die with her, so I thought I would do it for one year, to make the first Christmas without “grand-maman” a bit easier. And while I was at it, I made an ornament for my brother and sisters too. They were very well received and so I decided to do it again the following year, but I challenged myself to do something different. And so a new tradition was born and continues on in our family. I have no military family members to remember on Remembrance day, but I certainly take time to remember and thank those countless souls who gave it all for us. I hope their memory keeps us from ever adding to those numbers. I am sad today. Nothing to do with Art. I am sad for a people that I thought I knew better. Although the final numbers are far from in, the results of the US election are very saddening to me. When D. Trump took the presidency in 2016, I was shocked. Shocked that so many people had been taken in by this BS artist. But I figured that most people voted not so much for him as against Hillary Clinton. Lots of misinformation had intentionally been spread about her (think Pizzagate!) and I have to admit that Trump’s promise of “draining the swamp” had some appeal. Perhaps an unconventional businessman was what the country needed. So, OK, give him a chance. No one can be all bad, right? Who can boast never having made mistakes in their life, right? Let’s see what the new kid can do.
Well, America, you did. You saw him:
But no, you voted for him. Again. I’m done with you. You gave him a chance, you saw what he did, and you chose to continue. I’m done. This is what you want. Good luck. OK, that feels better! I promise, back to art next week! Now to the studio!! |
AuthorMy name is Claire Bureau. Archives
March 2023
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