Welcome to my first newsletter – ever!!!
As you might expect, I’m experimenting with the newsletter, so, if you find any things really interesting, or others not so much, please let me know so I can make it the best possible thing for you.
Let me introduce myself.
My name is Liz, and I’ve been artistic and creative all my life, but, I’ve only just started to seriously create in an artistic sense.
I had periods of doing art related things such as papermaking and paper related crafts, textile art, calligraphy and painting, but, as with most of us, life and work got in the way.
I was lucky enough to take an early retirement almost exactly two years ago, and after the initial ‘yahoo’ period, I started thinking about what I wanted to do with all that glorious time! Art and golf were the first two things on my list. Over all those years, I had lost my confidence in my ability to create artistically, so I found a beginner oil painting class, which was focused on colour, and soon realised that I still had it!
I spent a year with my teacher, who was really wonderful, and in that time my confidence grew exponentially. After she decided to take a year off to travel, I found another group to learn with, and am currently still enjoying that.
I live in Adelaide, South Australia, right near the beach, with my partner, little dog Raffie and two ratbag cats! No doubt you’ll find out more about me through the newsletter!
From the studio
Here’s what’s been happening for me artistically over the last month!
Bookmaking
I took a couple of bookmaking courses with bookart studios that is run by Liz Constable in New Zealand. She is lovely and a lot of fun, and the courses are awesome (I highly recommend them if you are interested!). As a result of the courses, I’ve been busy making books, which has been a real burst of excitement and creativity for me. Check out a recent blog post, my instagram or facebook pages if you’re interested in seeing some of them.
In tandem with the bookmaking, I also started dyeing paper to go in the books. I just figured it would be too boring to just have plain paper, so I started searching for ways to dye paper. I found some really good easy videos on youtube, and started there. In the process of doing it, I decided that I didn’t really want to use chemical dyeing if I could help it, so I started with food colouring, coffee and then moved onto other things like red cabbage! This has been such an interesting and very hilarious journey to this point – and I’m still not finished – there are more dyeing experiments that I’ve already done, and that I want to do, so watch this space! In the meantime, if you want to get a taste of it, have a look at Dye Hard or Dye Trying, my blog about the experiences so far!
Exhibitions and Competitions
During June, I exhibited two pieces of art in a group exhibition at a gallery nearby – Gallery M in Marion, South Australia. The exhibition had some parameters. The artwork was to be postcard sized (or if in 3D, the base was to be that size), and based on the theme of ‘the 5 elements’. For my pieces, I settled on metal as the element, and did some research into metal in Chinese medicine. I discovered that metal is associated with the lungs, and from there, went with a stylised pic of the lungs, and then one of trees, as I took it a step further and thought about trees being the lungs of the earth. The reason I chose metal in the first place was because I have been doing a bit of work with metal leaf on some of my paintings, and I thought it would be a great background in a smaller piece.
In May, I submitted one of my pieces for a Contemporary Art Prize. This was a juried competition, which means that a group of judges decides which pieces get through for the final judging. In this case, unfortunately I was unsuccessful, but I’m quite proud of the fact that I was courageous enough to try! Have a look at my blog on how I dealt with the rejection, which also has a pic of the work I submitted!
Artworks
In future editions, I hope to show you my completed paintings from the previous month in this section, so we’ll see how that goes! Wish me luck lol
Over the course of June, I completed one major work entitled ‘The Guardian’, which was my interpretation of an angel painting. I also completed three paintings that were atmospheric landscapes – two nocturnes and one misty landscape. You can see all of these on either my instagram or facebook pages.
Artist Alerts
In this section, I plan to let you know about anything that you might need to know that may affect you. This could be about social media, or other trending issues affecting artists.
Instagram Bans
In the last few weeks, I’ve gone through the unfortunate experience of having my Instagram account deactivated. You may or may not be aware, but this is quite a frequent occurrence (I’ve since found out!). Instagram can choose to give you what amounts to a ‘warning’ ban, if you do something they think doesn’t meet their community guidelines, OR they can permanently ban you. I’m a victim of the latter. I really don’t know what I did, and I haven’t been able to find out. I started to go through the process to try and get it reinstated, but got caught in a loop where they say they will send a code to your phone, but it never arrives, and your only option is to keep requesting the code (which continues to never arrive!). As far as that goes, I think that I didn’t have my phone number properly updated for that account. So my first piece of advice is always make sure that your contact details are correct.
My second piece of advice is to not rely solely on your social media accounts if you are trying to start or continue to run a creative business. Prior to this happening, I kept reading and hearing that it’s really important to have an email list for yourself as an artist, and I now realise how true that is. I went from an account that I had built up to close to 700 followers over 5 months, to having to open another account, that I’m slowly rebuilding. I can only imagine how devastating it would be if I had an account with thousands of followers, and it was my source of income. Luckily for me that wasn’t the case.
I also took the opportunity to pivot and take a slightly different approach, so all in all, I’m quite happy that it happened, and it was a good lesson and wakeup call.
Instagram Scams for artists
I thought I’d seen them all up until this last week. I had someone DM me asking if they could use my images to do a mural. I was quite suss even for a start, because they were asking about one of my original artworks, which I pointed out would be copyrighted. They then proceeded to ask if they could paint me, and pointed to a reel that I’d done. Anyway, I looked it up online and found someone writing about the exact same thing last year. It apparently becomes a financial scam with cheques and so on. So, this is just a ‘beware of scams’ thing – remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!
Conversation starters
I’ve been wondering lately about whether creators showing timelapse of them creating gives the wrong idea to the general public about how long it takes to create a work of art … I have no data to base it on or anything, but it’s just a general pondering from me … What do you think? Email me, and I may put together some responses for the next newsletter.
Hints, tips and tricks
I’d like to put together some things that might help you, so if you have any questions you think I might be able to help with, please send them through. Otherwise you will be stuck with what I might be obsessed with lol
How do I go about adding metal leaf to a watercolour painting on paper?
This is actually surprisingly easy!
All you need is some metal leaf of your choice (I always find that the imitation metal leafs are best because you get much more bang for your buck. I would save real gold leaf or silver leaf for very special pieces, and in some cases you will need to give them some extra treatment to prevent tarnishing!), and some gold leaf size. Don’t make the mistake of trying to use normal pva glue instead of size, as it reacts quite differently, and you need the properties of the size to be able to apply the leaf successfully.
My BIG tip is to look for metal leaf transfer, NOT the loose leaf, especially if you are doing small and fine elements. In this case the metal leaf is adhered to a sheet of something like glassine, and it doesn’t float away, and you don’t lose copious amounts of it. This seems to be harder to get, and if you are purchasing on amazon, MOST of the metal leaf is loose leaf, not transfer … so just be really careful. Once you’ve used both, you will realise how easy transfer leaf is in comparison. Happy to provide details of some suppliers should you need it!
You should be able to get the leaf and the size at your local art shop, or, get it on google or through a reputable business. Often calligraphy suppliers or bookbinding suppliers will also have the materials needed.
Once you have your supplies, simply paint on the size where you want your gold highlights. You then need to wait until the size becomes tacky – this is usually when it becomes transparent, and after about 30 minutes. It will stay tacky for around 24 hours, so you have some leeway if you want to apply the size the night before and then put the leaf on in the morning.
Lay the sheet of leaf (either loose or transfer) over the size and if using loose, put a sheet of tracing, baking or greaseproof paper over the sheet (the transfer sheet will serve this purpose for the transfer leaf), and rub gently with either a cotton rag or a burnishing tool. This will strongly adhere the leaf to the size.
Pull off the sheets, and you will find there is some excess (if you use loose leaf sheets, there will be a LOT, and you may be finding it for months to come! haha). Just get yourself a slightly stiff paintbrush (if too stiff, it may scratch the leaf and mar it’s shine), and gently go around the edges to remove any excess leaf.
Voila, pretty shiny things!!!
Note that this applies to paper. If you are interested in applying to paintings, either oil or acrylic, you may need some additional steps – if you let me know, I can provide more detail in the next newsletter.
Hope you found that helpful!
That’s it from me for this month, I’ll be back next month with more shenanigans! Feel free to talk to me on facebook, instagram or via email. I’ll be sure to respond!
Liz
The Creative Shaman