Artist Blog For January 2007
29 January 2007
This week I made good progress with updating the South African Historical Artists directory. The following artists have been added to the directory: Irma Stern, Alice Tennant, Erenest Ullman, Maurice Van Essche, Jean Welz and Florence Zerffi. I will be taking a break for a couple of weeks from updating the directory but will definitely return at a later stage to work on it again.
The new project I started on is the Art Dictionary; it will contain a list of widely used art terminology with a definition of each term. I am currently busy with art terms beginning with A and will be adding terms daily for the next couple of weeks, this will be an ongoing project and I am aiming to develop it into the most comprehensive art dictionary on the web. I am hoping that this dictionary will be usefull for art students and artists in their research.
I have just updated the South African Art Exhibitions section and there is plenty of worthwhile exhibitions throughout the country for you to visit this week.
My third oil painting in the "Dust To Dust" series of paintings is coming on nicely. I am enjoying working on it and I am excited at how it will come out as it is quite a bit different from the first two paintings I did. I finished the first layer of the painting and started today on the second layer. When working on an oil painting I usually work in layers with the first layer of paint heavily diluted with mineral turpentine. As I add more layers I use less turpentine and more raw linseed oil until I only mix raw linseed oil with the oil paint on the fourth or fifth layer. This is a traditional oil painting method called "fat over lean".
22 January 2007
Good News, all snags with the hosting company have been sorted out and the new look Arcy Art site is up and running. The new web site will have a lot of resources for artists, art students, art teachers and art lovers.
We have received our first application for the South Arican Artist Directory and we are honoured to have included Audrey Anderson in our directory. Inclusion in the artist directory is completely free (no commissions, buyers contact you directly) and we invite all South African artists to apply for inclusion in the directory. International artists are also invited to apply for free inclusion in the International Artist Directory.
I have been hard at work updating the South African Art History section and information on the following historical South African artists have been added over the last week: Thinus De Jongh, George Enslin, Leo Francois, Sidney Goldblatt, Russell Harvey, Wolf Kibel, Lippy Lipshitz, Terence McCaw, Ephraim Ngatane, Frans Oerder, Alexis Preller and Crosland Robinson.
Numerous new art galleries have been added to our alphabetical list of South African art galleries and we invite all art gallery owners to add their gallery by sending an email to editor@arcyart.com with the details of your art gallery.
On a personal note, I have began the third painting in the series of Dust To Dust oil paintings. The painting will be a little different than the first two in that the figure fills up most of the canvas and I also aim to have more of the black background showing through in the oil painting. I have done some preliminary sketches and I have only just started on the actual oil painting so there is still a long way to go.
15 January 2007
A prosperous and happy new year to all Arcy Art Original Oil Paintings visitors.
It is good to be back from a nice break. I went to the South Coast of South Africa for a week and a half with a bunch of friends and had a really enjoyable time. I feel well rested and excited about all the projects for the new year.
I was hoping to officially launch the new Arcy Art web site this week but I still have a few snags with our hosting company that needs to be sorted out. My first job as editor in the new year will be updating the South African Art History section featuring prominent artists in South Africa's past. It is quite a big project and although I will be concentrating on it for the next few weeks it will be an ongoing process as there is a lot of information to be added. I am hoping that this section will be useful as a research tool for art students and/or artists researching information on their favourite historical South African artists. The three artists I have added so far are Bill Ainslie, Walter Battiss and Harry Caldecott.
Personally I have started on a sketch for a new oil painting. The painting will have a figure filling up about two thirds of the canvas and I am excited about the challenge. I will keep you updated on the progress of the oil painting. |
