Painted Skies and Desert Rust News

I Surveyed Artists To Find What Inspires

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:56:27 CST

Last week it snowed at my house. It snowed in a lot of places around the world but I live 45 minutes from downtown Los Angeles in my own little micro climate and when it snows here, it really is a novelty. So much so that I love taking pictures of things covered in snow that I ordinarily forget to notice in winter - like my cactus garden.

I think snow covered cactus is such a cool and unexpected visual and it has the power to inspire art. I asked other artists on www.fineartamerica.com what kinds of unexpected details do they find inspirational? Here's what they said:

Christine T: "I really can't say but I know it when I see it."

Kevin C: "Young women relaxed and not knowing that I'm watching."

Julie L: "Light is my inspiration."

Maria G: "I once saw a rainbow land on the beach. At the same time the sky was slit vertically in half - light to dark with no transition - by a weather front. Not worth painting because no one would believe it."

Michelle K: "Nature and people inspire my work. It could also be a word spoken or a story shared by someone."

Tara B: "The island Martha's Vineyard."

Thomas E: "I am inspired by all of God's creation, particularly the randomness and at the same time the order."

Pauline R: "Food, reflections, lighting, colors, wildlife, the shoreline, old barns or boats, music, museums, interesting faces, my imagination."

Shari N: "The natural world, colors, textures."

Michael F: "Words, songs, other art."

J.D. F: "Nature".

Cliff H: "The golden light of a sunset or sunrise and the resulting long shadows across a dirt road."

Do artists notice things average people don't? Or do artists notice the things everybody does but feel inspired as a result? If so, I think the difference between artists and others is that the artist looks at the world and feels an impulse...a reaction. The reaction to create.

The War Brewing Between Digital and Traditional Artists

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:07:18 CST

It's been my experience that most artists are open to digital technology to create art. It's also been my experience that art buyers and the general art buying public are slow to appreciate anything created digitally. I'm not making accusations - just a statement of fact - when I say that digital art and photography are often times viewed as the ugly step children in the family of art. Again, not my view but the public's. I think it's because digital mediums are perceived to be "easy" if one knows how operate a computer or digital camera, which for the most of us, we think we can.

But it's enough to make digital artists overly defensive of their craft. I've recently been reading some forum postings on www.fineartamerica.com from digital artists lashing out at "traditional" artists and defending their craft as the way of the future while bashing old school disciplines like drawing, painting and sculpting as outdated.

I work in a creative industry and have seen what real artists can do with digital technology creating single and multi-dimensional art pieces that are so captivating the viewer doesn't get caught up in how they were made - they just react to what's in front of them. So to me, it's not about the medium, it's about the art.

The easy side of digital art creation are the photo filters that can create some pretty interesting visual effects and the cool looking fractals which are more often than not happy visual and mathmatical accidents. But they give digital art a less than "crafted" reputation. On the other hand, kids have made some pretty interesting "spinner" art pieces by simply dropping paint onto a spinning piece of paper so painting can be easy too.

So the real issue is how to change customer perception of the value of art created by digital means. Artists dividing themselves into "us and them" camps is counter productive. The only answer is for artists to create great art and keep trying until the public slowly appreciates the work and thinking behind it.

Which Is Worth More - Paint On a Canvas Or Pixels On Paper?

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:29:59 CST

I enjoy both painting with acrylics on canvas and creating digital art with pixels. Everyone knows what "paintings" are but the question is what should we call digital art creations? Digital paintings? Digital art? Digital graphics? I call mine "Digital airbushing" since the painting process is similar - I create "friskets" of masked areas on each screen layer and then fill in each with color to create mass, shadows, highlights, etc. But I'm having second thoughts about what to call my work.

I recently attended a gallery opening for a young artist who moved a lot of paint around on big canvases. I mean A LOT of paint. I think he used his hands to apply the paint rather than brushes or knives. It was acrylic paint right out of the jar - primary colors with hardly any mixing whatsoever. Nothing against the technique but what his work lacked was artistic talent. There was nothing under the paint to appreciate. Perspective was bad, composition was wrong, subject matter was unimaginative and titles were vague like "A tree" which were not very thought provoking. One painting had rubberized acrylic paint drips running off the canvas like candle wax. He said it was his "signature" and that he had been invited by UCLA art professors to lecture on his technique. I've been around some pretty whacked out characters in the art world to know there is a wide range of skill levels and tastes in art but I didn't get this guy's work at all.

Throughout the evening "SOLD" stickies kept popping up on his $2,000-$5,000 paintings. My opinion obviously wasn't shared by the crowd and his work sold like hot cakes. Why? I think it was the paint. It had texture, shape, dimension, and feeling (a bad feeling in my estimation, but at least the work wasn't boring).

After that experience, I'm considering changing the name of my digital "airbrushing" to digital "paintings" in the hopes I might sell them to an unsuspecting art crowd.

Framed Prints of Steve Beaumont's Art For Sale

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:52:38 CST

Click "MY PRINT PRICES" under "blogroll" in the right hand column to view gallery of available greeting cards, framed paper and canvas prints of California artist Steve Beaumont's desert landscapes, western roadside scenes and rustic Americana views.

The resource I use for excellent quality printing and framing is fineartamerica.com. I have ordered my own canvas prints, greeting cards and framed paper prints this way and was very pleased with the results. They offer a range of prices determined by print size and custom framing/matting options. They are very strict about the quality level of the art file provided and I was careful to follow their specifications for the best printing possible. The best part is they completely guarantee their work so if you're not satisfied, you get your money back, no questions asked.

Unframed signed giclee prints are only available by contacting the artist directly.

Letting Go of Original Art - Is it Ever Easy for Artists?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:23:52 CST

Artists say letting go of their originals gets easier over time. I admit I'm still in the "hate to give it up mode." It's not that I need to constantly surround myself with my own work. It's more a matter of "what if I get so much better in a few years that I look at this work and have second thoughts about it being in the world with my name on it?"

Awhile ago, I sold two prints to a couple who were ecstatic over their purchase. They wanted to know all about the work, how I did it, what inspires me, how would I frame it and so on. They even commemorated the occasion with a picture of me standing with them holding my (now their) art.

After they left I realized I had experienced first hand the joy that art can bring to others. It snapped me out of my self-centered thinking and helped me see that art belongs to those who love it the most. If someone loves my art more than I want to keep it, then they deserve to own it.