In a series of occasional blog posts, we've asked a member artist to talk briefly about an artist who's profoundly influenced their work. Artist Bob Evans talks about the work of Karl Blossfeldt, and the effect it's had on him. 

Karl Blossfeldt, Plate 58 Art Forms In Nature, 1928

My dithered digital photographic prints have been influenced in an interesting way by the photogravure photographs of Karl Blossfeldt (German 1865-1932). In my career as an artist teacher I have taught Basic Visual Design classes and always showed examples of Blossfelt's photos to my students as examples of images having visual strength. Blossfeldt's work is known primarily from three books of high quality photogravure photographic reproductions published between 1928 and 1942. Very few of his actual photographic prints have ever been exhibited. But his work is widely known and his books are still in print in many lower quality halftone republications including several by Dover books. Because of my strong interest in his work I have been fortunate enough over the years to acquire first edition photogravure copies of all three of those books.

Bob Evans,  Dithered Fern Frond

When I was preparing to retire from active teaching in the past decade, I was looking for a project to keep me busy in addition to my normal art making activity. Having taught digital photography since the mid 1990s I was skilled in Adobe Photoshop and had always known the power of black and white images when dithered (random black dots of varied size). In looking at Blossfeldt's photogravures, which are made up of random dots created by the photogravure process from rosin dusted onto a metal plate, I thought you could create one bit (i.e. photographs using only black ink dots) images using digital dithering. Dithering is the process that all computer printers use and is a way to generate a range of tones and colors without the use of rigid halftone screens that look very mechanical. Color dithers by putting colored dots on top of each other produce continuous tone smooth looking images. One bit dithers when examined closely show the dots up clearly and give the resulting images a crispness and clarity very much like aquatint etchings. After many experiments with Photoshop and other dithering programs I developed a digital technique that allows me to create the look of photogravure using a standard office monochrome laser printer. The images can be soft or hard depending on the approach one takes and a wide range of tones are possible. Because the laser printer uses metallic oxide pigment the images are completely permanent unlike many colored digital photos that use dyes. Blossfeldt's technique has thus influenced me into wide experimentation of the expressive uses of the dithered random dot in digital photography.

GIve it your best shot! (literally)

With the arrival of Spring, we've noticed a new crop of juried show opportunities. 

(Full disclosure, ours is among them- details HERE).

Many of these require submission online.
(More  exhibition opportunites are listed at the bottom of this post.)

As artists, we submit our strongest pieces, work that has been carefully conceived, expertly crafted, our best efforts. We labor over the artist statement, navigate the online forms. 

But WHAT MATTERS MOST in the selection process is how the work is seen by the juror- In our experience, submitting TOP QUALITY IMAGES is critical. 

True Story-  During the jurying process for 'COTTON,' our last juried show, a piece came very close to being rejected simply because of the poor quality of the artists' images. Fortunately, we were able to ask the artist for a written description and better photo, and ultimately the piece was included. We don't know for sure, but others may not have been so lucky.

The higher the stakes (in short, the ones you REALLY want to get into), the less likely it is for anyone to go to these lengths to insure that your work is appropriately considered. AND the less likely that the juror will recognize your work and give you the benefit of the doubt.

Don't sell yourself short! 

Submitting top quality images is not rocket science. You can learn to do this yourself; many classes and workshops, online or at local institutions, can help you learn the basics. (Try googling 'how to resize photos' to see just how many resources are available online!)

We're hosting just such a workshop in the Gallery, Wednesday April 3, 2013 1 - 3PM, taught by member artist Bob Evans, a photoshop expert for over 20 years. Called ESSENTIAL PHOTOSHOP FOR ARTISTS, it's one-stop shopping; everything you need to know to get the most out of your submission photos.

Key points which will be covered by Bob are
• Sizing Images for entry, web placement etc
• Preparing your images for printing / web use / invitations 
• Basic Image Correction or improvement
• Sharpening 
• Converting Color images to Black & White 
FInd out more and register HERE

If you're one of the many artists who've got this down, pat yourself on the back, and share this post with fellow artists-  after all, Friends don't let Friends submit bad pictures!

FYI- links to lists of upcoming juried show opportunities.
This is by no means a complete list-
Please share opportunites you're aware of, on our facebook page or in the comments. Thanks!
artdeadlineslist.com
callforentry.org
artsake.massculturalcouncil.org/blog/artsake
.multiculturalartscenter.org/call-to-artists/
danforthmuseum.org/juriedexhibitions2013

Dubuffet and Nan Hass Feldman

"The Cow with the Subtle Nose", 1954, by Dubuffet.

In a series of occasional blog posts, we've asked a member artist to talk briefly about an artist who's profoundly influenced their work. Artist Nan Hass Feldman tells us about two artists who've profoundly influenced her.

I was introduced to art at a very young age.  My mother signed up for mother and daughter art classes weekly at the Brooklyn Museum when I was ages 3 though 10 years old.  When I turned 12 years old, my closest friend from middle school and I would meet at the subway station at Kings Highway in Brooklyn and travel to Manhattan where we would get off at 8th St. in Greenwich Village and walk up 5th Avenue to 53rd St. where we would visit the Museum of Modern Art.  Then we would walk over to Madison Avenue and visit the Whitney Museum, and on upwards to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We did this almost every Saturday until we were 18 years old and off to college. During these years, I had a few favorite paintings I would visit each week.

 "The Goldfish", by Matisse

Ultimately, Dubuffet's and his painting "The Cow with a Subtle Nose" was my alter-ego and had the qualities I admired that I wanted more to have in my own work.  At the time I was writing my thesis, and my own work involved large mixed-media paintings which  were realistic (though made-up) of architecture, people inside and out, and lots of fantasy.  The works were representaional, though fictional, and took me months to create.  After writing this thesis about the cow, my work totally changed and indeed, the paper did end up being about me after all. 

The second artist I fell head-over-heels about was Matisse.  Of course, he is immensely loved world-wide, but I fell for him also as a very young child.  One painting I remember along with others of his is, "The Goldfish". Matisse's colors, shapes, and subjects are all about color and design without the baggage of correct perspective or true colors and I have been influenced whether consciously or otherwise by him all my life. 

Nan Hass Feldman, The Yellow Tablecloth

 I've attached my painting of "The Yellow Tablecloth" of my dining room which everyone mentions it reminds them of Matisse.  I am sure I did not think of Matisse while I painted this, but I too paint as I see, am focused on my subject as a vehicle for a love of subjective color, patterns, details, and a communication of a more interesting world.

Nan Hass Feldman

508.380.6222

NanHassFeldman.com

Living LARGE

Painted Abstracts by Richard Kattman, in the Gallery through March 24th.

The brilliant colors of Richard Kattman’s recent large-scale canvases “hit you immediately: bright, sharp and passionate, and despite the abstract nature of many of them, their subject matter is somewhat easy to identify and inspirations respectfully obvious,” according to Artscope magazine editor Brian Goslow.

Kattman, an award-winning artist, landscape architect, and photographer from Holliston, MA, bases his paintings on landscape and the intuitive, emotive mind.  Along with brilliant color, the sheer size of these paintings (many are nearly 6 ft. wide) is impressive.

In a recent interview for Artscope,  Brian Goslow spoke with Kattman about his new large-scale abstract paintings, now on view at the Gallery. 

Richard Kattman, Journey,  5'8" x 5'8", acrylic on canvas.

"Working large presents opportunities to 'use big brushes', to fling paint with abandon and force, to create order out of violence or action," commented Kattman. 

" Of course, impact is a primary goal; more red appears as more red!"

(read the interview in its entirety HERE)

"Richard Kattman: Painted Abstracts” runs  through March 24 at Fountain Street Fine Art, 59 Fountain Street, Framingham, Mass.The Gallery is open Thu- Sun 11-5. To see more of Richard Kattman’s work, visit http://www.richardkattman.com

Artist Mary Spencer talks about Magritte

This is the second in a series of occasional blog posts, where we've asked a member artist to talk briefly about an artist who's profoundly influenced their work. 

Magritte has entranced me for much of my life. I first saw his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, when I attended the Art Students League during a summer college break.

Rene Magritte, Le Double Secret,  1927; Musee National d’art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

, 

This painting, Le Double Secret, seen much later at the Pompidou Museum in Paris is an example of what I love. There are two female images, a wooden ‘balcony’ edge and the sea/sky behind them. The primary female face has split open to reveal a vocal chord of bells, the shifted cover face is to the left. Somehow secret music has cracked open a twin, a double. It is a very mysterious, haunting, edge oriented painting of inner space and facades.

Since I have a twin, this resonates! We have a secret: we present it differently. We are both very introspective lovers of the sea and sky. Life’s horizon always shifts to produce far off sounds.                 

-Mary Spencer

and now, a bit about Mary....

Mary Spencer, Kimberley Woman,
mixed media on panel.

Mary Spencer's recent series of paintings combine mixed media with oils on panel, bringing together fragments from cave drawing, news photos, architectural views, landscapes, folding the elements over themselves and one another to achieve intriguing and enigmatic visions, a unified world of disparate parts. Prehistoric cave drawings traced in dark winding lines untainted by steel edge or digital concept blend into stone mountains or fragments left by wind, water, fire. Her paintings refernece Bernard Rudofsky’s The Prodigious Builders. All life is a building contest that  can astonish and remain. MORE info...