Tuesday, March 29, 2011

fine art america

I have joined a very large group of artists on Fine Art America after some discussion with my friends Lauren and Patty. They have a really large visitor base and so I hope to get some exposure for my work there. So far I've opened 3 galleries: Pet Portraits (naturally), Abstracts and Land & Water.
Pop over and have a look and let me know what you think.

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/sue-galos.html

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

and now... my Zentangles

First - the link to the originators of the name ( but not the activity - which has been around FOREVER!):
The Zentangle® art form and method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

I did my first one starting with their suggested method and then reverted back to my usual doodle style from yesterday's post. I kept the square format for the first 3, but can sense that I would start deviating - but that's the fun of it.




A friend of mine, Karen Pasqualucci, also does this line doodle but turns them into figures and whimsical creatures. She calls hers "Zendoodles" and has a book out on Amazon:





It's really wonderful to see design concepts in action - and trending!!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Old turning into new

When I was still an active classroom teacher, our art program had a very intense grade 9 course. All the students worked in an 8" x 11" hard covered sketch book through the full semester. Since I only taught the nines occasionally (this class was about 12 years ago) I found it helpful to follow along in my own book - working with them when I had the time. Design was a major component of this course and we always chose to start with line. They would develop a cover design in coloured line, an inside cover design in black pen and at least 2 other exercises later on.
My local art enthusiasts meet on Wednesdays in the winter to do a variety of interesting activities and I decided to check out their meeting this up coming week. They are going to create "Zentangles": structured, contained doodles. I was curious so I Googled the name and discovered the following information:
"The term 'Zentangle' was coined by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas when, one day, Maria described her experience, as she created her art, as "feeling timeless, free and engendering a sense of deep well-being". Rick recognised that she was in a meditative state and so Zentangles were born."

It's interesting how creative minds seem to stumble upon similar ideology all over the world at similar times.

The following designs are mine and were created in the late 1990's.

Book Cover


Inside cover design


Split Person line work


and Doodlebug


I kept my book and I think most of the students still have theirs - many years later.