Thursday, August 19, 2010

more dust


I just got back from the quarterly Northwest Pastel Society meeting in Gig Harbor, WA.  That's across the Narrows from Tacoma in the south Puget Sound.  It is a beautiful setting and typically would be a great place to some plein air painting down by the harbor, however it was mid 90's and that's a little warm to be outside painting for long!
I just am finishing the night scene of Joseph, OR above.  It is sort of fun to play with "night" colors and the lack of!  It was wet and lots of stormy clouds and most everything was peaceful; much different from the bustling of the daytime Main Street activities.
The vineyard is an older painting that I did some copies of and will be given to some of the guests tomorrow night at the vineyard dining and plein air experience that Lori, M'Lisse, LeaAnn and I put together for a Hospice auction item this year.  I met LeaAnn one evening at her vineyard to check out where I would be painting and maybe what I might paint.  She took me around through the vines and showed me the difference between Cabernet and syrah grapes and others and she was trying to be helpful in where I might set up to paint.  She starts talking about me standing and working on top of a table or in a "lift" on her tractor.  Man, WHOA!  I don't do heights!  I am good being 5'5" from the ground up.  She thought that was pretty funny.  But she doesn't really know me all that well.  I am not extremely coordinated.  I knock things over.  I could envision falling off the table; spilling pastels all over the ground, crashing the easel to the dirt and more.  Much better I stay grounded.  Then I said I loved her grape fields!  GRAPE FIELDS????  IT"S A VINEYARD!! just a technicality...I am looking forward to spending part of the evening with the diners and the rest of the crew.  It will be fun and I will come up with something appropriate to paint, I am certain! without the tractor or standing on a picnic table.
Back the NPS meeting...the entries are all in for the Int'l Show and entry has now closed for that event.  The entries are all done digitally and on line.  This is one of the greatest things, in my book, because it simplifies the entry process so much.  You don't have to take, develop and send in slides or even make a CD, it's all electronic on the computer.
Some folks were talking about preparing their images for transmittal.  That's the crucial element!  Every art show prospectus that comes out describes in detail what dimensions, etc is required for the entry.  Some shows, if the entry isn't done correctly, merely discard the entry and the artist doesn't know any difference other than they were denied for entry by the juror.  So a couple of things to make note of:
        Be sure the image you are sending has nothing but the image of the painting in it...no tape showing on the edges of the painting, no frame, no mat, no light sneaking around the side of the painting, etc.  The prospectus will tell you the image size should be...such as: 
Images should be hi resolution (300dpi), 1200x1800 pixels -approximately 4”x 6”.
Save each of your jpg images using this convention:
“yourlastname.titleofpainting.jpg”
Use no spaces or symbols in name.
So to change your image that you have stored in our computer, you need to have access to PhotoShop or some image software.  Once you go to the "resize image" you can accomplish most of this pretty easily.  You want to maintain the appropriate shape of your painting, so if it happens to be a long narrow piece, you want the juror to see it as it is and not just a portion of that.  So be sure the box is checked to keep proportions consistent. Then you change the longest side of your image to the longest allowed in the prospectus (in the case above - 1800 pi)   Then the shorter side will proportionately change automatically.  Always be sure to check and make certain the resolution is set at the required (300 dpi on this one).  A note...be sure you are using a high resolution when you take your image as well.  Your camera has a setting for this.  If  you shoot an image at 72 dpi and then try to make it be 3000 dpi when you change it, you will not be very happy because your image will not be clear and crisp...And then label the image as requested; "save as" in your documents and then upload this newly sized image in the entry.  Photoshop isn't the only software that allows you to make changes of an image.  I have a Canon ARCsoft program that allows and is very simplistic and easy.  It is a program that is part of my scanning system and works very well.  So that's some tips for preparing an entry for a juried show with digital entries.  Also what I do is print out the prospectus so I have that in hand to refer to, to make certain the entry is done correctly.
Wishing all you painters great success and keep painting...

As a note:  The show is hanging at Discovery Pond in Miles City and the Custer County Heritage Auction Show is ready for public view this weekend for the month before the actual auction.

4 comments:

  1. Bonnie these are all beautiful, but that autumn scene just takes my breath away! I just love everything about it!!!

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  2. Thank you Deb. That river is the Touchet River in SE WA. That particular area is really a good photo spot. I did this scene in a quick draw event last year. It was one of those evenings where the fields had that pinkish golden touch to them and was sort of sultry that I was out there taking pics.
    Have a great day Deb!

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  3. I love the night one. So different from what I think of your "usual" work. In fact, the vineyard one is also different to my eye and full of vitality (as well as future vino, lol).

    Great tips for show entries - I know the thing about jpg size & naming as laid out in entry forms can be so confusing to the novice.

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  4. Bonnie, I agree, the fall scene is great! Especially that tree on the right hand side! Now, I am just learning things and trees do get me, how do you go about "getting" your tree? Again, I love your posts and info that you so generously share! Wish I were there.

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