Today! Fri 10/7/16 from 4-7pm – the opening reception for our Fall Art Show in Uxbridge! Food! Drink! Art! Come on out!
Category: BVAA Shows and Events
Gelli Monoprints at Monthly Meeting
Our monthly meeting for October is on Tuesday, October 18th, 2016 at the Northbridge Senior Center.
This month we’ll be playing with a hands-on demo and workshop in Gelli printing! These monoprints use acrylic paint and let you make one-off creations.
Wear clothes that can get a big messy and prepare for fun!
We did a number of hands-on workshops last year with Gelli plates and everyone had a blast. In essence these are the same things as gelatin plates that you can make yourself but they last longer and oddly they are even cheaper to buy than to make in most cases.
Lisa has a number of books on Gelli printing that she’ll bring to lend out.
Here’s photos from one of our previous smaller workshops –
Ask with any questions!
BVAA Fall Show
Last call to get subs in for the BVAA Fall Show! Get them in by tonight Mon 10/3!
March 2017 Art with Poetry Pairing – How It Works
These instructions are for the artists and poets participating in the March 2017 Art and Poetry Pairing being showcased at the Worcester Public Library. Here’s how it works!
Each artist is paired with a poet. They form a team for the duration of this project.
Sometime before November 15, 2016, the poet provides the artist with a poem. The poem can be custom-written for this project or it can be a favorite the artist already has written. The poem will be hung in the show on a maximum size of 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper so it should be short enough to fit on that paper at a reasonably sized font. With that being said, the poem can otherwise be as short or as long as the poet desires. It can be a short haiku or a long sonnet. The artist now has until February 15, 2017 to create a work of art that represents that poem. The art can be a literal interpretation. It can convey the emotion of the poem. It can focus on one aspect of the poem. It is up to the artist to choose how to present their interpretation. That pairing of poem-plus-artwork will be hung side by side at the show.
In parallel:
Sometime before November 15, 2016, the artist provides the poet with a piece of art (a JPG photo of it is fine). Again, the artwork can be custom-created for this project or it can be an existing favorite. The artwork will be hung in a locked glass case at the library so the art has to fit inside one of those cases :). There are both horizontal “lay items flat” style cases as well as vertical wall cases. You can see photos of the cases here:
We have 18 artist-poet pairs so that is 36 finished works of art plus poems. We have 10 total cases. So artists should aim for the art to be about 1/4 of a case as a maximum size.
The poet now has until February 15, 2017 to write a poem based on that piece of art. Again, the poem does not need to literally describe the artwork. It can convey an emotion. It can create a story based on the scene. It can be whatever the poet wishes.
When each poem and artwork is complete (both in the first and second round), please also send a copy to Lisa so she can work on the Tetris-like logistics of seeing what will fit where. For art, let her know the dimensions of the piece when you send the JPG.
If anybody has any questions or comments, please let Lisa know. All poets and artists should now have received an email with their partner information. Anybody who doesn’t have that information yet should contact Lisa.
Enjoy!
Macabre Halloween Show 2016
In 2015 the BVAA held a one-day pop-up “Twisted Dolls” show at the Worcester PopUp location next to City Hall. We had a great time and the show’s online version became very popular.
In 2016 we wanted to expand our scope beyond dolls while maintaining the spooky aspect of the show. Hence the name Macabre. The general theme of the show is creepy, spooky, and thought-provoking.
We also wanted to expand beyond a single day of show, so that more people could enjoy it in person. The Canal on Water Street in Worcester agreed to be the venue!
Our plan is for the last week in October – October 24th through 31st. We’re still mapping out the opening reception. The number of images per person will depend on the final layout of that gallery system and the number of BVAA members interested in participating.
Please let us know if you’d like to join us in the Macabre show!
Grafton Inn Art Show
We have an opportunity to exhibit artwork for sale at the Grafton Inn similar arrangement to what we have at Whitinsville Antique Center. In the case of the Grafton Inn, it is even more advantageous for the artists because there will be no commission taken by the venue.
As of September 2016 we need approximately 20-30 works of art. These will hang in a variety of public places including the dining area.
The Grafton Inn is a historic building originally built in 1805 and located on the main Grafton Common. They are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The owner is looking for an eclectic mix of images to showcase for his audience.
Send the JPGs of your potential images along with actual framed size and price to our standard info AT bvaa.org email address. We will then review the options and submit them to Grafton Inn.
This can start immediately.
Notes from Dustin Neece Demo – Sept 20 2016
We had a fascinating demo in our first meeting of the new session by Dustin Neece. His demo was really an ‘eye opener’ for many of us, particularly with his use of sandpaper! Here are a few takeaways from his talk, as summarized by Bob Evans.
• Be aware of your inner feelings regarding the painting, recognize that it will go through stages and don’t get caught in ‘the dark night of the soul’
• Dustin recommended reading ‘The War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007A4SDCG/
• Recognise that the ideal image is in your head
• Don’t get so engrossed in a single feature, always look at the big picture and be prepared to change right up until the final version
• Every picture will evolve
• Use layers
• Take your time, go back and paint at the same spot for days, weeks or years until you have it ‘right’
• Look for inspiration, Dustin trained under Odd Nerdrum, check out some of his paintings
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Nerdrum
• https://forumgallery.com/artist/odd-nerdrum/
• Start from the focal point and move outwards
• Block out the major features
• When dry, scrape with spatula and also sand using 80 grit paper to remove some (but not all) of the impasto texture
• Be aware of toxic nature of cadmium based paints when doing this
• Use quinacridone-red instead of cadmium red and hansa yellow (Williamsburg Paints)
• After that, look for the major contrasting colour and then use scumbling technique to cover the major areas of the canvas
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaze_(painting_technique)
• Gardening gloves are great for keeping the hands clean!
Art & Poetry
A lovely write-up of the art & poetry project we’re planning. The show opens in March 2017 at the Worcester Public Library!
https://www.telegram.com/news/20160916/bvaa-project-pairs-up-art-with-poetry
Here’s the full details on this show:
Worcester Public Library Art Space
The Worcester Public Library offers a wonderful way for artists to be seen by thousands of visitors to their library. The art is presented in locked cases and is safe from gooey little children’s fingers :). There are two areas involved in the art display.
First, at the center of the first floor by the information desk, is a space with two rows of two long, flat cases each. Behind them are two tall, vertical cases against the wall. Here’s looking at the group of six cases from the front right.
Here’s looking at these same six cases from the front left.
Now we’re standing in between the rows of “floor cases” and looking just at one case row with the vertical ones beyond it.
And again another angle from in between the rows of floor cases.
OK now we are moving to the main entrance of the library, located by the parking lot. In this area there are two standing vertical cases and two floor (horizontal) cases. First, the vertical case to the left of the entrance as you’re heading in, which is on its own.
Opposite this case are a pair of floor / horizontal cases along with another vertical case against a wall.
Here’s a close-up view of the two floor cases in this area.
So all told there are four tall / vertical cases and six floor / horizontal cases available for the art display. The art-and-poetry show will have 36 total artwork items paired with 36 poetry items. That will be an average of 3-4 art/poetry pairs per case. We will just need to make sure that we arrange for the taller pieces of art to go in those vertical units and for smaller pieces to go into the horizontal units.
It will be good for artists to think in terms of the sizes of these cases and not create massive mural-sized pieces :). On the other hand, they don’t have to go pendant-small, either. Somewhere in the middle will be good!
BVAA 2017 Art-and-Poetry pair-up
BVAA 2018 Art-and-Poetry pair-up
BVAA 3-Ring Binder – Sept 2016
We’re in the process of updating our BVAA 3-Ring Binder for the upcoming fall art show season! Please take a look at this and let us know what updates you’d like to make to your page. You can swap out your featured image, change your artist’s statement, or both!
Read through what others have written and let us know what you’d like to update!
We bring the binder to all shows and events, and a binder is kept at the Milford TV Station with our art show there, so this is a great way to get your information seen by a wide audience.