Category: BVAA Shows and Events

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:

Worcester Library Cases

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!

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.

Twisted Doll Photos

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!

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.

Grafton Inn Official Website

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!

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:

BVAA Art & Poetry Show

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

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.

BVAA 3-Ring Binder: Sept 2016

Thanks to Bob Evans for thinking up this fun collaborative project!

Here’s the idea.

We start with an image. Let’s say it’s of a house. We then divvy that image up into sections for each person to portray. Maybe an oil painter gets the roof. Maybe a watercolor person gets the doorway. An acrylic painter might get the front side. A pen-and-ink drawer might get the side of the house.

Everyone makes their image however they wish.

All of the pieces are then given to Bob and he assembles them in PhotoShop to connect together to show the house.

Then we can showcase in an art show the original image, each person’s standalone work, and then the final, assembled image.

Let us know if this sounds interesting to you and what types of items you’d be interested in working on!

Thank you to Dennis Smith for inspiring this fun project!

The idea is for our BVAA artists to send in up to five each of digital and film images. Let us know which are which. All images must be in to us by Monday, October 31, 2016.

The film images should be as near straight-from-the-camera as possible. No photoshopping beyond simple contrast and brightness.

On the digital side, anything goes. You can try various techniques to try to make the image look “filmy.”

We’ll mix them all up, shake them around, and then put them on our website.

Everyone then has to guess which ones are digital and which ones are film.

The more unusual the better! Can you create strange light-leak and flare effects from your digital camera, using PhotoShop? Can your film image reach HDR levels?

We’ll find out!

Last year we tried to make a yearly artistic calendar but we got started a bit late. This time we’re going to start early, so we can get done before the holidays!

The 2017 BVAA Calendar Project will end up showcasing 13 images. There will be the cover image and then the 12 one-per-month inside images.

All BVAA members are welcome to participate!

Begin by emailing up to five images to the main info AT BVAA.org email address. The images should all be LANDSCAPE (wide) because that’s how the calendar is laid out. The physical size of each image is 8.5″ x 11″. So aim for an image of that dimension and the maximum pixel count possible. Don’t artificially make your image larger – that tends to pixellate the image and make it worse. Just have it be as large as it can be naturally, without inflation. If you have any challenges taking photos of your oil paintings, acrylic paintings, etc. just let us know and we’ll try to lend a hand. If you’re a photographer and are having trouble cropping your image to the right dimensions we can help with that, too.

All images must be mailed in by Friday, September 30th, 2016.

We will then load all of the images up onto this website. Last year we used Facebook and it turns out many of our members don’t have Facebook accounts. So by putting them on this website everyone can participate. Each member should send us an email for their choice of their twelve favorite images. The votes should all be in by Saturday, October 15th.

We’ll tally the results and create the calendar!

Let us know if you have any questions.