Blog « Barbara Kemp Cowlin

Why I Love to Teach Workshops

Published on January 7, 2013 in All Blog Posts, My Thoughts About Art/The Business of Art and Workshops. 0 Comments

Altered books workshop, photo of participants hard at work

Altered books workshop participants playing hard, working hard, getting creative

I remember the first art classes I ever took when I was in college. The stress, the terror, the anxiety. On the first day of class, teachers gave us lists of art supplies to buy. Even with a list, it was baffling to walk into an art supply store and try to figure out where to find the items on the list. And then, the list wouldn’t be specific. A number 6 round acrylic paint brush? How many of those are on the paint brush rack? How many different brands? And why aren’t all number 6′s the same size? What’s with short handles versus long handles?

Not only are there are many choices but everything is so expensive. For a person who is thinking about starting to draw or paint or make collages or books, buying supplies can be overwhelming. So much that you might find yourself backing out of the store and making tracks back to the safety of your car.

Perhaps you’ve purchased a book about drawing or painting and you’ve lucked out and gotten a good one. You have a book and you’ve got some supplies, now how do you get started?

Sometimes the more you’ve read and the more art or craft supplies you’ve bought, the more overwhelming the prospect of getting started becomes. That pile of supplies and art how-to books gathers dust and you feel guilty and frustrated that you’ve gotten this far and are now stopped dead in your tracks.

That’s what workshops are for! After teaching art for many years at all different levels and for all different ages, I know how to get people started. I teach my students in a logical sequence so that the participants are able to gradually build skills and confidence. When I teach workshops, I provide all the materials. Participants get to mess about with a variety of supplies relating to the particular workshop. In the end they will know what the supplies are for and how to use them. They’ll understand how to get started. We work on what to do when a “mistake” happens and even more importantly, the value of learning to actually enjoy the unintended things that inevitably happen when you’re being creative.

I remember what it’s like trying to get started. I also know how it feels to do art for awhile and get interrupted by various life events–it can be incredibly difficult to get started again. I love teaching workshops because I can be helpful in launching people into living more creative lifestyles. Give my workshops a try–you won’t regret it.

The list and description of my January and February workshops can be found on the workshop page of this website.

My Ten Seconds of Fame: My Snow Shovel and Me

Published on January 2, 2013 in All Blog Posts and My Thoughts About Art/The Business of Art. 0 Comments

Snow 1 12-12 outside in the courtyard, looking toward my studio in Oracle

Snow in the courtyard, with a view of my studio. Looks warm and inviting in there, doesn’t it?

One morning just before Christmas, I was outside diligently shoveling snow from our massively large driveway. I was dressed in layers of clothing I’d literally thrown on, with a hat pulled way down over my forehead. I don’t think I’d even combed my hair, much less put on makeup. Well, the joke was on me. As I lifted a massive shovelful of wet and heavy snow, I looked up and saw a man with a large camera and tripod walking down the driveway. The nice young man asked if he could film me shoveling snow. He works for Channel 9. I assumed Channel 9 was some obscure TV channel, and figured that video of me shoveling snow would hardly be news worthy anyway and would likely never be aired. So I said okay.

That evening, I got a phone call from someone who had seen the segment (is that what you would call 10 seconds of TV?). Son Mathew came home from work saying that he’d gotten text messages from friends about my debut on television. And I got emails from friends who also saw the segment. Who knew? Well, not me, that’s for sure. We only get the Phoenix TV stations here in Oracle, so I had no idea that Channel 9 is a major network in Tucson. At any rate, wish I could say that I basked in my new fame–if only it had been about my artwork!

So just to add insult to injury, here is the clip. Watch at your own peril.

And Happy New Year!

Wishing for a Peaceful New Year

Published on December 18, 2012 in All Blog Posts and Paintings in Progress. 2 Comments

My wish for 2013: apeaceful world in which we all have a fair chance to achieve our dreams

Artists as Targets–How I Almost Succumbed to Being A Victim of a Scam

Published on December 3, 2012 in All Blog Posts and My Thoughts About Art/The Business of Art. 3 Comments

Several weeks ago, I checked my email first thing in the morning, as usual. Wow, was I excited. There it was, the moment I’ve been working and working for. A lovely response to my website and even better, my new best friend Helen Brown wanted to buy two of my “Nooks & Crannies” paintings. I raced into the house to share my great news with Jim. He looked at me kind of funny and told me that it was probably a scam.

I went back and reread the email. Yes, the language was a bit unusual, but the request was clear, and she named the two paintings she wanted. Here’s a copy of the email.

On Nov 13, 2012, at 4:16 AM, Helen Brown wrote:
Hope this message finds you well. I saw these creative works on your website and I must commend you are really doing a wonderful and creative work.
I will like you to get back with more details if they are still available for purchase.

Through the Window
For the Docents

I will appreciate an urgent reply.
Best Regards,
Helen Brown

It’s pretty obvious looking back now that there was something off about the message. But I’m vulnerable. I’m an artist who invests her time, her money and all of her energy into her work. Why would anyone pick on an artist, the lowest of the low in the economy–unappreciated for the most part, hardly a blip on most people’s radar. Certainly not likely to be a great cash cow for a scam. How about all those investment bankers? Why not run scams on them?

I sent this reply–just in case I was just being paranoid and this was actually a real offer to buy my work. After all, hope springs eternal.

Hi Helen,
I’m thrilled that you are interested in purchasing my paintings. They are both still available. Please let me know where you’re located so that I can arrange for shipping and payment.

And she replied back:

Hello Barbara ,
Thanks so much for your response to my query about those creative works. I must commend you are really doing a great work.
I will like to proceed with the purchase of those beautiful pieces. Can you please confirm the actual price for those beautiful pieces with discount if there is any provided, so I can know how best to proceed. I will also like to know what inspire you to make the pieces.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Best Regards,
Helen

She was complimenting my work and wanting to know what inspired me. Maybe this really was the real thing. Hope spring eternal again. So much the fool, I replied back to her.

Hi Helen,
It’s good to hear from you again. Through the Window is $580.00 and For the Docents is $1500. I don’t give discounts for my work. These two paintings are part of my “Nooks & Crannies” series. The series is about overlooked spaces in public places, where the light and color are beautiful and inspire me to paint them. Both paintings are of places inside the Phoenix Art Museum.

Do you live in Arizona or would the paintings need to be shipped? If they need to be shipped, I’ll need to know where you’re located so that I can figure out how much to charge for the shipping cost.

Thanks for your nice comments about my work!

Regards,

Barbara

And she replied back to me:

Hello,

Good to hear back from you. Yes, I will like to proceed with the
purchase of the artworks. I think they are lovely works and I hope to
give them good home.

I am presently away in Cancun for my twin sister’s wedding even
though it comes at a time when I was preparing for a big move and also
expecting a baby but it means so much to her. I should be back in few
days.

Meanwhile, I will like you to forward your mailing address and phone
number so I can inform my husband still shuttling between our home in
New Jersey and London on where to forward the payment. He has just
been transfer to head the IT section of their head Office in London.

I can also forward your contact info to the local cartage company that
will be moving all our house decors so they can get in touch with you
to arrange shipping details. They can arrange FedEx pick up of the
artworks from your studio.

I will look forward to hearing from you so I can know how best to
proceed. Cheers.

Best Regards,
Helen

These people sound rich! Why would she bother concocting all these details if this wasn’t real? What would she have to gain from this if it is a scam?? I checked with Jim, who gently told me he was still pretty sure it was a scam, but he said that giving out my address and phone number wouldn’t give them any information they couldn’t get already. At the same time, I sent an email to my friend Patricia Sahertian. She’s great at online researching and is also a great listener. She picked up my distress right away and went to work. These are the links she sent me: http://www.artquest.com/artquest/scammer-names.htm and http://www.artscams.com/ . I read through them both and sure enough, the emails I had received followed the classic pattern shown on these websites.

Still, I couldn’t quite believe it. So on I proceeded to send her another message:

Hi Helen,

I’m glad to hear that you are interested in proceeding with the purchase of Through the Window and For the Docents.

My address is P.O. Box xxxx, Oracle, AZ 85623 and my phone # is xxx xxx xxxx.

Best,
Barbara

And “Helen’s” reply:

Hello,

Hope this message finds you well. Thanks so much for your patient regarding the transaction. It has been a very difficult time with a lot of things on the plate. Anyway, I will like to inform you that the payment was sent by my husband’s assistant which you should be receiving in the post in couple of days
I will also like you to have our address; you can add it to your mailing list. I will like to hear about your future works and art shows. Our address in Newark is…

215 Walnut Street,
Newark NJ 07105

While our new address in UK is….

68b, Bryantwood Road,
Holloway, London, N7 7BE
UK

Meanwhile, I sent your contact info to the Moving agency that will be handling the shipment of all our house decors yesterday and he promise to get in touch with you. Try and make shipping arrangement with them and keep me updated with details.

I will look forward to hearing from you soon as you receive this email so i can be sure we are on the same page. Thanks for your patient.

Best Regards,
Helen Brown

I don’t think I ever replied to this email, which was sent to me on November 26th. Why would she ask me to put her on my mailing list? A check in the mail? Still hanging on to a thread of hope regardless of all signs pointing to SCAM.

The check arrived last week. Made out for $3,980.00. If you look back and do the math, this is way too much, since the cost of the two paintings combined would be $2080.00. If you read the links I provided, you’ll see that this is the next step in the scam. If I were to send her an email saying the check was too large, the next scenario would be for her to tell me to go ahead and deposit the check and then send her a check for the difference. Now of course that check is no good, so the check I’d send for the difference ($1900.00) would come out of my bank account. And I’d never see that money again–assuming I even had that amount on hand in my bank account.

Now at this point you really would have to be kind of clueless to fall for this. But still–there must be plenty of artists who do or the scam wouldn’t exist.

And so now here I am, sitting on this check. It’s right next to my computer staring at me. Do I tear it up? Do I send it back to the bank from which the check was issued? Is some truck going to come and demand my paintings and hold me up at gun point? Yes, I know, now my imagination is running wild.

Where do I go to report this scam? I tried the Pinal County Attorney’s office and got some good information. I went onto the suggested websites, but didn’t find any help there. Next on the agenda is to call the Arizona Commission on the Arts office and see if I can get some direction–I want these people tracked down and stopped. But I have a feeling this type of nefarious activity is so pervasive that it’s probably hopeless. And if you look on the links about scams involving artists, you’ll see names a mile long of people who have been reported. Many with the last name Brown by the way, but no Helen Brown. Yet.

Meanwhile, my energy is low. I feel hopeless and pretty stupid. That check is staring me in the face. If only it was real. But it isn’t.

Here are images of the two paintings “Helen” fell in love with.

Through the Window Acrylic painting on panel

Through the Window, Acrylic on panel

For the Docents, Acrylic on Canvas

Announcing the 2012 Oracle Holiday Gifts & Art Market: A Guest Blog Post by James Cowlin aka My Husband

Published on November 26, 2012 in All Blog Posts and Events & Exhibits. 2 Comments

Jim and I are both participating in this year’s Oracle Holiday Gifts & Art Market along with 18 other local artists. Every year (this is our 4th) a group of us get together, rent an empty storefront on American Avenue (the main drag in Oracle) and set up a gift and art market. Sounds simple, right? Well, actually, the market is the result of many months of creating items to sell, assembling the group of artists, meetings, planning, advertising, finding and renting the space, cleaning and painting walls, designing the space to accommodate the artwork, scheduling shop-sitting, spending several days each manning the shop and more. In short, it’s a lot of work with occasional differences of opinion, lots of compromise, and in the end, a wonderful cooperative effort to make our work available to the public.

Jim wrote a post for the US Route 89 blog about our work in the Market. It has information about the work we have in the shop as well as an article about his fabulous 2013 calendar which is available both online and in the shop. He’s graciously is letting me pass his article on to my readers. So here it is–enjoy!

Oracle Holiday Gifts & Art Market by James Cowlin

Barbara and I are beginning our fourth winter in Oracle. The first year we lived here we were invited to participate in a holiday gift shop. The shop had become a tradition in our little mountain town with many of the professional artists living here producing work especially for holiday gift giving. We were pleased to take part and have continued to join in each year.

The selection of handmade gift and artworks will be outstanding this year. You’ll find everything from original affordably-priced paintings, to sculpture, fine-art photography, encaustic, jewelry, fabric art, knitwear, turned wood and art cards. Prices range for $3 to $300 so you are sure to find many things to fit your budget.

Barbara has been working on a wonderful new series of abstract paintings called Color Spots. Each painting is on a 6”x6” wood panel. They are actually mixed media combining acrylic paint with hand-made paste paper. The 2” deep edges are also finished with colorful tapes and paste paper. They can be set on a shelf or hung on the wall to add a bit of color to any space. She also has created one-of-a-kind collage art cards, hand-made books and card sets with images of her water reflection paintings. Below is one of the Color Spot paintings.

I have made 4”x4” prints of my new series of wildflower photographs and will have them for sale matted and framed. I also have card sets of the wildflower photos and the National Parks along US Route 89. In addition, my 2013 Calendar will be available for sale (please see the article below)

The Oracle Holiday Gifts & Art Market is located at 1880 West American Avenue. It is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Wednesday through Sunday beginning the day after Thanksgiving and closing on December 23rd. You will be greeted by one of the artists who can help you to find just the right gifts for your family and friends. Your trip to Oracle can be made more enjoyable by having lunch or dinner at one of our local restaurants. For more information, visit the Oracle Community Guide .

2013 Calendar-Landscape Photography of the American West

It has been a few years since I put together a calendar. Until the advent of print-on-demand publishing the cost has been prohibitive. Now I can offer you a beautifully printed calendar at a reasonable price.

I spent quite awhile reviewing photographs from my travels in the American West along US Route 89. I was looking for just the right image for each month of year. That doesn’t mean that each was taken in the month in which it appears. I was looking more for images that convey my feeling about that particular month. The process lead to the discovery of some images that I had overlooked in previous edits. I have uploaded a slide show of the calendar photographs to the blog.

The format is 11×17 with each month displaying a landscape photograph above the calendar. Major US holidays are indicated and there is space for you to note your important dates through out the year.

The price is $12 plus shipping. To order, click here to go to the website of the printer, Magcloud, where you can use a credit/debit card to complete your purchase.

Proceeds from the sale of the calendar will help us continue to publish this newsletter and support the US Route 89 website and blog which benefit the many small businesses located along the highway. Take a look a your holiday gift list and consider ordering several calendars. For orders of 20 or more, a discount of 25% applies.

PaperWorks Annual Holiday Show and Sell This Thursday in Tucson

Published on November 5, 2012 in All Blog Posts and Events & Exhibits. 0 Comments

I’m excited to be participating in the annual PaperWorks Holiday Show and Sell again this year. PaperWorks is an amazing group of people devoted to you guessed it, the paper arts. This includes paper making, book making, printmaking, collage, paper sculpture and all other paper related art forms you can imagine.

The event is happening this Thursday, November 15, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the St. Philips Episcopal Church in Tucson, at the intersection of River and Campbell Roads, in the Murphey Gallery.

I’ve been working hard on art work to sell at this show. “Color Spots” are 6″ x 6″ inch colorful abstract paintings on panels created to sit on mantles or shelves, or to be hung singly or in groups to brighten up small spots in your home or office. They’ll make great gifts for co-workers, friends, relatives, teachers, neighbors, and just about anyone (in my humble opinion).

I’ve also been creating collage cards, using paste paper that I’ve made. Paste paper is a technique in which paint is thickened and then manipulated with various tools on paper to create a variety of textures and patterns. (There’s also paste paper used as insets in the small paintings above, by the way). Here are a couple examples of the types of images on the cards.

I’ll be selling the original cards and also packets of reproductions of the cards.

A series of my artist made books, with reproductions of my paintings, cards with reproductions of my paintings and more will also be available. All make great gifts–for yourself or for others.

And there will be lots of other artists showing lots of paper related artwork from which to choose for your Holiday gift giving. I hope to see you there!

The Results of the Ink Drawing Workshop Are In!

Published on October 30, 2012 in All Blog Posts and Workshops. 0 Comments

The Fall workshop season of classes in my studio in Oracle is chugging along. I’m amazed and impressed by the results by students in the Ink Drawing workshop that happened awhile ago.

We started off by dipping long sticks (ordinary skinny tree branches) in ink and drawing on large sheets of paper on the floor. It’s a great way to loosen up and get over being nervous about the end result. And you can get wonderful and graceful lines from this exercise. After that came experimenting with a variety of other tools–from quills (feathers), to quill (metal tip) pens, Sharpies, cartridge pens to ball point pens, brushes and more.

The next step was to do a series of value charts. Sounds dreadful, looks difficult, but is actually quite fun.

After that were line drawings of cups using a brush.

So free, such beautiful lines!

In between lots of other experiments were drawings of peppers using a pen and India ink. More lovely lines and the beginning of some washes (the shadowed areas of the drawings).

More washes, different student. It always amazes me to see how the same still-life is completely differently handled by each individual. And it puzzles me why people worry about developing a style of their own, because it seems like a unique style is always already there.

On to pineapples. For comparison, check back to the pencil and charcoal pineapple drawing blog post from several weeks ago! Yes, I like to use pineapples in workshops. They have such a great texture. And are yummy to eat after the workshop is over.

Another example–

And here’s an overview of some of the drawings accomplished by one participant during this 2-day, 4-hour-each-day workshop.

Yeah, them! Yeah, me! Get in on the action, go to my workshop page and sign up for a class today!

Water: Exploration in Prints and Horse Country Exhibits Open at Tohono Chul Park, Tucson

Published on October 22, 2012 in All Blog Posts and Events & Exhibits. 2 Comments

Two exhibitions at Tohono Chul Park Gallery in Tucson are opening this Thursday from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. I have a woodcut in the Water show, All the information is in the link. I’m planning on being at the reception on Thursday evening. If you live in the area, it’d be great fun to see you there!

Above is my multi-color woodcut. I decided to try a different way of presenting the work. Prints are traditionally matted and framed under glass. What you see above is my alternative solution. What do you think?

Water Reflection Panoramic Painting in Progress

Published on October 15, 2012 in All Blog Posts and Paintings in Progress. 2 Comments

I’m deep into work on a new water reflection painting. And I’m so anxious to get on to work on it today, I’m going to make this blog a short one! Here is a snapshot of the current state of the painting:

Water reflection acrylic painting in progress

And I’m looking forward to starting these four orphans today, too.

Four orphans, four empty panels, waiting for painting to start

Hot Off the Easel: New Water Reflection Paintings

Published on October 5, 2012 in All Blog Posts and Paintings in Progress. 2 Comments

Wedged in between the workshops I’m currently teaching, I work on my paintings. Actually, I make sure to always carve out the time to paint, no matter what. Or almost always. I’ve just completed two paintings, part of my water reflection series. One of them has been on and off and on my easel for at least six months. A real problem child. But I’m happy with it now. The other one came together in a few months. See if you can guess which is which?

Completing a painting and taking it off of the easel isn’t the end of the story. Finishing touches like painting the gallery wrapped sides, signing the work and painting the title and date on the back are part of the process.

Jim photographed them for me on the very day they were completed, which was great. By photographing the paintings I don’t mean taking a little digital camera, pointing it at the painting and clicking the button. That’s what I would do. Lighting equipment, reflectors, his excellent camera and many years of experience are just part of what it takes to create the beautiful and accurate photographs you’ll see below .

Once the photograph is taken, Jim retrieves the information from the camera and uploads it into his mega-computer. The physical paintings are transported to Jim’s office (lucky for me just on the other side of the house from my studio), for him to refer to as he makes digital color adjustments. Then there’s sizing the images and lots of other technical stuff.

Eventually Jim brings me a thumb-drive with the beautifully photographed and accurate images in there (where is all that stuff in there anyway??).

Assuming I’m able to plug the thumb drive into my computer without something going wrong (and believe me, that can happen at any time when I’m within breathing distance of a computer), I drag the images into my Master Painting Files and drop them in the appropriate category, in this case Water Reflections. Next, I upload the images onto Bento, a great system for organizing the information on every painting. Once the image is uploaded, I add the title, size, media, a description of the work, and date of completion. And from here on, every time that painting travels anywhere for an exhibit and when it’s purchased, all the details of the transaction are also recorded.

Done yet? Well, no, not yet. The brand new fresh paintings deserve more than to be put on my painting storage shelving to languish. I do things like this blog post. I enter the paintings in shows. I send JPEGS to collectors, interior designers and others who might be interested in the work. I’m also in several online galleries such as Saachti Online so I get the paintings into the galleries and note that location on Bento, too. Etc.

Quite the saga for each and every painting. Oh, I almost forgot, each painting also needs to be added to my own online gallery. But if you check up on me, you’ll see that I’m way behind on that. So I’m putting it on the task list for next week!

Agua Caliente Autumn, acrylic painting on panel of water reflection

Agua Caliente Autumn, acrylic painting on panel, 18" x 24"

Stroll, acrylic painting on canvas, 36" x 48"

And now back to my wonderful wall easel, where I have one painting in progress and four panels of varying sizes just waiting for me.