Painting From a Distance

Lights In the Distance 

A fragment of pure joy describes this link of a flash mob concert of Peer Gynt. It brought happy thoughts of distant travels in "the old country" and tears to my eyes as I watched the happy faces of the listeners.

Navigating today's ever-changing unsavory political and economic climate  with a smile on our faces may be the best we can do for ourselves. Snippets of distant events flood the news as we go about our everyday lives and ease into daily routines.

This link of a Belgian flash mob in a do re mi performance will make your day and guarantees you a big smile. If you get the political ad up front, listen or not.

I found this quote to be apropos to my own distant thoughts: Ancient Greece and ancient Rome - people did not happen to believe that creativity came from human beings back then, OK? People believed that creativity was this divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source, for distant and unknowable reasons.
Elizabeth Gilbert

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/distant.html#ysJlwWUxJlz28Pc4.99

Clear Skies in the Distance

Painting from a distance, figuratively and literally, is my plan for the next month.

 

Pulling back from my perch on the beach while re-imagining many shore and mountain knife paintings as larger more developed works is a task I've looked forward to for a while. 

 

Minimalist tendencies will remain in fleshing-out the memories of places nearby and distant from "some distant and unknowable source."

European classical music has given way to the awesome salsa and Latin beat often heard on Picnic Island on weekends as one group practices or another records performance CDs on the beach. 

 

Mountains are now low clouds in the distance that become heavy summer rain clouds. 

 

It's all in the distance, waiting to be painted, regardless of the source.

Comments are always encouraged.
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:

Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com  my Fine Art America gallery
Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent
www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
Gail Kent Studio Notes  my Tumblr blog site
Gail Kent Studio on Pinterest
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios 

www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio


Google+ Profile link
Gail Kent

Fine Art America Gallery Page Link for Gulf Coast art prints:
gulf coast paintings

Fine Art America Gallery Page Link for Tampa paintings:
tampa paintings

Art Lovers Rich and Poor

Sittin' by the Docks of the Bay

An early morning visitor sits on the banks of Hillsborough Bay, lost in texting the moment the sunrise peeked above the horizon.

I learned from him that the boat in the bay was a castaway, a term I hadn't heard applied to a boat. Having grown up in high country, it's not part of my coastal jargon.

No tides rollin' away this morning and just a couple of ducks and blackbirds to watch. It's a quiet start to a new day.

Sunrise Jog

These piers are in an affluent area of South Tampa. I'm fortunate to live nearby and marvel at nature's beauty that surrounds us.

For the last year I've chatted with less affluent frequenters of these piers and Picnic Island where I painted. Most were local; some from other states and countries. 

Last year I was shocked by the numbers of young people I met who had lost jobs, yet hoped for something to come along. Then I met early retirees, all of whom would rather be working.

Young people starting their lives or older downsizers, they shared a solemn expression and gentle smile when they stopped to look at my art. Many who chatted mentioned that they had painted or drawn in the past but gave it up. I always encouraged them to take it up again. Some of my visitors were castaways, too, having lost their moorings. Our economy has brought tragic consequences to many good people who deserve better.

Another Just Ducky Day!

Art Market Thrives
This link was tweeted by Slate this morning. It's a good short read about the art market thriving in this horrific economy because of the super-rich, the "Ultra-High Net Worths." The point is that the Super-Rich love the art they buy.

Well, I'm sure art lovers buy art even when it's not a smart investment. However; I'm old enough to know we've had a number of economic cycles when art was a terrific investment. Besides, it's like "donating" for naming rights-the gifting of great art benefits both givers and receivers.

A sincere thank-you to the Super-Duper-Ultra Rich for sharing your great art! Everyone can appreciate it, especially when they again have disposable incomes to visit museums, or have access to internet connections to enjoy it online. Now, what can we do about this economy for rich and poor?

Comments are always encouraged.
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:

Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com  my Fine Art America gallery
Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent
www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
Gail Kent Studio Notes  my Tumblr blog site
Gail Kent Studio on Pinterest
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios 

www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio


Google+ Profile link
Gail Kent

Fine Art America Gallery Page Link for Gulf Coast art prints:
gulf coast paintings

Fine Art America Gallery Page Link for Tampa paintings:
tampa paintings

Blue Streaks and Blue Skies

Blue Skies and Blue Seas at Picnic Island Beach

Flood Tides and Tropical Storms cover the Southeast as Beryl passes. Beryl's rain clouds arrived in Tampa Bay today.

My own prevailing artistic flood tides call for blue skies and blue streaks of creativity that have kept me away from my blog.

Three canvases in oils and 4 in acrylics almost finished for the new online gallery of larger works. They're bigger, bolder, in full color.

Jackson Pollock said "The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through." Agree, as I paint a blue streak, look forward to the new gallery, and let go focus on the Google and Facebook kerfuffle we've endured this year.

Bay Sunset

The small palette knife studies that I've painted over the last year, and offered for sale on my reproduction site are coming to an end as I move forward. There will likely be a few more uploads of works I held back. Photos will be moved to Flickr.

This study shows how I've begun to incorporate more color, more brush work, as I switched gears for the larger works. This is a gorgeous little painting that I plan to re-imagine in a larger work.

Using the same rich colors, detail will be in the clouds resembling the weekend sunset photos posted on my Facebook GailKentStudio page.

Just as a flood tide is the period between low water, as in the above photo, and the following high waters as in Bay Sunset, above right, I've had the great pleasure of relaxing on the beach and working during a high creativity period, taking a few of the minimalist knife studies to more finished paintings. I've also worked on several large tropical florals-a little fun diversion.

Today's rain offers the perfect opportunity to catch up on reading, planning, shopping. This morning, I read articles about cartoons from Vanity Fair Desert Island Cartoons; about multitasking from Harvard Business Review Unimportance of Practically Everything, and another great one from HBR on how to be happier at work.

To be happier at work, find an interest to pursue, perhaps one that will lead to your own business, for your after hours activity. I must say, I look forward to my painting activities everyday. I'm totally happy with this work. That's why Google and Facebook are out of favor at the moment-they are a huge distraction from my happiness! Blue skies on the horizon don't allow for this distraction.

Comments are always encouraged.
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:

Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com  my Fine Art America gallery
Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent
www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
Gail Kent Studio Notes  my Tumblr blog site
Gail Kent Studio on Pinterest
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios 

www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio


Google+ Profile link
Gail Kent

Fine Art America Gallery Page Link for Gulf Coast art prints:
gulf coast paintings

Artists No-Pin Policy for Etsy and Other Sites

Fine Artists Seeing Red? you Betcha!

Visual artists and artisans of fine jewelry and hand crafts are seeing red and making noise all over the web about their work being pinned on Pinterest without permission. Pinning intellectual property without permission is theft.

In yesterday's post, Pins Steal Your Art, I linked to two sites to explain how to avoid pins or to take back your work if it's already been pinned to Pinterest boards. You can embed an HTML code that prevents this process, if the website host permits it. Etsy doesn't permit it. Fine Art America allows pin-it button deletion. My domain site built on WordPress will have no-pin code from day one.

I contacted Etsy legal about my art shop having Pinterest pin-it buttons placed on every item I have listed when my permission to embed these buttons wasn't asked. They responded very quickly giving me links to the notice and policy. Etsy replied, in the most gracious non-legalese way, basically, I can have buttons or close up shop.  I still have the shop.

After I successfully pulled up a painting, copied it, printed it in full size, full resolution, off a 600x600 photo with watermark, I dropped larger items from the Etsy shop and placed in the title of every remaining item "No Pin Policy" to discourage the practice. I haven't found Etsy to be a great venue for my art because I don't work their system. I don't believe anyone is downloading and selling my prints, but the fact that they can isn't a good situation.

So, now I've setup a Pinterest account, Gail Kent Studio on Pinterest, and I'm trying to use it without infringing on any copyright to provide the article and informative links that I typically do in my blog posts. Not so easy to do. No original art works will be pinned and none of the art articles I've linked to allow pinning-none. When you look at the dozens of share options provided on art articles, Pinterest isn't one. You have to ask yourself why. Pinterest was described in some of their online description as a catalog. That's exactly what it is. Artists need catalogs, just not free art ones. I'll still give it the ole college try and follow-up in a later post. It may be a very boring site.

Beautiful Bird on Picnic Island Beach Strewn with Algae Bloom

Art for sale and art not for sale

The photos I post on my blog are usually nature shots from the beach where I paint and are watermarked so folks know the source. I would be happy to share most with a request for personal use. They are seldom of high resolution or cropped and edited as fine art. I upload some photos to Fine Art America for affordable small prints and cards of local interest, Tampa Bay Sunset.


My art photos on the other hand are my art and I will do all I can to protect my art. Notice has been given in the watermark and, on Etsy, in the Titles.



Comments are always encouraged.
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:

Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com  my Fine Art America gallery
Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent
www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
Gail Kent Studio Notes  my Tumblr blog site
Gail Kent Studio on Pinterest
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios 

www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio


Google+ Profile link
Gail Kent

Fine Art America Gallery Page Link for Tampa Bay art prints:
tampa prints

Pinterest Pins Steal Your Art

This Butterfly Is Not FREE

PEOPLE WHO PIN YOUR ART ARE STEALING YOUR ART! 

This is an illegal process when users take your work without permission--ILLEGAL!

Only you can give permission to use your art. You hold the copyright to your art.

Pin-It Buttons are now on all my Etsy shop listings. This is original art; I have not given anyone permission to pin anything. 

Why would any professional artist give away their work any number of times and have it used continuously without compensation of any sort?

I'll revisit this later after I contact Etsy. No other sites planted pin-it buttons on my art listings. Never allow pins of original art work. This link is an excellent piece on Fine Art America's position on this thievery Pinterest Enables Copyright Theft

Several people suggested I put my works on Pinterest. I decided some time ago this was not a forum for fine arts or for anyone working in original images and opted to go with Tumblr for my board purposes Gail Kent Studio Notes 

Please Don't Pick the Flowers Without Permission

After looking at the Pinterest situation again yesterday, to find a way to keep my Etsy shop AND protect my work, I realized this will take more research. Much more research.

Clearly not everyone who pins original artworks is intentionally becoming a thief.

Most bloggers depend on sharing imagery and quotes. Most do it with permission and/or attribution, linking to sites rather than just lifting what they want surreptitiously.

I follow an incredibly informative, beautiful blog that offers a way to track pins of your work. Take a minute to read and protect your works.  Pinterest Pinned Art Removal


So, it's back to square one for me. Tumblr is not the venue I need to get great multitudes interested in my imagery, but is a wonderful site to develop a creative board and interact with other creatives. What price Pinterest? Too great.

Pinterest is becoming a megasite. They will have to evolve to correct this dreadful copyright problem their site has created. Visual artists must be paid, this open season on fine art cannot continue.

Comments are always encouraged.
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:

Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com  my Fine Art America gallery
Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent
www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
Gail Kent Studio Notes  my Tumblr blog site
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios 

Google+ Profile link
Gail Kent

Fine Art America Gallery Page Link for Tampa Bay art prints:
tampa prints

King of the Wild Things

Picnic Island Sea Grapes

Living on the Gulf Coast of central Florida allows me to explore nature's contrasts throughout the year.

Many days of the last year were spent on Picnic Island, a habitat restoration and park setting with beach. There I paint and photograph all manner of "wild things" indigenous to this area--persons, plants, and things--the sunny tranquility and stormy high waters.

I've learned to venture out and touch sea life that I've never seen before, both the living and the once living remnants that I gather. With exposure to these creatures, fears diminish.

Early on a foggy morning or late in the evening when catching the last rays of the day with my camera, an uneasiness can manifest itself in the solitude, isolation, and sounds of silence of this popular island paradise.

Supermoon Rising on Picnic Island

Maurice Sendak would have understood my uneasiness as I headed off to Picnic Island to capture both high and low tides of this weekend's perigee moon--supermoon.

Maurice Sendak died today. It is our very great loss. I heard an interview he gave to Terry Gross on Fresh Air during one of my painting outings. He talked about the loss of his partner, about aging and being alone, about life. It was incredibly moving, provocative, unforgettable. With this link you can either read or listen Maurice Sendak Interview

Sunset on Picnic Island

"One of the few graces of getting old—and God knows there are few graces—is that if you've worked hard and kept your nose to the grindstone, something happens: The body gets old but the creative mechanism is refreshed, smoothed and oiled and honed. That is the grace. That is what's happening to me."

 http://quotes.dictionary.com/One_of_the_few_graces_of_getting_old#GTkdB8cuizylW1L6.99

He said we may never tame the wild things and I believe him. I'm just as afraid of the dark as those little kids who've loved his books over the years, but I've learned to venture out anyway.

Sendak Exhibition  at the Jewish Museum. Thanks Maurice Sendak for all you gave to so many.

Comments are always encouraged.
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:

Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com  my Fine Art America gallery
Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent
www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
Gail Kent Studio Notes  my Tumblr blog site
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios 

Google+ Profile link
Gail Kent


Fine Art America Gallery Page Link for Tampa Bay art prints:
tampa prints

Supermoon Saturday

Supermoon at Picnic Island

Supermoon arrives Saturday night and should be at it's fullest brightest beauty around midnight.

These supermoons are mesmerizing beauties, especially when viewed with just a few clouds. These were my skies yesterday, and I'm hoping for clear skies tomorrow night. Here's a brief description of these moons. Supermoon Descripton Video

New moons are also fun for me for the beauty of the shoreline at low tide. Unfortunately, I never remember to watch the tide tables, only rarely catching really low tides during my beach outings to paint. This one proved to be a very popular painting Morning Low Tide

Before the Storm in Tampa

All week we've had the most interesting skies in Tampa Bay.
A painter's dream. I'm building a library of sky shots just from the Spring seasonal color.

This drama played out over Busch Gardens Wednesday afternoon.  After the cloudburst, I snapped a beautiful rainbow over South Tampa, but it pales in comparison to the depth in these clouds.

My hometown, Asheville, known as "land of the sky" made me a skywatcher from an early age. Sunrises and sunsets over mountains are stunning, too.

April Sunset over Tampa Bay

One last Tampa sky in this post-a bay Sunset!

This sunset was in the last few weeks when we finally got some rain. Completely surrounded by water, we seem to suffer an unfair number of droughts in this area. Wildfire season has filled our air with smoky smells several times this Spring, but all clear for now.

That's all from this beachcomber for now.

Have fun catching the Supermoon 2012, skywatchers!


Comments are always encouraged.
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:

Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com  my Fine Art America gallery
Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent
www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
Gail Kent Studio Notes  my Tumblr blog site
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios 

Google+ Profile link
Gail Kent


Fine Art America Gallery Page Link for sunset art prints:
sunset paintings