Google Blogger Problem Resolution

This morning I joined the Blogger Group  Blogger Forum 

Objectives:  

• need to view my photos which I can't see anywhere in Plus,
• need my posts showing in searches,
• need my Etsy widget to carry over to daily posts                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Shell Game Finding Your Answer

All, repeat, all posts stopped showing in searches and photos are invisible to me since the transition to Plus.
Let's see, how long ago was that?
I'm marketing art online and I'm dead in the water!

Since I went into the forum as a new member, I'm totally reassured that I made the right decision in deciding to hire a consultant before moving on to my own domain site gallery based on a Wordpress template. Wordpress users also have Plus problems yet to be resolved.

I'm certain a pro can fix my Blogger issues in a matter of minutes, as I'm pretty sure I did something I shouldn't have in signing on to Plus. It's taken me many hours, too many to count, to realize I cannot resolve the issues myself. But I've got a few rainy days coming up and, unable to paint, I'll try one more time.

Typical postings on the forum today express absolute user anguish. Students have lost assignments. Bloggers cannot reply to comments. Posts are not being posted. Accounts are closed. URL's renamed. Yep, I definitely need professional help if the younger user cannot find resolution and begs for help.

• OMG, where are my posts? put them back, class assignments!
• Can't reply to my comments, why not?
• Why has my blog gone? Where's my site?

Fellow Blogger Group Members: You are not likely to find problem resolution in the help forum. Your Blogger commiserators don't know how You quite possibly got yourself into your Blogger jam. Play around with the issues and if you can't fix the problems, hire a pro, or barter one, whatever. I didn't see any magical fixes from fellow bloggers on the help site. As for a list of problems that Google is aware of, follow the fix is all you can do, if and when they offer one.

Picnic Island, Tampa, Florida at Low Tide

My pain is that for six months I've painted in one location to capture the essence of that location and cannot even get my art in front of my own Tampa friends and neighbors. If I put in half a dozen search terms, a little something may surface. And that's after hiring my new SE best friend optimizer.

Time for me to get on with it and stop hoping that Google has provided a resolution. Google has not provided me with an answer to my questions.

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 abstract art prints:

abstract prints

Richard Diebenkorn Ocean View Series

http://www.sfmoma.org/images/
artwork/medium/72.59_01_b02.jpg

Richard Diebenkorn's art is indescribably beautiful and simple, especially his Ocean View series currently on exhibition at OCMA Diebenkorn Exhibition

Ocean Park #54 is one of my new favorites for the colors and because Diebenkorn left the trail of his thought processes as he scraped away layers to add new paint for a different effect. Pride doesn't allow most of us don't leave that trail.

I'd love to line up all the images from this series for you - just google Richard Diebenkorn Ocean View Series images for a visual treat.

How often we see feeble attempts of imitation in these representational bands of color. They are mesmerizing to me as I live on the coast, daily painting my own bands of color, and could easily step right into one of his images. Everyday, I work in my own seaside environment of angular industrial lines, bright interior angles, and open expanses of blue sky meets green water or green sky meets blue water.

Though meeting with criticism, Diebenkorn stayed the course with his thoughts, with his application of colors to convey his surroundings. In this brief video you hear his response to early criticism. Diebenkorn on his Method

I'm off to the beach now to create new works after spending a little time with Diebenkorn's paintings. Hopefully, I'll work under inspiration, not influence. A few of my own images will show my affinity for the sea's translucent linear colors. If you arrive on the shoreline on a foggy morning, you will be greeted, on rare occasion, by a low tide horizon similar to this Morning Low Tide
This print is currently included in Fine Art America's Sales Favorites







 A rainy seaside morning will greet you with brilliant colors as storm clouds dissipate and you begin a new painting to capture the moment from shoreline. Living on the Central Florida Gulf Coast, I get an extra long season of these images during our six-months-long hurricane season.  Skies are Clearing
(I'm right there with the wind and waves when we experience the melodrama of a good storm.)

And then we have Winter on the coast in the Tampa Bay area. This cold windy day of crisp clear blues was captured while trying to hold everything down. It was an awesome blue bay on that frigid day.Winter Morning. This print is currently getting a lot of FAA activity. I've seen several somewhat similar images pop up recently on other sites. Some never learn that if you weren't there, you probably can't capture the essence--we're going to see a lot of Diebenkorn influence coming.




Enjoy your visit to Diebenkorn online you won't be able to catch the exhibit. I did.

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 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios

 

Internet Is Not Free, Users Get No Free Lunch

Pundits and blog techies are jumping all over Google's latest apologies for snooping. With scare tactic headlines designed to capture our attention, they will increase their own revenue. One blogger labels it an arms race: Internet Privacy

Yep, Google is out to make a buck. Surprise! As is Twitter. Facebook, Apple and everyone else in the game. Their entrepreneurial founders may have been young, but they were far from stupid. These companies will generate revenue through marketing their products and their services--information provided by users.

You and I give providers all the information they need

Free Flowers?

We're tied to our internet which we consider "free." Sorry, there is no free lunch. I snapped this photo at my neighborhood hardware big box store. It was free. Well, not exactly. Every time I shop there, I feed them bits of data on my housing, decor publications, and income profile. Before I shop there, I surf the web (free) for the one item I intend to purchase--more data shared!




Imagine the Information Visual Artists Share in Searches and Shopping

Next-to-Free Frame

Recently, I met with my banker to question a medical charge on my bank card.  He cast a sideways glance my way as he searched, questioning assorted thrift shop charges. "Why, yes, those are valid, I'm an artist," I said, as though that explained everything. The "medical" charge was actually a hospice thrift store, one of a half dozen I frequent for "arts and antiques" fixes. All of my picture frames are recycled thrift purchases along with most subject vases and props. A lovely hardwood black frame for this small study cost me forty cents. That's in my profile!

We Thought Internet was Free Because They Said it was Free

Remember when AOL sent out all those free disks to every mailing address in the county? It was free. Other than wonderful academic sites, there was little on the internet then. That was pre "monitizing" marketing moguls.

Remember when you signed on for a free artist site or to research materials for your works? Wasn't long before you were paying to get the full monty.

Similarly, when I bought my auto some years ago with pricey extended warranty they said all my service, car washes, tire rotations, etc. etc. were "free." I just discovered that service 1 is about $300 and service 2 roughly $500 now that the warranty is out and Nothing is Free--that's for an oil change and if nothing is broken. My luxury auto is in my profiles along with my thrift store picture frames. How funny is that--"I'm an artist."

Build the Profile You Want and Bury the Old Stuff You Don't Want

For decades I did everything possible to stay invisible because I'm a private person. Change was necessitated by my online art studio presence. Old bits and pieces of my personal life crept into the web over the years and is now way old in internet profiles. As I built sites and posted, I made sure it was business-focused data with a little commentary that surfaced in searches. And I kept the data flowing-mountains of data. Many artists post daily just for this reason.       Keeping your imagery and data flowing will gradually build your chosen profile. When you search the web, use privacy settings and remember you are never alone on the web. Every click, every stroke of your data is being targeted for sales to marketers. Have fun with it, build a really interesting profile!

User Fees for Services and Information Are the New Norm

Nothing is Free. Not the internet, banking, news, my car washes, your airline baggage, Nothing. We have the freedom to search the web because we have already paid the price of admittance. Artists who want to put their works online must also pay the price to reach all those eyes out there. Protect your privacy and protect yourself from unscrupulous thieves who will download your images--web search a how-to site for free!



GailKentStudio.com Update: This new site is not yet live as I need to see what Google is doing with Plus to see SEO implications, and I'll have a larger space this summer to paint much larger works. Meanwhile, I have many works on my Fine Art America site at FAA Website

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 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios

Lucian Freud, Renoir, and Pretty People Portraits

Figure Class Pastel Sketch - 1990

Number one rule for an artist's website blog is make it beautiful

 Pretty counts far more than content if you want to capture visitors who linger. There are many art magazines and books in my home, most filled with pretty people and pretty places. I'm guilty of appreciating pretty images and avoiding ugly in my art. Today, I dug through a dusty old portfolio to find a few pretty faces for this post. This lovely image created over 2 decades ago is still a contemporary work of a very pretty and intriguing face.

Little Skater Acrylic Sketch - 1979

This little Pretty Face image, now  over 3 decades old and well-travelled without a portfolio to protect it, doesn't even show the face. It's a pretty image, though. The image is captivating because of the colors, movement, and what we read into it. I asked the model today whose big baggy yellow jacket she was wearing. She replied "Mom, it was a red jacket, you painted it yellow." I'll take her word for it.




Lucian Freud's portraits will not make your website blog beautiful

I've been thinking about how to structure this post about two exciting portrait exhibitions for a week or so. Shock and Awe with Lucian Freud's work above the fold, or pretty first and last to ease the shock? Pretty won. I'm inserting 2 links in the post to share Freud's images Lucian Freud Portraits Video and a review that is text with only one picture. Lucian Freud Review  These links are adult and should not be opened at work. Not that you would read art blogs at work unless you're in your studio.

As most of the images in these two links are extreme in the reality of aging anatomy and posing, I've elected not to include any of the works in my post images. For a comprehensive understanding of why Freud painted primarily not-in-the-least pretty people, I highly recommend the second link from Prospect Magazine. Freud's paintings included in the video are incredible and they are magnificently executed. I do recommend staying with the video beginning to end.


Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Portraits were of Fashionably Beautiful People

http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/renoir/

Beautiful, full-length portraits, but, as with fashion of any period, the costumes date these gorgeous images. Renoir at the Frick I've always loved Renoir's art for his skill in execution, for the colors in impressionism, it's French, I could go on with accolades. Would I hang such art in my home? Probably not. My taste is  too contemporary to be surrounded with those old pretty people living their pretty lives. I much prefer studying Freud's every brush stroke to Renoir's.

Two marvelous portrait exhibitions to visit and appreciate the differences in how the artists rendered the human form. I wouldn't want to spend my days surrounded by either of these master painter's works, but brief visits are wonderful.

Comments are always encouraged. 
Portraits as Fine Art are again "Trending" Are you marketing portraits?

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 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios

Is Abstract Art Really Art?

Appalachian Spring Study 2009

 Abstract art, 
not a favorite of the retail masses, is my favorite of all visual art. In putting together my websites and building my brand, I've learned that I must differentiate and fill a need. Currently, I offer abstract and traditional paintings, in markets overflowing with really good art of all genres.

Perhaps we have to grow into abstract appreciation rather than having it grow on us. The imagery may not be recognizable, requiring our mental engagement to understand why we are either drawn into, or repulsed by, abstract works. Abstract art conveys the artists' psyche, bliss or torment, as no other genre will. This review of a recent de Kooning retrospective, by Tom Ferrara, offers an interesting perspective on his art de Kooning at MoMA Review. Be sure to read the "didn't get it" comment, too.

Calder - link

 Though I don't actually have a favorite work, Rothko is a favorite painter, along with Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Miro. Alexander Calder mobiles are child's play to wonder over. After years of fascination with all the European Impressionists and love of Van Gogh, I'm ready to admit I love abstract art. It's easy to appreciate Impressionism with it's easy on the eyes colors, recognizable forms, and primarily happy themes of intimacy. Abstracts, however, can be difficult, a tough love.

Sunset on the Pier 2011

I've painted a tremendous number of small abstract acrylic art studies to populate my new websites over the last few months, and begun to produce larger traditional oil paintings for my new domain gallery site. Days of painting on the beach are drawing to an end as my inventory grows. I have a dozen more to upload now. It's been a state of pure bliss for me to spend hours on the shore, lost in my abstract depictions of beautiful Tampa Bay. But is it art? Gail Kent at Fine Art America

Three larger oil paintings are nearing completion: a hillside harbor view; a mountain lake, and a mountain dirt road in Fall. These beautiful colorful images, somewhat impressionist style, painted with palette knife and a little brush work are definitely fine art. No question. The small field studies I'm offering on my FAA site will ultimately become larger studio traditional oil paintings, as well. But is it art bliss? 

Forest Oil Study from 2005

My traditional art is fun to create, and challenging when there are color or composition issues to resolve, but it isn't my bliss.  I believe my two styles are transitioning into a new mix of the genres. Artists who paint in both styles will often say their traditional work is just to prove they have the skills coupled with knowledge to create pretty pictures. I have to say mountain scenes are a regionalism that lends itself to the "pretty pictures" approach rather than the simple colorist approach I use in abstract coastal subjects.



Is Abstract Art Really Art?  Yes, it's marvelous art.

Now I have to hunker down and  finish up GailKentStudio.com - actually I have to start it again - had to have something to put in the gallery besides my photo and logo. 

What are your thoughts about abstract art?  Are you working in this genre or do you agree with the "didn't get it" comment in the MoMA review? Do you paint realism to "prove" you can?


Comments always encouraged. Or, if you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post your links here.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios