My Stolen Images on Chinese Websites

Golden Sax - Susanne Clark
Acrylic on canvas 24 x 24 inches

Yesterday I decided to search on Google to see if any of my paintings were illegally on the internet.  I know that there are whole towns in China, and other places, consisting of great numbers artists who work in factories that steal artist’s images and reproduce them for sale.  Copyright means nothing to them and someone told me, jokingly I hope, that the artists think copyright means that they actually have the right to copy the work!

Looking at my website stats I often see that visitors from China have been visiting it and also a couple of other sites that I use so I thought that there could be some sites that had my images on them. I indexed “Chinese Musical Paintings” into Google and within a few minutes found one web site with several of my images, painted in oil, available for sale.  I believe they copy the low grade digital file off the internet and then print it to size, you can order whatever size you want, and then they over paint it in oils and sell it as an original.  Watermarks don't help as they just paint them out.

The next thing I found was a bit of a shock.  I found nearly all the paintings from my “Musical Series”  and several life works listed complete with my bio, all stolen from my web site.  They had some listed as “Special new piece from Susanne Clark” which probably meant that it was the latest piece they had just lifted from my site!  There were a whole lot of others under a variation of my name, Suanne Clark.  Later I found a couple of paintings under my name that weren’t even my work.

The work was on a site where independent sellers from all around China and the world list their goods for sale.  I contacted the hosting company with a list of my works and the URLs and today I had an email saying they had removed my work from their site but to check back in 48 hours.  I’m sure the companies responsible re-list them a few days later or on another site so I will check back frequently.

This is a pretty common thing to happen but it still gives you a shock when you see all your work listed for sale there and know that people are illegally making money from it. 

I suppose I could choose to be flattered that they stole my work.   As a friend said to me  “They only choose the best” which was.nice of them.

Saxophone paintings from the Musical Series

The Sausalito Art Festival, San Francisco

San Francisco Harbour enroute to Sausalito Art Festival

 I'm writing this in chilly San Francisco.  You can see how dull it has been from the photo above!   I'm here visiting my son and I planned the visit so I could take in the Sausalito Art Festival.   It's rated as one of the top art fairs in North America and so I was really excited to get there and be impressed and inspired by the high standard of work.  I'm not sure why, but I didn't find it as exciting as I expected.


We had a nice trip over the harbour on the Blue and Gold line which took us directly to the art show right on the edge of the water.  We were there around midday on the Saturday and the crowds were just starting to arrive.  They really get a great turnout and because you have to pay a good fee to get in, you know that the people who come are actually reasonably interested in art and not just our walking their dog.  It's a large show and as I was with other family members I couldn't take all day to go around but I did manage to do the circuit and see most, if not all, of the artists work.

My favorite was enamel work by Judy Stone.  Her work, which I first thought was porcelain, was beautiful!  I loved the wired parts of her bowls and the beautiful colors.  She has a great video on her site showing the process of creating the bowls which was very interesting.  I don't think the photos on her site do justice to the wonderful colors and presence her work has when you see the actual thing. http://www.jstoneenamels.com

I also liked the abstract paintings of Paula Boas.  http://www.paulaboas.com  Alenjandro Martinez-Pena http://www.martinez-pena.com and Sue Cretarolo http://www.suecretarolo.com.

The printmaker Fernado Reyes had some very interesting work and I particularly liked this image. http://www.freyesart.com/Works_on_Paper/Pages/Monoprints.html#0 .
Do check out his other work too. 

There was also a wonderful glass artist and a guy who made a really quirky series of ceramic cars with funny people in them.  His craftsmanship was great.  Unfortunately I don't have photos of his work and I couldn't find his link on the festival page.

The picture below shows one of the most expensive works we saw.  The image was made with silk thread and obviously took many many hours to make.  You can see the image in the left of the picture taken with two smiling family members.  I'm using a different computer and couldn't work out how to crop them out of the photo!

Another favorite was Robert Burridge http://www.robertburridge.com/roadside_attractions/index.html
and http://www.robertburridge.com/Abstracts/wingland/index.html

All in all it was a good day but I wasn't tingling from the experience.

My Musical Art Used Around The World.

In my last post, written a while back before I got seduced by the lovely summer weather,  I wrote about how my work gets used for lots of different events around the world.

The most recent one is for the 7th Festival Sinfonico Pereira 2012 in Colombia, South America.  I think this poster looks really great!  I also promised to show you this years cover for the Peter Caelen series of concerts held in the beautiful castle in the Netherlands so here it is.

The two images make up the front and back of the brochure cover. I'm not sure how to tie them back to back to show the cover as it actually is but I am sure you will get the idea.

My work was also used on a CD cover this summer and for all the promotional materials for the Artists Series concert season at the Opperman Music Hall in Tallahassee, Florida.  Very exciting!

The Musical Series have been very successful for me and although the actual people interested in musical works is smaller than the demand for landscape art, there are musicians and music lovers out there who really love the work.

I recently had a very proud father email me to say that they have a budding pianist and that they had bought a reproduction of one of my paintings "Music is the Key" to help inspire him.  They made a video, posted it on youtube and sent me a link.  You can see it here and see my keyboard painting in the background.   It was really fun to receive this.

If you know any music lovers who may be interested in my musical works please help me by passing on the link to my web site.  There are also reproductions of some pieces available on the site.

It's not the New Year but I've made a resolution to post more often.  Now that the weather is cooling off it will be easier to stay inside and work both on my art and blog.  That is the one good thing about living in a place where it gets cold in the winter.  It makes for a natural rhythm of working and playing.  Summer for play and winter for working.  I'm already getting back into stride by creating some new plates for printmaking and looking forward to proof printing them.

Musical paintings

Musical Images used for Art Licensing

©Susanne Clark - Cubist Play
Acrylic on canvas - 30 x 36 in 

Cubist Play, above, is being used for the 2012 - 2013 program cover for the Virenze Concerts which take place at the beautiful classical 14th century Castle Rijckholt, near Maastricht in the Netherlands.  This is the second year my work has been chosen as the cover art for their season program and I am excited about it.

Over the past few years I have had lots of requests from all over the world to use images of my musical paintings for a variety of uses.  Most are required to promote music events like concerts, or for CD covers but one was also used as a holiday greeting card for the Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera Company in the UK and another as the cover for a cello society cookbook.  It's great fun for me to see my work used this way and I now have quite a collection of pieces which a friend suggested I put together and publish in book form. This will be a nice way to keep it all together and there are some great ways to self publish using products like Blurb or Vistaprint.

The right to use images of work from the web is not really understood. People think they can use anything but that isn't the case and most images are under copyright as are mine.  Early on one of my pieces, Cello Babe, was incorporated into the poster above.  It won a competition to be used for an annual school musical concert in Australia and was designed by an art student at the school.  After the posters were all printed the teacher somehow found out that part of my work had been used in the poster without my permission and he, knowing about copyright, was horrified and emailed me straight away to see if it was ok to go ahead and still use them.  Of course I agreed but I was impressed that he had the courtesy to email me.

This poster is from back in 2006. Cello Babe was one of my first musical works and has been requested quite a few times as has Jazzy Cello which has been used as a cover on several CDs as well as posters.  The "Musical Series" came about as the result of a request by my son. He is a musician and had just completed recording a CD with a producer he was impressed with. He wanted to give him a gift in thanks, so he asked me to create a painting with a musical theme.  I enjoyed doing it so much that I did several more and the series was created.

In my next post I will show how Cubist Play was used on the new Virenze Concert brochure and the use of my work for the Artist Series in Tallahassee, Florida.

Quirky Fun Collagraphs of 1920's Ladies

© Susanne Clark  - The Ladies
Collagraph - Varied Open Edition

Some time back I created "The Ladies" a Collagraph showing two women with a 1920's look.  I wrote about them in a post called "I'm in Flap About Flappers".    The name "Flappers," I believe, comes from the popular fashion of the time of wearing floppy bows around the head.

People often think these are paintings but Collagraph is a form of hand pulled printmaking based on collage.  You can  read about the process on my web site. Each print is hand inked and printed on a printing press  Even though I can use the same plate to pull many prints from, each one is inked in a different set of colours and so is a unique work of art.

After creating "The Ladies" I decided it would be fun to do a few more in the same theme so I went ahead and made the collagraph plates ready for printing.  In the previous post I hadn't actually printed the new works but since then I have, and also added more "Ladies" to the series. Because the ladies are only very loosely based on the 1920's style I have been able to have fun with their design, making them look slightly  sexy and with exaggerated bows and hats.  The first prints I pulled all sold so this week I printed up some new ones and I'm quite pleased with the result.  I will be exhibiting them at several art shows around Toronto in the next few months.  Details are on my web site.

© Susanne Clark  - Fancy Flappers
 Collagraph - Varied Open Edition

My intention is to add more photos of "The Ladies" to my web site along with the current pieces that I have available from the Kimono Series.

Please share this post, or any others you find interesting, with your friends or people you think would be interested.  As an artist I really appreciate any help in getting my work out into the world.

Fancy Catered Art Openings - Do They Translate Into Sales

This week I went to a very fancy art opening.  It had everything going for it, nice art, great food, ample free wine and a very personable artist who mingled and made everyone feel very welcome.  It was a very professionally done event. The turnout was pretty good too although I was there quite early and didn't see the crowds who may have turned up later, but what I am wondering is did all this translate into good sales. I noticed that many of the people seemed to be more intent on the food and socializing than in really looking at the art. 

So can food and wine be a distraction to art sales?    I know people buy art from artists they like and perceive to be successful but is an expensive opening really neccessary?  I would love to hear about your experiences.

Posies - New Floral Works

Susanne Clark - 2012 - Purple Green Posy - 20 x 20

A few weeks ago I decided to work on some color studies and chose florals as the basis for this study.

Florals are something I haven't painted in years, I had the idea that they were a bit old fashioned, but I decided that they were ideal for my intention of doing paintings in a variety of different colors, and in color combinations that I would never usually choose.

Susanne Clark - 2012 - Posy in Magenta and Blue  - 12 x 12

I also wanted to use more paint in my work.  I often find that I am very mean with the amount of paint I use, trying to cover large areas of the canvas with a miserable amount of paint on my palette. I think this comes from the fact that much of my previous work was created by layering many thin layers of paint to build up a rich depth of color.

The idea with these studies was also to work very loosely with no attempt to create real flowers but just to give the impression of flowers.

I call them my "Posies" an old fashioned name for flower bouquets.

I really enjoyed this exercise and feel I learned a lot.  You can see the whole range on my Fine Art America site.  What do you think?  Are florals old fashioned?

Art That Appeals to Teenagers

Musical Mandala by Susanne Clark 2006

Every year I get quite a few emails from young high school students.  They have somehow found me on the web when looking for an artist’s work to do their end of year art exam project on.  It’s the musical work that seems to capture their interest and I find the same thing when I exhibit at outdoor art shows.  Young people and teenagers are immediately attracted to the work and bring their parents to see it.

When the students write they ask me a lot of questions about my technique, what inspired me and usually how long it takes me to create one of my pieces.  They seem to love the colour and vibrancy of the work and the fact that the Musical Paintings are not a literal copy of an instrument but something more exciting.  I spend quite a lot of time try and answer all their questions and usually add that I would love it if they would send me a picture of some piece of artwork that they have done as part of their exam.  Sometimes I get a nice reply with a thank you and a photo, other times just a thank you and sadly sometimes no response at all.

Last year I was contacted by Becky Sharpe, a 5th grade elementary teacher from Georgia in the US, who wanted to do an art project lasting several months using my musical works as a focus.  I was chosen because as she said “My students asked me if there were any artists who were still alive.  I looked at my curriculum and sure enough, all the artists I was highlighting were … well … dead!  From that point on I’ve made it a practice to seek out contemporary artists whenever possible”.

As the project went ahead I really enjoyed getting updates from Becky and some emails from the children. The final event was a combined art/ poetry jam.  The children created a poem to go with their musical instrument piece and they invited the adults in the school to come to the exhibit. I was extremely honored to have had my art chosen to be the inspiration for the project!

Becky also sent me some of the poetry pieces that they had written but I have chosen to focus on the artwork in this blog.  I think they did some really fun work and I hope they are inspired to continue creating. 

Art in Portugal

I'm very lucky to be in Portugal on holiday.  When I'm away I love to go and see local art so I'm always looking for Galleries however here in the Algarve in Portugal they are almost non existent.  This is my third visit here and I think I have only found five in total but yesterday was very exciting because I actually found a really nice one with some interesting work.  The young lady working there said that people in Portugal don't buy much art.  I'm sure the poor economy has a lot to do with it but it appears that there just isn't much interest.

I bought art materials here with me and intended doing some art each day but it's hard not to be seduced by the beautiful weather outside and the interesting places to visit.  To justify my lack of work I have been taking lots of photos.  Yesterday we went to a totally amazing church called the Sao Lourenco Chapel.  The walls inside were completely covered in blue painted tiles showing the martyrdom of St Lourenco or Lawrence as I guess his name is in English.  It was absolutely amazing and quite beautiful inside despite the awful theme. It is a small chapel or church but one of the most stunning I have seen.  Taking photos inside was not allowed but here are a couple from the outside.

Sao Lourenco Chapel

Blue tile picture on the back of Sao Lourenco Chapel

The beaches are fantastic.  A day or so ago we went to a small town called Luz where we sat in the sun outside and had lunch overlooking the sea.  The scenery was amazing.  We felt very lucky to be here.

Beach at Luz, Algarve, Portugal

View from our lunch spot at Luz

More to come.

5 Unusual Reasons to Buy Art

Art By Shona McFarlane

Some 22 years back I was on my way to my weekly sculpture class in Wellington, NZ when from the car window I saw a painting in the front window of a local Gallery.  It was a large, free flowing and colourful work by a NZ painter Shona McFarlane who had a personality as vibrant as her paintings.  I decided right then that I would buy it.  What also appealed was that it showed the view of the valley where I lived and was very soon to leave.

Fire on Second Ave, Ottawa, Nov 1999

Fast forward to November 1999.  I am living in Ottawa, Canada and my house has just burned down in the largest fire in the city in 34 years.  My new town house of under a year old is almost completely destroyed along with 12 other homes.

What was left of my front entrance

The house was a crime scene for a few days but then we were able to walk through a few areas to see if anything could be saved. There on the wall was the painting, covered in smoke but still in one piece.  Days later I took to it with detergent, water and a soft scrubbing brush and because it was acrylic it came up like new. 
Our house was rebuilt within a year and with this painting on the wall it felt like home again.

This got me thinking about different reasons to own art and so here are 5 of mine.

1   Unlike clothing and most everything else, it doesn't wear out.

2   It will stay with you through difficult times and give you joy.

3   It will still fit in 10 years.

4   Art adds real personality and uniqueness to your home and reflects who you are.

5   When you look at the art you will remember when and why you chose it and who you were with and it will remind you of the unique path you have taken in your journey through life.

I'm sure you will have your own reasons to buy original art and I would love to hear them.

Keyboard Paintings

"Alchemy in Colour" Exhibition

View from the front entrance

On Sept 15 my solo show "Alchemy in Colour" opened in the beautiful Marianne van Silfhout Gallery at St Lawrence College, Brockville in Ontario Canada. 


View of the gallery

When I arrived and saw the whole gallery full of my work I had quite a strange feeling!.  After spending time working so closely on the pieces you become very intimate with them but seeing them again like that, it was as though they had suddenly developed their own identity.  A bit like the the children you nurture and watch grow up knowing them so well, and then suddenly they are their own person and stand separate.  Not that this is a bad thing .... it's as it should be.  

Collagraph "Under the Hot Sun" by the guest book

 So there was my work arranged around the walls like separate moments in time each one exposing a part of me to be either liked, disliked or ignored. I had an odd feeling of distance and was slightly amazed that I had actually created all this work! 


With my daughter Trudy and husband Brian


To send my work out into the world in such a beautiful gallery was a wonderful experience.   I was also very appreciative of my friends who made the journey to be at the opening.  It was very special to have you there.

If you've experienced a similar feeling when confronted with your work in a new setting please tell me about it.

The 1920's - I'm in a Flap About Flappers!

A few months back I did the above collagraph print of two ladies.  I had no idea when I started, all I knew was that I wanted to do a couple of figures.  They ended up with a 1920's look to them and were quite cute, nothing serious, but just fun.  I framed the first print I pulled in a nice white frame and took it to the Cobourg art fair where it promptly sold.   Several other people came back also wanting to buy it. 

My son then kept saying to me how much he liked it and that I should do more in this 1920's theme.   "The retro thing is very trendy at the moment" was his comment.   The theme is probably trendy because of the recent TV series  "Boardwalk Empire" which showed recently on HBO.

A few years back I started a series of collagraph Kimono prints and they were great fun to do.  It was a bit like being a dress designer  ....   I could make the kimonos with patterns and colors that I liked and fortunately other people seemed to like them too. 

The thing is, I really enjoy making this type of decorative plate and so I thought I would try some more with a similar 1920's look to "The Ladies".

Making the plates is proving to be very compelling.  I can't wait to get into the studio and create another one and I haven't even started printing them up yet and seeing the results in color.  It's very easy to get inspired when you have wonderful decorative elements, like exotic hats and stylistic clothes to work with.

After recently working on a series of non realistic abstract paintings this is a complete about flip!  It must be my dual natured Gemini personality breaking forth!

Next week I want to start printing the plates and see if the final results are are as exciting as I hope they will be.

This photo is part of one of the plates in it's beginning stages. The color showing is from the shellac sealer and old thick paint that I am using to create textures on the plate. These colors are not what will show up when I pull the print and you can also see pencil where I have mapped out the design.

Artist Blogs - Are They Written For The Wrong People?



Jester's Rattle
Original Blockprint
$99.00 unframed



Like many artists I am still trying to find my way with my blog and one thing that I wonder about is am I writing it for the right people.  Who do I want to read my blog and what is its purpose?



 Many art blogs seem to be more for other artists, with technique tips and marketing ideas, and not much for non artists who are art lovers.

 

As an artist I love to see what other artists are doing in their studios but wouldn't it be great if a blog was also really interesting for art enthusiasts and potential buyers as well.  What does it need to make it that way?

Perhaps it would tell more about the creative art process and give a personal insight into who the artist really is and what motivates them?  Maybe we talk about these things but just don't go deep enough or expose ourselves enough. Do we focus on showing our professional side and not let some of the nitty gritty raw feelings come out?  Would that make it more compelling?

What do you think?  As a non artist what would you really like to read about?

Printmaking or Painting - What Sells Best At Art Festivals?

"Jester" Handpainted Blockprint. SOLD


Two weeks ago I exhibited at the Lions Fine Art Show and Sale at the Waterfront Festival in Cobourg, Ontario.  I love this show because it's in a beautiful setting right on the beach.

I was showing both printmaking and non representational paintings like the one below.  While I got lots of great comments on my paintings it was the printmaking that sold really well. 


Small Orange Abstract 12 x 12 inches

I want to make it clear that the printmaking process I am talking about is creating original artworks printed by hand using a printing press and not a digital reproduction of a photograph or artwork.  My main technique is Collagraph but I also had some handpainted blockprints on show.
I thought that printmaking may sell better because the work is usually less expensive than paintings but although I have shown small paintings on many occasions they just don't seem as popular.  I find that people prefer the larger ones.

"Ladies"  Collagraph on paper.  SOLD

So, back to the printmaking ....  I'm not sure what makes it more appealing.  It could be the subject matter, my printmaking tends to be more decorative in style, or perhaps it just looks nice because it has a nice clean look with a white mat around it and a frame.  What do you think?

Have You Lost Your Creative Spirit?

Every now and then I feel creatively a bit lost.  I find it hard to get inspired and this means it's harder to get motivated to start working.  It's interesting that during these times we say that we have lost our "creative spirit" and that we want to be "inspired."

Looking at these two expressions reveals some interesting ideas.  The ancient Greeks used to think that we did in fact have a creative spirit to call upon.  Called a daemon (an ancient Greek name for a divinity or supernatural being of a nature between gods and humans), they believed that this supernatural being was available to be called on to help when we want to be inspired.  The word "inspired" is also interesting.  Having it's roots in the breath, the words "inspire" and "expire" at birth and death mean to have the breath or spirit come in or go out. So being "inspired" is to have the creative spirit come in, an interesting thought.

Steven Pressfield wrote a wonderful and very inspirational, there's that word again, book called "The War of Art."   In part three of this book he tells how he invites the creative spirit or muse every day before he starts his creative process.  It's a book that I highly recommend along with his new one called  "Do the Work."

While I was thinking about this I came across a video called "A New Way to Think About Creativity" where Elizabeth Gilbert of "Eat, Pray, Love" fame talks about a similar idea.  It's rather a long video but she is a good speaker and I think it's well worth watching. 

On Saturday I leave with two friends to go to an art workshop in South Carolina.  Perhaps I will invite my Muse to come along too! 

Do Reproductions Devalue Original Artwork?

Twilight Rhapsody
20 x 20 Acrylic on canvas  $995.00

Over the last few years I have heard a lot of comments about reproduction prints of artwork devaluing the original paintings.  "Why would you want to buy a painting that has a had lots of reproductions made of it?" is the cry, and "I wouldn't want to see the lovely painting I bought as a cheap reproduction in Walmart!"

With the advent of POD (Print on Demand) sites like Fine Art America I expect that I will hear these comments more frequently however I disagree and here are my reasons.

Think about the Mona Lisa.  How many zillions of copies are there of that painting in the world?  Do you think these countless copies devalue that?  Of course not, it actually makes the original more valuable. If I bought a painting that I loved and then it was reproduced and became so popular that it was in shops and homes everywhere, I would be absolutely delighted and proud that I had the "original".  It's value in monetary terms would have increased and I would feel very good about my decision to have bought that artwork. An original is always special and unique.  Feel very happy if you own an original and never feel that a copy made of it takes anything away from that specialness.

Not everyone can afford original artwork but they may love an artists work and want to feature it in their home.  Art should be for everyone to enjoy and not just for those who can afford original work. 

How do you feel about this?

I would really appreciate it if you use the buttons below to share this on your favorite social networking site.

I Feel the Power - Can You?



BC Museum of Anthropology

I just spent two weeks in the beautiful city of Vancouver and with the mountains and sea it reminds me of NZ where I am originally from. Last time we were there some 18 years ago, we went to see the BC Museum of Anthropology and because we enjoyed it so much we decided to go again.  Along with artifacts from all over the world they have a huge collection of First Nation Art all displayed in the most wonderful setting. As an artist we tend to think of art as a painting to hang on the wall or a sculpture to place in a room but art for many people was, and in some countries still is, an important part of their belief system and central to their culture and religion.  The power of this type of art is amazing and in their presence you can feel this power really oozing from them!

This got me thinking about art in today's world.  Many artists that would, in other cultures and times, have been making religious or cultural work now work in special effects for movies, animation, advertising, architecture etc and they do amazing work and all reflective of our cultural times.  We are surrounded by work of this kind but don't often stop to appreciate the skill of these artists who for most part go unknown. This work has it's own special power to influence and shape our ideas but I wonder will it still have any power in the centuries to come.

I always love to get your comments. 

Also if you have any friends who you think would enjoy my blog or my art I would really appreciate it if you shared it with them.

Collagraph Printmaking



Susanne Clark - Soaring Into The Blue
©2011 Susanne Clark
Collagraph Print on Paper -  8 x 8 in -  $75.00


Last Friday night I gave a talk to an art society group about my art and printmaking.  In the first half I talked about my painting process and showed some photographs.  I set up the pictures in Power Point and connected to their projector.  The color was a complete disaster which was a pity.  It appears that they find it hard to get the color right when using the projector so in the future if I am asked to do this again for a smallish group, I will take my own monitor and use that, then I know that the colors will show correctly. 

The second part of the presentation was about printmaking.  I mainly make collagraph prints, a form of printmaking, which as the name suggests, comes from collage.  I took a variety of my prints and also some examples of the collagraph plates that I make to print the images from.   As usual everyone fell in love with the actual plates.  I think it is the texture and depth of the plates after they have been printed that is so appealing.  Because printmaking, and especially collagraph, is less familiar to many artists I think it was probably the most interesting part of the talk. 

To brighten up this post I have added a photo of a small collagraph that I experimented with last week.  I wanted to try using printing ink in a very transparent way.  It's part of a larger plate that I wasn't happy with so I cropped the image down.  It ended up being very simple but I think it has a very optimistic feel.  Does it  feel that way to you?

All That Glitters is Gold? Using Gold Leaf in Paintings.

After spending quite a lot of time looking at art and thinking about what I really like ... which ended up being art with abstracted figures and faces in it ...  I have gone off and started a series of non representational works.  I decided to work in one size, 24 in square, as I already had several in this size and I like the look of a grouping of work all in the same size. The two I am currently working on are in a limited palette of black, white, grey, red and gold the gold being gold leaf.  I love the way gold leaf glitters when the light catches it.  I am not sure if they are quite finished yet but in the meantime this is what they look like.

Gold leaf is a bit tricky to work with.  It has a tendency to fly away from where you are trying to put it if you even breathe on it.  You lay down a glue where you want the gold leaf and then you have to wait until the glue is almost dry before you lay the leaf on and smooth it down with a soft brush.  Finally you have to fluff away the pieces of leaf that are not caught by the glue.  Hopefully then you have leaf where you want it.  I also have a glue pen which enables the creation of quite interesting lines in gold leaf.

Doing the non realistic paintings has made me quite unsettled about what direction I want to go in my art but I guess that's part of the allure of doing art, it's such a voyage of discovery.

Roman Ruins, Caravals, a Palace and Conger Eels.

I’ve been slow on the updates to my blog because it’s taken me some time to get back into gear after being away for so long. I’ve found it really hard to pick up where I left off however I think I am now getting back on track again.

To finish off about Portugal. We both like it there a lot. We love the outdoor life style and even though it was winter, most days it was sunny and warm enough to sit outside and watch the sea while we drank the great coffee that you get in Portugal. Now my husband won’t drink the stuff we make in the Bodum at home any more! After all this nice weather it was a bit of a shock to return home to Toronto and the snow and cold weather.

I have added a few pictures of places we think are interesting to visit near Albufeira. The first one is the Harbour of the Caravels in Spain. It features replicas of Columbus’s three ships in a lovely setting. It takes about and hour and a half to drive there from Albufeira but I think it’s well worth the effort.

 The next place is a lovely hillside town called Evora. The picture shows the Roman ruin right in the center of the town. This UNESCO world heritage town is a great place to visit and you will see the inland area of Portugal where a lot of the wine is made on the drive to get there.

Finally the Roman ruins at Estoi and the newly restored palace which is now a hotel. http://tinyurl.com/45cafty and http://tinyurl.com/6yacv79

We also liked the market at Loule and wished we had made it to the Gypsy Market there but perhaps another time. The photo shows conger eel which I took because I thought the patterns on it were beautiful.  I find all the fish on sale pretty awful and I can't see how the sea can sustain itself if so much is continually being taken out. After being a vegetarian for thirty years these things concern me.

One thing that was disappointing was the lack of small art galleries to visit. I am always looking to see art but only found one gallery and that wasn’t very exciting. There must be artists there somewhere but we never found them.

On the art front I have been making some collagraph plates this week and I hope to try printing them today. My next post will be about those.