Blog Archives

#30 I did it!!!! I completed my 30 Blogs in 30 Days, challenge :-)

5/23/2013

My 30 blogs in 30 days challenge has come to an end. Wow how time flies - at first I thought that this day would never come - but it sure did and I feel great and quite proud of myself.

So, for those who just joined us, let me give you a bit of an update. One month ago I was given a challenge by my marketing coach to write 30 blogs in 30 days. The first thing that came to my mind was "uhhh, uhhhh, blog Every day?? uhhh, for an Entire Month? uuhhhh, Blog even on weekends? and on Sunday Fundays too?? :-O say whaaa??!!" :-) :-)

However I took the challenge, and I have to admit, it was very hard at first because I placed so much pressure on myself to make every post perfect. I agonized on what to write, the length of the content, the grammar, the interest level etc etc ...all important things but it surely sucked the joy out of the experience of blogging. This was why, last year when I first started to blog, I did all of 5 blogs for the entire year. I had placed way too much pressure on myself to be cool and funny and relatable, and so eventually I got frustrated, lost interest and stopped.

So with this challenge, as the days went by, I realizd that when I forced myself to blog every day I stopped feeling pressured for every post to be perfect and instead went with the flow and enjoyed the ride. I also discovered that writing about certain topics and ideas that I may have never had the motivation to write about before, became really enjoyable once I started.

I have to admit that this challenge was beneficial to me because it gave me direct interaction with readers; it developed discipline; strengthened my writing skills and it gave me a good momentum that kept me alert and on my toes every day.

Thanks to everyone who supported my 30 day challenge. Thanks to those of you who read 1 blog, 2 blogs, 10 blogs... or the one person I can guaranty to read all 30 blogs...Mummy :-) (mothers are great like that right?)
Thank you to Tammi my fabulous marketing coach from (MSBDCN) Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network http://www.msbdc.org/semass/.

Well see you soon I will be continuing my blog entries once a week so stay tuned and thanks for stopping by Alison Wells Fine Art Studio Blog page. :-)

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#29 My piece 'Other Side of the Harbor' on view at Star Store

5/22/2013

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"… When the ship tied up at the wharf at the foot of Union Street, I was over the edge and in the mist of an excited crowd… But a slave had little to fear in a New Bedford crowd in slavery days…they stood aside and let me pass."

New Bedford has a history of helping others and one of the most important parts of that history was its involvement in helping fugitive slaves seek refuge and freedom during slavery on The Underground Railroad. The labor seeking whaling industry, a large Quaker community and a growing free population of people of color made New Bedford very attractive to runaway slaves in the mid 1800's.

As a New Bedford resident for the past 8 years and a woman of color originally from the Caribbean I have been particularly intrigued and inspired by New Bedford's significant involvement in the Underground Railroad.

In my mixed media painting on canvas entitled "The Other Side of the Harbor" I have incorporated painting techniques along with paper collage, photo montage, and drawing techniques. My intention is to explore a contemporary approach to the Underground Railroad to raise awareness and encourage discussion about a history that is unknown to many but challenges and inspires our community today.

"New Bedford Harbor in a New Light" is a responsive exhibition of work by local contemporary artists. In an open call curators Kim Barry, Willoughby Elliott, and Lasse Antonsen invited artists to create work inspired by the New Bedford harbor, history and culture. This amazing exhibition is now on display concurrently at two venues:

The University Art Gallery at UMass Dartmouth Star Store May 21 - August 22
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 13th from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Exhibiting Artists:
Donald Beal
Brooke Mullins Doherty
Severin Haines
Brenda Figuerido
Cynthia Guild
Peter Lipsitt, and Susan Israel
Beatriz Oliveira
David Ricci
David Richardson
Stacy Latt Savage, Yasmin Flefleh-Vincent, and Elizabeth Dooher
Carl Simmons
Alison Wells
Elizabeth Wilkinson
Kurt Wisneski

The New Bedford Art Museum May 9 - August 8,

Exhibiting Artists:
Anderson, Scott
Antonsen, Lasse
Azure, Anastasia
Barry, Kim
Bentz, Heather
Creighton, Richard
Elliott, Willoughby
Farnell, Cynthia
Fortier, Ron
Francis, Keith
Leonard, Yvonne
Lima, Elizabeth
Lintala, Eric
Martin, Peter Michael
Millstein, Mark
Popielarz, Holly
Potkay, Joan
Robson, John
Schireson, Suzy
Sladewski, John
Stoeva, Leni
Swann, Randy
White, Marguerite
Wilhelmsen, Erik

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#28 New Collage in progress continued...

5/21/2013

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My last blog showed the beginning stages of one of my Province Town collages, that will be showcased at Sarah Jessica Fine Art this summer. The first step was covering large areas, layering the surface and preparing the stage for the build up of detail and form. At this point, especially in a landscape piece, I start to develop the foreground, middle ground and background so that the piece becomes visually more three dimensional - taking the viewer right into the piece.

In the detail above you can see at this stage I begin putting in some details, like out lining areas, varying tones and adding light sources. At this point I also add whimsical elements to the piece. For example the sky becomes a mass of patterned paper instead of trying to replicate a more realistic sky. I find this to add a sense of fun and energy to some pieces. It also adds a great deal of visual texture to the piece which in turn adds visual interest in general.

For me the joys of creating collages are many and since collage art is not as structured as other techniques, I feel as if I have the world of freedom in what I choose to create, and how I choose to create. I think this is why I dont take myself so seriously with this medium and just allow the creative juices to flow. Stay tuned for more.

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#27 New collage in progress

5/20/2013

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When working with a range of colored paper it can get quickly confusing if not put in some sort of order. It must be treated like a paint palette systematically arranged by hue and value.

When I first started working with paper collages I randomly used colors as I found them but as time went by, I began grouping colors, color combinations and patterns into separate containers. This process helps tremendously as the artistic and creative flow is not slowed down by frantically searching for that specific hue and you can visually see clearly the palette you are working with.

Below is the beginning of another P-Town series in process. Putting down the basics and covering the entire picture plane is just as important as the underpainting in the painting process.
Stay tune as I take this piece to the next level.

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#26 Taste of Southcoast on the Waterfront

5/19/2013

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Today a friend and I went to the 7th Annual Taste of SouthCoast in downtown New Bedford organized by Downtown New Bedford, Inc. The event is usually held at the Custom House Square every year but due to the construction of the square into a new Urban Park it was relocated to the waterfront on Pier 3 in downtown New Bedford across from route 18.

It is a wonderful event for the whole family where restaurants, caterers, and bakeries serve up sample size portions of their signature dishes and ticket prices included the overflowing of tastings - yum. There was also local beer and wine available for purchase as well as homemade ice-cream and live music for dancing and merriment :-)

This new location was a big hit as the working waterfront provided a beautiful and scenic backdrop for such a fun event.

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#25 My love for Ptown- A great Artist colony and so much more...

5/18/2013

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Province Town or affectionately known to many as P-Town is a New England gem tucked away at the extreme tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It is a small coastal resort town known for its harbor, beautiful beaches, rolling sand dunes, gifted artists, and a large and lively LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) vacation destination and community.

To throw in a little Artists colony history - "The arrival of the railroad in 1873 made Provincetown accessible to both tourists and artists. Attracted by the incredible light and colorful surroundings, painters could stay in inexpensive boarding houses and rent studios for $50 per year. The Provincetown art colony came into being when Charles Webster Hawthorne opened his Cape Cod School of Art in the summer of 1899. By 1915 as many as 90 students were enrolled to learn his style of impressionist painting en plein air." (more about Cape Cod School of Art)

To me it is a place to get away, relax, retreat, do artwork, hang out with friends, meet new friends, party, visit galleries, sight see, and ooohh... eat good and always fresh sea food.

Here I am below getting ready to chomp down on some good ole fashion boiled lobster :-) Yes the two lobsters were for me alone haha no they were not but I could have eaten both -what a delicious treat.

Below are some of my new Province Town inspired Collages that will be featured this summer at Sarah Jessica Fine Art Gallery in Commercial St., Provincetown MA. Check out P-Town for a little fun in the sun, lobster and tons of Art work.

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#24 New Collage Work at Provincetown Gallery this summer

5/17/2013

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Monument under Blue Skies, Paper Collage on Board 12"x9" 2013

Trying to secure gallery representation in the Art World can definitely be an exhausting and daunting experience for many artists. The countless mailing of applications and art packages; the calls and follow up calls, the regular rejections, the regular rejections and did I say the regular rejections? :-) Well its all part of the business but it is something that we all have to go through thickening our skins and making us more resilient.

Sarah Jessica Fine Art Gallery in Province Town MA has been representing my work for the past year. They have been showcasing my semi-abstract acrylic paintings on canvas particularly my Totem series http://www.alisonwells.com/totem and the response has been excellent.
This year they are introducing my collage work to their gallery. I am super excited and I have been in the studio working on a brand new collection specific of the area. Stay tune for some of these new collage offerings like the one above.

Inner Circle, Acrylic on Canvas, 24"x18" 2010 (from Totem series)

Sarah Jessica Fine Arts has been located in the heart of Provincetown, Ma. for fourteen years and they carry a large cross section of painters, original print makers, hand blown glass artists and sculptors. http://www.sarahjessicafinearts.com/Sitemap1.html

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#23 Bitter Sweet - "Art in Words" class, comes to an end.

5/16/2013

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For the past 12 weeks I have been involved in a wonderful after school project called "Art in Words" for middle school students. This is the second year of this program which is the brainchild of Jill Horton-Simms who wanted to have a unique book club/art workshop for young people aged 11 to 15. The book chosen is Gary D. Schmidt's book, "Okay For Now" (2011)

Each chapter of Schmidt's book features one of John James Audubon's bird paintings in each chapter, and he connects the bird to the 11 year old protagonist Doug. John James Audubon (1785 —1851) was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He is known for his detailed illustrations in his "Birds of America" series that depicts all species of American birds in their natural habitats.

The New Bedford Free Public Library owns one of the only complete sets of the double-elephant folios of Audubon's "Birds of America" (there are only 120 in the world.) This was donated to the library in 1866 by James Arnold, a wealthy whaling merchant.

During the program the english and reading portion was led by Doria Bryant English Teacher at Keith Middle School and the Art portion was led by myself. Janice Hodson, curator of Special Collections gave a wonderful tour of the library's original collection during one of the sessions. Also the author Gary Schmidt, a best-selling author and two-time Newbery Medal winner, visited New Bedford last month to discuss his book and lead a writing workshop with the kids at The New Bedford Free Public Library.

This was such an amazing program and the students grew so much from their experience. For me it was particularly special to see them grow as artists during these past 12 weeks. On October 10th 2013 The New Bedford Art Museum will be hosting an exhibition of these students' Art work. This will be a spectacular exhibit giving the students a wonderful feeling of accomplishment and pride. Please save the date and join us during this special event.
I will keep you posted :-)

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#22 New Series of Collages this Summer

5/15/2013

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Have I mentioned how much I enjoy doing paper collages?? I sure do!!! it makes me so happy and stress free and I can work for hours and hours and not feel the time. It is surely a medium that allows me to NOT take myself too seriously as an artist and... this is when the MAGIC begins.

Some of the reasons I love doing Collages are:
- The tactile quality of tearing and cutting paper in different shapes and sizes.
- The piecing together of these bits and pieces of papers.
- The Arranging and re-arranging to form interesting imagery.
- The matching and re-matching of hues, values and intensities of color.
- And, the attaching of these well thought-out areas onto the base with adhesives to create finished paper collages.

When I began working in this medium my paper collection was quite limited to magazine papers alone (which I love because of the wide range in tonal qualities). However as I develop my collage techniques I keep adding to my paper palette a variety of papers, including: matte colored construction papers, glossy papers, brightly printed sheets, wall paper, wrapping paper and foils. I have also begun altering the surfaces of these papers and other collage elements in a variety of ways such as adding painted areas, texturizing and distressing the paper to roughen and interrupt the flat planes etc etc.

I consider the art of collage as "Painting with Paper" and therefore as a painter it excites me tremendously to be able to paint using a different medium and technique where the properties become complex in a whole new way.

Stay tuned to see my current step by step collage workings in the studio.

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#21 Check out Rhonda Fazio's Amazing KickStarter Project

5/14/2013

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Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects like films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of projects large and small, that are brought to life through the direct support of the public. Each project is independently created by the Artist who has full control and responsibility for their projects. Together, creators and backers make projects happen.

My good friend and Sustainable Textile Artist, Rhonda Fazio from Dyer Maker Studios has launched a fun and enlightening KickStarter project, called:
The American Dye Party: Color Across America. People. Plants. Pigments... Coming to a backyard near you.

Check it out and pledge on this great project. With every pledge you get a handmade gift. Pledges start from $1

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1611172035/the-american-dye-party-color-across-america