February - Judgement!

Well, though we were only four of us in my dining room today, we had a lively discussion which I found relevant and interesting....adjudication of shows.

We, as artists, artisans, painters, crafters, photographers, writers and so on, often put ourselves in the field of fire when we enter shows, contests, go for grants...this morning we talked about the annual Juried Arts Salon from the Kingston Arts Council. Though at time of writing, the relevant page on their site was not current (still 2013) the pamphlets are out .... I picked some up in Minotaur downtown on Princess Street. The first question was 'do we know who the judges are'? Yes, they are listed in the pamphlet....is that a good thing or not? Hmmmm.... 

If we know the judges we might be able to play to their sensibilities...is that right? What's wrong with that? Putting their names up opens that right up.

I (Carolyn Barnett) have done many shows over my years as an artisan and not known who the judges were....maybe I found out after I won an award or place, which is nice to know...I guess, but mostly I haven't. With no clue to whom I am appealing I just do my own thing to the best of my ability, stretching myself (as I have done for the Toronto Outdoor Arts Exhibition as I wanted my wearable art to me be more 'art'). I didn't have to thing what the leanings of any judges might be.

Well, a couple of us (myself included) decided we'd give it another try...kind of a personal challenge. The deadline is March 27th. I will have more pamphlets available next week at..

Kingston Arts and Letters Club

gathering

Feb 11th 7pm, Kingston Yatch Club

Speakers: Barb Carr, Marsha Gormly of KSOA

&

Meriel Taylor of Anwyn Yarn Studio

December's Holiday Gathering

Cathie shows Reg how to get started....

Our December get together happened in Cathie Hamilton's studio at NGB Studios down on Cataraqui St.  Thanks to Cathie and the others we had lots of Christmas treats: shortbread cookies, fruit, hot apple cider and tangerines!


We talked about  'Square' update that you can now process American Express credit cards online.

Of course we chatted about our shows over the holiday sales season and about the smaller shows that have cropped up.

...and away he goes!

There are a lot more small in house/studio 'open house' selling weekends, I did one with Tamara of Latimer Soaps and Corinna of Nikita sauces (find her in the market in season) and Yolanda of Yolanda's Glass Jewelry. We had a lovely weekend though not a lot of traffic...the idea worked well and our set up was good. We had munchies and hot apple cider and, though we all made sales, it's always nicer to do more.

We need to do more promo....learning!

Anyway, after the official part of our morning Cathie had set up for any of us who would like to try encaustic to give it a whirl! Reg and Carolyn (me) were enthusiastic and sat down to learn about the wax, and a fairly simple technique with a small iron and other hot tools to melt and work with the wax.

Carolyn's work.

I was intrigued by the way you move the different colours of wax around to create things such as the sky. Maybe I'll go back one day to experiment with patterns.

Here is what I worked on....really fun!















Cathie is offering more workshops in the New Year...here are the particulars...

With 2014 fast approaching it seems like only yesterday we were all panicked about Y2K scuppering all our computers and online stuff! Now we're panicking about global warming and the crazy weather...at least all the shovelling and breaking up of ice keep us fairly fit...it's becoming a regualar thing.

Our first get together of the New Year and I'll host it at my house:

January 7th 2014  11am

Carolyn Barnett

14 Richard Street (in Portsmouth Village)

613-545-5986

A Little Potty...

Digging around my computer and the internet I found this and wondered if I had posted it here....apparently not...so here goes.

Clay Journeys at the Grist Mill in Westport Ontario opened today. 

Remember ... Augusts Artists Round Table get together...Carolyn's place..

14 Richard Street

Tuesday August 6th 11am. 

June's ART

Another ART gathering, at my house this month. I had hoped to sit outside on the deck but the weather just wasn't cooperative.

We had a good gab about shows and what was going on in Kingston and surrounding area. Here are a couple of pics taken by Reg and by Tina. 

As a note, Reg is looking for anyone who wants to go to Algonquin Park in mid to end of September for a couple of days to look at the galleries, take photographs and to paint....who knew Reg painted!

Anyway, if you are interested get in touch with Reg: gaitken3@cogeco.ca 

We'll have our July, August & September gatherings outside and I'm happy to host them on my deck as we have done in past Summers. Also there are no parking problems here in the village.  If anyone has something they want to do/present/show do let us know and we can go to your place and work on something different.

This weekend is Art Among the Ruins in Newburgh on Saturday. A few of us will be there, like Jane Thellwell....with her wheel.

Drive out and enjoy music, bbq and Summer in the country.

Check out the info for AATR web site.

Also, Artfest Kingston is coming up on Canada Day weekend in City Park.

See you next month - July 2nd 11am.

February's Really Fun ART

What do we do at an Artists Round Table meeting you ask. After this post you are going to be scratching your heads even more and wondering if some of us should be allowed out!

We had

Cathie Hamilton as Mermaid with Annie & Reg

On Tuesday we met at Puppet Annie's studio in the Upper Canada Academy of Performing Arts...a huge room overlooking Brock street and full of giant puppets, shapes, fabrics, sparkly things........

Annie brought out this mermaid of papier machè and Reg volunteered to model it....he had to stand on a chair...it's huge! Then Cathie climbed onto the chair.

Both Reg and Cathie are the two members who attended who have mobility difficulties but it was those two who climbed up behind this 'costume'!!! Annie are you working miracles with your fun?

Liza with a C!?

Well, then there was the hat and the phrase: 'Wilkomen, Bienvenue, Welcome'  jumped into my head. Yeah, that's me doing the Liza Minelli impression!!

I took this shot across the studio...in the foreground is a dragon with a purple dragon head by the door. I picked it up and realized it would take one person to hold the head alone. There are heads, hands, faces, hair, puppets...... Annie had just had a group of children in for a day so there was beautifully colourful disarray.

Yeah, Reg & Annie again.

We did settle down to talk about the 2013 Artist Educator Foundations Course for Artists which I would really like to take but I'm booked those weekends. Too short notice for this and we need to know more. Jane Thelwell might be taking it though ..... you'd have to ask Jane if that's what she is doing....if so I'm jealous! Next year perhaps.

As we have several photographers who meet with us Nicole brought us some information on copyright and licensing of photography. Here is a site to check out...
http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/Home?OpenDocument

A costume maker's dream.

We are having Deborah Windsor speak with us next month about grants, making your dreams work for you and moving forward as artisans. As a fellow Kingston Arts Council board member I've had some great conversations with her and really want to listen to her more and pick her brain.You will have the opportunity on March 5th at Jane Thelwell's place (details will go out closer to time on the Artists Round Table Google Group email).

If the shoe fits...Cinderella!

I had a question about HST so we discussed the how's and wherefores of the taxes to which we have been subject over the past few decades and Jane suggested that as the cost of living goes up so should the GST/HST limit. It's been $30,000 since it came in in the eighties. Before that we only had to collect/remit 7%.  I've decided to drag someone in from the tax offices of the government to clear things up, inform us and answer questions...I'll try for our April or May meeting.

See you March 5th.

Kingston Arts Council 'Year In Review' Party!!!!

Saturday night. December 1st, is going to be a great night to head down to the Kingston Yacht Club for the 'Year In Review' bash.

The even starts at 7pm, it's at 1 Maitland Street and contacts are  613-546-2787 or programs@artskingston.ca

Tickets are $10

The 2012 Year In Review will include the announcement of the recipient of the Nan Yeomans Grant for Artistic Development, which aims to help promising young artists and/or artisans in furthering their education and professional artistic growth.

This Year's Programming includes: Performing Artists: PS I Love You, The Sleuth Bears, Sadiqua de Meijer, and Cantabile Choir Video Installations by Kurtis Chen, Mathieu Rioux, The Artists of Kingston Project; Speakers: Matt Rogalsky and Christine Dewancker Exhibits by artists Mike Bayne and Maggie Sutherland The event will be an excellent opportunity to network with other artists and arts organizations, while sharing stories from the past year in the Kingston arts community. Hope to see you there!

     

Once again....

• Date: December 01, 2012
• Time: 7:00PM
• Location: Kingston Yacht Club
• Address: 1 Maitland Street
• Contact: 613 546 2787  programs@artskingston.ca

See you there!

Photographing Your Work....

......workshop!

Photographing my buttons.

 The next meeting is an exciting one: 

From the 

Modern Fuel Gallery

Denise Love has been able to get the New Media Workspace coordinator, Matt Kyba, to present on our workshop morning 11am Aug 7th at the Modern Fuel Gallery. 

A $5 donation per person for his time is recommended. 

He will also advertise it as a workshop to encourage new folks to come 

and 

maybe join artist roundtable so it could be reciprocal. 

See you there....I know I could use some tips!

Art Supply Sale!

This sounds like a great idea and I'm going to comb my studio for stuff I'll never use!.......

As artists we've all done it..bought supplies with an art project in mind and never completed it or in some cases never started it!  

Why let them pile up in your workspace?  

Support Modern Fuel by donating them to the Unfinished Art Sale!  

Bring them anytime Tues-Sat 12-5pm until June 30th.  

Then be sure to attend the sale Saturday July 14 to pick up new items to start another project!  

We are also accepting any unread books, unwatched DVD's that you've never gotten around too as well!

NOTE...

Also for the August Roundtable workshop, August 7th, 11am, Modern Fuel Gallery, they can bring pieces of their art they'd like to learn to photograph.

Denise Love

A.R.T June Announcements

At yesterday’s gathering of the Artists Round Table, (6 in attendance around my dining room table) we talked about projects for the coming meetings. We can meet at my place as it was successful last Summer and may make one of our homes/studios our meeting places in future, taking turns as anyone who wants to host offers. 

We discussed submitting images for shows/grant/award applications and how they are being done more and more online (Zapplication in the US was the first I used years ago). It was thought a workshop on the process might bring some of us out of the dark ages and update us on the right way to photograph our work for such submissions and for our own web use and archives.

From the Modern Fuel Gallery:

Denise has been able to get the New Media Workspace coordinator, Matt Kyba, to present on our workshop morning 11am Aug 7th at the Modern Fuels Gallery.

A $5 donation per person for his time is recommended.

He will also advertise it as a workshop to encourage new folks to come and maybe join artist roundtable so it could be reciprocal. 

From Cathie Hamilton:

Encaustic Workshop Saturday June 16, 11am-4pm, $70.00

Studio 1 at NGB, 12 Cataraqui St. Kingston, K7K 1Z7

Come on in and explore, share ideas and have some fun.

Materials supplied. 

Please contact cathie@kingston.net to confirm.

Art Show in Amherstview

ART SHOW & SALE AT 

We are excited to announce that we are now featuring a display of art in the gallery room beside the main café.  Artists will be displaying their work on a rotational basis. Until June 30, Nicole Couture-Lord, photographer and Barbara Simard, Fabric Artist, will be our guest artists.  Barbara enjoys creating fabric art scenes of natural settings and floral scenes.  Nicole is a photographer who specializes in photographing natural scenes and flowers, amongst other subjects.

During the month of July, Brian Little, photographer and Jeff Gill, Fabric Artist will be displaying their art.  Brian is a photo artist living on Amherst Island who enjoys a variety of photographic settings including landscapes, fine art and wild life.  Jeff likes being with nature and creates fabric art scenes from photos he has taken of nature and wildlife.

While visiting the gallery, you can also enjoy your favorite coffee, tea and espresso drinks. The café offers comfortable seating, complimentary daily newspapers and free internet access.  

The Café/Gallery is open from 7 am to 7 pm on weekdays and from 8 am to 7 pm on weekends.

Town Coffee Plus Inc. Loyalist Plaza, Amherstview 

(adjacent to the Beer Sore) 

(613) 389-5668   info@towncoffeeplus.com

Tomorrow!

Artists Round Table

June 5th 2012 10:30am

Carolyn's place 

Theme: Show and Tell......bring some of your work.

Creativity - John Cleese

I had to share this with you, I can't remember who posted it on my Facebook page but I love it....I have loved John Cleese over the years in his many incarnations. He had a PBS (?) program on the face with Elizabeth Hurley that I loved, a few years ago. Here he is again with his humour, simplicity and brilliance.