In honor of Halloween...

The Hooded Monk Ghost in the picture above appears at the About.com site here.

Could there be a ghost right near you? Take a tour of some very interesting Ghost Photos here.

Of course Ghost towns seem less paranormal and could be an encounter you'd want to have.

Or could there be a scientific explanation?

"The World's Longest Art gallery" and Ghost Towns

Googling Art Ghost Town ... and found this the longest art gallery - very cool!

And following the idea of Art and Ghost towns I run across this...

Exploring The Ghost Town of Rhyolite "Perhaps Rhyolite’s most distinctive art exhibit is this re-creation of Jesus’ Last Supper.The sculpture was created in 1984 by Poland-born Belgian sculptor Albert Szukalski, based on the famous Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece.But instead of disciples wearing white robes, this version features only the white robes."

Check out the Ghost Town Trio band here

Art Nouveau is on my mind and Calder too!

While visiting a good friend over Columbus day weekend I browsed a book on Calder and also Art Nouveau. But since then life took over and I never pursued these yummy visuals further. And of course one day they pop back into your path as with any travel on the web it starts in one place and then off you go! I wanted to see what is currently on exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Art and guess what is there: an Art Nouveau jewelry exhibit. You can find a review and photos on the Boston Globe site...

I am not exactly sure what it is but there is something very fine to me about Art Nouveau so today -- if time permits -- I will explore it further! And perhaps Calder as well. A good start could begin at the San Francisco's Art Museum online Calder feature: The Breakthrough Years.

View a range of Calder's works here

Sketching!

Ok am so inspired by sketching lately and have been reading alot about sketch crawls! Another great idea I saw on the web today - a cool way to sketch on a trip: sketch grids. What a good way to keep memories of what you did on a trip: you can more easily carry it with you than photos, and best of all you can edit and select what you want to remember of the journey.

Then there are the "moments" which interrupt Urban sketching see Tommy Kane's blog here (Tommy's blog is a trip worth travelling within, love his style and thoughts). Although I have to admit these things happen even when sketching in the park! - OK - YES - some of us sketch as privately as possible as we aren't brave enough to have others see us at work yet!

Urban Sketchers site! What I found inspiring there was Stephen Gardner's observation: "I’m amazed by just how much can pass you by if you fail to stop and look." And maybe that is the biggest reason to just go ahead and sketch what stops you and makes you look. It doesn't have to be photogenically perfect (in fact it more likely will show it's value in the quirks and twists away from reality it takes as it breathes life into your sketchbook page).

Sketchcrawling bloggers: http://petescully.com/ and http://gdedios.blogspot.com/2008/10/sketchcrawl-20.html (ok so yes I found Pete via Gerald!!! But seriously they are both very talented... ) Check out SketchCrawl.com for the results of sketchcrawl's done from artists all over the world so cool it is like taking a trip seeing all that they saw through their eyes!

Sketch a day blog...

A really cool idea with sketchbooks:




And junky that I am following one link to another, leaping off the Sketch Grid blog above I find a link there to this blog, check out the iPhone sketches!!! I mean seriously wonderful work there (to my eyes) >: ) And um I am thinking that maybe that desire I've always had for the iPhone ... I should start seriously pursuing : )

Hopper at SAAM...

"My aim in painting is always, using nature as the medium, to try to project upon canvas my most intimate reaction to the subject as it appears when I like it most; when the facts are given unity by my interest and prejudices. Why I select certain subjects rather than others, I do not exactly know, unless it is that . . . I believe them to be the best mediums for a synthesis of my inner experience."

Browse a Hopper interactive feature on the Smithsonian American Art Museum's site where you can literally flip through a book and view Hopper's works and thoughts...

Inspirational quotes from ArtQuotes.Net

Creativity takes courage - Henri Matisse
* After a half-century of hard work and reflection the wall is still there *

A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things. - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

There is no must in art because art is free. - Wassily Kandinsky

Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void. Ripe, graphic fruits fall off. My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will. - Paul Klee

The final test of a painting, theirs, mine, any other, is: does the painter's emotions come across? - Franz Kline

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness. - Eckhart Tolle

I dream a lot. I do more painting when I'm not painting. It's in the subconscious. - Andrew Wyeth

A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing. - William Dobell

Man can't do without God. Just like you're thirsty, you have to drink water. You just can't go without God. - Bob Marley

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for. - Georgia O'Keefe

The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting. - Van Gogh

A moment of solitude - Barbara's Earth & Sky ...

Earth and Sky online exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Want to know what artists share your birthday?

Find out here at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Eye Level at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

A Blog you'll want to travel through...and linger in

A synopsis from their About page:
" Eye Level is a blog produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The name Eye Level imparts a sense of clarity to which the blog aspires. The name refers to the physical experience of viewing art, but it also plays on the many roles and perspectives that make a museum a reality—roles that will come into focus here. The title also alludes to works from the museum’s collection: to give one example, in the 1820s, it was fashionable to carry a miniature portrait of a lover’s eyeball."

Beyond the www...

Art is obviously available beyond the web, the vast www of the internet. Galleries, museums, on walls in your home and of those you visit, you see it out and about in buildings, bridges and especially in graffiti. But today it was strikingly obvious in the woods with the sunlight filtering through leaves on trees at just the right angle it was like viewing a large panorma of stained glass.

So what is abstract art?

Ok I have to admit, although I definitely appreciate abstract art (maybe more than representational art) when you'd ask me to explain abstract art it would be hard for me to articulate what it is even though visually I can appreciate it.

This is how I started this internet journey: I found the article on abstract art by looking up Piet Mondrian images on Google which lead me to another very cool blog where I was captivated by a Helen Frankenthaler picture (Helen Frankenthaler, "The Bay" see image at top of the post) and especially by this quote:

"There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about."~ Helen Frankenthaler

And in "Googling" Helen Frankenthaler for Images ran across a Wikipedia entry which led me to the page way at the top of the post...

To check out more of Helen's art you can Google it yourself or click here.

Don't like your drawing?

Then.... virtually work it out...

Throw paper here!

In the eyes of many artists...

Like a fun challenge? This is a interactive site for artists to render a picture from a new photo posted each Wednesday. It is fascinating to see the different interpertations and styles which result. (And it might be fun to try - when i get brave enough! or more likely have time). The site is hosted by Karin Jurick.

The past weeks challenge was against a photo of the NYSE (how appropriate and timely), it is amazing to see how many submissions and interpertations came out of one photo!

"The Purpose in All This
- to paint or draw the scene, not the photograph
- to paint or draw from photographs
- to make choices from the information given to you"

Paint online on a cardboard box

Check out the Box Doodle tool while you're tooling around the web and getting inspired by other artists!