Blog Posts

3/11/2020

Figure painting thru the millennia!

"Figure painting" is another way of saying "paintings or drawings of humans."

This find is really important, because most cave paintings show animals or hand prints, but not actual fully drawn humans or as more formally called, "figures."

Even if you consider that you can barely draw a stick figure, it's so cool that someone 44,000 years ago drew stick figures. You can see some photos here: http://hilltopmonitor.com/2019/12/oldest-cave-painting-in-world-suggests-religion-began-in/

Below is a page from one of my sketchbooks. I take paper and pen with me to every Marlins game that Andy and I attend. I make sure to get the Marlins Park date stamp, as you can tell. These are stick figures that help me get the gesture of each player. I love trying to get the movements of starting pitchers and batters, but I stick to just Marlins. Late in the 2019 season, I decided to add gestures of the in and out fielders once I'm "done" with the Marlins starting pitcher.

2/26/2020

Color Tools and Easel Photo

2020 is about IMPROVING my art tools as well as using what I already have.

The top tool is a color wheel from Bob Burridge that I purchased in early 2016. I really love it. It helps me figure out focus points and color combinations.

The big color chart is totally new for me. I wonder how I figured things out before I bought it! It's helping me figure out how to QUICKLY mix a color, add it to my painting, and MOVE ON! Oh YEAH! I've so many paintings in Stuck Mode that are coming to life with this new tool!

See the top two flowery paintings? I'm using both color tools to figure those out. Both paintings have been hanging out on my truly messy studio table, tossed from one side to the other, until now. So far, so fun!

I'm keeping both color tools on my easel itself, using velcro tape. Before the velcro tape, I kept losing the wheel, lol!

What's your favorite tool?

2/12/2020

Smart animal spies

I enjoy many science fiction and fantasy books, ever since I could read chapter books. The idea of animals as spies isn’t new as many magical and non magical animals are part of many plots as spies in these books.

I thought it was mostly fiction until I saw this article! What did you think?

To read article: Cats, dolphins and one smart raven: the CIA's secret animal spies

This cat learned to fetch by watching her doggy housemate!
Topaz, Fetching Cat, 6 by 6 inches, acrylics on wood panel, commissioned pet painting

1/29/2020

iPad art and how I'm trying something new

ack at the iPad 2, I thought I was going to try digital art: draw, manipulate photos, all kinds of things.

My fantasy lasted about a year. The apps I could find where clumsy, boring, and limited. No one around me wanted to do the same things...so I had only myself to teach me. My iPad became a more portable laptop...with great video and books.

Fast forward a few years later...when I meet artist and quilter Susie Monday in Lisa Call's Master Class. This artist has some seriously cool, colorful, wacky, quirky, serious artworks in digital formats...AND SHE TEACHES HOW!

I'm so excited and scared but I'm going to give this a go. It's time. I WILL continue to use paper sketchbooks, but I'm excited about the new tools and apps that will push me into different designs and colors.

Artist Danny Gregory is a serious sketcher with published drawing books. He explains and shows why he's using his iPad so much here: https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-inspiration/me-myself-and-ipad-art/

If you're interested in learning more about art on the iPad, go here: http://susiemonday.com/online-courses

In the meantime, I'm trying to using only Susie's "tease list" of apps before class starts. That means I'm actually painting more, lol!!!!

A sketchbook and a couple of pens I use. More traditional and way less expensive supplies that I love!

1/15/2020

A fashion magazine with only drawings! sketches! paintings!

Oh, I'd love to get my hands on this Italian issue of Vogue, January, 2020!

NO PHOTOGRAPHS!!!

The entire issue, probably not counting the advertisements, are of ILLUSTRATIONS!!! AKA drawings, sketches, paintings...by people.

According to the Italian Vogue Editor, the issue is to protest the environmental costs of taking fashion photographs. It's quite a staggering list in the brief article. The magazine knows that they have to use photographs...this is a "statement" magazine, much like the Art Basel Miami banana. The money saved is marked for charity.

We can argue that photography IS an art form...but since when have magazines used primarily drawings to show fashion? Since 1960s? 1950s?

I wonder if the USA issue would consider doing something like this?

Learn more about it by clicking on this sentence.

12/28/2019

Bruno, first pet drawn for commission, 2004

In 2004, I knew a fun loving, courageous girl named Angie, who bartended in Hollywood/Fort Lauderdale area. Her Bruno was already older, but one of the sweetest dogs I'd met. I have no idea what happened to this Angie, but hey, maybe she'll read this and update me?

I was taking every drawing and painting class I could find that were held after day job hours. Pencils, specifically a 4B, were my favorites as they are inexpensive tools and if you can draw then you can paint.

Angie requested a commission of her Bruno. This was my first ever pet portrait. I stumbled upon the photo on the date of this posting and thought to share.

This drawing is (or was?) 11 by 14 inches, pencil on cotton rag paper, circa 2004.

12/4/2019

Art basel Miami Beach is for tourism

,Every year, during the first week of December, it's Art Basel Miami Beach.

For 2019, it's Sunday, December 1st through Sunday, December 8th.

Every year, I try to attend either Art Miami or Art Basel. These are two different art exhibitions, but both are the largest during this time.

I try to attend these shows in order to learn what other artists are doing. I love to see what the international galleries are displaying for their collectors. It's an eye-opening, exciting opportunity to see a few hundred world wide galleries and perhaps thousands of different world wide artists. I take notes and sketches, keeping my eyes open for ideas and techniques to use in my paintings.

Last year, my husband and I did a Friends and Fire evening when the conversation turned to Art Basel. Everyone in the South Florida area that know little about art believe that Art Basel Time is for local artists and galleries.

Art Basel Miami Time is for International Tourism.

Art Basel Miami Time averages 80,000ish visitors from all over the world.

The two main art shows are Art Basel and Art Miami.

Art Basel Miami Beach averages 270ish leading galleries from 35ish countries.

Art Miami is averages 250 international galleries.

INTERNATIONAL. This means that NO or FEW South Florida artists and/or galleries are exhibited or shared during this time. The satellite shows are lost in the "noise" of both of these large fairs...and there are 100s of satellite shows that piggy back on these two main fairs. It's difficult to get attention to these smaller shows because of the marketing power of the two main fairs.

I do encourage you to go see art during Art Basel Time...but remember that to see the actual South Florida artists, you can see them all year around. I attend to see International artworks that I would never get to enjoy otherwise.

If you like podcasts, a great episode about why artists should see major exhibits like Art Basel and how to visit Art Basel on a budget, click over to it on this paragraph and listen to The Artist Next Level Podcast with Sergio Gomez: My visit to Art Basel Miami Beach 2018, December 13, 2018.

If you decide to attend either show, let me know! Maybe we can meet there for a little while!
Angeline

About this artwork: Other Side of Fence Palm Tree Abstract, 24 by 24 inches, mixed media on canvas, 2017, by me, Angeline Marie Martinez

11/20/2019

I am one of 499,760 artists

Selfie at Art Miami, 2018

...After having observed the space for many years—as academic, gallerist, and internet entrepreneur—I realized: There are two art worlds. There is the tiny fraction of galleries and artists at the top that make all the money. And there is the other world, much larger in size but with artists and gallerists who can barely afford rent.

It was devastating to unfold this map. Ninety-nine percent of all institutions scored low and there was only one route to success. If an artist was not part of the central hub, he or she was stuck in an island network....No more than 240 artists who began exhibiting in an island were able to enter the central hub. That’s 240 of 500,000.

...Chances to make it as a gallery are equally low...

There is no better place to see this network in action than the floor plan of Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland. ...The booths for young and emerging galleries are squeezed into corners on the second floor, out of sight..., with no chance to ever make it to the main act. In Art Basel’s Miami edition it’s no different....

...The common belief that the community will sooner or later “discover” an artist is simply wrong. Moneyball for the art world has arrived....
by Magnus Resch

I enjoyed Art Miami 2018 during what is always called "Art Basel Miami Week." I will be attending either Art Miami, Art Basel, or both this year, too. 2019 dates are December 1 - December 8th.

As an art painter, I enjoy seeing other people's artwork. I love seeing what I like, what I don't like, and how other people make things. Art Basel aka Art Miami Week is an opportunity to see work at galleries located all over the globe that set up in Miami, Florida for a single week. This is the best way to see this level of art collection, all in one place!

Art Basel and that level isn't for local artists. It's for the 240 of 500,000 that are in the "central hub." I'm one of the 499,760 artists outside that central hub. There are thousands of exhibits spinning around Art Basel that get lost because Art Basel and Art Miami are the only ones that "truly matter."

How do I feel about being one of 499,760? I'm alright. Maybe I'll get there, maybe I won't. As long as YOU love what I paint, it's all good. YOUR central hub is where I'd like to be! Let me be one of your less than 240 artists, lol!

If you want to read the entire article, click the link:
http://www.artnews.com/2018/12/03/moneyball-art-world/

BY Magnus Resch POSTED 12/03/18 10:58 AM

A data-generated map of art institutions, ranked by “centrality,” showing how their relative influence shapes artists’ careers. Click to enlarge.

COURTESY MAGNUS RESCH
Copyright 2018, Art Media ARTNEWS, llc. 110 Greene Street, 2nd Fl., New York, N.Y. 10012. All rights reserved.

10/2/2019

fossils and bones from the birds

Halloween Still Life with Bird Skeleton, 23 by 30 inches, acrylics on paper, available

Have kept your wonder for fossils? For dinosaurs and other extinct creatures?

Mi Papa and I raised a baby bird for a few weeks when I was about 9 years old. We played catch with Tweety to teach him how to fly. I have a few photos of us, thanks to mi Mama.

The design of this fossil is soooo cool. It's as if an etching (type of print), but then adding mixed media materials (the flattened bones, the textures).

What colors would you make the feathers? I love, love, love this fossil!

Do you keep wonder about fossils? Which are your favorite fossils?

Original location of this photo and for complete article, click here:
http://artdaily.com/news/111214/Fossils-reveal-ancient-history-of-perching-birds#.XGFpulVKhaQ

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline

8/14/2019

When guests arrive

Andy opened our home to Airbnb last week. We are used to entertaining friends in our home, from just for an evening party to a few weeks at a time.

Up until last week, we had some simple cardboard signs and blue painters tape for house signs like Bathroom, Trash, Recycle, etc. These are great for a few hours...but for months? Tacky and ugly.

Soooo, I designed some fun cartoony signs, based on our cat Simon. I’ll be showing them here as I finish, lol. Andy’s happily hung them around our home. Our guests, I think, are enjoying them, lol.

If you’d like some signs for your home, I’d be excited to help you. Send your pet or favorite animal photo and I can design the signs you want. My email is angeline@angelinemarie (dot) net and investment starts at $25 per sign.

Smiles, with paint on my hands,
Angeline

to see our Airbnb listings:
For South Africa Room

For Key West Room