 An Original Artwork - Ford Customline in Paddock, all proceeds go to the Hope From Ashes charity to assist those rebuilding their lives after the Toodyay Fires of December 2009 http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Original-Artwork-Ford-Customline-in-Paddock_W0QQitemZ300396816772QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Paintings?hash=item45f10ba984 Original Artwork - Ford Customline in Paddock VERY HAPPY TO POST AT BUYERS EXPENSE Original Artwork - Ford Customline in Paddock. Ford Customline. Signed Artwork on Canvas 61.5cm x 91.5cm The Artist cannot be named in Public Auction. The Hope From Ashes auction will run online starting on the date of the benefit concert with new items being put up daily over the next week. This online auction will raise awareness and funds and give people the opportunity to contribute and help Toodyay people who are rebuilding after the fire. We have tried to gather together a range of diverse and high quality items and services that in some way reflect the diversity and creativity of the Toodyay community. In finding a gift for yourself you will be giving to the Toodyay community and we hope the excitement and high energy of the auction will be uplifting and inspiring in its way. The auction has the Hope From Ashes flavour celebrating and demonstrating the generosity, positivity and support that has flowed so readily for and within the Toodyay community. As well as people from Perth many local Toodyay businesses and individuals have also contributed to the auction, some although deeply affected by the fires through loss of home or workplace. Artworks, craft items, trips away, fantastic meals and even life coaching sessions, massages, motoring items, clothing and collectors plates are just a few of the amazing items we can offer you. The list grows every day so “no napping” or you may miss a fabulous item…which is just what you need! We hope you will enjoy the items on offer and we hope you have fun whilst you bid big as we pull together to raise much needed funds for the survivors of the Toodyay Bushfires. If you wish to make a donation in person, please use the following Bendigo Bank details. Thank you. Hope from Ashes BSB: 633 000 Account: 139 064 364 It is amazing what I find in these charity auctions and on EBay. I have bought everything from the complete spa bathroom with granite bench tops through to acne scar removal. Herring Island Environmental Sculpture Park. 02/11/2010
 Herring Island Environmental Sculpture Park From: Sat, 9 Jan 2010 To: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 Time: 12:00 PM - 4:45 PM Melway Ref: 2M C2 Bookings Required: no Cost: Adult $2.00 Family $5.00 Further Information: Jenny Rickards http://home.vicnet.net.au/~hisaf/ 0418 971 897 Tucked away on the Yarra River in Toorak, Herring Island is a retreat for people from the bustle of the city just three kilometres away. Accessible only by boat, Herring island is a haven for Australia’s great wildlife too. On the parkland is Herring Island Gallery. The gallery is a converted scout hall - the fireplace and the marks on the floor are the give-away signs! Curator Maudie Palmer commissions artists to create sculptures from natural materials such as stone, earth and wood. The sculptures reflect the island's unique and tranquil setting and appear to be part of the landscape. A number of exhibitions are being held at the gallery over Summer. They include: * Ceramics Victoria (from 9 to 26 January 2010) * Association of Sculptors of Victoria (from 30 January to 14 February) * Contemporary Art Society of Victoria (from 20 February to 8 March) * Koori Heritage Trust (from 13 to 28 March) * Photography Studies College Melbourne (from 3 April to 18 April). Please join us on the island to view the exhibition. The exhibition is open from 12 noon to 4:45pm each day. Adults are $2. Children under 10 and those with a concession card are free and families are $5. Parks Victoria provides access to Herring Island via a punt (ferry) from Como Landing (Melway 2M C3). This operates from 11:30 am to 5 pm on weekends and public holidays. The punt costs $2 per adult. Guided Activities 1. Canoeing / Kayaking (B3) Volunteers 1. Friends of Herring Island Publications Links to other websites1. Sculpture Gardens/Art Brochures1. A new guide to Victoria's Parks: Parks Discovery Park Notes / Maps1. Herring Island Environmental Sculpture Park - Visitor Guide 2. Herring Island - The Sculptures Books & DVDs1. Victoria's National Parks 2. Melbourne's Great Outdoors Permits & Licences1. Herring Island - Application for an Activity/Function Victoria's Heritage Stories1. Herring Island - The Island of Dreams Artist In Schools Program 02/07/2010
 Artists; Have you ever considered applying for an artist in schools program? One of my most enjoyable years was spent as an artist in School, guding 400 primary school age children through the production of a mural of Jells Park, in Victoria. The project was jointly funded and I was paid a teachers rate plus the cost of my art materials. I found it a wonderful experience. Artists in Schools provides opportunities for professional artists to work with young people in Victorian primary and secondary schools. Schools engage an artist for up to 20 days to work with students and teachers on a creative project, which may be in any art form. Eligibility Applications are accepted from Victorian schools, including primary, secondary, government and non-government schools, including schools for students with special needs. If a school received Artists in Schools funding for 2010, 2009 or 2008, it is ineligible to apply for funding for 2011. The Artist Artists may work in any art form or combination of art forms, including literature, visual arts, performing arts and new media. The artist must be a practising professional artist who relates well to young people and communicates, discusses and demonstrates their art with ease. Performances or workshops that are identical, or very similar to those that the artist provides regularly in schools on a commercial basis will not be supported. The School An Artists in Schools project needs significant support from the school. The school needs to:
It takes approximately 11 weeks from the closing date until funding results are available. It is recommended that schools plan to commence projects in Terms 2, 3 or 4. Funds Available Grants of $6,500 are available for schools to engage an artist for up to 20 days. Two artists may work together on an Artists in Schools project but the total grant will remain at $6,500. In the 2009-2010 financial year 85 applications were received and 30 (35%) were funded. The total funds awarded was $195,000 with each recipient receiving $6,500. The program is a Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) and Arts Victoria partnership with support from the Community Support Fund. Artists in Schools Information Sessions Artists in Schools Information Sessions are conducted each year. To get an insight into the program and application process, you can access a recording of the session that was held online prior to the 2009 funding round. This session was hosted in Elluminate, you can follow this link to view the recording. http://www.arts.vic.gov.au/content/Public/Funding_Programs/Education_Partnerships/Artists_in_Schools.aspx   216mm x 279mm Landscape Prints, from the Art of,Acclaimed Artist, Kathy Shell Available now from http//www.campfire-yarns.com website. Also available 'direct from artist', at the caravan awning studio. I am looking forward to the outdoor life again, bushwalking and trekking up hill with my easel and art supplies is more effective than the best weight loss pills, I always feel I get fitter and stronger when painting these landscapes out of doors and fully recommend, on location landscape painting over studio painting to any artist. The paintings also take on an extra dimension as you hear the bird song, smell the leaves, feel the breeze and the temperature variations, and use all senses as you create the painting, painting as the human eye sees, rather than copying what a camera lenses has captured.    Flower Prints by Kathy Shell. 02/07/2010
 216mm x 279mm Prints, from the Art of,Acclaimed Artist, Kathy Shell Available from http://www.campfire-yarns.com Also available direct from artist from our caravan awning studio, while on tour. We will be touring south Gippsland, late February to early March, the Grampians in western Victoria during March. Funny story: about when I was painting one of those flower paintings, it was a 36” x 48” canvas, which required a lot of stretching and as I was in my 50’s when I painted it and had some arthritic issues at the time. I turned the painting upside down to work at the top if it and save myself stretching and hurting. I overheard an art teacher telling a group of art students that, ‘Kathy Shell, paints upside down, because she sees the world that way’. Lol J That is how, ‘myths’ about artists, begin, someone assumes instead of asks. I turned and informed the class of art students, that 'I painted that way because after 50 years of painting like this, (and I demonstrated stretching up to the top of the canvas,) I had repetition strain injury'. I was a candidate to learn a little more about natural anti inflammatory and joint care jointsupplementreviews.net. as well as action modification. I still modify my movements, but with exercises, in my mid sixties I am free from the joint ain I had in my fifties though I still would not strain to paint high above my head for hours when I can move the canvas closer to my reach and if that means a tall canvas is painted upside down, then that’s how I will work.    The finished, commissioned, pastel art work by Kathy Shell, incorperating the two photos below and placing the family together for Christmas, in the art work. Earning a Living as an artist. The Website. Get yourself a professional looking website. If you are not good at web design consider trying to trade your skills for the skills of a professional web designer, many people will trade skills with an artist, don’t be afraid to ask or stop asking if you get a knock back. I estimate for every ten times I ask if someone will trade skills with me, I will have one successful exchange that benefits both parties making the trade. You can get a website for cheap I use a Weebly Pro account. and I love it, they also have free web sites to get you started and you can upgrade to the pro account when you are ready. Many people have been successful using www.myspace.com, www.facebook.com, and www.youtube.com to promote their work. I have a Kathy Shell fan page in facebook. Obtain your one domain name or user name that is easy to remember, yet describes your work. Be careful how it will read to others. My first two experiences with a domain name were not successful. I tried r.k.shell.gallery.com and I got people wanting to buy sea shells, not works by Kathy Shell. Then I tried kathyshell.com and even spent $500. Having that sign written on my car, only to overhear people reading out, Kathys Hell, not Kathy Shell and that was why my domain name became the hyphenated, Kathy-shell.net, it is now. It once was kathy-shell.com but I made a mistake of registering the .com version of my name with a company that wanted hundreds of dollars a year for me to use it. Another costly mistake, I made doing exactly what I recommend people not do, having had a fool for a teacher, I self taught myself, most of the web skill I know, hence the amount of mistakes I have made as a web developer. Having pictures that do not load well for your viewers is another costly error as you will lose repeat viewers, cad drawing.is something worth looking into if you are designing your own web site. Be sure to copyright your images before posting them on line.   A pastel portrait by artist Kathy Shell, from a photo, an example of turning an art form into a successsful service based business, attending to customers needs. You need to treat art as a business if your business is art. If you think that artists do not need to work, that it is all play and creating when you feel like it, then do everyone a favour and call it a hobby, don’t expect grants from public money, the world does not owe artists a living. Art is our choice and we should not be subsidised if we are unable to earn our living at it anymore than someone, should get, a grant to go and play golf all day instead of going to work. Lol, J, OK I have got that off my chest. Being a professional artist is going to involve very long hours of work and becoming multi skilled. I have known dozens of talented artists who cannot earn a living at art, because they have not grasped that we need to develop four different types of skills to succeed in the arts and indeed, most professions. 1. Talent We need the talent or skill to have something to sell. Develop this. Make it a lifetime commitment to be on an ongoing search for knowledge and learn from everything and anything you can, while not contravening the copyright of others, make sure you didn’t have a fool for a teacher, by insisting on being ‘self taught’. Yes, one can be self-guided, but expertise is learned from experts. 2. Public Relations skills.If you are not skilled in public relations, then learn these skills. It might be easier to employ someone to do the PR for you, but the truth of the matter is, that unless you have an income aside from your art, few artists are going to have the funds to pay for a good PR representative. So learn how to do this for yourself. 3. Business skills. It does not matter how well you create, paint or how good the items you have to sell are, nor how well you are able to market these, using your PR skills, if the business side of things breaks down and you make unwise choices accounting for and usuing the income you make. There needs to be a balance of all skills. 4. Diversify. Art is a non essential, item. If you look at how the stock market fluctuates, then realize that art is also going to fluctuate, only the fluctuation will be wider. No one, can tell you in advance what artistic skills might peak nor suffer in the next fluctuation. Take the example of the need to diversify, from what happend during the last big depression to my own artistic family, who all survived based on the actions of one family member, my mother, the only one who diversified her skills. My father the architect, rated at the time as one of the top 6 architects in Australia, had no essential sevice skills and was unemployed during the last depression. My uncle, one of Australia’s best musicians at the time, a man who during the peak of his career, left millions to charities due to the success of his career, had no other developed skill aside from his musicianship and he could not make enough money to provide a home for or feed his family during that depression as people would not pay for his, non essential service, skill. My mother, a dress designer, was able to diversify, from making high end fashion to designing clothing to fit people with deformity, then accept commissions to make military uniforms and her income as a young woman in her twenties, supported three families of six adults and three children, all because she was prepared to diversify her artistic skills when the need arose and not be too proud to take orders or work with heavy harsh on the hands, military materials. When I informed my family that I intended to be an artist, they were 100% behind my doing this, they never told me that ‘I would not be able to earn my living at the arts’, as many tell artists. They did however insist that I have diverse talents and essential skills. Back then, I did a science course as my essential services ‘fall back on, if I needed it’, diversification from art. These days with my interest in web design and reliance on computers I would probably choose to study for and have IT Jobs as my essential industry, fall back, should I have times when art needed subsidising with other work. Develop varied and essential service skills and your integrity as an artist is protected and you have the financial stability you need as a base to develop a successful artistic life. Happy creating :-)  Another portrait commision by Kathy Shell, in artist's pastels, completed to a clients instructions, showing the combination of artistic talent, PR skills of working with the client and the business ability of marketing commissioned portaiture as a service. Caravan Studio Sales. 02/03/2010
    I have packed all the art print cards, fridge magnets and postcards in the caravan, ready to pop out on the tables under the caravan awning in the mornings, while we are touring around Victoria and east coast Australia, during 2010. Australia. Reg will be sitting outside and we will have a simple, hand crafted, Welcome sign, up and be as unobtrusive, as we can be, while letting people know they are welcome to enter out caravan awning studio to view my work. This is how I hope to pay for the fuel, tyres and vehicle services on this landscape painting and travel writing tour. Reg enjoys selling small items, though I am thinking, as we will be on power, in caravan parks most of the time, that a small receipt printer like the smaller version of these, epson receipt printer, might be an asset to us. We used one like that, for years, whenever we did exhibitions and in our gallery, it does make it easy when you have a few sales in rapid succession, saves you trying to keep up with things writing everything down. Lol, I do not expect to be rushed, at breakfast hour in the slow pace of a holiday caravan park, but I can hopeJ. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have illustrated this post with some of the functional art items we will be selling from the caravan awning studio, while we are on tour. These are caps, T Shirts and key rings. I do not sell these on line as I only have a few. You can view and order, my popular fridge magnet art at http://www.fridgemagnetart.com or purchase them 'Direct from the Artist', n tour.   Colour Harmony! 02/02/2010
  I had a lovely few hours looking at modern furniture and home decor, today in a little side street store. I came home with three beautiful plump soft pillows with exquisite ruched, cream beige, velvet covers. These will ‘work’ in either my caravan interior, which is cream white and beige, base colours with sky blue and a pin stripe of yellow as the accessory colours. I love this fresh sun and sky colour scheme. My lounge room in my summer retreat is cool, blue grey walls and ceiling, with a cobalt blue curtains and cream, creamy beige and an interesting, beige grey stone colour that ties these colours together well. I think this is one of the most important aspects for a painting, a room, an outfit of clothes, to look good, having a colour harmony that works beautifully. The picture I will illustrate this post with, at the top, are of two cards from my art work, these are in colours that would work well, in the decor of my summer studio, they are painted using split opposite colour harmonies which work well with the colours I have described Below are pictures of the bare interior, before my soft furnishings are added, to my caravan.      The Giveaway: In conjunction with Mummified Times Five, I am giving away up to $1000 worth of Maimeri Classico oil paints! Each prize pack includes 10 tubes of Maimeri Classico paints valued at $9.55 each…so with free postage, that’s a prize pack valued at over $100!! And we have 10 packs to give away!! To enter, all you need to do is: -comment on any post ON EACH of Kathy Shell’s blogs (listed in my blog side bar and below): http://mummifiedtimesfive.net/2010/02/01/spotlight-on-kathy-shell-giveaway/ and say why you would like to win a 10 pack of Maimeri Classico paints. (Both steps are mandatory to be in the running to win this prize) Giveaway finishes 15 Feb 2010 This blog post has been illustrated by postcards from the art of Kathy Shell. These can be orderd through the artist's postcards-art web site or purchased 'direct from the artist', in her caravan awning studio     | Advertisers, This 160 x 160 advertising space, could be yours. See our advertising page above then contact Kathy to arrange your advertising package.
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