Art Appreciation IQ Test

I just found an Art Appreciation IQ Test on the internet. It was fairly short and fun to do. The test would show two works of art (Most of them well-known) and ask you to choose by selecting on the painting which was bolder, more realistic, etc.

At the end of the quiz it would place you in a category. I was placed in the Master of Arts category and the quiz told me I was the first to be placed in this category out of thousands that have taken it. Don't know if this is true or not but it was kind of fun:

If you want to try your luck here is the link: http://www.goneglobal35.com/iq.html

Let me know where you placed!

Weekend Trip / Update

My son in the Tweetsie "Jail"

My husband and son in the "crooked house" at Mystery Hill

Practice sketch with pastel pencils

Well I know I haven't posted in quite a while and I haven't been doing any art in quite some time but I thought I would just do an update in case someone is wondering where I've been.

My husband decided that we needed to take our son to the mountains of North Carolina to visit Tweetsie Railroad before he got much older. Tweetsie is located in Boone, NC and in case anyone is not familiar with it, it is a Western type theme park. There is a train ride that lasts around 20 minutes and cowboys and indians have a mock fight. All the kids on the train that have cap pistols they have purchased in the gift shops are invited to fire them at the indians as quickly as possible and make as much noise as they can. There are rides, shows, restaurants, gift stores with different themes, gem mining, gold panning and an arcade. In other words an exhausting day of fun!

Now, I have been to Tweetsie when I was a kid (and no, I won't say how many years ago that was). However, then it was only a train ride and some shops so it has really grown. My mother's ancestors came down from the mountains ages ago, I believe from around Banner Elk and my parents were always dragging the family to the mountains for weekend trips, etc. There are not a whole lot of tourist attractions in the mountains of NC or Tennessee that I haven't visited at least once. They also used to love to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a very twisty, narrow road with lots of scenery. I personally just do not like traveling in the mountains. I would get car sick on the Parkway and my ears would constantly pop. I was reminded of this when my ears began to pop as we ascended into Boone. I told my husband, "This is not my country."

I don't mean to run the mountains down, if you like them that is great. They are just not for me. I would much rather travel to the ocean any day even though it is a longer drive.

Anyway I am glad we took my son to see Tweetsie. We should have taken him two years ago when he would have enjoyed it more and if we had waited two more years I don't think he would have enjoyed it at all. And you know what? I was downloading the photos I took at Tweetsie and I didn't even take one of the train! Well, I'm not going back just to get a picture of the train, I'll tell you that!

On the art scene I have done one small thing with my pastel pencils for practice. I saw a photo on the blog Nikon Sniper and I though it was great so I tried it in pastel. It only took around 10 minutes. Steven I hope you don't mind, it was just for practice. Steven has lots of wonderful photos on his blog.

I am also looking at submitting an entry for an art contest. No prize, just recognition if your drawing is selected. So I am trying to get ideas for that. I am looking at entering another art show with the pieces I had entered for the last one. I've read the rules and it doesn't say the work cannot ever have been in a show before just not in this show before.

Anyway, I hope to be back in full soon, and hopefully will be back checking in and reading your blogs soon as well as posting!

Until next time!

An Award From a Fellow Blogger!

My good friend and wonderful artist Jan at Pets to Posies http://petstoposies.blogspot.com/ has given me this blog award. Thanks Jan, especially since I haven't been as active here the past couple of months. I appreciate it and love to get the blog awards and pass them on. If you haven't viewed Jan's blog please check it out.

I am supposed to tell seven things about myself and pass the award on to seven other bloggers so here goes.

First seven things about myself that I haven't told before:

1. I've gotten hooked on the cable show Clean House. I just love seeing houses that are more cluttered than mine. It makes me feel so much better!

2. I've told on here several times that I love the beach but I don't think I've told that I love to walk the beach and hunt for fossilized shark teeth. I try to beat the ones I have found before and am accumulating quite a collection!

3. I am terrified of mice and snakes. Apparently while we were at the beach for 8 days a mouse moved into our house. I spent most of Sunday night screaming and scaring it as bad as it scared me. I practically moved out of my house. Thankfully we caught it last night and none too soon. I think I was driving my husband crazy!

4. Spiders don't bother me at all.

5. I wish I had more time / motivation to do my artwork.

6. I really want to start painting again (I haven't painted in many years) but keep putting it off due to not wanting to deal with the mess. Drawing and colored pencils are so much cleaner.

7. I love to take Sunday afternoon naps.

Well, now that you know more about me than you probably ever wanted to know I will pass this on to other bloggers:

Jenna at Color Conscious http://color-conscious.blogspot.com/
Michelle at Following My Muse http://followingmymuse.blogspot.com/
Jill at Pencil Portraitworks http://pencilportraitworks.blogspot.com/
Robin at The Midlife Artist http://themidlifeartist.blogspot.com/
Teresa at Tresses Art Blog http://tressesartblog.blogspot.com/
Dave at Wildlife Art http://davelarsonstudios.blogspot.com/
Laure at Painted Thoughts Blog http://paintedthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/

These are wonderful blogs and artists that I enjoy very much. If you haven't seen their blogs please check them out!

Hopefully I will get back to my art soon!

Back from Vacation! I need another!

Sunset view from my balcony.
View of resort from beach walk-over.

View of resort pier entrance.

My son in the pool! He was throwing a water bomb toy, and I was playing with the sports setting on my digital camera. It is supposed to make you able to take action shots without blurring.

My son walking on the beach. I love to take shots like this showing the subject having their back to the camera.

We returned from our vacation on July 3rd, and I already need another vacation! I have been slammed at work and playing catch-up to get all of my work done. We moved our offices around so I couldn't schedule any appointments for that day. I schedule at least 5 appointments per day for an hour each but I have so many drop-ins that I was not expecting that it is almost impossible to keep up.

On the artistic front I have not been doing anything as I am exhausted when I get home from work but I did take some reference photos at the beach and have many ideas.

I am also trying to get caught up on all of my blog reading, so if I haven't got to you yet I am heading there!

Vacation!!!

Sorry for not posting in so long! Ijust haven't been in an artistic mood lately. I have a couple of projects in mind to start and everyday I think I will begin but after working and doing what I need to do at home (you know those house-wifely duties), I just never seem to get to it. I have been reading everyone's blog however and keeping up with what you all are doing.

My family is leaving for vacation tomorrow! 8 days of fun and sun at the beach so I have been doing a lot of preparing for that and getting things at work caught up so I won't be swamped when I get back. I haven't decided yet if I will take any art supplies with me or not. Past history has shown me that I usually do not do any art on vacation but I may bring them along. You know the old saying "Better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them." I am trying to keep our luggage (read junk here) as light as possible because I hate to pack and unpack.

I will check in after we return and maybe I will have some photographs to show of our vacation.

I sincerely hope everyone has a fun, safe, and happy July holiday!

Juried Art Show

Thought I would give you an update on the Juried Art Show that I entered. Each artist could enter up to three works for an entry fee and at least one work would be in the show. I selected three of my works and talked my husband into entering three of his paintings. The artist's reception and awards ceremony was last night. We knew we had not won anything but wanted to see how many of our works were in the show and who won so we went to the reception.

It was open to media of all kinds and all kinds were represented. There were oils, acrylics, watercolors, pastels, etchings, photographs, graphite (mine were the only graphite works), sculpture of all materials, mixed media, cloth (textile), and digital. There were wonderful landscapes, seascapes, lots of animal work, florals, still lifes, etc.

Some of the work just blew me away with the talent it represented, much of the work I just couldn't relate to as it was abstract. There was a wonderful landscape that looked like you could just walk into it and a still life of fruit that had grapes with moisture on them that looked like you could pluck the fruit from the canvas.

Anyway two of my works were hung; the double portrait of my husband and son entitled "A Good Time" that I marked NFS, and the work of the wheelbarrow and pitchfork entitled "Ready To Work" that I did place a price on. My husband had one of his paintings hung that was entitled "Nightfall."

It was time for the announcements and all artists gathered around. The gentleman making the announcement spoke of the juror and her work as a local artist. Her name was Tracy Marshall and I had previously checked out her website. He said she had two criterion for judging. 1. New, fresh ideas and an original way of creating art. and 2. Technique. There was 4 money prizes and 8 honorable mentions. All honorable mentions except for two were abstract works of art. The third place winner was an abstract wooden sculpture with nails sticking out everywhere. There was a cane bottom chair in the center with a broken jagged piece of wood pushed through the seat. The second place winner was a piece of pottery and that was a nice piece of pottery. The first place winner was an abstract painting and the Best in Show was a gourd sculpture painted with gauche. I have to admit that I just do not understand abstract, modern art even though I have taken a college course in it. The works that blew me away with their talent did not even receive honorable mentions.

After hearing the criteria and having previously checked out her website it went pretty much the way I thought it would go. If anyone cares to look this is her website: http://www.tjmartisticdesigns.com/index.html. I believe my husband was initially disappointed but I pointed out to him the work that was selling was not the work selected for the awards but the other, more representational, realistic work.

Anyway they said they had the most entries this year that they had ever had with over 100 works entered and approximately 70 works were hung in the show. (Iwas pleased with where my two works were hung, right above the visitors sign-in book). Also, the announcer said that in his eyes everyone entered was a winner because it takes a certain amount of courage to put your work on the line and have it judged.

I learned a couple of things from this experience. A lot depends on the juror and the type of art that appeals to them so I did not take it personally that I did not receive anything. A different juror would probably have different award winners. Also now that I have entered one I will enter more. All exposure is good exposure. Later last night I asked my husband if he would enter more shows and he said probably.

It was a fun, learning experience and our work will be on view for the entire month. Who knows what may come of that!

New Work Completed

Red Wagon Wheel

By: Lori Talbert

5/25/09

8x10 Colored Pencil and Graphite on Bristol Board

Just completed the most recent piece I have been working on for the past couple of weeks. I found the reference pic on morgue file when I was browsing and saved it for future use. Something about this pic fascinated me and I thought it would make an interesting subject.

I started in in graphite and realized it would not be as interesting as I once thought completed all in pencil. So I decided to take a chance and add some color with the colored pencils. I chose the wagon wheel and then that stood out too much so I also colored the ground.

Its works pretty good for me. Not nearly as difficult as the last piece I completed but good to get me going on my artwork again.

Now I don't know which one to use as my third entry for the art show. This piece or the last one entitled Millboro Post Office / General Store. What do you think?