|
Featured Artist:
I'm Always Learning Something New! When I was a lot younger, I used to think that all I needed was a good idea, and everything would somehow, magically come together! When teachers insisted that I use a particular format or do a specific exercise as a new study, I tended to feel that they were interfering with my creativity! I just wanted to wait for inspiration to come, do my own thing, thinking that all I needed was creativity! While things do sometimes magically fall into place, most often I have to work at it, and I lost a lot of time just "waiting around" for inspiration! Meg Van Rosendaal, a calligrapher, said, "Ideas don't generate work; work generates ideas!" She was right! The more I study up and learn, the more ideas I get! When I spend my time researching color, theory or design, I never fail to get many new inspirations with loads of new visions popping into my head! Once I know the rules, I want to experiment with them and try new ways of "bending" them, but I have to know the rules before I can get truly creative. I enjoy entering competitions with my paintings, but the average artist's success rate with show entries is twenty percent. That means, most often you will get into about two out of ten shows that you enter! Winning prizes has even greater odds! Why? Because judges are people, and they have their own ideas about what they like and don't like. They also usually know their stuff, so a painting that is creative, but not based on sound art principles, can't fool them. When a painting doesn't get into a show, I don't let it get me down, and I never waste time whining about the judge, or making up excuses. I try to find out what made other artists' works the better choices, and I always keep in mind that it was the opinion of just one judge. If I disagree with the judge's call, I will enter the same painting in another show-I often get it into the next one (different judge, different opinion)! Finally, whenever I present my work, I present it as if it were going before royalty. It has to be absolutely perfect, with no smudges on the artwork or mats, and with the glass and frame always dusted and polished. Folks will always judge your art by its presentation, so it is very important to create the most elegant impression possible-especially if you expect to sell your work or get some special recognition for it. Ask others to help you evaluate the overall presentation of your work, and show them your very, very best-always! Terri Austin-Beech, M.A. works in several media including egg tempera, colored pencil, transparent watercolor and soft & oil pastel. She exhibits paintings in national and international juried shows around the U.S., and has won several awards. She has recently exhibited with Art on the Green, the 43th National Exhibition of American Art in New York, and the Motherlode International Exhibit in California. This summer, Terri participated in the Arts-in-the-Parks Frontier Montana Gathering of Western Artists, and has two pieces of art in its travelling exhibit. Her watercolor painting "Cerulean Blue" is featured on the cover of the Fall, 2000, North Idaho College Community Education Catalog. She is one of Kootenai County's Artists-in-the-Classroom and visits several schools each year. Terri has her own gallery, Terri's Art Works, in Post Falls, Idaho, where she also runs an art school for children ages seven to seventeen. See Terri's work at: Austin-Beech.com. |
Photo: Geoff Beech~ Back to Featured Authors &
Artists ~
Copyright 2000-2006 ~ All Rights Reserved.