Art Stuff Newsletter

the art newsletter about YOU....

OK, let's dive right into the next 7 web sites. If you haven't shared your web site with the rest of us send it to me and I guarantee it will be in the next newsletter.

Katalin Ehling has been around a long time. I was happy to receive an email from her out of the blue because a print of hers hung in my Denver apartment before I ever started my art journey.

Impressionist painter Esther Williams (no, not the swimmer) started on the east coast and is now living and painting on the Left Coast.

Other than Charles Sovek, the artist who was the greatest influence in my development as a painter was Mark Daily. I studied with him for 7 years in Denver.

Now that I'm in a nostalgic mood I can't forget Doug Dawson, great pastel artist and friend, also from Denver.

M. E.Whitehill followed in the tradition of her great grandfather who was Hudson River Artist, Thomas B. Pope.

Margaret Girle is an Australian artist who paints some pretty powerful images from down under.

New York City artist Judith Carlin has an exciting and unique vision for her paintings.

It's da law ( or it could be)

The way the tax code is now, when an artist donates an artwork, all he or she can write off is the value of the materials used to create the artwork. Yet, art collectors and investors who donate art are able to write off the fair market value of the artwork.

Art collectors are being treated differently than the artists. If the Artist Museum Partnership Act passes, then artists will be able to also deduct the fair market value.

Just say an artist has an oil painting that is worth $1,500, but then the artist realizes that he can only write off from his taxes the cost of supplies (let's pretend in this case it's $20). Most of the time, an artist would prefer to keep the artwork, because after all it may sell - and just write a check for $20 and not donate the artwork, which the non-profit could gain $1,500 from auctioning. In this scenario, the charitable organization would end up getting 20 bucks, not something worth $1,500.

Apparently this was introduced a number of times since 2005 and has now (as of February) been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. I'm following this and will let you know when I learn something new. Or you can let me know if you get anything current on this bill.

You can vote for this bill here and you can comment on the bill here.

Miscellaneous

Well, we just wrapped up our painting in the streets of NYC workshop (uninstructed), and here is a scrapbook of only some of our experiences.

We all have to make calls for tech support from time to time. More than ever those calls are routed overseas to India and other countries. Want to see what it looks like outside the offices in India where our calls are received? Click here but know in advance that this is a JOKE! Thanks to Ellen for submitting this photo.

The British Psychological Society in 2006, posted an entry in their BPS blog on a new research report that suggests that poets and artists have as many "unusual experiences" as people with schizophrenia.

I bumped into a site called EmptyEasel the other day. They share all kinds of tips for selling your work online plus a list of scams to be aware of.

Here's a link to a site that sells frames for your paintings. The site is called "ArtFrames" and it's nicely organized and easy to navigate. As a matter of fact if you order something from them using the code 'PAWA-1' at check out, you'll get a 5% discount.

I'm sure that at one time or another we've all come up against a brick wall of sorts. A sticking point in our painting. I just found myself in the middle of one - not the first one I've ever experienced and probably not the last one either. There is a sense of disequilibrium, uncertainty, a vague feeling of loss of direction, uneasiness and dissatisfaction with what was working. Having gone through this kind of thing before I kind of know what it means: that something's percolating in the underground. The art forces are reconstituting themselves in unconscious levels waiting to surface into consciousness and clarity.

I know that in the early stages of a person's art journey these experiences can discourage an artist from continuing that journey. It's only by sticking with it that we can get through to the other side with renewed energy for our work. Thankfully I can recognize what's happening and live with the temporary frustration as annoying and distasteful as it is. Even feel a little excitement about what's to come. But it's crucial to recognize these experiences for what they are - transitions to the next level of your development. They are NOT dead ends in spite of how they might feel at the moment!

artist quotes

these first three submitted by Rae O'Shea

Andrew Wyeth: "I dream a lot. I do more painting when I'm not painting. It's in the sub-conscious."

Renoir: "You come to nature with all your theories, and she knocks them flat."

Gaugin: "Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge."

Frank Auberbach: "I think that the very earliest influence was a horror of having to work in a bank or an office, a desire for a free and creative life".

Francisco Goya: "Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels."

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

Phil Levine Workshops, Inc.
69 bank Street #102. NY, NY 10014
phone: 212-414-8875 fax: 866-501-6873
e-mail: philiplevine@earthlink.net