Review the year

We are nearing the end of 2009 and one of the most important (and profitable) investments you can make is to review the past few months very, very carefully.

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Home Page Art by Delilah = http://www.artbydelilah.com

A Time for Reflection

This time of year is one of reflection and contemplation.

We are nearing the end of 2009 and one of the most important (and profitable) investments you can make is to review the past few months very, very carefully.

Review what work what didn't as questions. Why do I paint what I do? Why should anybody care? How can I make it more powerful?

It is a time to be grateful for the blessing of the previous year. It is a time to look forward to a bright new year. It is a season of joy and peace.

I delight in this season.

" POST YOUR OPINIONS IN THE COMMENTS" or email me at delilah@artbydelilah.com

Home Page Art by Delilah = http://www.artbydelilah.com

Merry Christmas

I've been getting a wonderful Newsletter from Dr Philip Humbert, a great success coach and motivational speaker.

Every week he sends one of the best newsletters around, one of the few I actually read. It has a warm, personal touch with motivation, great business tips, quotes and even some nice humor!

This month he's giving away a FREE report called "The Top 10 Tools for Maximum Personal Productivity." It's amazing how these simple skills help you get more done! I love it! The report breaks it down to a checklist of fundamentals for being more productive and best of all, it's FREE!

I found it helpful an d thought you would enjoy it, too. Get your copy at: http://philiphumbert.com/Free

" POST YOUR OPINIONS IN THE COMMENTS" or email me at delilah@artbydelilah.com

Home Page Art by Delilah = http://www.artbydelilah.com

Dare to Accomplish

You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare.
……….Georgia Okeeffe


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Home Page Art by Delilah = http://www.artbydelilah.com

Christmas Red

"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success."-- Norman Vincent Peale

" POST YOUR OPINIONS IN THE COMMENTS" or email me at delilah@artbydelilah.com

Home Page Art by Delilah = http://www.artbydelilah.com

Marshmallows for the Holidays

Marshmallows are so yummy and they are great with Cocoa and you know what they are easy to make. For fun you can dip them in Chocolate or add flavors :vanilla, almond, peppermint, cherry or raspberry extract. Color them Green and Red for Christmas .

I always use bags of marshmallows as packing to protect my Christmas gifts in shipping and are a nice treat to eat when you open the box.I put some instant Cocoa in the package too. That is a green way to ship anywhere in the world and so yummy. You’re almost guaranteed that no one else will ship them a Christmas gift packed in Marshmallows.

But if you really want to get creative and as artist don't we always well WOW! them with marshmallows you have made. It's so easy even an Elf could do it.

Smitten Kitchen
Springy, Fluffy Marshmallows
Adapted from Gourmet, December 1998

These homemade marshmallows are not only easy to make, they set as perfectly as promised: puffed and lightweight, bouncing off one another as I tossed them in the container. Even better, they toasted like a campfire charm speared on the end of a skewer, and s’mooshed between two graham crackers with a square of chocolate.

Makes about 96 1-inch cubed marshmallows

About 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water, divided
2 cups granulated sugar (cane sugar worked just fine)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites or reconstituted powdered egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla (alternately: 1/2 of a scraped vanilla bean, 2 teaspoons almond or mint extract or maybe even some food coloring for tinting)

Oil bottom and sides of a 13- by 9- by 2-inch rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar.

In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold cold water, and let stand to soften.

In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.

With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer. (Some reviewers felt this took even longer with a hand mixer, but still eventually whipped up nicely.)

In separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla (or your choice of flavoring) into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and don’t fret if you don’t get it all out (learning from my mess of a first round). Sift 1/4 cup confectioners sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.

Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (An oiled pizza cutter works well here too.) Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.

Do ahead: Marshmallows keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature 1 week.



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Home Page Art by Delilah = http://www.artbydelilah.com

Do Art Memberships help you as an Artist

Poinsettia, Christmas flower

About This Painting:
Poinsettia
12x9
watercolor on 140 lb cold pressed watercolor paper

Media: watercolor
Size: 9 in X 12 in (22.9 cm X 30.5 cm)
Price: $100 USD

How to Purchase:

Buy this painting on PayPal
Price: $100 USD plus $10 USD s/h
Or, send me an email

I ran across a very interesting blog today and I thought I would share it with you. I will be sharing blog from now until Christmas that I find interesting.

This post is by Stapleton Kearns, a professional oil painter living in New England. He is a member of the Guild of Boston Artists and a past president of the Rockport Art Association. He has been painting landscape full time for thirty five years. He has a blog at http://www.stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/ .


Dear Stape,

Money is tight down here on the container docks, I do my own paint stripper haircuts at home, and I am living on potting soil and vanilla extract. I am planning to capture and eat the meter man the next time he comes around. I can't afford to apply to the artists societies that have expensive application and jury fees. It would be, of course, very impressive to have these memberships on my resume. Is that something worth shelling out the big bucks for? Would folks take my art more seriously because of it?

Oneulna


Dear Oneulna;

I think that it is good for an artist to join and participate in art associations. But there is a price point at which an art organization costs more than it delivers. For instance, some offer a clubhouse in the big city, with a dining room. I don't see how you could afford that, even if the utility company continues to send unlimited meter readers. So I recommend against you choosing the fancy "club house" type of art organizations. They are fine if you can afford them though. You may need to determine what the ratio is between wall space and membership. Here's the deal with that.

There is more art in this world than their are gallery walls on which to show it. Some triage has to be done. So you if you want to be in the shows at one of the more highly regarded organizations, you are going to be juried...count on it. The question is whether you are going to be juried before you pay your dues, or after. There are various organizations which are relatively easy to get into, but even though you pay your dues, that doesn't get your art onto the walls. This is particularly true if the organization's juries routinely prefer one kind of art and you make another. Sometimes their lightly juried membership is so large that many of them NEVER get shown. I have often wondered about the ethics of that.


The other system is a tightly juried organization that is difficult to get into, but hangs a much higher percentage of its member's art. I have known amateur painters who were angry because they couldn't get into a particular organization, who never really considered the presence of this "triage". But those tightly juried organizations don't take your money unless they are likely, or even certain, to show your art.

If you are a relatively new to the art game, or what I like to call a "learning artist", you should look at local art associations that either show all of their membership or where you are likely to be accepted by the juries.


Most paintings sold in art associations are not expensive. So don't look to them as a sales tool, they are for building connections to other painters who can help you to improve and share their experience with you. Isolation is not camaraderie's equal as a teacher!

Most of what will impress clients and dealers is good painting, and art organizations are useful if they help you to make it. If a dealer thinks they can make money selling your art, they will handle it, if you belong to all the art organizations or none. When you are far into your career, you may be in one of the really prestigious art organizations and I suppose that matters on your resume. But I have seen some impressive resumes from artists whose work was weak, and their sales reflected their art and not their resumes.

........Stape

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