Georgetown Art Center Renovation Budget Approved Search for Managing Organization Begins On May 22, after working for two months with several City departments and the City Manager's office to explore and address all issues involved in renovating Old Fire Station #1, Eric Lashley, library director and staff liaison to the Arts and Culture Board, brought the $400,000 budget to Council. This budget includes widening the sidewalks and redeveloping the pocket park adjacent to the building. The total amount was far more money than the Arts and Culture Board had ever imagined they would spend for a fledgling art center, but it is a realistic budget that will preserve and enhance the building's historic status and its desirability for any number of uses. Council approved not only the budget but the draft management agreement that will be executed with the organization that is selected to run the art center. Legal notice of the opportunity to submit proposals for managing the art center will appear in the June 3 and June 10 editions of the Williamson County Sun. The deadline for submitting proposals is June 15.

June Framer's Gallery Report

June bugs are hoppin' and so is the art at the Framer's Gallery, located at 610 S. Main (one block off the square) in Georgetown, Texas.  This month the following WCAG artists are displaying their works: Linda Figg, Connie Hartsfield, GretchenArt (Gretchen Hecht), Lynn Kessel, Joan L. McShane, Holly Moore, Kim Pierce, Roger Pierce and Alexis Templeton.  It is a varied display so, go by and "see what's hanging."  I think you will enjoy what you see!  The art will be there until July 3rd.

There was a landslide victory for People's Choice Award this month.  Congratulations goes to Holly Moore for her photograph, "Indian Blankets."  It is pictured above.

All WCAG artists are welcome to display their work at the Framer's Gallery.  Contact the gallery chair, Connie Hartsfield, at charts303@yahoo.com for details.

Attention Artists: Do you need help finding the right gallery?

The subject of applying to galleries is frequent among artists. Much information about how to organize and submit a portfolio is available, but how do you know where to apply? What do you look for in a gallery? How do you find reasonable matches for the type of artwork you do? If this subject is of interest, I’m teaching a workshop June 26th at JERRY’S ARTARAMA in Austin. Drop me an email for workshop registration info at Cheryl@CherylFinfrock.com

Round Top Pottery

Hi friends!  Just finished this 5x7 painting of a small pottery jug nestled in front of two much larger pieces I found on a visit to Round Top, Texas - mecca for antique shoppers!   The pot is set off by a really cool turquoise stained wood table which has been weathered by much sun exposure - love the wood grain!

5x7

linen on panel

Painting will be on display at 

Gallery Off The Square beginning May 31st

ART CENTER is approved

Howdy! I must confess that I was disappointed that not that many artists showed up to the City Council meeting last night! The good news is that City Council has given the okay for the Art Center pilot program. The next step is to name the non-profit that will be managing the art center... This is a huge step that has been years in the making! It's very exciting news for the arts community.

May Framer's Gallery Report

Good morning art enthusiasts!  WCAG members are displaying 25 very nice works at the Framer's Gallery, located one block off the square (610 S. Main) in Georgetown, TX.  Participating artists this month are: Lowana Carter, R Castro, Marianne DeRiggi, Kay Dimitri, GretchenArt (Gretchen Hecht), Ann Koziell, Gregory Heflin, Lynn Kessel, JoRene C. Newton, Virginia Headly Masserang, Joan McShane, Holly Moore, Betty Stinson, Alexis Templeton and Kerry Whitfill. 

During the First Friday's People's Choice vote, Lynn Kessel's two paintings were in a neck and neck race with each other for first place.  At the end of the night "Watchful Eyes" won the People's Choice Award.  Congratulations Lynn!

Any WCAG members who wish to display their art at the Framer's Gallery in June should email the gallery chair, Connie Hartsfield, at charts303@yahoo.com.

Artist America Martin returns to Austin for a solo exhibition at Wally Workman Gallery

BY MICHAEL GRAUPMANN 05.05.12 | 03:00 pm French artist Paul Cezanne once remarked, "One does not replace the past; one only provides a further link to it." A revolutionary figure in the art world during the early 20th Century, Cezanne knew a thing or two about respecting the great Impressionists who influenced him while still forging ahead with his unique style that paved the way for Modernism. Taking a look around the enjoyable new solo exhibition of Los Angeles-based artist America Martin at Wally Workman Gallery, you'll see a similar unapologetic homage to the confident contemporary artist's influential teachers like Gauguin, Rothko, Picasso and, yes, Cezanne. To read the full article, please visit the Culture Map website. I just ran into this story, and never heard of the artist, but I can tell you that I am going to be going to this show. Maybe I'll see you there... Nick

This past week Amy Guadagnoli, who makes wood block prints, spoke at the
Williamson County Art Guild meeting. She cuts her blocks, and prints each one by
hand, making a mono-print. I was so inspired that I decided to make my own print, on a much smaller
scale, using the Staedtler Master Carving Block. I cut a piece 31/2 X 61/2 and drew on the design.
These blocks are so easy to carve; it's like cutting butter! Having never carved anything quite this size,
it was a little challenging. I did not want it to be too perfect, but more organic looking, so I think it
worked out pretty well. I tend to make circles and curves when I make marks; this is what happened.
The connecting circles depict how everything is connected in the universe. The dove of peace flies in
the spiral sky above the rising sun, and the wheel is a sign of moving forward. I used some screen
printing inks on rice paper (this is the bright one). Lumiere paints were used on the black paper,
and black on the white rice paper. I'm sure I will be doing more of these because I love the unexpected, the surprises, that you get with the whole process.

The Blue Dove

Sonia, from Stinger Studio, has been leading some of us in different ways of doing things.
The dove was started with a very colorful background on heavy watercolor paper.
I then outlined the dove and painted white around it to leave the negative space of the dove.
It looked too white for me, so I sanded the background with sand paper until some of the background color
was peaking through. I like it better this way. 

Salon International 2012

Hi Friends.  This last weekend was AMAZING!  I had the opportunity to meet some of the top artist from around the country.  The Greenhouse Gallery hosts the Salon International, a Project of The International Museum of Contemporary Masters of Fine Art.   If you have a chance to go to San Antonio to see the exhibit (going until May 5th) you won't be disappointed.  It is amazing!   I was truly humbled by the quality of work on exhibit.   (www.greenhousegallery.com ).    There are four large rooms of art.  Here is a pic of one the walls.

April Framer's Gallery Report

April is a very busy month at the Framer's Gallery, located at 610 S. Main. There are 12 WCAG members exhibiting 22 works of art. Exhibiting members are: Sandy Archer, Kay Dimitri, Jennifer Gunn, GretchenArt (Gretchen Hecht), Gregory Heflin, Mary Jones, Pricilla Jones, Virginia Masserang, E. Holly Moore, Betty Stinson, Alexis Templeton and Kerry Whitfill. Works will be on display until May 2nd.

With so much great art there was some major competition for the People Choice Award. During each First Friday event visitors to the gallery get to vote for their favorite art piecet being presented by WCAG members. Throughout most of the evening there was a 3 way tie for 1st place and a 4 way tie for 2nd place (actually it would be 4th place). Anyway, at the end of the evening one piece was chosen as the winner. Congratulations goes to Gretchen Art (Gretchen Hecht) for her painting, "Poppy Days are Here Again."

Members who would like to participate in May need to email the gallery chair, Connie Hartsfield at charts303@yahoo.com and make a reservation.

Gallery Tour- Call For Entries!

Georgetown Arts Alliance
Call for Entries – Gallery Georgetown Tour Promotional Artwork
April 3, 2012

Dear Artist:
The Georgetown Arts Alliance Promotions Committee is requesting submissions of artwork to be used in the promotion of the Gallery Georgetown 2012 tour, tentatively scheduled for 5-9 p.m. on Saturday, November 3. The artwork selected will be featured in a poster and other possible promotional materials for the tour.
Gallery Georgetown will be an evening to appreciate and shop for local art by touring participating local galleries around Georgetown while tasting wines and appetizers and enjoying live music.
This will be the inaugural year of the event, and the committee wants to incorporate art in the promotional materials from the get go. The Arts Alliance Promotions Committee will select the winning art to be used for the official Gallery Georgetown 2012 poster.
Artwork must be original and communicate/interpret the artist’s depictions of what the Gallery Georgetown tour could be. Traditional, contemporary, impressionist, abstract, photos and digital two-dimensional works of art are welcome.
There will be approximately 150 posters of the selected artwork printed. The posters will be used to promote the event, as well as be offered for sale. The artist will retain all rights to the original artwork but will give permission to the City of Georgetown and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce to use for promotional materials.
All entries must be submitted on a labeled CD using JPEG (.jpg) files only. Please note that we will not be accepting actual pieces of work. Entries must be dropped off at the Main Street Program office in Economic Development on the second floor of 816 S. Main Street (or postmarked) no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, June 29, 2012.
Artist selected will be notified by Monday, July 16, 2012.

Next Months Speaker Amy Guadagnoli

Austin based printmaker, Amy Guadagnoli, is our featured guest and speaker for the Art Guild meeting. Amy wraps this year's guests, but we are already lining up artists for next year. For more information about Amy, you can visit her website.

Patricia Lyle Interview

Check out Patricia Lyle's interview!

Pinterest.com and copyright infringement

Pinterest.com is a website that created a place for you to share your stuff. Unfortunately it's a place where everybody else can share your stuff too. Without your knowledge or consent. And when that happens, you've lost control over your art. There's been a lot of controversy about Pinterest with regard to copyright infringement.

Click here to read more about it.
But it's good that there's been controversy about it, because now Pinterest.com has created the code that will allow you to protect your art from someone who may want to ... uh ... "borrow" it from a blog. That code has been installed on this blog and the artwork you've posted here is now protected from being "pinned" on Pinterest by anyone, except you if you choose to do that.
For those of you who have your own blog, and would like to protect your art, it's a simple easy fix. Just copy and paste the code into your blog's template. If you're not sure how to do that, just follow these instructions.

1. Copy (hi-lite it and [control-c]) the following line of code
<meta content='nopin' name='pinterest'/>

If any of the following images are too small for you to see
what's going on, just click on them to enlarge them.

2. Go to your blog's dashboard and click "Design".




3. In the top left click "Edit HTML".







4. Now Look for <HEAD> and place your cursor right behind it and hit "enter" to add a blank line. Then paste [control-v] that line of code you copied from above into the blank line.








5. Click the "Save Template" button and you're done! And your artwork is safe from being pinned on Pinterest.

Golden Paints explain the difference in Acrylic Paints

If you are like me... you often get confused when it comes to technicalities involved with the different kinds of agrylic paints... Check out this video!

Hero

A very interesting video about drawing....

New Constitution and By Laws for WCAG

To Members of the Williamson County Art Guild
From the ByLaws Amendment Committee and the Board
The Guild's Constitution and By-Laws have been re-written and are being brought to your attention for approval in the form of an Amendment. The current ByLaws require that the members be given a thirty day notice before an Amendment can be voted upon.

The Board now plans to bring this Amendment to a vote at the May 1, 2012 General Meeting.
Please take a few minutes and read the documents. The Board voted at its March 13th meeting to recommend that the members approve this Amendment. Approval will require two-thirds of those voting to approve the Motion.

If you have questions, please contact Wes Odell, By Laws Amendment Committee.
wesodell@gmail.com

Click here to read the documents.

March Framer's Gallery Report

March First Friday in Georgetown was a day of great art, great weather and lots of people.  WCAG artists exhibiting at the Framer's Gallery (located one block off the square on Main Street) are: Sigi Field, Linda Figg, Alexis Templeton, Joanne McShane, Holly Moore, Gretchen Hecht, Anne Throop, Ruby Pecot, Marianne DeRiggi and Greg Heflin.   They have provided some amazing art and it can be viewed through April 3rd.

The voting for the People's Choice Award was close.  The final two voters of the evening sealed the win for Alexis Templeton's acrylic painting "Blue Ridge."  Congratulations Alexis!

There have been numerous sales from the Framer's Gallery in the past few months.  This reminds me to let our artists know that if one of your paintings sells, you can bring another one (of a similar size) to hang in the empty spot!

Jennifer Balkan's new show

Jennifer Balkan is currently being featured in the March 2012 American Art Collector Magazine... and has anew exhibit opening at the Wally Workman gallery in Austin this weekend....I think it will be worth your time to go there and check it out.