Seasonal Ambiguity

Magenta Columns

4" x 6"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

Frosty Fence

Photo: Casey Klahn

I post the artwork, seen at the top, because I just got the formal photo taken.  For those of you who are bothered by seasonal confusion, I add this snow photo to provide balance.  You're welcome.

Painting Challenge Group at Facebook

The idea behind the Paint The Barn in Winter group is to render an image with a particular photo as the genesis.  An artist may produce an entirely non-representational piece, or a colorist piece, or what have you.  This past month we have been working on this iPhone photo of my barn in a snowy landscape. In a few days, I will post a second challenge photo.

Not my idea, by the way.  More than one person was interested in having my permission to paint from the barn photo, and so I opened it up to the whole world to participate.  The results have been great, with about 40 artists participating so far.  

Here are some of my favorite images from the Paint The Barn In Winter group.

Arlene Richman

Cindy Crawford Day

David Wang

iPhone Photo - Casey Klahn

Artists in Pastel and Events Around the Web

Niall O'Neill, at Artists in Pastel, writes a blog that fills a very unique niche.  It proposes to review the websites of artists who work in pastel.  I like the global reach of his blog, and the eclectic manner that he ticks one pastellist at a time off his list.  If you think you know all the active pastellists in the world, think again!  You will discover much to keep you inspired at this wonderful blog.  Hint:  if you don't have a blog or a website, how will reviewers find you and expose your art? See the post on my websites, art, and bio here.

More grand benefits of exposing your art on a blog are contests and events. In that vein, Katherine Tyrrell has been busy with the Making a Mark award series which offers readers the chance to nominate and vote for the best artwork posted that year in several categories, such as landscape or nature.  Other awards are also given, such as the best book published by an art blogger and one for "stickability," which highlights consistency in posting art.

In the realm of art events, my page at Facebook, Paint The Barn In Winter, has been a popular place where many artists have rendered a scene based on an iPhone photo I took while skiing out to recover our stuck van. When the event concludes on January 15th., or perhaps a little before, I will post some of the artworks that I want to highlight. 

You never know what will happen next around the interwebs!

The Barn in Winter

iPhone Photo, Casey Klahn

Snow 2012 and Videos You Should See

Snow Photos 2012

Casey Klahn

Notable Post.

I enjoyed Paula Kuitenbrouwer's post about bibliophilia today.  I think many bloggers, although wired, for some reason revere the printed word.  I certainly do, and the older the book, the better. 

Other Ramblings on the Internet.  

See this video post featuring Sheila M. Evans. You'll also enjoy this You Tube interview of artist Albert Handell.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Second Day of Spring, Everyone!

Second Day of Spring, 2012!

It was a fun winter, and I believe I rendered more snow scenes this year than is typical for me.  Always look for the new.

Ground Blizzards Are Always Nice To Come Home To

My Weather.  Hello.

Saturday evening I was enjoying the sun, taking a beautiful drive in a top-down convertible and finding wonder in the Wolf Kahn views of the elm and ash forests in New Jersey.  Today, I woke up to a ground blizzard!

You will get a full report, and perhaps some video, of my workshops taught last week in Morristown as soon as possible.  Thanks for staying tuned.

Snow Day

Snow Day

 6x9, Pastel.

informal record w iPhone

Casey Klahn

This is my farm in eastern Washington.  We no longer grow Barley here, but old terms die hard.  This year, like most of the US, we had very little snow.  I did capture this one day, though.

Winter Scenery

Winter

Frosty The Snowman and Mr. Freeze Would Be Happy

Photo by Casey Klahn

Some Snow 2011

Remnant

Remnant Snow

Small

Pastel

Casey Klahn

Intermedio

Snow Event

I Blame The Groundhog

Snowed Real In, Again

 Looking North Towards Canada

Back Towards The House

Early this morning, I had to break into my studio, since the door had literally frozen shut!  Someday I will build that overhang so water won't drip on the threshold.  A whole foot of snow fell since yesterday, and it stayed well below freezing all day today.  Brrr.

Happily, my studio is warm, and I feel good about getting back to work after the holidays.  

Best wishes.

Oh, in the next day or two I will be posting my choices for the Top Ten Posts on artist's blogs for 2010.


Photos: Lorie Klahn

Snowww, Snowwww, Snowww, Snowwww

Wyeth Love

Passing Poles. Repairing the Damage From Ice Storm '09.
Photo: Tom Wells.

We have power back, and 28 new power poles, after the great Ice Storm of ought-nine. I turned on my computer after being out-of-touch, and learned about the passing of artist Andrew Wyeth on Friday.

The news and responses to the passing of Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) have all been posted. "His work has iconic status in the history of American art," was said today in the Philadelphia Inquirer (Wyeth lived in Pennsylvania).

The blog post that does him proudest is this one by Charley Parker. See a recent painting by Wyeth there, instead of the famous one of Christina which the reporters and critics chose to post. Artist bloggers do much better with these things, in my opinion, and Charley shows us how.


"Really, I think one's art goes only as far and as deep as your love goes," 1965, A. Wyeth.



My favorite paintings by A. Wyeth are the Helga series. Not because it was a "scandal", as so many deem it, but because Wyeth had the clarity of mind to do the series without outside interference. He kept the 250 or so works out of public view until he finished them. I feel that the spare qualities that he is known for are portrayed best in these works.

Culture Monster writes about the viral qualities of the Helga pictures.

The Telegraph (U.K.) has a fair article here. I enjoyed "Of Time and Andrew Wyeth", by Christopher Orlet.

For a fine serendipity about the important American artist's passing (and, after all of the elitist invective, I just want to hear artist's views on Wyeth now, thanks) see what Jennifer Phillips in Seattle did in her post Reflecting on Andrew Wyeth.

Ice Storm '09

Frosty Fencepost
Photo: Casey Klahn

Our power is off and on, so I'll post this with haste. It is the great Ice Storm of ought-nine!

Yesterday, the two kids and I were driving home in the van. To our front, I watched in awe, and then in fear, as great arcs of light shot sky high, and then a power pole snapped in two and came down. I was watching the slow motion, B&W, silent movie of power lines and pole crumpling and I thought, "is this going to hit us?"

Now I know that the great tension down these lines keeps them in-line with their original aspect. Mostly. So, it fell along the road side, but across our neighbors' road, and so I dialed 9-1-1. There are over two dozen poles down, by my reckoning.

I was shaken up, but we made it home fine. What next, winter?

Winter Yard Birds

Winter Yard Birds
Photo: Casey Klahn

The little ones are climbing the trees. Cooped up and stuck in snow world for a couple of weeks, and today makes the second day they should have been back in school. Canceled.

Personal subjects in art blogging are a matter of taste, I think. Is it the right subject matter? Isn't it supposed to be about the art, after all?



Your Blog Style: Lifestyle, Art Form or Spare?

The answer lies in your own style. Some artists thrive by blogging about their life as well as the studio, and it is a very successful strategy. A perfect example is Tracy Helgeson, who just completed a month of daily postings challenge. Of course, having the world's yummiest studio, a beautiful farm house in upstate New York, chicken-coop full of joy, and fantastic colorist oil paintings doesn't hurt her profile, either. Her blog style has created a story line that is compelling, and authentic. Yours will be your own individual story, of course.


Tracey Ullman with a paintbrush


This leads to another style of art blogging: the art blog as an art form. First in mind for me is Jafabrit's Art. Jafabrit tells the story of an artist's life but keeps it stylized by writing spare, centered copy. Her work is dramatic, with skulls, ravens and crows, and screaming faces on rocks. Her humor is dry British wit, but tends towards the outlandish kind. Think Tracey Ullman with a paintbrush.

Corrine (Jafabrit herself) knits tree ware, gives art to the cosmos on Fridays, and commiserates with her greater art community in her Ohio locale. Well, actually she does this worldwide, too. Her "Your Documents,Please" piece has circled the globe, and don't forget these blogs go out to the world wide web. As an added bonus, because her blog is an art form, she peppers the format with music widgets, talking heads, and occasional videos - always funny. I consider Corrine's blog, and her art, to be absolutely among the most authentic and original out there.

If you are considering the absolute, most spare art blog that you can manage, think twice. The SEO gods want you to add copy to those pictures. This is the way their robotic algorithms compute. Picture...BZZZZZt-TzT (flicker, sput); Words...HzMMM nng- BTZ, AHHHHH. And the SEO deities like certain words better than others. Call it alms, or perhaps a dogma. My favorite SEO tripwires are Donny Osmond, Michael Jackson, Terri Horton, Vincent van Gogh, pastel, you get the idea. The problem is, these words don't all fit my narrative, except on very narrow occasions. OTOH, the posts live forever on the net, and garner traffic in perpetuity.

I will back up and say that images have their own pathway to the search engines such as Google Images. Here is a little research on this. Also, learn a bit about the alt attribute, and the title attribute of your images.

have a tissue handy as you cry at the results

If you have been blogging for a while, try a search of Google Images with the search query as your name, or as the name of your blog. Have a tissue handy as you either laugh or cry at the results. But, copy is still king on the Internet, since the default page on Google is text based.

Anyway, my vote for the best spare but extremely effective style is Robert Chunn's Alla Prima. Cunning and colorful still lifes posted on a consistent basis are his fare, but he has a program far more thoughtful than art only. Robert posts an art-related quote with every post, and try that sometimes if you think it is easy! Additionally, his spare motif includes his sidebar design. Precious few widgets, text all lined up and justified, and links. That's it. Think that's all? Have a closer look at his links - very exhaustive and organized. The outcome is a blog that very much matches Chunn's art, and tells the story he's after.

And you thought daily painting was the only format for art blogging! What is your art blog style? Next time: more tips, and types of art blogs.


Monetize Me, Bro:

Visit my profile page at ArtSlant here.

My art for sale is here.

Art Blogs & Art Blogging

Photo: Lorie Klahn

A number of clues have me feeling that art blogging is going to be a focus for many this year. It is free, which helps since general advertising budgets are getting slashed. In that light, I'll be adding this thread about my perspectives on art blogging. An outline would be: tips, theories and observations.

No one is in greater need of improvement at blogging than moi, and that provides my motivation for this thread. Katherine Tyrrell at Making a Mark has focused early on blogging this year, and I am catching on myself that this blogging upgrade series will benefit the artist blogging community. Katherine's new posts include how to use Google Analytics, and a poll on posting frequency.

In the area of design, Rose Welty has taken the ball on Cleaning Sidebar Clutter. My own "how to" on this is posted here: Quick Key Links. Good work, Rose! Rose has emphasized clean and neat, but I choose communication over being tidy. I once had my labels shrunk, but now am leaning towards having them available for clicking - sort of an impulse shelf. The one thing that I mull is whether to consolidate the number of labels down to more distinct categories. What are your opinions?



Art Blogging Tips

First, a rant. The Weblog Awards still do not have an art blog category. Hello. Photography? Hottest Mommy Blogger? Hobby? People often ask me if I think our culture is in decline. My answer: "what culture!?" Here is another loser award blog without an art category. I have written them, and now reside in their troublemaker files. Power to the people, baby. *endofrant*

This reminds me of my other blog goal this year: to get out-of-genre to expand my reader base. My wife reads Ravelry, which is mega big, but I can't really see going there, myself. I did get some link-love from Pin Tangle recently, and I thank them for having an interest in art - that's what we like to see in our culture.

In the same vein, I will be setting a goal of following through with an exhibit at my alma mater, Northwest University. They now have an art class, or department, but didn't when I attended in the 70's and 80's. I ran into an old classmate at the Bellevue ArtsFair who is now a Hebrew prof., and he suggested a show. An exhibit there would be outside of the art gallery fold, and provide some extra exposure. And frankly, it would be a cultural event.

So, outside of genre blog interests should be just that - authentic interests for yourself. Mine include Christianity, the military, particularly WW II and the Civil War, Italy and blogging and marketing technology (a little bit).

Here are my favorite blogs in these categories:

Christianity - Faith and Theology

Military - Michael Yon

WW II - Ordinary Heroes: Six Stars in the Window

Civil War - Civil War Blogs

Italy - Living in Florence

Marketing - Seth Godin


Another discovery of mine has been the art community website ArtSlant. I have avoided many such sites, usually because of issues with their layout. ArtSlant has an attractive layout, and meets my goals, so far, of cross-exposure for my art, and for The Colorist. Hat tip, Julianne Richards, for recommending me there.

Snow Planet and Kudos Inbound

Snowed In
Photo: Lorie Klahn

Home Front

Friday, January 2, 2009.
The neighbors called tonight to say that they were plowed out for the first time in several days. I thought that we (who live alone at the end of our road) were the only ones isolated. The interesting part is that the snow excavation for our neighbors, at our "road head", required a large plow (read: diesel locomotive-sized snow blade in front of a grader), another road grader and finally a bucket loader to do the job. Sheeesh!

Oh, so the upshot is we are still isolated. I have been harvesting game birds for dinner.

Saturday, January 3, 2009.
The plow came this morning and just cut a swath through the snow. Whew!

I had envisioned skiing out to the neighbors for groceries, and pulling them back on a sled, as I used to do mountain climbing. Instead, Lorie went out to the grocery and that was an interesting event. The one she wanted to shop at was closed for snow load issues with its roof. When she did get to a supermarket, everyone was commiserating about being snowed-in for up to seven days. It was a group of snow refugees, busted-out and getting provisions!

Barn, Sun & Snow
Photo: Lorie Klahn

In Blog Land

Welcome readers from Making a Mark. I am very happy to share two other recognitions from bloggers this week; one from Julianne Richards, and the other from Miki Willa.

Miki is participating in the portrait challenge at Different Strokes. I am amazed at the fun of seeing so many portraits created by talented artists, and Miki's first effort is a huge success, IMO. Seems this first-timer effect is going around - first Robyn Sinclair creates an etching that is first time genius, and now Miki has done the same thing with her first pastel portrait. Give me some of whatever these two are having!

Miki said this kind thing about The Colorist:

The Colorist: Casey Klahn has more than one blog, but this is my favorite. He shares information about artists he admires, ideals he aspires to, and he promotes other artists whose art inspires him. I especially enjoyed his series about artist's traits. Casey and I have very different styles, but I am learning from him about stretching my usual color boundaries once in a while. That is a good thing. He is also good about responding to comments.

And, Julianne, The Colorspeaker, has introduced me to ArtSlant, which is an art networking site that allows you to post your blogs and other linky things. See Julianne's profile here, and mine here. See my blog post at ArtSlant here, which I swear took me all of about 3 minutes to cut and paste from The Colorist.

Julianne says the following about The Colorist:

This is a blog by an artist for artists. He will often do series of posts of which I have highlighted and given the link to a personal favorite. Anyone serious about living a life of creativity, aka "as an artist" will benefit from Casey Klahn personal insights, thoughts on becoming a better artist, for ARTS sake, and much much more. And last but most definitely not least, is his own artwork, of which most certainly is extraordinarily unique and not to be missed. The rest of everything is what they call in the south, "just gravy." Stop by.

Thanks to Miki and Julianne.