DJ Geribo's Art Apart Newsletter

 
Art Apart — Vol. 2 / Issue 1 — Winter, 2010

Welcome to DJ Geribo's Art Apart Newsletter!

The holidays have come and gone and with them not only a new year has arrived but also a new decade. I have a feeling it's going to be a great decade — my business is growing, my art is improving every day, and I feel the positive energy around me and know that all the creative ideas flowing to me are putting me on my true path.

DJ Geribo's NEW Art Apart Website
My big news is, I have a new website! Thanks to my brilliant internet architect husband, Jim, I can still maintain my own website but with more flexibility and features. For example, all of my artwork can now be purchased directly from our online gallery, www.PolarisArt.com. This took many more hours than I thought it would but I have a new appreciation for the knowledge Jim has of the internet. And I'm learning Joomla! Maybe even a little more than I wanted to but since my goal was to showcase my art in a more sophisticated way and still maintain my own site, learning enough about Joomla to allow me to do that was a necessity.

I've decided to put out my Art Apart newsletter 4 times a year: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. That will give me plenty of time to finish painting between newsletters so I can showcase new work on my site, especially since my plan is to paint larger pieces. I have 30x40 canvases just waiting for me to splatter paint on them. And my new studio easel just arrived; I decided on a David Sorg easel and am looking forward to getting started on those 30x40's.

A new feature of my new website is a blog section: I'll be showing my latest work here and talking about what I'm currently working on, plus sharing tips and techniques.

I'm spending more time building my Eye Help Animals business (www.EyeHelpAnimals.com) and also spending time building my fine art business. I am also continuing to meet with other artists to do life drawing four times a month (two morning sessions and two evening sessions each month). And I'm spending more time writing and I have a goal to finish at least one book this year. But more of my time will be spent building Eye Help Animals. If you want to find out what we are doing to help save wildlife worldwide, sign up to receive our Eye Help Animals monthly newsletter, Eyes Alive.


New Paintings
See ALL of my Art works that are available for purchase at Polaris Art.


Green Art — "My Christmas Tree "

When I was a child, we always had a real tree in the house that we decorated for Christmas. I remember going with my family to pick out our tree and saw the truckloads of trees that I knew, since we often got our tree on Christmas eve when the prices went down, that these thousands of trees that were still loaded on the trucks would not be sold. I often wondered what happened to these trees and felt bad that they were cut down for nothing. Of course, today there are tree farms and people can go and dig up a live tree, keep it in their house for a few weeks, decorate it for Christmas, and then plant it in their yard in the spring.

DJ Geribo's Christmas Tree
Although that is probably the best option, 15 years ago Jim and I made the decision to buy a fake tree. I know there are many schools of thought around which is better, the fake tree with its artificial branches that will eventually end up in a land fill, or the real tree that year after year I would feel responsible and sad that we bought it, remembering the thousands, in my childhood, that were needlessly cut down and more than likely shredded. We have many pine trees on our property and could also cut down our own tree, or we could buy one and plant it on our property in the spring (buying real trees to plant in our yard, though, has not always fit our budget). I think I feel a bit better that I wasn't responsible for more trees being cut down and have been satisfied with our decision to buy the artificial tree that could potentially survive just fine another 15 years.

Please share my artwork!

Please forward this newsletter to others who may also enjoy my art!

THANK YOU!

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Art Quote

" Artists today think of everything they do as a work of art. It is important to forget about what you are doing —then a work of art may happen. "
              — Andrew Wyeth

Tips for Artists

The drawing sessions I started have given me exposure to a lot of different kinds of drawing tools (not using color in those sessions yet). There are some that I really like and others, not so much. I really like using the willow sticks but they are very messy. You can really play with shadows but I sometimes lose too much of the drawing when I start smearing the charcoal a lot. I've also used charcoal in pencil form (and sticks). These work fine, not as messy as willow (the charcoal sticks are) but still tend to be darker than I sometimes want. Regular graphite, although it comes in different gradations, ie., B1, B2, HB, H1, etc., still tends to be too light for me and I don't feel like I have a lot of flexibility if I want to add more shading to my drawing. I recently used carbon and I think this is my new favorite. It looks like charcoal in pencil form, but I felt I could control the darkness or lightness of my drawing much better. And it isn't nearly as messy as charcoals, either.

You can see more Tips for Artists at www.DJGeribo.com

Art Quiz

This Month's Question: —

When a prospective collector rejected a Whistler painting because of the flamboyant signature across the top, Whistler used his initials which formed the shape of:

  • A)  a Rose
  • B)  a SeaShell
  • C)  a Swan
  • D)  a Butterfly
Answer in my next Art Apart Newsletter!

Answer to Last Month's Question  —

Bibemus Quarry by Paul Cezanne

The answer is:
B) Cubism



(See Last Month's Issue)

About the Artist

"My purpose in painting animals and nature is to show the beauty, the fragile condition of nature.  I see this as a challenge in my art and hope I can reach others through my art so that they, too, will come to love and appreciate the beauty on earth that is ours to cherish and protect."
— DJ Geribo

DJ Geribo gives 10% of the profits on the sales of her artwork to animal protection organizations.