Winter Wonderland

Recently I traveled with my good friend Elaine to Leavenworth, Washington.

I had heard of this charming village of Leavenworth, a Bavarian getaway in the heart of Washington State at the base of 8,000 foot high Cascade Mountains, but had not been there. During the months of December and January the entire town is jeweled with lights and covered with snow. It was enchanting!

One morning we explored the Waterfront Park where the trails wind along the Wenatchee River and through quiet riverbank forests. Here I am.....



Cold and hungry we happened upon the Gingerbread House at the edge of town.

Too perfect!

Another adventure while in Leavenworth was skiing at Stevens Pass. A cold but sunny day........a rare treat in the middle of winter in Washington.



Leavenworth is truly a winter wonderland.

Landscape Art

Did you know in the last 50+ years, landscape art does not seem to be produced by contemporary artists who get into major galleries or have exhibitions in the important museums or sell for big sums in the auction houses?

It seems to be a lost art form. It is interesting to note that the painting of landscapes such an enduring form of art across cultures, continents and centuries does not continue to get much notice in the 20th century.

Katherine Tyrell, an artist and author, ponders the question of why landscape art has been downgraded in contemporary art circles in her blog Making a Mark. She poses some valid thoughts on the subject. She will be having this discussion on her new blog when she builds its audience(after 12 days it is now up to 73 subscribers!).

You might think about joining in.

Talent or 10,000 Hours of Practice?

According to Malcolm Gladwell's in his book Outliers, he identifies 10,000 hours as being the minimum requirement for becoming seriously good at whatever you do based on various research which has been done.

Gladwell highlights the need to put in the hours as a really important explanation of why some people become very successful.

Outliers is a fascinating and thought-provoking read. It's about unpicking the explanations behind people who have produced exceptional results. Note I didn't say that the people are exceptional. That's the point of the book. Too many times people who have done well are described as 'very smart' or 'very ambitious'. Gladwell's point is that there are lots of talented and/or smart and/or ambitious people who don't do exceptionally well.

Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years... No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.

"In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals," writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin, "this number comes up again and again."


Have you put in your 10,000 hours?

Typewriter Artist

Paul Smith, a man with extraordinary talent was born in Philadelphia on September 21,1921 with severe cerebral palsy. Not only had Paul beaten the odds of a life with spastic cerebral palsy, a disability that impeded his speech and mobility but also taught himself to become a master artist as well as a terrific chess player even after being devoid of a formal education as a child.

When typing, Paul used his left hand to steady his right one. Since he couldn't press two keys at the same time, he almost always locked the shift key down and made his pictures using the symbols at the top of the number keys. In other words, his pictures were based on these characters ..... @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ .. Across seven decades, Paul created hundreds of pictures. He often gave the originals away. Sometimes, but not always, he kept or received a copy for his own records. As his mastery of the typewriter grew, he developed techniques to create shadings, colors, and textures that made his work resemble pencil or charcoal drawings.

This great man passed away on June 25, 2007, but left behind a collection of his amazing artwork that will be an inspiration for many.



Here is a detail of the lighthouse



View more of this amazing man's art.

Friedl Dicker-Brandeis

In the most recent Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, I read an article by Linney Wix about Friedl Dicker-Brandeis.

Friedl Dicker-Brandeis (1898-1944) was an art educator who taught art to children in the Terezin concentration camp north of Prague in what was then Czechoslovakia between 1942-1944. Although she was formally an art teacher, her approach resulted in a practice that was similar to art therapy.

She invited the children to discover their own forms of expression and waited for what would emerge. For some children distraction from the daily traumas of camp life may have been enough; others may have used the art lessons to create beautiful pictures, to remember a past family joy, or to image a future reunion with a parent.

Although Dicker-Brandeis took charge of scrounging materials, she understood that her students would take just what they needed from each art class. She offered herself, all the materials she could find, and the invitation. Then, providing guidance as she saw fit, she accepted what the children created as valid. In this way she supported their spiritual and artistic strengths and helped them contend with the conditions under which they were living. Providing access to beauty through art classes was her way of helping children to psychologically survive the war and its circumstances.



"I Never Saw Another Butterfly" is a representation of those surviving pictures, which are now housed at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Illustrating the pictures, as it were, are collections of poetry and prose, and excerpts from a few journals.

It is amazing that this art and collection of writing survived!

Thank you, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis

All You Need Is Love

A lovely (pun intended) New Year's Message.

156 Countries Sing Together for the Starbucks Love Project.

ENJOY!

Virtual PaintOut

It amazes me the great ideas that you can find on the internet.

Recently I came across this blog where each month a different part of the world is selected for artists to paint. Virtual Paintouts uses Google Street View as a resource for traveling the world to find interesting locations and subjects to paint.

I found it rather challenging to learn how to move the yellow pegman.

This month you will find an interactive map of the island of Corsica. When you click on "View Larger Map", a map will appear on your monitor. The idea is to drag the little Yellow Man onto the map, step onto Corsica, and start exploring. When you find an interesting subject/area begin to paint.

Thanks to Google, they have given their permission for artists to use Street View as a reference for paintings that can then be sold without fear of copyright infringement.

You can access previous paintings of selected virtual paintouts.

What a fun way to travel and enjoy art!