Arts!

A selection of our new and noteworthy materials on the Performing Arts as well as other Fine Arts

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Every Hour of the Light: The Paintings of Mary Sipp Green

American landscape painter Mary Sipp-Green, based in the bucolic Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, is superlative in her ability to pull in the viewer and transfer the accompanying emotions in her atmospheric landscapes and seascapes. The intensely saturated colours in her works evoke an immediate sense of place and a privileged window on an intimate tableau. Sipp-Green achieves an ethereal, nuanced quality to her paintings that imparts a refined, inimitable serenity. Many of the subjects she paints - salt marshes, barns, meadows, rivers, and the occasional cityscape - are captured in the beautiful light of dusk or a luminescent sunrise. The effect is dreamy yet grounded and emotive.
Sipp-Green states, "While my preferred medium has always been oil on linen, my methods, techniques, and aesthetic aims have all undergone significant transformations since I first began. I learned my craft in the studio, painting still-lifes and portraits, as well as landscapes drawn directly from nature. Over time, I became increasingly engaged with more abstract and spiritual aspects of the landscape form and I began to pursue a less representational, more expressive style." When describing the 'diffuse quality of colour,' she explains, "I use many layers of paint, allowing each to dry before the next is applied. Along the way, the surface of the paint is often refigured in unpredictable ways, and there is much that has to be scraped, sanded, destroyed and reapplied before the essence of a place, its mood and atmosphere finally emerges onto the canvas."

The Realism Challenge: Drawing and Painting Secrets from a Modern Master of Hyperrealism

With just watercolors, colored pencils, and white gouache, artist Mark Crilley takes you step-by-step through his process for producing stunning, hyper-realistic recreations of everyday items. Based on Crilley’s mega-popular “Realism Challenge” YouTube videos,The Realism Challenge contains thirty lessons demonstrating how to render mirror-like duplicates in the trompe l’oeil tradition of everything from shells, leaves, and candy bars to your very own still life arrangements. Each lesson builds off the previous one, as you’ll master essential artistic techniques like creating drop shadows, adding highlights, and building from light to dark. Learn the secrets of one of hyper-realism’s biggest stars. Come take . . .The Realism Challenge!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

The Complete Digital Photo Handbook

A comprehensive guide for photographers of any skill level covers such topics as camera types, core camera skills, lenses and focal length, accessories, Photoshop and Elements, and RAW imaging, with projects for mastering essential techniques.