Art Around the Web - Color Scheme Designer 3 -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Here is a great color scheme designer I found. It has lots of different options and you can save all of your settings. I'm always looking for new color schemes and this web tool really helps. The colors are noted in RBG. A simple RBG to CMYK converter for printing can be found here. GL

Color Scheme Designer 3

"Video of the Week" with Jeff Koons -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Interesting YouTube with Jeff Koons showing his factory like process.  The train sculpture, Jeff explains in the video, was a commission piece for the Los Angeles County Museum that was set to open in 2011.  Thanks to slow fundraising the date has been pushed back to no earlier than 2014, if ever.  The 25 million dollar price tag would have been the most expensive public art project ever.  With the current economy and the fact that the museum is 100 million dollars in debt it would take a private donation for the whole amount to get the project back on track.  I think it would be quite an experience to stand under a full scale 70 foot long 1944 Baldwin train locomotive suspended from a 161 foot tall crane, which would be moving its wheels, blowing its whistle and letting off steam.  Lets hope someone writes the check.  GL

Is There Art on YouTube? Guggenheim Wants to Find Out -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

The Guggenheim Museum is teaming up with YouTube in partnership with HP to discover the art of YouTube videos. Tasked with uncovering the "most creative video in the world," the companies have launched an international search by way of YouTube Play, a specially branded YouTube channel that will feature the entries in this new competition.
Anyone is invited to submit a video to YouTube Play, even video creators themselves, and the submission deadline is July 31. The videos may consist of animation, motion graphics, narrative, non-narrative, or documentary work, music videos and even "entirely new art forms" that challenge the perception of what's possible to do with video, explains the YouTube blog post about this unique collaboration project.


Is There Art on YouTube? Guggenheim Wants to Find Out - NYTimes.com

Miami Art Museum Names Thomas "Thom" Collins as Director -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

MAM names Thomas Collins as new director. Thomas “Thom” Collins, an arts administrator, art historian, educator and author with more than 15 years of experience serving as a director and curator at several of America’s top museums, has been named as the new director of Miami Art Museum (MAM). Collins will join MAM after serving for five years as director of the Neuberger Museum of Art in Westchester County , New York . Collins’ appointment comes just as MAM begins to transition into a new Herzog & de Meuron-designed building located in downtown Miami ’s Museum Park . Groundbreaking on the project is scheduled to take place in late 2010, with the Museum’s opening set for 2013.


Miami Art Museum Names Thomas "Thom" Collins as Director

City Scales Back Plan to Thin Out Art Vendors -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

This is a follow up to a story I posted earlier. (post can be found here) It seems the city has decided to allow more of the artist vendors to stay in the parks, after listening to the artists' input. This will allow artists to stay in the parks while still allowing the city to better control the parks' traffic. GL

City Scales Back Plan to Thin Out Art Vendors - NYTimes.com

Loïs Mailou Jones Exhibition at the Polk Museum of Art -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Loïs Mailou Jones July 3 - September 25, 2010 at the Polk Museum in Lakeland. GL

Polk Museum of Art :: More Than An Art Museum

London based blog post about Florida artist Colin Christian -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Nice little blog post about my friend Colin. It has been great to see how Colin's work has evolved over the years. I love all the new stuff. Colin's wife Sas is also an accomplished artist.

Colin Christian With Art From The New World:: Kidrobot's Blog, The KRonikle

Colin's website can be found here
Sas website can be found here

A Proper Bowl of Pho! -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

For this week’s restaurant review we’re talkin’ Pho Hoa!  Pho Hoa is a little Vietnamese restaurant located in Tamarac, Florida.  Pho Hoa is actually part of a worldwide chain of restaurants, but you would never know that from its appearance.  Situated in a small strip center, it looks like any small local restaurant.  This restaurant serves cheap but very fresh food in a family style environment. 

Town comes to life with 'digital graffiti' -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

This sounds like a really cool event. "The worlds first projection art festival" will take place in Alys Beach, Florida. Alys Beach is a little town in Florida's panhandle. Artists use a variety of technologies to project three dozen original works onto the town's stark white buildings. The event organizer saw the small town's buildings with stark white walls as a giant blank canvas and began to plan the event. GL
Town comes to life with 'digital graffiti' - CNN.com

"The Hukilau" this Weekend in Fort Lauderdale -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

 Get out your Hawaiian shirt and get ready to Tiki!  This weekend in Fort Lauderdale is the 9th annual Hukilau.  The Hukilau is an annual event celebrating Hawaiian and Polynesian Pop culture while honoring a historic Tiki bar/location.  In California and around the world there is a large growing "tiki culture"  for anything from the 50's.  The tiki culture includes hotrods, tiki heads, skeletons, voodoo lounges and large rum drinks with umbrellas.  The Hukilau first started at Trader Vic's in Atlanta back in 2002 but the annual event has since permanently moved to Fort Lauderdale and partnered up with the oldest, last great Tiki bar in America, The Mai Kai (opened in 1959).  

This is a fun event.  There  is food, great music and a wonderful art show.  This year Herold Golden is putting the art show together (his shows should not be missed).  There will be tiki carving lessons, silk screen lessons, ukulele music and lots of rum!  Also one of the best and now most famous artists from the genre, Shag will be in attendance with new paintings and will even take part in a "Meet and Greet".

People from around the world will be coming to the Mai Kai like they are on a pilgrimage to the holy land.  Attendees have described the experience as if they were transported back in time to the 1950s and were watching a live performance in one of the many Tiki palaces that used to grace almost every major city in America.  We are spoiled here in South Florida to have the Mai Kai.  This event is not to be missed!  Most events are at the Bahia Mar, check with the Hukilau website below.  GL


Shag website
Mai Kai website

The Hukilau...a little Polynesia in America's Vacationland website

Sotheby's Paris - €1.46m Basquiat -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Strong auction results from Paris this week. 27 out of the 29 lots sold at Sotheby's auction for a total of 13.8 million euros, well above the estimates. GL

Sotheby's Paris leads contemporary sales with €1.46m Basquiat | The Art Newspaper

University Plans To Loan Museum Art To Raise Funds -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

This article brings up some interesting questions. With most museums across the country strapped for cash, how safe are the paintings in their collections? Can the museums break with their responsibility to their donors and begin selling or loaning the works of art in their collections? If a museum loans a painting out to a private institution and charges the institution for the loan, who is responsible for the safety of the piece?

Paintings that are donated to museums can come with a lot of strings attached. Many contracts state that the donated painting may not be loaned out or sold for anything other that new acquisitions. Some donate whole collections to museums only with the assurances that the museum will permanently hang all the paintings at once in a separate room. With museums hurting for cash and a private market eager to snatch up some of the museums most precious holdings it will be interesting to see what arangments are made. GL

University Plans To Loan Museum Art To Raise Funds

Art Around the Web --The Sistine Chapel -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

The Vatican has a great new website with a full view of the Sistine Chapel.  The camera captured a seamless, floor to ceiling view inside the great room.  As anyone who has been to the Vatican knows, with the large crowds and little time allotted to view Michelangelo's masterpiece this website may have a better view than the tour itself gives.  The website does take awhile to load and I can not find a way to turn off the music but it is an incredible view and well worth a visit.

The Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo have been in the news lately as more scientists think they have found secret codes hidden inside the great ceiling.  I don't know if we will ever discover all of the artists intentions, nor do I in the end think it matters.  The speculations will continue to fascinate some, for the rest of us the beauty of what Michelangelo created is enough.   GL

THE SISTINE CHAPEL WEBSITE

The article on Michelangelo can be found here -- Michelangelo's Secret Message in the Sistine Chapel

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT -- Terribly Odd -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

A great show by the Miami born artist Terribly Odd is closing this week and I wanted to review it before it ended. “Le Iconique” is showing at the Bear and Bird Gallery in Lauderhill.  Bear and Bird is a gallery located upstairs in Tate’s Comics.  I have written about Tate’s Comics before – you can find it here.  Please go see the show this week!  

Frost Art Museum features photographer Paul Strand's Mexico -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Paul Strand's deeply moving, candid photographs of Mexico are on view at the Frost Museum in Miami until August 1st. GL

Frost Art Museum features photographer Paul Strand's Mexico - Visual Arts - MiamiHerald.com

More than 1,000 people create live Impressionist painting -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

(AFP) – ROUEN, France — Some 1,250 people held enlarged fragments of a reproduction of a Claude Monet masterpiece above their heads Saturday in a bid to create the world's biggest live Impressionist painting.
AFP: More than 1,000 people create live Impressionist painting

"Video of the Week" with Florida Artist Robert Butler -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Here is a nice little YouTube with Florida Highwayman Robert Butler. My galleries have sold several paintings of Robert Butler and his son Robert Butler Jr. Robert is a true Highwayman and has been painting all his life. Robert distinguishes his work from the other Highwaymen by concentrating more on the wildlife in his Florida landscapes. Many Florida hunters have had Robert and Robert Jr. out to paint their hunting camps and hunting leases.  GL




You can find Robert's website here

YouTube - The Highwaymen Artist Robert Butler

Sick Week! -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Sorry to you dear readers.  It has been a week since I last posted anything.  I have been suffering from a cold for several weeks now that turned into walking pneumonia and am just starting to feel better.

I have been busy and have been working some great new ideas for the blog.  This week I will be posting another "Artist Spotlight" and a new restaurant review.

Also I will be starting two new ongoing series to the blog.  The first new series is called "What to do with Art" and will be short essays on topics explaining and answering questions that I get all the time pertaining to art work.  Some of the questions are basic like; What makes a painting valuable? or Do I try to match a painting to my couch?  Some of the topics will be more involved like: How to build a collection; What are the copyright laws pertaining to artwork; How to insure artwork; and Should you buy originals or prints.  I have given talks on many of these subjects in the past and people are always asking me to write them all down, so I thought the blog would be a great place to go into more detail.  Look for the first in the series this week.

 The second series "Art Around the Web" will highlight great art websites that I find.  There are so many art websites around the world filled with great information.  Some are from museums and some just good art reference websites.  I will try to highlight one every week.

Again, sorry I have not posted much lately but I hope to make up for it in the coming weeks!  GL

Dinotopia opening at Norton June 5th -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

DINOTOPIA
June 5th - September 5th  -  Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach

Inspired by a deep and abiding interest in archaeology, lost civilizations, and the art of illustration, James Gurney invites viewers to enter a whimsical world in which dinosaurs and humans live side-by-side. Recounted in words and pictures in the best-selling book series Dinotopia, the artist’s compelling tale has engaged and enchanted readers by inviting them to explore the far reaches of a mysterious destination. Gurney’s luminous paintings, beautifully crafted drawings and hand-made models, which are featured in this exhibition, explore the wonders of the distant past through the lens of the imagination.

The artist James Gurney will be attending this weekend, with a colored pencil drawing workshop on Saturday, June 5 from 1:00-4:00 (there’s still space available), and he'll give a lecture on Sunday at 3:00, with a book-signing afterward. Come by and say hi and get a book or poster signed.

There will be a whole family day celebration on Sunday June 6 from 1:00 to 5:00 with live animals and activities. And there will be events going on all around town during the whole summer. Call 561. 832.5196 for more information.

James Gurney blog can be found here
Norton Museum of Art website can be found here

Dinotopia: The Fantastical Art of James Gurney

Artist Louise Bourgeois Dies at 98 -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Luis Bourgenois created work for more than 5 decades and was still working at 98. The last major retrospective of her work was held at the Tate Modern in London in 2007. In 1997 Luis was awarded the National Medal of Art. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the American people.  GL

Artist Louise Bourgeois Dies at 98 - WSJ.com

"Video of the Week" Dennis Hopper 1936 - 2010 -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

"I think I probably collect things I wish I had made." Dennis Hopper



Actor, Artist, Collector, Dennis Hopper died this past weekend.  He was an astute art collector, beginning back in the 50's.  In this video Dennis explains his reasons for collecting and shows part of his collection.  There are so many good quotes in this short video, Dennis was a fascinating man. GL

"Work of Art: the Next Great Artist" Starts June 9th on Bravo -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

June 9th Bravo TV starts its new show "Work of Art: the Next Great Artist."  Bravo's new reality show will bring together 14 aspiring artists to compete for a solo show at a nationally recognized museum and a generous cash prize.  It sounds like it will be in the vain of "Project Runway."  Each week the artists will be given tasks that will be judged.  One artist a week will be eliminated until we have a winner.

Hosting this  new series is art enthusiast China Chow, alongside world-renowned art auctioneer, Simon de Pury.  Joining them on the judging panel are experts Bill Powers, a New York Gallery owner and literary art contributor, Jerry Saltz, current art critic for New York Magazine, and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, curator and owner of Salon94 gallery. GL

In each episode, contestants are faced with the challenge of creating unique pieces in a variety of media such as painting, sculpture, photography, collage and industrial design. The weekly assignments are exciting, original and will challenge the artists to push the limits of their technical skills and creative boundaries. Completed works of art will be appraised by the panel of top art world figures alongside a new celebrated guest judge every week. Through a gallery showing at the end of each challenge, the industry luminaries dictate which artists have successfully mastered the subject matter and creation of their piece, as well as whose concept leaves the greatest impact.


"Work of Art: The Next Great Artist" is produced by Pretty Matches and Magical Elves for Bravo. Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alison Benson and Eli Holzman serve as executive producers.


Work of Art | Bravo TV Official Site

Is iPad the New Canvas? -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Now that more and more people are getting iPads we are seeing just how they change everything, especially art and music.  In this video artist David Newman explains how easy and versatile the iPad is for painting.  Now you can paint what you see from where ever you are and then send it out to anyone you want.  You could stop someone on the street, paint their portrait and email it to them all at once.  GL

You can see more of David Newman's art here