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