Watercolor: Drinks at the Reception (& Artists on Facebook)

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There are so many artists sharing art on Facebook, the affirmation that beauty is a necessity scrolls down my feed in an avalanche of encouraged inspiration. Do you know about art Groups and Pages on Facebook?  In addition to individual artist’s Pages, like these by Frank Eber,  Mario Robinson,  Hollis Dunlap,  Nick Wroblewski,  Mary Whyte and mine, there are also people who put time and effort into harvesting (exclusively) other artists’ work to share on Pages. What a gift!

Check out this teeny full color sketchbook devoted to Toulouse Lautrec! If you visit Gradimir’s  Facebook page, you’ll see others like it featuring Van Gogh and Bob Dylan.There are tons of Groups on Facebook, focused on subjects like  Watercolor, Linocut, Printmakers, and Collagraph. Just search facebook for a topic, and click the Groups or Pages tab at the top of the results. You can follow a Page devoted to artist’s studios throughout history, or women artists in history. An artist I just discovered through someone else’s sharing is a Serbian painter, living in Italy, named Gradimir Smudja (see his video above).

Before social media, each of us would have been limited to know only the artists in our region, or artists we temporarily communed with while traveling. The portal of our phones and computers gives us 24 hour access to Community. In an instant, we can peer into art studios and communicate encouragement, ideas and accomplishments on a global level. How lucky are we?

I just finished listening to the book The Greater Journey by David McCullough (highly recommended if you like historical non-fiction focused on culture, architecture, travel, art, Paris – and most of all – artists in the 1800’s). I loved it. Among one hundred other things, it made me grateful to live in this age of abundant, accessible community. I don’t have to courageously board steerage in a cargo vessel to sail the Atlantic for 4-6 weeks to visit Europe, so I can see an art museum,  or meet artists. The stalwart Americans who spent time in Paris and brought their knowledge, acquired skills and Parisian-inspired tastes back to America have my utmost respect. I’m thankful that David McCullough documented their journey with this wonderful book.

Thank you – all of you – for visiting here. I thoroughly enjoy your company, all week long. Now, lets make some tea and get painting, shall we? 🙂

Belinda

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Art Quote
To win through by sheer force of genius is one thing; to survive and continue to create when every last door is slammed in one’s face is another. Nobody acquires genius — it is God-given. But one can acquire patience, fortitude, wisdom, understanding. Perhaps the greatest gift is to love what one does, whether it causes a stir or not.
~Henry Miller

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