Are there any mums with Art Jobs?

[Teodora]

Hi, I've been reading the posts about going back to work. I was wondering if there are any mums who are painters, art conservators or antique dealers? Especially in the Cambridge area? (I know is sounds very unusual!!!).

i don't won't to kill this thread so come on everyone tell us more about your art,i'm really interested
great thread teodora

Used to do "social surrealism" no, just kidding as a good latin american my art was plagued with social comentaries. I'm terrible now (or probably the interior design phase is taking over) I guess most of what I do at the moment is focused on my home staging needs.

I think the problem of getting to study painting again once that you know the principles, is that sometimes is difficult to get much else from a class with exception of the valuable criticism from other students and teachers, and sometimes may be frustrating. Once in the middle of some art frustrations (and the need to escape for a while when I broke up with one of my Xs), I attended a creativity course in a very strange school in Canada (out in the REAL middle of nowhere), the main idea was to confront you with yourself to test your ideas, so I found my self climbing a glacier and mountain on my own... I don't know if it helped my art, I stoped making things about social commentaries and concentrated in sensory experiences, have being in love with texture ever since.

Whymummy, nice to see you again

I run a charity promoting the arts in my area if that counts! Organising exhibitions, facilitating projects with schools etc. Its the most brilliant job and lovely to work with such creative people.

it does sound fscinating enid,glad you enjoy it.
hi chandra lol at your mountain and glazier climbing are you working in graphic design?

No, I'm trying to finish an MA in Art History at the moment, but as soon as it's finish I will try to get something in design:

Melsy? I'm a very unexpensive web designer, available from Oct 1st

Yes, and the glacier climbing was very fun, specially when I asked if I needed to take care of balck bears and a native asked me not to worry about black bears because grizlies drove them away!

lol chandra

Hi Chandra! It is a great speciality!!! I love Art History. In one of the showrooms at The Tate gallerythere is a great exibition - "William Blakes' techniqies". It is excellent!

Oh great , this is as whymummy said a great thread. its nice toread about like minded mummys. Chandra would be great to see some of your websites. Im a right fussy person, so wouldnt want to drive you mad, i think wehn your creative you feel you can have your hand in every aspect of creativity and its hard to hand the reigns to someone else. Would like to hear more about your art history , what inparticualr are you lookiig at ??

Teodora, yes it's fascinating though it's such a hard work and not as creative,I'm counting the days to finish the course. Wish I were nearer to London to be able to visit the Tate more often

Melsy, I perfectly understand what you say about handing the reign of your creativity to another person. Probably is better to get the help from a junior designer, he would allow you more involvment in the creative process than a senior one who may be too concerned about usability issues, audience expectations, technical constraints, etc. and who may also be very reticient to completely hand out the reigns.

By the way, you mentioned about a book full with copyright free images that you can use for inspiration, which one is it? (I believe I have ordered books from Dover before but I'm not sure I have found something like that, but will get it if I could, I have been using StockMarketPhot but still needs to pay a little fortune for each shot)

can i just ask if anyone on here has done photoshop?i'm thinking about doing it as i've got the program but is too complicated,it would be good for my cartoons and caricatures and also to plan my murals but is it hard to learn,boring,too technical? i do get bored easily so just wondering wether i'll enjoy the course
thanks in advance

whymummy - for planning murals and such (and also for drawing generally), Corel Draw is much better than photoshop. Photoshop is much more for playing with existing pictures (i.e. photos) than for creating drawings from scratch.

Both are hard to learn at first, but it gets easier quite quickly!

thanks senorapostrophe i think i have corel draw somewhere as my brother copied it for me and i've never installed it,i'll go and try,thanks
are you alright boudicca?

thanks for asking whymummy,I'm on another thread trying to decide what to do for a living,now I'm 'grown up'!!

lol boudicca,i'll come and have a look since i don't know what to do for a living either

Whymummy, Photoshop is not that difficult (it's only that it has about 4 different ways to do each simple thing), I used to teach this program at University and believe me is very easy to grasp. (the dificult thing is to train your hand to draw with a mouse but if you are already an artist that shouldn't be difficult at all)

I have found a very good book which is easy and FUN to follow that teaches Photoshop at a very proficient user level in less than ten half an hour lessons, you can find it here
It comes with a CD for you to do the exercises, the nicest thing is that after each lesson you feel that you have really learned a very useful thing.

PS The one I was the one for vesion 4.

i've just had a look chandra and it looks good,i will order it,i will also tell my sister about it as she wants to learn it too so she can work with her husband,he does cartoons and comics and wants my sister to paint them for him instead of doing them by hand
thanks a lot

senorapostrophe i found the corel draw but it looks even more complicated than photoshop,i will have a look for a book like the one chandra recomended,i'm really thick when it comes to doing things on the computer

Whymummy, I think your sister will find it useful, it's great for colouring drawings (do I love the airbrush???). I have seen a great amount of illustrators and animators using it for that purpose so it should be fine.

thanks chandra,i'm sure she will,i have used the painting techniques in photo deluxe and are ok,easier than photoshop but nowhere near as good,i have ordered the book and i will let you know how i get on
gracias