My face is a white canvas..
May 25, 2012 § Leave a comment
A combination of photography, painting, sculpture… Absolutely brilliant! Make sure you take a look!
Andy Alcala is the young and talented artist behind these fantastic works…
Art Tips and Tricks for your next art project – JerrysArtarama.com
May 23, 2012 § Leave a comment
Art Tips and Tricks for your next art project – JerrysArtarama.com.
Looking for great tips and tricks for your art projects? Look no further!

This image borrowed from http://www.suzyssitcom.com, another great place for tips, tricks, and project ideas!
Here are tried and true ways of making the most of what you’ve got as well as improving old techniques! Great for drawing and painting artists, but don’t be discouraged if you work in a different medium… There’s loads of cool stuff in this article! Click the link at the top of the page…
Advanced Individual Studies class displays their work
May 18, 2012 § Leave a comment
Steve Rose’s group of artists displayed their incredible pieces in the Great Hall yesterday afternoon. We were able to snap a couple of quick pics to share online…
- Detail of burlap, texture, and 3-dimensionality of work
Expressive Arts students explore trust and learn to dance
May 17, 2012 § 1 Comment
Not ballet, not jazz, not anything choreographed.
It is movement and expression; occasionally, it is stillness.
Today, the Expressive Arts students learned to dance with new partners.
Their journey began, blindfolded, following their peers down an unseen path, with nothing but a branch of wood between them, connecting them. It was an exercise in trust: trusting each other, trusting their senses, trusting in their movements and the motions that connected them together.
Once in the woods, they were asked to breathe in the air, hear, feel, and sense their surroundings. Only after they shared this moment of sightlessness were they allowed to remove their blindfolds.
The next step of their task was to find a new dancing partner: find a tree that they could connect with, understand the movements of, and share a dance with. Not a waltz, nor a foxtrot. But, create a journey with, understand what it was to be that tree…
For many of the students, it was a journey with great rewards; for others, it brought them to a new awareness of self, and of surroundings.
For more information on the Expressive Arts Program at HSTA, please go to our website www.hsta.ca
Mother’s Day Gift Ideas That You Can Make Yourself (For Relatively Little Money)
May 10, 2012 § Leave a comment
Paint a picture – landscape, portrait, abstract, whatever you’re good at (even stick figures work!) – frame it, wrap it, and give it to mom!
Gather old buttons, a key ring, some round nosed pliers, wire cutters, some heavy gauge craft wire, maybe some ribbon for a splash of colour, and create a whimsical key ring…
Take a walk and pick up a few scrap branches (the kind good for home décor not dog fetching toys). Gather some flower-coloured tissue paper (white, red, blue, yellow), maybe some nice rhinestones, and with the help of a little glue, make some lovely decorative branches that won’t perish!
Get a blank journal and decorate the cover of it to suit mom’s tastes: seed packets & dried flowers for a gardener, stamps and travel pics for a globetrotter, spill nailpolish and glitter across the top for the glam-mam, decorate with flour and cut-out recipes and a mini wooden spoon for the cook… and voila! A customized journal! (If all else fails, pick up some pre-made scrapbooking stickers to paste on)
Stroll through a stream bed and find some nice smooth river rocks about the size of a quarter (can also be readily purchased inexpensively at dollar stores), using heavy gauge wire and some pliers, create some wire-wrapped rock napkin rings. Perfect for Mother’s Day Dinner!
Dust off the ol’ drill, find a relatively straight-ish piece of wood about 10” long, drill a small hole at about a 20° angle, pick up a nice aromatic set of incense sticks: rustic incense burner!
Have you still got silk flowers collecting dust in your house? Clean ‘em off and attach pin-backs (hot glue works great!) to make a beautiful brightly coloured brooch! (Alternatively, you could use new non-dusty ones as well…)
Write a poem, print it in calligraphy on some nice paper, and frame it. It doesn’t even have to rhyme… Just whatever comes to mind!
Go through some old photo albums and whichever pics you have of your mom, set them aside and put them into a multiple-picture wall frame; maybe with that poem centered in the middle…
Put together a booklet of mom’s favourite recipes. Add in user reviews at the bottom (real or not) and pics if possible. Call it “Mom’s Top Secret Book of Recipes” or the “Top 100”. Who knows? Maybe you’ll go home with a plate of those favourite chocolate chip cookies…
If all else fails… sign mom up for a week-long course at the Haliburton School of The Arts summer school! www.hsta.ca
Artist of the Week – Matthew Mancini
May 9, 2012 § Leave a comment
Matthew Mancini
Growing up, art has always been an integral part of Matthew’s life – that and dreams of one day playing professional baseball. During his early teens Matthew spent his summers on house league and competitive teams, but as it started to get more serious, the fun seemed to slip away. The fun from drawing all his favorite comic book characters, however, never did. Although making millions of dollars batting a ball around was attractive, playing with pencils and paints seemed to take precedence.
Was it the right choice? Probably.
After attending an arts high school Matthew Mancini went on to study in the fine arts program at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. However, after his first trip to Italy, it became clear that traditional figurative and landscape work was something he wanted to explore. OCAD leaned more towards the conceptual and abstract aspect of art which did not appeal to him.
Upon his return, he left OCAD after completing two years to pursue a more classical realist approach that led him on a six-year study at a private atelier in Toronto of the techniques used in the 19th Century ateliers of Paris, France; those of which are based on trade secrets handed down since the Renaissance. Much of his work seeks to return to the archival craftsmanship of the old masters, as well as the humanist principles found throughout past movements of art. Most influential to his work are the paintings of John Singer Sargent, Joachim Sorolla, Zorn, Ilya Repin, Kramskoi, Rembrandt, Monet, and Annigoni to name a few, where the techniques of each combine to find their way into his own paintings.
Having a foremost interest in portraiture, landscape painting has become increasingly of interest. With Matthew’s spouse getting work in Minden, Ontario, in 2011, the move has given him ample opportunity and inspiration that Toronto can’t offer in the same way. The Canadian landscape is some of the best in the world and with formal portrait paintings taking anywhere from 1 to 3 months, the immediacy of landscape painting is quite satisfying. Becoming part of the Fleming College community in the fall of 2011 has been a great experience for Mancini as well, teaching workshop courses, and soon to be joining the talented roster of the Visual Arts Fundamentals: Drawing and Painting instructors.
This summer he will be attending ‘Art in Action’ in London, England: an annual event in which artists set up their studio and work while onlookers interact with them. Artists travel from across the UK and, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee, from commonwealth countries, as well. This event attracts more than 25,000 visitors over four days, and Matthew will have the honor of representing Canada.
Matthew’s days are spent learning, painting and teaching, as well as preparing works for upcoming events.
He can be reached via his website at http://www.matthewmanciniart.com/
Matt will be teaching summer art courses at HSTA, as well as courses at the Peterborough campus in the fall:
Painting – Design & Composition, July 9-13
Figure in the Landscape, Aug 13-17
Portraiture Workshop, Oct 27th, 9am – 5pm, Peterborough Campus
For more information on the courses including course descriptions, please go to http://flemingcollege.ca/school/haliburton-school-of-the-arts#course-calendar
Call for Nature Artists!
May 4, 2012 § 1 Comment
Ducks Unlimited Canada is accepting portfolio submissions of artwork. The deadline is July 13th, 2012.
Click on the pdf link for more information, ducks unlimited,