Contemporary Aboriginal Art

Salish Box

Artist Unknown

About a month ago I was visiting a friend in Birken, and he was given this gift from a mutual friend in Mount Currie. Our mutual friend Ken purchased the box as a gift from a native carver from the Mount Currie Band.

However he did not remember the name of the carver, which is a shame as it would be nice to give credit where credit is due.

The box appears to be made of pine, and I just love the intricate designs on the box and the masterful manner in which the designs are painted on the box.

The cover depicts a Thunderbird design and for me is the best part of the box which is a modern day representation of Salish Art.

Salish Art

Laureen McMullan-Remarkable Expressive Paintings

Oryx

Copyright Laureen McMullan

I recently connected with another artist who was in my class at The Alberta College of Art & Design and wanted to share her work with you in another post about My Favorite Artists.

After graduation Laureen set up her own pottery studio, and worked very hard at that until it became very difficult to maintain that business due to market conditions, and the general decline in the pottery market which made it impossible to continue. At that point, Laureen decided to devote more time to painting in Acrylics, and has produced an impressive portfolio of work. Her paintings have been added to collections around the world, and she has had her work in numerous shows over the years.

I chose to use the word "Expressive" in the title for this post because that is the one of the words that comes to my mind when I have thought about her. For me her expressive nature comes through big time in her paintings, and her subject matter is varied, and her feelings radiate through the paint and canvas as she takes us through the journey of what is important to her.

I hope that you will take this opportunity to view the work of this award winning artist on her website Laureenart, and enjoy the many works she has created with such mastery. Many of her works are available as well as cards and Giclee prints.

Marketing For Artists-Run Your Own TV Ad For An Affordable Price

If you are an artist, and you have a budget for some advertising, how would you like to create your own ad for TV and be able to run it on national TV within your budget at an affordable cost? For those of you who answered yes, read on.

Leave it to Google Adwords to come up with something new, Google TV Ads that allows you to upload your own TV ad promoting your product, and Google will have it run on the TV networks that you choose, at the time that you choose, and you can begin by entering at the start the budget that you have available for your Ad campaign. This is an amazing idea when you think of it, I mean how many people in general can afford to run an Ad on TV let alone an Artist?

The video above is self explanatory, and was created by Seth Stevenson, who set up a goofy self produced video, and created a website for people to click on in order to track how many visitors could be attracted to the website.

OK, so how did I come across this information? I have been studying Internet Marketing for almost two years now, and have been following a very successful Internet marketer by the name of Frank Kern, and clicking on his name will take you to one of his websites where you can sign up for free, and get all kinds of free cutting edge solutions on building a successful Internet Business. I am not an affiliate for any of Frank's programs, and I won't make a dime from linking to him, but he gives away a bunch of good stuff.

So for you Artists out there looking for more ways to draw traffic to your blog or website, this might be something useful to look into.

Jim Speers-Exquisite Pottery

High Fired White Stoneware Jar

Copyright Jim Speers Pottery

This is another post in my series of My Favorite Artists and today I want to introduce you to Jim Speers, a fantastic potter that I went to art school with.

I attended the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1971, and Jim and I met on the first day when we were put into groups of home room classes, and we became friends right away. I wanted to become a painter, and Jim was interested in taking pottery. In first year we did everything, drawing, painting, print making, pottery, and sculpture.

I found out early on that they did not teach Watercolor, and I was not fond of the work of the painting instructors, and did not want to take commercial art either. So after much thought, discussion with classmates and a fair amount of "wringing of hands" I decided to take pottery as well because they had excellent instructors, and I knew that it would be a great learning experience.

Jim moved back to Edmonton Alberta after college, and eventually set up his own pottery studio, and now creates a wide variety of production pieces, and one of a kind pottery works of art.

Without question in my mind, Jim has grown into a master potter and his work is truly exquisite. I love his attention to detail, and his designs are just beautiful and inspiring with a brilliant expression of form, shape and design.

Jim is also an avid photographer, creates 3D imagery, and spends some time building websites as well.

So if you are interested in pottery, I invite you to visit his website Jim Speers Pottery and take some time to view and enjoy his amazing works.

View Of Mount Rundle From Vermillion Lakes

Mount Rundle, Banff, Alberta, Canada

Buy A Quality Print

I visited my brother and his family for Christmas in 2009, and had a wonderful time over the holidays, with wonderful friends, lots of good cheer and plenty of fantastic food.

On December 23rd we went to our favorite photo taking spot in Banff to get some shots of Mount Rundle, which is probably the most photographed mountain in Banff National Park.

It was -21C on that day, very cold and crisp, and the photo was taken in the late afternoon as the sun was close to setting. I managed to capture the glow of the afternoon light, and the colors were just wonderful.

This was taken with my trusty Canon Powershot.