Tuesday 10 December 2013

The Benefits of Blogging

I've not been blogging as much as I'd like at the moment  with various deadlines to meet, frustrating as I use the process to sort things out in my mind  for example what stays in my memory from  exhibitions I've visited. At some point I'll have a posting blitz! Meanwhile , I've still been reading other peoples blogs, I'm glad that they at least are keeping it up. So I was thrilled to win a lovely oak linocut postcard  from Sheila Barnes('Idaho Beauty')   in a draw to celebrate 8 years of blogging. By coincidence I also won another postcard from her in 2008 to celebrate 3 years! Thank you Sheila and Congratulations.


Another benefit of blogging is  as a showcase for my quilts, drawings and paintings and the unexpected opportunities this brings. Yesterday I received my copy of 'Playing with Sketches' by Whitney Sherman  which includes a couple of the drawings I did at the National Gallery last year under the heading ' Sketching from the Masters'. Whitney contacted me   having seen my blog posts  - it's funny seeing them in print when I've developed much further this year.
The book itself is very interesting with 50 different exercises to try(or calisthenics as she calls it!) , including things like smoke drawing which I tried for the first time in Puglia. I'm looking forward to trying some of them out.

3 comments:

The Idaho Beauty said...

Oh good - it arrived! Thank you for sharing this on your blog. Honest, everyone, my drawings are always random so it must be some good karma she is sending out to have won two anniversary drawings. And I am so impressed that the first one you received is still out and being enjoyed. Could two postcards be more different in style?

Congrats on being included in the book - always fun to be able to say one is "published" ;-) Looks like an interesting book. Does it address drawing spiraling shapes like springs? I've tried and failed to figure out how to draw that side view, particularly would like to do it with two intertwining, a little like vines.

Sandy said...

oh well done about the work in the book Margaret.
and sorry you have the lurgy just now. I hope it clears before Christmas.
Take care,
Sandy

Margaret Cooter said...

Congrats on being published!
For me, the biggest benefit of blogging is the heightened awareness - I'm looking at exhibitions, say, thinking about what I might say about it on the blog, or whipping out the camera to catch a photo of something "interesting".