More Than One Way To Look At Things

People often ask, "Why consider an online art gallery? Why not concentrate on establishing the physical gallery first?"

Establishing my online gallery was originally started for practical reasons - the physical building still required some renovation work - and was planned as a quick alternative to show the wonderful work that is being produced by the many talented artists.

However, creating an high functioning website was more complicated than originally thought.

So why persevere?

An online gallery opens alternative and wider doors to help artists, designers and craftspeople's work be noticed - which a physical gallery does not have the ability to do.

Hence, the main benefit of an online gallery is greater publicity. The artist, designer or craftspeople's work can be exposed to numerous visitors to the website each month as opposed to the number that actively visit a physical space. This in turn, increases your customer base either directly or via word of mouth.


This quote taken from an insightful Facebook page certainly emphasises this point.

See original Facebook post here

Let's relate this to art. Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper most commonly used to print newspapers, and other publications. It was designed to be a throw away medium. Yet artists have looked at this material with new eyes that subsequently has created  some quite remarkable results.

Elizabeth Armstrong has used newsprint as a base on which to layer her paints (see below). This has resulted in a lovely subtle textural effect.

See original Facebook post here

Below is an example of my work in progress. I have chosen to create a collage with the newsprint as the background. Not only did I like the concept - a medium with a limited lifespan, as a newspaper / magazine - but this related to the theme of my piece - that beauty in today's society is also classified as a limited asset. Furthermore, I chose words on the newsprint that related to beauty and age........

Another artist that uses this clever medium to create a collage is Sara Riches. In this case Sara uses the newsprint as layers to represent the wind swept skirt. The paper itself acts as a sharp contrast to the other more detailed work.

See original Facebook post here

In Sara's second piece - newsprint is not used. Instead Sara has chosen the more elegant piece of sheet music. This creates a very whimsical feel to her figure.

See original Facebook post here

Newsprint, or other written medium is just one material that can be used to create an extension of the feeling the artist is trying to convey. It simply creates inspiration for creativity.

Kreative Kisses
Donagh