The death of the tree: A limited edition...

Dominion Post - 31 July 2006; article on the Affordable Arts (of which my works got accepted). Some 300 paintings got turned down, just for the sheer number that were of a similar theme. That theme: Nikau Palms, New Zealand Cabbage Trees and the like...
It would have been quite a big call to make on behalf of Affordable Arts to discard them purely because so many other people had also painted them. I'm not sure whether people got hold of information concerning the types of paintings which sold last time, but it seems that way in that artists were painting to reach a market. Whilst it is possible that by some bizzarre coincidence there were 300 artists who thought it would be a great idea to paint a Nikau or Cabbage, regardless of any statistics on previous years sales or the latest 'fashion' of the art market; I don't know how much Affordable Arts has looked into this.
One thing is for sure, there were a few select artists who had painted Nikau or Cabbage trees, and with this level of publicity I'd say they are in the running to sell pretty quickly - even if as collectors items - Limited editions!
'Till next time...

Comments passed are usually friends made

I have finally been able to get access to the server and change a few settings. Now you should be able to get to this blog at http://blog.alingham.vze.com.
I have also been working on a database so that you are able to post comments for each individual artwork at http://art.alingham.vze.com. All you have to do is put your name, and your comment and then its done. The comment you made will only display for that particular artwork, so you can make the comments as specific as you want to that individual piece.
I have added in a form so that you can join my mailing list to receive information on my upcomming exhibitions, events etc... You can find that on every gallery page at http://art.alingham.vze.com.
'Till next time...

When it all comes tumbling down...

It could be the worst day in history. Recent history anyway - and definately this week. Arising out of nothing, but more like the last straw which broke the camels back. For those who know the situation I'm going though - I apologise for my shrewed behaviour but the whole thing has got me spitting tacks. There's no logical reason for there to be no resolution after all this time and its just... I need not say anything more. But despite all that goes on with not a single thing one can do to counter act it, I managed to get one thing working for me today. I've updated the background pictures of my site, but more importantly I got Flash to recognise and decypher an ATOM formatted XML file from blogger.com.
I am still having issues getting into my server to edit the folder blog/ - so links to the posts will ask you for a username and passwords. I hope to remove this as soon as I can access the server control panel.
'Till next time...

Windows XP - Change to Vista!

I've just spent most of the day modifying Windows XP so that it looks like Windows Vista. So far so good. There are various ways to do this, as there are for converting your XP into a Mac...
The best resource I found was UXTheme Multi Patcher which allows you to use themes like you could use in the good old days of Windows 98 - but still in the Windows XP form!
For more info check out http://www.tech-recipes.com/microsoft_vista_tips1089.html which tells you all you need to know about how to do it!
'Till next time...

Oil Painting | Revisited : part 2

Continued with my oil painting today. Started a new one. I have found it takes ages to build up the layers to get the paint as thick and painterly as Turner did. I will continue to explore the limits of oils which I am beginning to enjoy working with. There's just something about them that jumps out of the canvas and says look at me!
'Till next time...

Testing at blogger.com

Intergration between websites, and other websites has been a lot easier with the new RSS blog that I made myself.
Unfortunately it begins to have flaws due to the nature of amateur programming.
I have turned to blogger.com to see if I can use it to set my blog up, edit it, and still display it on my site. We'll have to see how it goes - at the moment it is a complete test to see if it runs how I was hoping it to run.
I have kept the old files so that if it doesn't work I can go back to my old way!
'Till next time...