Impressions Newsletter November 2008

Impressions Newsletter

November 2008

Greetings and welcome to this early-summer newsletter. I hope you got the chance to take advantage of at least some of the Arts Festival visual art events such as doing the Art Market at Founders Park and the Open Studio Trail on Labour Weekend. Lewis and I enjoyed visiting Lisa Chandler at her new Ruby Bay home-based gallery, and the Bay Art Awards Show in Takaka. Our congratulations to all winners – there were a number of interesting and skilled works on display including paintings, fibre art and sculpture.

It’s our 25^th (Silver) Anniversary

This month Impressions celebrates 25 years in business! We are looking forward to hosting the second Art Club Members' Evening on Thursday 6th (see below for more information) at which time our "Silver Summer Sale" will open. We do not generally hold sales, but we felt we should make an exception this time around. The sale will run from Saturday 22nd so take advantage of the special price on allmost all art supplies.

Throughout October, we featured the Mapua Painting Group organised by artist Lisa Chandler. She and several of her group’s members painted in-store on three of the Tuesday mornings. Also, we displayed paintings by a selection of the members in our windows. I hope you managed to have a look. If you think you would like the fun and stimulation of painting alongside other artists, in a friendly, supportive group, get along to the Supper Room at the Mapua Hall on any Thursday morning from 9am – 12.30pm. $4 includes morning tea. Future plans for the group include guest tutors, workshops, group exhibitions and ‘plein air’ painting days.

New Products

Schmincke Extra Soft Pastels

Our big news for pastel artists is that we now stock an opening range of Schmincke Pastels. The colour range will build as we get requests for certain colours.Schmincke’s extra-soft pastels contain only the purest medium fine ground artist’s pigments, which are in the highest possible concentration. Contrastingly, the binding agent content is kept to a minimum which ensures a stable compound

Schmincke Pastels

These pastels, made in Germany, are made by a process whereby “worm extruders” form the pre-kneaded dough into round skeins, which are then detached by hand and cut in a wire-strung frame. The damp sticks have to dry for around eight days before they can be labelled and packed by hand. This is a costly and time consuming process however it is the only way Schmincke can guarantee homogenous quality and smoothness in all the production cycles so that the artist can be assured that his or her favourite colour shade is consistent throughout the range.

If you haven’t tried Schmincke pastels, you are welcome to try-before-you-buy at our testing bench in-store. Our price for these pastels is $8.05. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much more pastel is contained in each stick, than most of the other brands.

Focus Group

The first Impressions focus group meeting was held during October. We extend a special thank you to those who took part (names were randomly selected from members of the Impressions Art Club). Their feedback about our business is valuable and we hope they enjoyed the evening and the special discounts available to them on the night. We discussed issues as diverse as our product range and quality, marketing, Art Tuition Directory and the Regional Art Awards. We will now be exploring these issues further to assess the viability of ideas put forward. We also thank them for their very generous assessment of Impressions’ service.

Silver Summer Evening

Impressions Art Club Members’ Evening

Thursday 6 November 2008

In-Store at Impressions, 11a Croucher St, Richmond.

6pm Refreshments Served

6.30 Address by Artist Barbara FrankletBarbara will talk about her life as an artist, her inspiration, artwork styles and methods.

7pm Silver Anniversary Sale Opens

Barbara Franklet always wanted to be an artist. Of course, life's not that simple. So, before launching her career in 1999, she “slung whiskey, taught wild and woolly adolescents and even did a stint in advertising.” Her BA in journalism is rarely put to good use, but she admits to enjoying “spinning a yarn and reading the New York Times.”

Barbara chooses a variety of media. She produces collagraphs, paints with oil pastels and creates works in mixed media. Her artworks are lively and whimsical demonstrating her joy in life finding her inspiration in friends, family and folk tales.

Barbara moved to Nelson from Houston, Texas with her husband and children in January this year. She works out of her Mockingbird Studio producing works such as those shown here.This evening is for Impressions Art Club Members and Applicants only. However, if you know someone who would like to attend, just have them complete an application form when they arrive. Remember there are no costs or obligations – only benefits from applying to join.

Silver Summer Sale

Save 25% on almost all artist supplies from Friday 7th November until Saturday 22nd November.

Impressions Art Club Members have the opportunity of the first selection of goods to purchase at the Club Members Evening on 6^th. Remember to present your Impressions Art Club Membership card or Purchase Record to be eligible to make purchases from 7pm at sale prices.Join us to celebrate this milestone for our business and take advantage of the great buying opportunities.

Hint

Dealing with Waterstaining and Mildew on Artwork

Recently I was asked by a framing customer to bleach out stains from watermarks and mildew on an old Oriental painting on paper. I declined because this is something that should only ever be undertaken by a fully trained conservator as paper (especially aged paper) is a fragile material. Mildew is a type of fungus or mould that grows when humidity reaches levels of more than 65-70%. The emergence of mould is called “foxing” which shows as dull, rustlike patches on the paper.

Foxing

The work in question had become damaged through

(a) not being properly framed (the glass was touching the artwork) and

(b) the frame had been stored on the damp floor a garage.

Moisture is one of the enemies of artwork and a few simple precautions will, under most circumstances prevent irreversible damage to the artwork. Note that mould, even when destroyed, will often leave stains that cannot be completely removed or bleached, even by a conservator.

The precautions we recommend are:

Request that your picture framer uses a spacer when there is no matboard with a window, so that the glass is not in contact with the artwork. (Just as the windows in your house suffer from condensation on the inside in humid conditions when the air is warmer inside than out, so too can your picture frames.) When a spacer is used, any moisture which may infiltrate the framing package will stay on the surface of the glass, rather than being absorbed into the artwork. The air in the framing package will also permit the artwork to ‘breathe’.
Do not store or display your valued artwork in humid environments such as a laundry, bathroom or kitchen. Choose “disposable” art for areas like these.
Do not hang your picture flush with the wall – leave a small space (as occurs with the tilt of a frame, or when corner protector ‘bumps’ are used,) to allow air to circulate freely around the outside of the frame.
When storing artwork, choose a location which is well ventilated and has low relative humidity (which will cause mould spores to become dormant). Similarly cooler temperatures will reduce potential fungi growth.
Dehumidify the air by placing products used to absorb moisture from wardrobes or packets of silica gel (such as comes with new shoes etc) beside your artwork.
Mould can be killed by ultraviolet light as in sunshine – but note that ultraviolet light causes fading so exposure to ultraviolet light should only be administered under properly measured and controlled conditions.

Some things really are best left to the experts, and conservation treatment is one of them. If you have an artwork in need of treatment, we are happy to arrange for the work to be sent to an appropriate conservator, or we can refer you to one.Then once the treatment has been carried out, you need to ensure that the work is conservation framed by a competent picture framer to minimise further deterioration of the piece.

Atelier Interactive Acrylics

I have been in communication with Jim Cobb, the inventor of the Atelier Interactive range of acrylic paints. He has generously taken time to explain how acrylic paints react to climatic differences we experience in comparison to the wet tropics where he developed the Interactive paints.

In temperate cold conditions (Nelson Spring – Autumn) he notes that “in cold conditions humidity is never the problem (in drying) because cold air cannot absorb enough moisture to create a humidity level of 85%. However as the temperature drops water evaporates more slowly and this becomes noticeable from about 16 degrees downwards. At about 10 degrees acrylic paints (all kinds) are not able to coalesce to form a paint film and consequently house painters take a day off if they are working in that sort of weather...”

“When you have cold conditions, it helps if you are able to put the painting in a warm dry place...or out in the sun if there is any heat in it. If you want to speed up drying in cold weather, heaters, hairdryers or warm sunlight are the only way and if you are using them, the Atelier Fast Medium will make it go faster but if the temperature is down, it won’t help at all. As the weather gets up to 18 or 20 degrees, the Fast Medium will make the paint dry faster if you use multiple layering techniques.”He suggests you check out examples of layering used by Chris Fussell whose artwork is shown on the Chroma gallery site - www.chromaonline.com/chroma/gallery/atelier_interactive/chris_fussell

Exhibitions

Catherine Kent’s latest exhibition is now showing at the Independent Theatre & Art Centre, 12 Church St, Nelson until 30^th January 2009. The show includes a variety of works in oil, acrylic, pastel and ink. The inspiration for these works are colour, form and texture. Each work is of a different subject matter, but all are created in a contemporary style.

David Stones' 2008 students display their work from 28^th November at Stones Studio, Awa Awa Rd , Ruby Bay.

Hulin Atmospheric will be exhibiting at Zippy's Cafe, 267 Hardy St, Nelson from 6th November. Her exhibition is titled "Shadow Work".

Klustre – new work from Nelson Region’s contemporary jewellers at Reflections Gallery, WOW Museum, until 18^th November.

If you have an exhibition coming up, let me know and I will include your details in the next newsletter. You can send the information to impressions@actrix.co.nz.

The Yellow Pages Art Awards

These awards have opened for the Nelson & Bays, West Coast & Buller regions. The winner receives $2000, first runner up $1000 and second runner up $500. For further information about the awards go to www.ypgartawards.co.nz

Well as this month closes, we will be embarking on the countdown to Christmas. So when our 25^th anniversary celebrations wind down, we will be to gearing up for the Christmas season of celebrations. I trust that you have a successful and enjoyable month as we head into summer.

Best wishes from

Glenys and the Team at Impressions.