House Portraits in Watercolor!

This gorgeous pack of notecards is from one of my students, Marina Reed. Marina took my Architectural Renderings and House Portraits Workshop in New Orleans a few years ago, and as you can see from her work here -- she really excelled! The card on the right is from the painting that she completed in my workshop, and packs of her notecards are sold in shops and boutiques throughout New Orleans. Marina now paints House Portraits, and she has clients lined up and clamoring for a turn to commission a custom-ordered painting from her. I love to hear wonderful success stories from other artists, and especially from my students! If you're in the New Orleans area, be sure to look for Marina's work in shops and galleries throughout the area!

I love the professional way her cards are printed, packaged, and presented. Marina's hangtag has a lovely little snippet of her work on one side, and on the back is her contact information. Be Sure to check out Marina's website, and follow her on FaceBook, too!

My next Architectural Renderings and House Portraits workshop is coming up in a couple of weeks in my summer studio in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. There's still time for you to sign up and take this course! The spacious studio is conviently located in a pastoral setting that is just 2 miles from downtown Kennett Square, plenty of lodging, dining, shopping, and entertainment options nearby. Email me to reserve your space in this workshop, and be sure to check out my Calendar of Events to see other available workshops and classes! 

Another Day of Painting en Plein Air

I had a great time yesterday painting en plein air with the Philadelphia Watercolor Society in Smedley Park. It's a small park, and very green, but there's a pretty little creek that runs though it and that offered a nice visual distraction to paint.

I used my Sennelier half-pan watercolors on these paintings, and I love the intensity and luminosity of these paints. The half-pan set is also very convenient for plein air, and allowed me to travel lightly without having to carry a lot of supplies. Just add water and paper, and I'm ready to go!

 About a dozen other watercolor artists joined me at this plein air event. This photo shows Mick McAndrews working on his 1st painting of the day.

 Terry Boyle and Mimi Barclay Johnson painting from one of the scenic foot-bridges in the park.

Luscious New Watercolors from Sennelier

l'Aquarelle Sennelier 12-tube set is based on the color palette of the Impressionists

I love opening up new art supplies! Yesterday, a lovely box came in the mail from the wonderful folks over at Sennelier. Imagine my surprise when I opened it to find this gorgeous set of 12 watercolors in a heavyweight enameled travel case -- It felt like Christmas and birthday, all rolled into one!

l'Aquarelle Sennelier 12-tube set comes in an enameled travel pan, perfect for painting en plein air!

 A little over a year ago, I started a meticulous process of testing their new formulas for watercolor paints, and I fell in love with their products. Of all the watercolors I’ve used over the course of my career, their new honey-based line is the absolute best. The colors are extremely pure, and stay vibrant when mixed with other colors. The texture is smooth and buttery, and the flow is perfectly consistent. I’ve used Sennelier watercolors in the past, and found them to be good professional grade paints. But this new line – this l’Aquarelle Sennelier – is the finest watercolor paint available anywhere in the world. Ever since I starting testing this new product, I’ve been waiting for it to become available on the market, and now it is. These wonderful new paints are available in 98 colors, in half-pans, full-pans, and 10 and 21 ml. tubes. Every color I need; and a few extra!

I’m honored to assist Sennelier as an artist advisor for this new product, and thrilled to participate in the testing and development of these sensational new paints. I only use the best products and materials for my art, and Sennelier is my paint of choice!

How (and why!) to Tag on Facebook

It’s time to clear up the mysteries and myths about Facebook tagging. Tagging is when a user makes a link to another profile or page. This tag can be in a post, photo, video, or any of the other Facebook apps. Whenever you are typing a post or description, anytime you type a word beginning with a capital letter, the default assistance of Facebook assumes you are typing a proper noun and it offers prompts to assist you to choose which of your friends that you’re typing. For instance, if you mention in a post that you’re “taking a workshop with Annie Strack,” Facebook will offer prompts as soon as you start typing “Annie.” As you type more letters of the noun, the prompts become even more specific, until they completely match the name. Make sure you select the right prompt, as that will be the tag that will attached. Don't panic if you make a mistake, just delete it and try again.
 
Facebook has certain restrictions regarding tagging. Members and pages can only be tagged IF they allow it. So if you really hate being tagged, you can adjust your settings so that it can’t happen.  Another thing, you can adjust your privacy settings to control who is allowed to tag you, and you can also adjust who can see those tags. But should you do this? No, and here’s why: Other folks can still type your name in posts or attach it to photos. But the difference is, if you don’t allow tagging – it will not link to your page or profile. So your name will still be in that post or photo, and you just won’t know about it! If you allow tagging, you can receive notifications every time you’re tagged. Then if you don’t like being associated with a particular post or photo, you can always remove any unwanted tag at any time. Tags are a way for users to communicate with each other on Facebook. For instance, I have a lot of friends, fans, and subscribers, and I can’t possibly see every post from everbody.
I have no way of keeping track of conversations that involve me, unless I’ve been tagged in them.  

Tagging a Page on Facebook is slightly different. Both ‘Profiles’ (the personal page of a user’s profile) and ‘Pages’ (what used to be known as ‘Fan Pages’ or ‘Business Pages’) can tag Pages. In order to tag a Page (or Group, App, etc.), you must already ‘Like’ that Page.
Next, you have to use the @ symbol to tag a Page. So if, for example, you want to tag my page -- Annie Strack -- in your post or photo, you first need to ‘Like’ my page (if you haven’t already!), then simply type @Annie Strack. Using the @ symbol will bring up the prompts for tagging, and when you select one a prompt the @ symbol will be replaced by a tag.

Do you have a Page? Your Page can tag other Pages in the same way as your Profile – your Page must Like the Page you’re tagging, and you must use the @ symbol. A Page can’t tag a Profile, however, except when it’s in a response. In other words, if a Profile posts on the wall of your Page, or comments on one of your posts, your Page can tag that Profile in a comment on that post. Again, the reason for using the tag (and the reason why it’s allowed for this) is so that all the parties involved in the conversation can stay in communication with each other. Without the tag, the other person might not ever learn that you replied to their comment or post.

It’s all very simple, so go ahead and give it a try right now. If you have any questions about this, leave a comment here or on my Facebook Page and I’ll help you through it.