artists

Latest updates…

Posted by Hannah West

It’s so hard to keep this site updated when there are so many interesting (and challenging!) projects to tend to, so here’s a quick recap of a few of the things I’ve been working on.

"Master Wave," oil on canvas painting of a large wave breaking on the shore by Boni de Laire
“Master Wave,” oil on canvas by Boni de Laire
"Still Life with Red Oriental Poppies," oil on canvas by Billye Woodford
“Still Life with Red Oriental Poppies,” oil on canvas by Billye Woodford

 

Just after I finished the restoration of a site for Medford artist Boni de Laire, she referred another wonderful painter to me, Billye Woodford from Rogue River, Oregon. I have just finished her site, too. They’re both beautiful, and filled with lovely artwork – representational landscapes are Boni’s focus, and while Billye creates beautiful landscapes as well, she also ventures into florals, portraits and more. Please visit www.bonidelaire.net and www.billyewoodford.com today!

While I was finishing up Billye’s site, another interesting job came my way – a website for a contestant in the upcoming Miss Oregon pageant, Priyanka Samra. Born in Canada and raised in Medford Oregon, Priyanka is a college student in California majoring in pre-med. She’ll gradute at the end of the current school year. She’s also incredibly beautiful and has been modeling since she was 14 – with a special love for the runway. She’s going to be teaching runway lessons to other models to raise funds for her favorite charities – Unique Home for Girls in India, where girls who have been abandoned are given a home, education and a future under the loving guardianship of

Model Priyanka Samra
Model Priyanka Samra

their adopted mother Prakash Kaur, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), specifically for their important work on depression. Please visit www.priyankasamra.com to learn more and see the modeling shots in her portfolio gallery…and root for her to win Miss Oregon 2014! She wanted a site based on her friend Mabelynn’s. Mabelynn won the Miss California pageant in 2012 and her site is pretty sleek, so I went for it. As pretty as Mabelynn is, I think Priyanka’s exotic East Indian look, movie-star glamorous yet not excessively sexy, makes her site the winner. Follow her for news on the Miss Oregon pageant, which happens in November.

"Sunrise on the Rhine," mixed media on canvas by artist Christina Madden depicting a castle on the Rhine River in Europe
“Sunrise on the Rhine,” mixed media on canvas by artist Christina Madden

A couple of my artist clients have added new paintings to their websites recently.

Christina Madden paints in oil, acrylic and mixed media; her range of style and subject is quite broad, but recently she’s been refining her style to make it all her own. And is it ever! Her colorful abstract impressionist landscapes are so vibrant and full of life, like nothing else I’ve seen. We’ve also been working to improve the SEO value of her site and making progress. Help her gain better online visibility! Visit her website and feast your eyes on artist Christina Madden‘s colorful world! If you find yourself in Ashland, Oregon during October 2013, stop in at Art & Soul gallery to see a major show of her paintings. She sold ten paintings in recent months, so she had to work very hard to paint new pieces so she would have enough for her show, and they’re magnificent! Meet the artist at a reception on Friday, October 4 during the Ashland First Friday Art Walk.

"Boss," oil on wood by Eugenia Talbott of Talbott Studios
“Boss,” oil on wood by Eugenia Talbott of Talbott Studios

Artist Eugenia Talbot is an amazing woman, and she just had two shows here in southern Oregon – one at the Berryman Gallery (above the Craterian Theater in Medford) in conjunction with the production of Tarzan there in early September. At the same time I had her work hanging at the GoodBean Cafe in Jacksonville for a one month exhibition that got huge numbers of compliments! I didn’t design her site, but she brought me on for maintenance and updates, as well as to upgrade its SEO value. Once again I appeal to what readers I may have to help increase her online visibility by visiting her Talbott Studios website and take some time to look around. You won’t be disappointed – African wildlife, horses and pet portraits, portraits of people and more await you there!

Susan DeRosa art show card for South Stage Cellars show, September 2013
Susan DeRosa art show card for South Stage Cellars show, September 2013

Oh, and you must see the art show card that Jacksonville artist Susan DeRosa had me make for her debut southern Oregon show (she moved here recently from Arkansas, where she lived for a time after retiring from her career as an art educator in California universities). She is such an amazing talent, I’m glad she now has time to continue refining her own work rather now that she’s done her time teaching others! Her show at South Stage Cellars was such a success, she sold a painting at the opening reception and so many people came that she started crying with gratitude when telling me how she felt about it.

This reminds me of the art show catalog I did recently, but I haven’t had a chance to scan it so I’ll have to post that later.

Apologies to the awesome folks at GMO Free Jackson County for not having time to have them with a project they contacted me about. Please visit their website and lend your support – they working hard to protect Oregon’s organic agriculture legacy. It’s like swimming upstream, there’s so much to do and so much resistance from the likes of Monsanto and Syngenta.

Well, there’s still more, but I’ve run out of time and have to get back to work, so please return another time to see if I’ve had a chance to write more about the fabulous projects I’m involved in now, and what my wonderful clients have for me next! Spoiler alert…looks like a new site and SEO help for Daljit Samra (Name sounds familiar? Yes, that’s Priyanka’s mom!) of the Rogue Valley Inn and possibly some modifications to a fantastic high end fashion site in New York, as well as adding video content to singer/songwriter Christina Duane’s nonprofit websites, Romancing the West and Oh Oregon Frontier Park when she returns from her current tour! Oh, right, I haven’t written about the pleasure of starting to work with Christina yet, have I? Well, we’ll have to tackle that next time…Thanks for stopping by and come back again soon!

 

Updated Workshop Schedule for March/April

Posted by Hannah West

Hannah West Design logoI’ve updated the workshop schedule for this week, with a partial schedule for April. It’s up on the workshop calendar now: If you have any requests, please contact me with the workshop you want and the day/time you want it. I’ll do my very best to accommodate your schedule so you can acquire these important skills artists need to promote their work in the 21st century! See this post for more information and pricing for the workshops.

Essentially what we have is 3 instances of the introduction to Blogging for Artists with Existing WordPress sites (on Friday March 29, Saturday March 30 and Saturday April 6), followed by Friday morning and Saturday afternoon practice sessions that you can drop in on as necessary (with advance notice, of course!). I have also scheduled a couple of Introduction to Image Editing for Beginners workshops, with an ongoing Thursday morning practice session you can also participate in as needed.

These ongoing practice sessions have been repeated indefinitely at the request of participants who felt that the ability to come in two or more times per month for supervised practice and answers to the questions that inevitably arise when developing a new skill would help them to recall the steps more effectively.

I have also tucked in a Using Social Media to Promote Your Art workshop on Friday March 29 at 10am and a Basic Computer Skills class on April 3.

This round of workshops are all $35.00. Please register in advance so I’ll know how many artists to expect! (you can just contact me to confirm that you’ll attend)

Thanks to all who have participated and expressed interest so far!! As always, if the schedule does not seem to fit in with your own, please contact me to arrange a private session or to schedule a new date/time for the workshop you need.

Workshop Update – Week One Feedback

Posted by Hannah West

Hannah West Design logoThe first few workshops in my new roster (image editing & working with WordPress, both for beginners) have gone sooo well this week! I’m getting great feedback on the quantity of information I’m offering, patient and effective instruction, value of the information presented for the price, and even my teaching style. It’s so rewarding to see artists move from apprehension and self-doubt to having fun using their newly acquired skills so quickly, and I’m proud of the progress last week’s participants have already made.  Check out my calendar for current workshop dates and, whether you plan to DIY or need to feel more confident when dealing with your own webmaster, let me help you take control of your online presence!

By request of two of last week’s participants, I’m announcing that the Image Editing Practice Session for Beginners has been extended  to include two dates each month indefinitely, on Thursdays from 10am – 12:30pm. Those who need help with their image editing skills can drop in for a practice session whenever they can, or join the two current participants for a weekly session where supervised practice will hone your skills and help commit them to memory. I will be happy to add an additional ongoing practice session where you can bring your questions, learn more, and practice your image editing skills with me there to help you on a different day/time, as I’ve heard from several artists who can’t make it on a Thursday.

Please email me or use Doodle to request a new date and/or time and I’ll add it to my calendar.

Image Editing for Artists Workshop Deadline Approaching

Posted by Hannah West

Though many of you may have seen posts or heard about the workshops I’m teaching through the Rogue Gallery & Art Center later this month, you may not have registered yet. If you were thinking about attending, please register today! The Social Networking to Promote Your Art workshop we had planned for March 10 has been cancelled because too many artists figured they’d wait til the last minute. Now that minute has come and gone, so don’t miss this one! To register, contact Education Director Brooke Nuckles-Gentekos at 541.772.8118 x 301 or rgaceducation@roguegallery.org

I’ll present Image Editing in Photoshop for Artists on Saturday, March 16. The beginning class starts at 10:30am and ends at noon, intermediate begins at 1:00 pm and ends at 3:00 pm. We’ll meet in the Computer Lab (Room 108) at RCC, where there are a number of computers we can use if you don’t have a laptop. They have Photoshop installed, so you’ll have everything you need for hands-on practice of the image editing tasks you’ll learn. Except the images! Please bring images of your art you’d like to work with on a thumb drive or CD-RW (so you can re-burn the disc with your edited images).

We will go step by step through a number of common editing tasks artist need to know how to do when preparing their images for the web and to submit to festivals and art shows, some of which are frequently done incorrectly and others that are hard to figure out how to do. Come with a list of questions, art images with problems you can’t figure out how to fix and specific things you’d like to learn so I can tailor the presentation to your current needs.