Calypso Dreams Series #9 of 10 ~ Daily Acrylic Painting

7.5" x 5.5" image
Acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper
The Calypso series #9

These other worldly figures look as if they were off in their separate dream world of colorful surroundings. One more to go in this series and then I will post all of them in a slide show so you can see them all together. I hope you have enjoyed these impressionist figurative small paintings.

Other blogs where I post:
http://artistfoodnetwork.blogspot.com
http://canvasbycanvas.blogspot.com
http://marketplace-daily-art.blogspot.com

TO PURCHASE PAINTINGS: Go to Paypal on the sidebar under How to Purchase a Painting: http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Calypso Burden Series #7 of 10 ~ Backups ~ Email ~ Link ~ FaceBook

7.5" x 5.5" image
Acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper
The Calypso series #7 ~ A series of 10 images, all share some of the same vivid colors and technique of acrylic loosely applied onto a gessoed watercolor surface, ready for framing with or without glass as the acrylic has a medium applied for protection.
As I post more images and information on my art blog, I see the need for some kind of backup. I have made a copy of the Template. I am also emailing copies of my blog to myself. I have 2 email addresses and will use one of them for the copies. Here are my steps for Backup:

1. Blogger Template Backup:
Dashboard/Template/Edit
HTML/Backup/Restore Template/Download Full Template
I put it in a blog folder on my hard drive before I removed some of the html code.
2. Email Backup of Posts:
This does not give you a back up of your images – only the
text.
Dashboard/Settings/Show Email Post Links? / Yes/ Save Settings
At the end of the post, there will be a white envelope , click and fill in the
address to send. If you have enabled Google AutoFill you won’t even have to type
the information in. I have my copies archived in my Google Gmail account and I hope it will never be necessary to access them. I email them to myself after all the edits have been done.

I’ve been reading the HELP section trying to find the answer but I didn’t even know how to phrase the question but I tried this today and it works. For example: If I’m referencing something in my email or in another’s in a blog and I want to link to it here's what I do. On the home page of the blog everyone’s url is the same address. But I want to reference a specific post from my friends blog, Betty talking about A Cause for Celebration or Cindy’s post about Pretty in Pink and Connie’s Kick Up Your Heels . or Margie's Nancy’s Red Boots go to their side bar and find the post you want to reference and click on it and that will take you to a specific url when you are taken to that page, copy and paste it into the link button. That works if you want to refer to links within your own blog, also. See below. All of you may already know that but I didn’t.
I tried to register again in FaceBook. See Tuesday’s Post for my FaceBook experience. This time I made it. I registered for the Dallas/Fort Worth area as I overqualified for the high school or college age crowd. Don’t know what I will do now but I’m registered. A message from FB said I’m now able to email my friends and tell them I’m registered but my friends don’t belong to FB and are not in the database so no friends yet. I don’t think I know one person that uses Facebook.
At least there are 3 friends in Calypso Burden painting. I wonder if they met on FaceBook or in a painting class somewhere?

(NFS) Calypso Market Series #6 of 10 -~ PageRank ~ Wi-Fi

Donated to the Arlington Museum Black and White Gala
7.5" x 5.5" image
Acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper
The Calypso series #6 of 10

Good news for my laptop traveling friends and good news this morning for those living along the Thames. Free access is open to a Wi-Fi hot spot for about a 13 mile stretch in London. Yoo-Hooo!
The painting is of two friends enjoying a special moment while shopping. Shopping for what? That’s for you to decide. Maybe it’s for some of those really Sassy high heels they’ve heard about at the Canvas by Canvas site or leaf-green limes, maybe mangoes or lemons. Or they might be conversing about PageRank and it’s importance to a beginning blogger. See more about PageRank with our friend Mr. Wiki at Wikipedia.
Google assigns a numeric weighting from 0-10 for each webpage on the Internet; this PageRank denotes your site’s importance in the eyes of Google. The Google Toolbar has a symbol to show PageRank. The Google Toolbar's PageRank feature displays a visited page's PageRank as a whole number between 0 and 10. The most popular websites have a PageRank of 10. The least have a PageRank of 0. I have a Google Toolbar and I’ve never know the meaning of that little horizontal bar – looks a little like a horizontal thermometer. So now as I find out more about it, I’m curious about everyone's PageRank since I don’t even have the slightest smidge of leaf green color in my little themometer. I have zero page rank. Ohhhhh! I’d like to have at least 1 little piece of leaf green to show.
There are several theories on how to get PageRank. Go to one of my favorite places to look for answers at Peter Chen for Blogger Tips and Tricks and type in PageRank in his search bar. His site has a PageRank of 5 – way to go PC.
This post cautions about who you link to: http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/2006/11/precaution-to-take-before-linking-to.html

Peter suggests you do one important thing to increase your PageRank if this is a concern of yours. Register with DMOZ and Google . If you have a blog and want to get a good page ranking read this post: http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/search/label/DMOZ
I registered my blog at both places. Read carefully the instructions given before registering.
If you don’t have a Google toolbar and don’t want one, (can’t imagine why you wouldn’t) here is a site, Top 25 Web, (PageRank 6) to search for a web or blog's url to see their PageRank.
For example: I looked for Amazon (PR 9) and Dick Blick (PR 7) – 2 of my most used searches and sites and where most of my expendable income ends up for books and art supplies and listed on my side bar for your convenience of shopping.
Yes, you know I had to search out Google’s PageRank and are you surprised? Yep, it’s a 10, after all, it’s their deal. It’s amazing how popular they have become and most people know exactly what you mean when you say, "Oh, just Google her or him or it…"
My bet is when our Calypso Market shoppers pass a Wi-Fi hot spot; they will stop and check their PageRank.
If you want to see if there is a Wi-Fi hot spot in your area check out this link at Free HotSpot, and put in your zip code, maybe share a laptop/java moment with a friend before plantain shopping.

CALYPSO JUDGE Series #5 of 10 More BLOG and PING

7.5" x 5.5" image
Acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper
The Calypso series #5

This figure reminds me of a judge. What do you see? I have the bright colors, and lots of splatter, and the addition of the black and white squares suggests a checkerboard. It is dramatic when you have your darkest dark up against the lightest light in a painting and it will tend to draw the eye to this area. I don’t want an exact likeness but just an impression that does not bore.
In yesterday’s post, I reported on a ping site. Today I have another site to add to our arsenal and instructions on how to put it on your blog so as to ping several blog directories to possibly cause some indirect traffic to appear at your blog site. My painting buddies at Canvas by Canvas are calling us "Nancy and the Bloggernuts" and these instructions are directed more at the Bloggernuts than anyone else.
Autopinger is a free and convenient service for all bloggers. Just set it and forget it. It relays your blog updates to blog search engines every 30 minutes or you can add a button and ping after you update. Disclaimer! I’ve been blogging about 2 weeks now (a baby blogger trying to find my way in the blogosphere). Please read your directions for your Ping Me button as given on http://autopinger.com/ as the ones given below are only suggestions.

Gadzooks! Batman!...go for it.
Go to: http://autopinger.com/

Register- Sign up is free
You will receive an email notification, follow
instructions
Sign up by clicking
Go to My Account
Add new blog
Type in the url of your blog - ADD
Set ping services (on the left)
All are set automatically
Get the: Quick Ping Button
Copy the html
code generated (scroll down, left click inside the box, control C to copy
(Here I paste it in a Word document in case for some strange reason I lose
it?) Paranoia?
At Blogger Template, add a page, HTML, and paste in the code
(I had a box at the bottom of my page that I’d put in a stat counter (the long
skinny one) So as not to add another box on my page, I used the stat counter box
and pressed enter several times to put some space between the html code and
added the Ping info into the same box.)
Paste into the Blogger template
(Here grab you a glass of iced tea and bring it back to your computer...Be
careful of spills! or some Sweet tea, sometimes known as Southern Table Wine.
View and Ping the PING ME button...Fun! and Watch what
happens in the pop up window…Drink you iced tea and WAIT and WATCH as your site is pinged to death. Autoping will do this automatically every 30 minutes.

(I can’t believe computers all over the world are being pinged every 30 minutes but then I don’t understand electricity either or even how my coffee pot works!) OR and this is the fun part you can press your Ping Me button when you have an update. BLOG and PING!! Scroll all the way down to the bottom of my page and you can see my Ping Me button and yours should look just the same. I hope so. Happy Pinging!

CALYPSO MUSIC Series #3 of 10 by Nancy Standlee

7.5" x 5.5" image
Acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper
The Calypso series began at a paint-out with some of the Canvas by Canvas members. I’ve used the same bold color palette throughout the series. If you asked me if I could paint the figures again I’d have to say “I don’t know”. It was a moment when all senses were synchronized. I am amazed that hints and suggestions of paint can create an emotional response from the viewer and the viewer reads the painting as “I see a dancer or I see a woman with a child”. I read and collect a lot of art books and some titles I’ll share here, but this weekend I didn’t open a book or use a photo for reference for this group of acrylic paintings. I painted until a human form appeared and I kept painting until I could see a shape that was somewhat identifiable.
Camplin left this comment in the painting “Saturday Synchronicity” on my blog.

"Have you seen the Bay Area Figurative Movement artists? Here is a list of
artists for that movement: Elmer Bischoff, Adelie landis Bischoff, Joan Brown,
William Henry Brown, Theophilus Brown, Ann Hogle, Eleanor Kent, Bruce McGaw,
Manuel Neri, Nathan Oliveira, Joe Oddo, Clayton Pinkerton, Hassel Smith, James
Weeks, Paul Wonner.
I think it is important to look at other artists that are
doing similar things."

Because of that comment I ordered the book Bay Area Figurative Art: 1950-1965, by Caroline Jones today. If you’d like to read a description of the book you can click on the Amazon symbol and do a book search. I took a workshop and have a book by Robert Burridge, “Loosen Up” (available from his site) and he lists the figurative book as one of "Bob's Library of Favorites (for now). I ordered Elmer Bischoff: The Ethics of Paint also.
Series #4 for tomorrow or maybe a cupcake or a high heel – I’m flexible.

Calypso Family Series #1 of 10 by Nancy Standlee

7.5" x 5.5" image
Acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper
The Calypso series was begun this play and paint weekend at a Canvas by Canvas members' home. Scenario: Member's husband goes to Europe, 6 painter friends arrive with cars loaded down with art supplies and food ready to work on Friday. It was late Saturday evening when my CBC work was completed and I began to think about some personal paintings. This series is the result of an intense focused weekend of painting. It is impressionist and painted more from emotions than photos. So as not to suffer from girl friend withdrawal, some members will paint together on Monday at the Upstairs Gallery. Watch our sites and blogs for an exciting announcement of new work to follow after our weekend of painting.