February

Featured Artist of the Month:
Ronald Slauson
A native of Florida, I studied photography in High School at Miami Beach and worked as assistant to a professional photographer during after school and weekend hours.
I maintained an active interest in photography while in the military but later set it aside to pursue a career and raise four children.
My interest in photography surfaced again in 2003 while working on training and promotional documentation assignments and other company project

My interest in photography surfaced again in 2003 while working on training and promotional documentation assignments and other company projects. Retiring from an engineering position in January, 2007, I purchased a Nikon digital SLR camera along with several lenses, software and basic studio gear as a retirement present to myself.
I started pursuing photography as a hobby, occasionally doing photo assignments for my former employer, until I moved back to Florida. Recently, several friends encouraged me to join the Belleview Art Club and start displaying some of my art photos.

Curently Ron is exhibiting at Community Bank in Belleview. Come to see his wonderful photos .

During January 2009, you could see art exhibition of ACB members at Gallery East, Ocala. Famous Artist Quotes
(Which is your favorite?)
"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." - Art quote by Pablo Picasso
"A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art."- Art quote by Paul Cézanne
One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one's capacity.- Art quote by Auguste Renoir


CELEBRATING SPRING WITH ART
THE ART CLUB OF BELLEVIEW IN CLOSE COOPERATION WITH THE CITY OF BELLEVIEW (with special thanks to City Commissioner Christine Dobkowski,) IS ORGANIZING A CHILDRENS ART EXHIBITION " CELEBRATING SPRING WITH ART. THE ART WORKS WILL BE DIVIDED INTO THREE CATEGORIES 6-9,10-14 AND 15-18 YEARS.
EACH CATEGORY WILL RECEIVE PRIZES. EACH ITEM OF ART WORK SHOULD BE UNFRAMED AND SIGNED WITH FULL NAME , AGE AND NAME OF SCHOOL OF EACH YOUNG ARTIST .
ART WORKS WILL BE EXHIBITED IN BELLEVIEW CITY HALL DURING APRIL 2009.
For more details, please, visit our web site.....
http://artclubbelleview.zoomshare.com/

Exploring New Techniques
Combining two seemingly different materials (chunky clay and refined terra sigillata) make an interesting combination on this plate by Anne Fløche.

Inspired by Terra Sigillata: A New Twist on an Ancient Surface Technique
by Anne Floche When I think of terra sigillata, ( literally translated as "sealed earth." Ultrarefined clay slip, made by deflocculating a clay in water so the heavy particles settle, leaving the finer particles in suspension to be decanted as terra sigillata. Can give a soft sheen when applied to bone-dry wares and, if polished or burnished while still damp, may give a high gloss. All ancient Greek red-black pottery and Roman red wares were finished with this technique, without the use of glaze) I think of the soft, satin surfaces of low-fired earthenware, like Greek red and black ware that still has that great surface sheen. But Anne Fløche has taken terra sigillata in a different direction. She's allowed herself to use it in a way that goes against tradition, but is true to her own inspiration and way of working. This is a classic example of taking a tried-and-true technique and making it personal. Whether you're using terra sigillata in a traditional manner or pushing it to try something new, Fløche provides a great tutorial (and a recipe) for making this versatile material.—Sherman Hall, Ceramic Arts Daily Terra sigillata is a very old and very simple material used by the Greeks and Romans. They used it to create burnished red-and-black wares fired at low temperatures: 1650°-1830°F (900°-1000°C). I fire higher, to 1100°C (2010°F), because I find that my works are too fragile otherwise. There is a balance to maintain, however, because many colors become dull and dense if the firing temperature is too high. I apply the terra sigillata to bone-dry clay with a brush. Broad brushes are particularly useful.To my basic recipe, I add coloring oxides or stains, as one would with an ordinary slip.I realize that I construct my slips in so many ways (even adding sand sometimes) that some might say that it is not really terra sigillata anymore. I suppose this might be true, but it is a very simple way of working, and I have not had many technical problems. I also do not leave my clay to settle, as is typical with terra sigillata, to obtain the finest grains. Many of the materials I use are so fine that this is not necessary. Only when I use a raw, local clay or a stoneware clay with grog do I leave it to settle and separate into layers. Fundamentally, the china clay can be replaced by any other clay: local clays, stoneware clays, etc. Each clay has its own nuances.Some clays I use on their own, rather than using them in the recipe; however, nonplastic clays may peel. If this happens, I add more ball clay. Peeling may also occur if the terra sigillata is applied too thick. My clay body is very coarse, so the terra sigillata sticks well to the surface. A very fine clay might pose problems. If the clay body is too fine, more grog can be added.

Art Club of BelleviewMonthly Focus on the Masters
Georgia O'Keeffe
When I was still a little girl, I used to think that since I couldn't do what I wanted to… at least I could paint as I wanted to, and say what I wanted to when I painted." Georgia O'Keeffe.
Georgia O'Keeffe is known for her brilliantly colored paintings with confident shapes and simple patterns. She painted a great many floral paintings which were large pieces with the flower exaggerated and enlarged to completely fill the canvas, then stylized to their most essential forms. She is also known for her Southwest paintings which include adobe buildings, desert mountain panoramas or floating cow skulls against rich blue skies. The emphasis on the simplest aspects of the shapes created a surrealistic dynamic that is captivating.
O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She knew from a young age that she would be an artist when she grew up. She studied first at the Art Institute of Chicago. After stopping her education due to a bout of typhoid, she resumed study in 1907 at the Art Student League in New York. She was following a family tradition of educated women- an idea not prevalent at that time. Even as she excelled in her studies it was believed that she would end up teaching art rather than making it.
Georgia moved for a time with her family to Virginia, but in 1914, when a teaching job opened in Amarillo, Texas, she took it. After two years she went to New York's Columbia Teacher's College, and took a job at Columbia College in South Carolina.
Georgia O'Keeffe's friend Anita Pollitzer was taken by O'Keeffe's works and took some samples to show Alfred Steiglitz at the 291 Gallery in New York. Some sources say that she did so without O'Keeffe's permission. Steiglitz was a respected Gallery curator and artist himself, and O'Keeffe respected his opinion, but even though he loved them it took some negotiations with O'Keeffe to convince her to let him exhibit her work.
O'Keeffe returned to Texas and worked at the West Texas Normal College while painting the scenes she loved, and hiking the Palo Duro Canyon. An illness caused her to quit her job- or perhaps it was her radical political views clashing with her colleagues. In any case, she returned to New York at Alfred Steiglitz's urging. After several years of cohabitation, Steiglitz divorced his wife and they married when she was 23 and he was 54. O'Keeffe was not enthusiastic, however.
Their many trips to the Steiglitz family home in the Adirondacks were the inspiration for many paintings. They spent several years living in a New York City hotel, and her view there also served as inspiration. It was in New York that she painted her first large flower paintings.
Beck Strand was a friend who invited O'Keeffe on a trip to Taos, New Mexico at a time when the artist was craving new scenery to paint. Steiglitz didn't like travel and firmly stayed in New York except for occasional uncomfortable forays elsewhere with O'Keeffe. She spent all her summers in Taos from then on, and when Steiglitz died in 1946, she moved there permanently.
She purchased a hacienda at Ghost Ranch,New Mexico and it became her lair for much of the remainder of her life. Her eyesight began to fail in the early seventies and by 1972 she could no longer see well enough to paint. A young man named Juan Hamilton, a potter, came to do odd jobs for O'Keeffe and ultimately became her closest companion in her later years. Many felt he was using her for his own ends, but O'Keeffe liked him and he stayed. She even did a bit of pottery herself while knowing him.
At the very end of her life she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was there that she died in 1986 at the age of 98. She was cremated the next day and Juan Hamilton scattered her ashes from Pedernal Mountain as she had requestest.

Please help support our art club. We are not only endeavoring to have a place to network with each other but we are also interested in reaching out to the community. For that we need funding. If you would like to have a hand in building up our efforts, we are offering to send you a small work of original art by members of the Art Club of Belleview for each $10.00 donation.For details,please, visit our web site or contact Daniela at standanielab@netzero.com .

If you are curious about where we have some of our artwork exhibiting, here is a list of some
businesses exhibiting art in our area :
INDEPENDENT BANK 10990 S HWY 441 BELLEVIEW, COMMUNITY BANK 10131 S. US HWY 441 BELLEVIEW,BELLEVIEW CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 5301 SE ABSHIER BLVD, BELLEVIEW, CAL'S PLACE 11007 SE 66 TERR, BELLEVIEW, STATE REPRESENATIVE KURT KELLY OFFICE 5612 SE ABSHIER BLVD, BELLEVIEW, MASAGE THERAPIST NORMA BARKER 5251 SE 113THE STR. BELLEVIEW, VOICE OF SOUTH MARION,South Hwy. 301 BELLEVIEW, COMMUNITY LINKS,INC. 9977 SE 58 AVE, BELLEVIEW,B.D BEANS CAFE 5148 SE ABSHIER BLVD, BELLEVIEW, HUMANE SOCIETY OF MARION COUNTY 701 NW 14 TH RD., OCALA, MARY FOX TAX & ACCONTING, INC. 5608 SE 113 str BELLEVIEW,
The Cornerstone Team Keller Williams Realty Spruce Creek South, SOLAR TREC,INC 202 S.W 33 Ave, Unit C, Ocala ,

OUR ART FUN DAY

this time we painted on the glass.

January

January 2009
Our Art club was established to have fun and to promote art in the Belleview area. Our membership is $12.00 per year. If you want to meet new friends, chat with other artists and promote your art, come see us.

Our meetings are at 4 p.m. on the first Friday of every month at the iste of Belleview new library. We are open to new ideas and we love to meet new people. You'll love our friendly atmosphere. We're looking forward to seeing you.
Next meeting January 2, 2009
Demo Carol Dentici on stepping stonesThe Art Club of Belleview would like to extend our warmest wishes to all our members and supporters at this time. We look forward to an even better year ahead. Happy New Year!

We would like to invite you for reception at Gallery East ( Six gun plaza) January 12, 2009 ; 5-7:30 PMDecember was a very special month for our art club. Instead of having our regular meeting, we elected to go to the Golden Corral restaraunt and have a get together. A great time was had by all as we took advantage of the delicious buffet and good conversation. The Art Club of Belleview also presented Daniela Banatova, our club president, with an artist's survival kit! Every thing an artist may need when that special 'need' to create takes hold! Thanks Daniela AND all our members for doing an outstanding job this year.One of the projects we had this month was putting together a children's art exhibit in our city hall. Here are a few pictures of the Grand Prize winner and other participants:

We also celebrated as our featured artist of the month:
Milly Sheffer
Milly works primarily in watercolor, sometimes augmented with gouache, ink or graphite. She prefers to work quickly and spontaneously, allowing the process to be apparent in the finished work.

Milly holds a degree in fine arts from Wheaton College, and studied at Syracuse University and the Art Institute of Chicago. Her paintings have been exhibited in numerous national juried shows and she has had solo exhibitions of her paintings of the elderly, and of refugees from around the world. Other exhibitions have included paintings of Buffalo monuments and gardens, and paintings from her travel in Italy.

Mrs. Sheffer has taught watercolor, portraiture, and drawing to students of all ages. She also accepts commissions for portraits.

She is currently working on a series of paintings based on travel in Jordan, Syria and Turkey, as well a recent trip to Mexico.
We hope you had a chance to stop by the Chamber of Commerce building and see the beautiful watercolor paintings by Mily Sheffer

We had some of our club artists exhibit their photos and other art works at the Spruce Creek Community Center.

Famous Artist's Quote of the Month

"A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing."William Dobell

Art Club of Belleview
Monthly Focus on the Masters
M.C. Escher

M. C. Escher, otherwise known as Maurits Cornelis Escher, carried many titles during his career as an artist. Often he was, and still is, referred to as a Specialist in Optical Art, Master of Symmetry, Dutch Engraver, Dutch Graphic Artist, Dutch Illustrator and Dutch Mathematician. All these titles hold true to the diversity of this man's style. His passions, or addictions as he so often called them, focused on tessellation (inter linking figurative work) and regular plane division.
Escher, born to a civil engineer June 17, 1898, was encouraged by his family at a young age to pursue an education in Architectural Arts. His lack of interest and poor grades led him in a different direction with his artistic talents. It was not until he reached age twenty-one that he discovered his true calling: Graphic Art. From then on, his success story writes itself. He taught himself in the areas of math and science through the study of technical papers in order to achieve his artistic goals. This caught the attention of many scientists and mathematicians, alike. It is often wondered if he was truly an artist or a mathematician by his own right. His particular artistic style is said to be what has bridged the gap between art and math and art and science.
Upon finishing Art school, Escher traveled Spain, France and Italy to vacation and gather inspiration for his work. Throughout his studies, he became more fascinated with structures than in regular portraits or landscapes. His early works suggests differently, as he placed his focus on particular places and people. He worked primarily in engraved woodcuts so he could repeat patterns quicker and easier. During his career, he never felt completely comfortable with calling himself an artist or an artisan. He felt such titles would limit his potential and cause too many barriers between his interests and the art world.
You will find many teachers and professors teaching his methods in the classrooms today. In order to keep the student's imagination alive and interest growing during the learning process, his mathematics and scientific principles are incorporated in many curriculums. Students will continue to debate as to if he is an artist, scientist or mathematician.
Escher's diversity strikes a chord in enthusiasts of all sorts because, while he remains faithful to his style, his pieces do not scream with cultural nuances. He is also an artist who does not follow fads or gimmicks. These facts support the reasons why his work remains so popular and admired by such a broad audience. His ability to turn something real into something unreal, like with piece entitled "Waterfall" holds the attention of critics, educators and admirers. He took a realistic structure and manipulated it into something unreal with seemingly no effort to the average onlooker. At first glance, there is nothing unusual about this structure. Upon taking a second look, you will see elements and events happening under "impossible" circumstances.
M. C. Escher died March 27, 1972 with a huge arsenal of artistic achievements by his name:
- Completed 448 lithographs, wood cuts and wood engravings
- Over 2000 drawings and sketches
- Over twenty periodicals articles, books and booklets were published about him or by him between the years 1921 and 1990
- Over sixty six publications are still available to purchase today
His accomplishments inspire many and provoke many to study his work further. Many Graphic Artists are in the process of completing three-dimensional study models mirroring several of his wood cut prints


Escher's work also inspires many tessellation contests and related works all across the globe. The impact this man has on the art world seems to live on and may never die.
Exploring New Techniques
At first glance, the idea that someone, much less a short article, can teach the intricacies of painting something as abstract as abstract art, may seem absurd. However, before judging this article, remember that art, although a form of individualistic expression, often still follows a loose set of boundaries or guidelines. For instance, while we cannot be taught to write like Hemingway, we can learn basic language syntax and study his work. In the same vein, while abstract art cannot be taught in the traditional sense, there are some basic boundaries of the craft which can be learned. Combined with your own imagination and some practice, these basic boundaries will help produce individualistic artistic pieces. So, with that little disclaimer out of the way, here are some tips on how to paint abstract art: Foundation TechniquesIntensify colours based on the intensity of moodsImagine that each colour on the pallette is a mood, in your hand you hold a set of moods or expressions of self. Keeping this in mind, the intensity of the colour you use for a particular section of the piece may be used to represent the intensity of your mood towards that section. If the subject matter excites you for instance, you may choose to use an intense colour or colour blend, which helps symbolise your feelings towards that subject. The brighter the colour, the more intense the emotion; the darker the colour, the more subdued. Change colours to suit moods/feelingIn addition to simply allowing the colours you use to mirror your internal emotions, you may choose to change the colour of the subject completely in order to strengthen a particular connotation. Using both intensity and hue to convey your internal thoughts helps create a multifaceted expression of self, while colour intensity may symbolise the intensity of a feeling, colour itself will refine that feeling into a more concrete illustration. While the ideas of colour symbolism are beyond the scope of this article, for abstract art simply focus on how a particular colour makes you feel. For instance, a guitar lover may choose to paint guitars in a bright hue of pink, while a poor student may represent his resentment by painting report cards in a dull grey colour. Simply look at a certain colour and focus on how it makes you feel, what emotions it expresses about your inner self. There is no right or wrong answer, it is merely subjective. Alter the shape of objectsAltering the shape of a subject is a powerful way to further place your intrinsic feelings and thoughts into a visual form. While changing the colour and hue of a subject is extremely overt in terms of conveying emotion, altering the shape of an object can be as subtle or pronounced as you wish it to be. Indeed, the most masterful use of subject shape reforming comes from subtle adjustments that are mostly subconscious. However, if you do wish to make a pronounced effect, you can choose to wildly exaggerate anything in your composition. In order to choose a suitable shape for your subject reforming, simply look inside yourself and find a geometric shape that conveys something about your subject matter. For instance, a circle often denotes a relaxed feeling of holistic well-being, while a square may imply determination or stubbornness. Despite this these conventions, you, the artist, ultimately decides how you wish to symbolise a subject in your work.
An excerpt from an article writtenby
Dustin Hsiao




Businesses exhibiting art in our area
INDEPENDENT BANK 10990 S HWY 441 BELLEVIEW, COMMUNITY BANK 10131 S. US HWY 441 BELLEVIEW,BELLEVIEW CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 5301 SE ABSHIER BLVD, BELLEVIEW, CAL'S PLACE 11007 SE 66 TERR, BELLEVIEW, STATE REPRESENATIVE KURT KELLY OFFICE 5612 SE ABSHIER BLVD, BELLEVIEW, MASAGE THERAPIST NORMA BARKER 5251 SE 113THE STR. BELLEVIEW, VOICE OF SOUTH MARION,BELLEVIEW, COMMUNITY LINKS,INC. 9977 SE 58 AVE, BELLEVIEW,B.D BEANS CAFE 5148 SE ABSHIER BLVD, BELLEVIEW, HUMANE SOCIETY OF MARION COUNTY 701 NW 14 TH RD., OCALA,
MARY FOX TAX & ACCONTING, INC. 5608 SE 113 TH STR. BELLEVIEW,The Cornerstone Team KellerWilliams realtySpruce Creek South
Look up Art Club of Belleview on the internet at: http://www.artclubbelleview.zoomshare.com/