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/