1.Tell us a little bit about your self, and how you got involved in painting? "My name is Elodie. I live in France. I began to draw as a child, and I continued to draw throughout the years. Painting came naturally. I started with gouache at school (like every child). I have been painting with oil for one year. I did not study art. I am a self-educated painter. I have had 3 exhibitions since last year (2011)" 2. How has your work evolved in the last couple years? "I have been painting almost every day for the past 2 years. I started creating nature beauties (landscapes) and now women portraits." 3. Who is your Biggest inspirations in the art world? "I like impressionist painters such as Van Gogh, Monet, Cézanne, Pissarro. I love the vibrating energy and colours of their artworks. I like surrealist artists too such as Dali." 4. How do you find inspiration on a regular basis? "I find inspiration in everyday’s life: music, travels, movies, legends, people... I am inspired by the world around me as well as everyday interactions. I try to keep an open mind. I am also interested in Japan and its culture." 5.Have you always painting with such vibrant colors? "When I was younger, I created portraits with charcoal or pencils. My portraits were very sad, black and more caricature. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know... " (First oil Painting) 6. What advice would you give to young artists? "I do not consider myself an artist. Painting is for me a productive mean of self expression but if I had to give a message to other young artists I would say: listen to yourself, be honest with your emotions, be opened, express what you feel and have fun ! There's nothing else that matters." 7.Whats your biggest dream as a an artist? "I have difficulties in projecting myself into the future but becoming a recognized artist is my biggest dream..." 1. Tell us a bit about yourself. My name is Matt Obrey, im 37 years old and come from Birmingham, UK. I like capturing life as we sometimes may not see it whilst looking for the extraordinary within the ordinary. I’m fascinated with watching people in their everyday surroundings whether it be on the streets, in parks on buses or in the supermarket. Humorous and surreal moments happen all around us all day every day and stealing these moments in time that will never be replicated again helps me make sense of the chaotic world we live in today. 2. List 3 photographers you admire – past and/or present. Josef Koudelka Joel Mayerowitz Alex Webb 3. When did you start shooting? Ive had an interest in photography for many years, dabbling in landscape and portrait. I used to shoot the Downhill Mountain bike scene here in the uk after giving up the sport myself due to injury, but its street photography that i find most challenging now and have been concentrating on this now for nearly two years. 4. What inspires you on a regular basis? Talent, in any shape or form. 5. Something that few people know about you. I can never remember my left from right so don't ask me for directions! 6. If someone gave you $5,000 today to spend on photography equipment, what would you buy? I don't get too hung up on equipment, but if i had too spend 5000 today it would be on books which i consider to be valuable equipment. 7. Mac or PC? Mac. 8. Which is your most-used lens? The fixed 23mm on my X100. 9. What would be your ultimate goal? The same goal as most amateur photographers out there, which is to someday have a book published. flickr- http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattobrey/
facebook- http://www.facebook.com/MattObrey247 tumblr- http://mattobrey.tumblr.com 500px- http://500px.com/MattObrey Traveling the world with a closed mind is like, trying to read a book with your eyes closed. -Josh Bulriss 1. How long have you been painting, and what made you start? I have been working professionally as an artist after graduating from the Corcoran College of Art in Design in 1991. While I was quite young, my mother painted and her easel was often set up on our apartment patio when we lived in Paris. We moved every 2- 3 years, and I found each new environment stimulating, always curious about the next horizon. I loved creating things from nature when out exploring on walks. Then it was creative play. Today it is still play but with the knowledge of art theory, form, color, space and line tagging along for the ride. "Transcendence of Thought" © Michelle Firment Reid 2. How would you categorize your painting style? Lyrical and Gestural Abstraction, Romantic Expressionism. I prefer to use those terms loosely. I find it difficult to categorize my own painting style in this contemporary art world where I am have been inspired from artists of the past though pushing forward in my own language of art. "Brutally Beautiful" © Michelle Firment Reid 3. Has your style changed in the last couple of years and if so how? It’s a slow migration, and always has been. Each body of work tends to connect with the other through some visual thread. The biggest change in my work occurred around five years ago when I chose to let go of writing words on my canvas. I found the words distracting and not necessary to be readable. Instead, the words developed into more gestural line which gives the idea of writing. "Feeling The Blue" © Michelle Firment Reid Now there are no actual words in my works but more like thoughts before they become words, the space between. 4. What inspires you on a regular basis? Nature is a huge inspiration as far as my color palette. I take a lot of walks, especially in the morning hours, and I enjoy this quiet and reflective time. Much inspires me, especially life around me- people, music, conversations, and my own emotions. Nature just tends to say it best, without words. I look to nature to find order. "It Was Only A Flesh Wound' © Michelle Firment Reid 5. Does it make it harder to find time to paint having a family? The same could be said if I had a job as a teacher, and my ability to balance out my teaching hours with my art hours as many artists do. To answer your question, no, and if anything, I find it easier. Before children, in my early twenties, I took advantage of my time, much wasted without giving myself deadlines. Now my time with my art is used to the fullest. "The Absence of You" © Michelle Firment Reid 6. What do you dislike about the ART world? Vanity Galleries. These are art galleries charging artists a large sum to exhibit their work, with promises of publicity, while they end up making most of the money from the artist rather than sales to the public. On the other hand, commercial galleries make their profits from sales of artwork so they take time and care to select art they believe will sell. These galleries spend time understanding the artist’s work, promoting the art and cultivating collectors. They take a percentage of the artists work which sells, normally anywhere from 40- 60 percent, and the artist is then paid. Vanity galleries have no incentive to sell art since they have already been paid by the artist, and they are for the most part not selective, because they don’t need to be. I highly recommend new artists to avoid exhibiting work with this type of gallery because professional critics and art reviewers tend to avoid them. "Avalanche of You" © Michelle Firment Reid 7. What would be your Ultimate DREAM as an Artist? I create and do what I love on a daily basis, work hard, and make a living from it. In a sense, I am living my dream. I have a supportive and loving family as well as a close network of friends. In my art career I would like to continue my art while reaching a wider audience. I also would love to see the arts in our public school system grow instead of being deduced. The children today are our future art advocates, museum visitors and art collectors. Arts education is essential in building innovative thinkers. Being able to think in different ways and sense possibilities may inspire the future physicist, economist, and political scientist to see interconnections and hypothesize about variables in ways they may not have considered. The arts can free us to think and dream and sense, and this often proves invaluable. "Discovering The Truth In Her Poppy Fields" © Michelle Firment Reid Haati Chai creates a uniquely magical combination of “on trend” pieces rooted from Indian culture. It is not glaringly obvious in all the pieces, but you can tell that it is something different, special, and unique. This jewelry brand not only has the “usual” earrings, rings, necklaces and bracelets expected to encompass any jewelry line, but it boasts anklets, body chains, head pieces, nose rings, men’s jewelry and Indian trinkets.http://haatichai.com/ 1. The first person who managed to make a "photographic" snapshot constant, that is to fix the image was Joseph Niepce. The very first snapshot in the history of photography is considered "view from the window," dated 1826. The exposure of the shot lasted 8 Hours. 2. The first person who invented negative was Fox Talbot. This event occurred in 1839. In the same year Hippolyte Bayard presented the first positive print to the world. 3. The first "photographic paper" was made of asphalt. More precisely, asphalt varnish was applied on the copper or the glass plate. 4. Camera Obscura, which became the prototype of the modern camera, is used up to this day for the production of integrated circuits and as a special film camera. 5. The first color photograph was taken in 1861 by James Maxwell, the British physicist. 6. Appearance of the first plates for color photography dated back to 1904, produced by the company "Lumiere". 7. The first aerial photography was carried out by French inventor Turnache in 1858. He shot Paris from the balloon. 8. The first photos in Russia were made by Y.F. Fritzsche using the method of Talbot. 9. The first color photograph in Russia was published in "Memoirs of Russian Technical Society". Leo Tolstoy is captured on it. 10. They began to retouch photos and make them "color", which was achieved by coloring in watercolor for the first time in 1840. 11. In Russia, the first camera based on the theory of Daguerreotype was invented by Grekov back in 1840, that is, a year after the invention of photography. Alex Grekov also made experiments with photographs by the method of Talbot on the light-sensitive paper. 12. The first portrait by the electric light was made in 1879 by Levitsky, which required the exposure of 15 seconds. 13. The first cassette - one of the prototypes of modern photographic film - which had 12 sheets of light-sensitive paper, and, respectively, 12 shots, weighed 15 (!) pounds. 14. The basis of a digital camera was invented in 1973. It was a charge-coupled device, with which it was possible to obtain an image size of 100x100 pixels. The first astronomical electronic photo was taken with the help of this device the following year. 15. The story of a digital photo begins with camera Mavica, produced by the company Sony in 1981. Mavica is almost a full SLR with interchangeable lenses and resolution of 570h490 pixels. But then it was considered a "static camera," the result of which was not the video but static images - shots. 16. Officially the world's first digital camera is the development of the company Kodak, Stephen CESSON. The invented camera recorded an image on an audio cassette tape. Time of recording images from the moment you press the button was 22 seconds. 17. The term "megapixel" was first used in 1984. 18. The world's first auto-focus SLR camera was produced by "Polaroid" in 1979, and in 1985 "Minolta" produced a camera that eventually become the standard for SLR cameras. 19. According to statistics, at present, only 2 of 10 images taken with digital cameras are printed on paper. 20. The oldest camera was sold at the auction in Vienna in 2007, setting all-time overall record and having become the most expensive camera ever sold at auction. Rarity called "Daguerrotype Susses Freres" was sold for nearly eight hundred thousand U.S. dollars. The starting price was 100 000 euros. |