Digital photography brings out the artist in many of us, and software such as Photoshop and Lightroom add a little extra sparkle to our images.
However, sometimes an atmospheric image can be improved further with a push towards the art world, using specialist painting software.
Akvis ArtWork 7 claims to turn your photos into impressive works of art that, in some instances, can turn a mediocre shot into an atmospheric image that's worth framing and sticking on the wall.
This latest upgrade introduces Gouche - a versatile painting technique that uses dense and intensive colours. Its characteristics are brilliance and opacity. Akvis ArtWork's opacity feature and covering power will, the developer claims, enable you to create outstanding effects that can't be achieved with watercolour paints.
Gouache technique is widely used in decorative painting and when creating colour sketches and drawings.
Akvis ArtWork 7 is available for both PC and Mac platforms, or you can use it as a plug-in for Photoshop. The basic idea is to turn a photo into a painting. The program goes a stage further than the Artistic filters built in to Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, which haven't been updated or extended for many years.
Other effects on offer from ArtWork include Oil, Watercolor, Comics, Pen & Ink, Linocut and Pastel. There are even some extra arty touches such as canvas textures and stylised signatures to add a little flourish to your masterpiece.
Of course, software to turn photos into art is nothing new. Corel Painter has been around for years, but at £279/$429 and with a fairly steep learning curve, it isn't for everyone.
Akvis ArtWork 7 sells for £93/$99 and the latest version includes a Preview feature so you can tweak and assess your opus magnum before printing it out. Version 7 sounds like it could be a fairly essential upgrade, and should have you on your way to the Royal Academy in no time at all.
Source: www.techradar.com
Antique tractor & power show returns June 9 - Brush News Tribune
Formerly known as the Cottonwood Forge Antique Power and Tractor Show, the event was reorganized as of 2011 by a group of devoted Morgan County residents.
“A group of about 16 of us have gotten together to make everything go," said co-organizer Barb Holter. “It's a real good group and everyone has their own special abilities to make the organization work. We have a lot of support from local groups that are helping us too."
The second annual event is slated to feature the ever-popular Poker-Run which will have participants stopping at local businesses to pick up playing cards for the contest and also to receive special discounts. Tractor games, such as a slow race, pole race and wagon backing as well as vendor booths, entertainment, a parade of power, corn shelling and wheat thrashing demonstrations also are on tap for the festivities.
Tractor owner and country music singer Sally Goerner will lend her national anthem singing talents to the event once again this year and according to Barb Holter, who co-chairs the organizing committee with several other Morgan County residents.
The live auction is being discussed to include items such as toys, tractor t-shirts and more and gift certificates donated by local businesses will likely be used this year as door and game prizes.
Morgan Community College's Center for Arts and Community Enrichment (CACE) program also has plans to continue the photo contest again this year, featuring pictures taken at the event that will be judged and put on display in July at MCC. The contest is open to people of all ages and includes four categories of photo subjects
including Place and Faces, Preserving the Past, Parade Photos and Personal Perspectives categories.Entries must be turned in by the end of June and can be sent digitally to MCC Director of Communications and Marketing Katie Barron by e-mail at Katie.Barron@MorganCC.edu or in hardcopy form by dropping them off at MCC. For more information on the photo contest, call Katie at 970-542-3108.
Last year's first annual event featured 83 tractors and drew participants from Brush, Fort Morgan, Sterling, Alamosa, Yuma, Haxtun, Holyoke, Otis, Akron, Colorado's Front Range area, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas.
Attendance in 2011 was at approximately 675 people. After festivities ended that year, co-organizer Barb Holter commented, “I feel it was a great success and we are stoked to do it again next year. We worked so well together as a committee and I would like to thank all that helped”.
She also stated that at last year's event, “We were pleased with how the parade/poker run went and had very positive comments all day from tractor exhibitors and participants that were so impressed with the cooperation we received from the police department”.
The first annual event enticed 52 sponsors for the event and 25 business donated items to the auction. Door prizes also were donated by businesses such as McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Johns, Sonic, Willow Coffee-Tea & Smoothies, Arby's and Pizza Hut.
More information and a tentative schedule can be found through the show's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/morgancountytractorshow, or by visiting the Brush Chamber of Commerce website at www.brushchamber.org/events/tractor_show.html
Event organizers hope to get the show its own website soon for further information and pictures from past events.
Source: www.brushnewstribune.com
Topazery Jewelry Reviews its First Decade as an Online Antique Jewelry Boutique - Beaumont Enterprise
Having recently celebrated 10 years of selling vintage and antique jewelry on the web, Topazery Jewelry reviews its accomplishments over the last decade. A celebrity first sale, a move to the big city and a feature spotlight on primetime TV are just some of the highlights the company has experienced since its humble beginnings.
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) June 07, 2012
The tenth anniversary of Topazery Jewelry has prompted the online jewelry boutique to review its accomplishments over the past ten years of selling vintage and antique jewelry on the web. That retrospective reveals the company’s humble beginnings, its first celebrity customer, a major relocation, a TV spotlight, several expansions in antique style jewelry offerings and rolling with the punches as the World Wide Web changed and evolved.
When Topazery first opened its doors in 2001, the company operated out of an antiques mall in Charlotte, N.C. Back then, its focus was on antique furnishings and accessories, with only a small selection of jewelry comprising its inventory. In October 2002, Topazery founder, Jan Walden, decided to take her antique concept to the then still-in-its-infancy web and shift the focus to jewelry. That move was a calculated risk, with the notion of doing business entirely online still a novel and unproven model. “When we began selling online, Etsy.com didn’t exist and Amazon.com (the largest online retailer in the world) had just announced its first profitable year,” Walden explains.
With a starting budget of less than $1,000, Topazery.com debuted with a mere five antique and vintage rings up for sale. “As Topazery Jewelry reviews its first 10 years, it’s hard to believe the website had a total of just three pages in its infancy: Home, About and Jewelry,” Walden reminisces. Despite its Spartan ambience, however, the site’s sought-after antique jewelry offerings quickly attracted an audience. In fact, the first person to purchase a piece from the company’s online inventory was an acclaimed NBC news correspondent.
From there, business took off, prompting Walden in 2005 to pack up and relocate Topazery Jewelry’s headquarters from Charlotte to Atlanta. “That year we expanded our jewelry offerings and added a special selection of new antique style jewelry from several designers.”
That wouldn’t be the first time the company would take its focus in a new direction. In 2007, Topazery stopped offering jewelry designed by others and began focusing on its own line: The Topazery Collection. That same year, a Victorian style sapphire and diamond ring from Topazery was chosen for NBC’s hit drama TV series, “Crossing Jordan.” Airing in February 2007, the episode, which was titled “Mr. Little and Mr. Big,” prominently featured an elegant sapphire and diamond ring from Topazery Jewelry as part of its storyline.
Today, Topazery Jewelry is still a small online boutique with the same personalized attention to detail it provided in 2002. In the 10 years since then, however, the company’s professional team has expanded to include master jewelers, appraisers, gemologists, a writer, a webmaster and a photographer. In that respect, Topazery fully leverages all the benefits an online working environment affords.
“Because we all work out of our homes or private offices, I’ve been able to bring in the best professionals from all over the country without requiring them to uproot and move to Atlanta. I also don’t have to maintain a brick-and-mortar shop and wrestle with all the extra tasks that entails,” Walden relates.
Its online presence also allows Topazery Jewelry to put a full library of educational pages at its customers’ fingertips. As a result, they can learn about antique jewelry, diamonds and gemstones without ever leaving the comfort of their own homes. That educational focus is paying off for the company. And with its antique and vintage jewelry pieces ranging in price from under $100 to $15,000, everyone can find something special to fit their budget.
For more of the insider scoop as Topazery Jewelry reviews the past 10 years, contact Jan Walden at (678) 528-8901. To see the antique and vintage pieces that have drawn celebrity interest and led to a decade of jewelry-selling success, visit Topazery Jewelry online at http://www.topazery.com.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012TopazeryJewelry/06TenYearReview/prweb9579774.htm
Source: www.beaumontenterprise.com
Painting of a transvestite goes on display in National Portrait Gallery for the first time - Daily Mail
- The portrait of a celebrated 18th century cross-dresser went on show yesterday
- The gallery paid 38,000 for the painting of Chevalier d'Eon, hailed as the 'patron saint of transvestites
By Tammy Hughes
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An image of a middle-aged cross-dresser is the first painting of its kind to be hung in the revered National Portrait Gallery.
Painted in 1792 by Thomas Stewart it depicts Chevalier d’Eon, an eighteenth-century diplomat and celebrated British transvestite.
French born d'Eton lived in London from 1762-1777 as a man, and from 1785-1810 as a woman.
'The patron saint of transvestites': Painted in 1792, the portrait depicts Britains first celebrated male cross-dresser, Chevalier d'Eon
During both periods, he enjoyed considerable fame in international politics, high society and popular culture.
No transvestite or transsexual, until the late twentieth century has enjoyed such public recognition, acceptance and popular affection.
The portrait is seen as an unprecedented historic document of his identity and acceptance into British society at a time when men who were caught wearing women’s clothing were viciously persecuted.
Acquired by the gallery for 38,000 the painting went on show for the first time yesterday following its discovery by art historian Philip Mould.
At a sale Mould attended in New York the painting was mistakenly labelled as a portrait of an unknown woman by Gilbert Stuart, most famous for painting George Washington on the dollar bill.
Having brought it back to the UK it was only when he set about cleaning it that Mould's suspicions about the sex of the subject were aroused.
Historic: The purchase of d'Eon's portrait marks an historic moment for the National Portrait Gallery
The portrait of Chevalier d'Eon went on show for the first time yesterday. The gallery bought the painting for 38,000
He noticed stubble on the woman's face and a muscularity, suggesting an unexplained masculinity.
Speaking to The Guardian Mould said: 'Cleaning is always a revelation and on this occasion it revealed that not only was it in lovely condition but more pertinently, the Gilbert Stuart signature cleaned off revealing the name Thomas Stewart.'
Further investigation by Mould resulted in the identification of the sitter as Chevalier d'Eon, often referred to as 'the patron saint of transvestites'.
Although there are photographs in the gallery's collection of Eddie Izzard and Grayson Perry they are not dressed as women, meaning d'Eon's portrait is the first painting of a cross-dresser to hang on the prestigious walls.
Dr Lucy Peltz, Curator of Eighteenth Century Portraits, at the National Portrait Gallery, says: ‘Chevalier d’Eon was a figure of international fame and notoriety in the eighteenth century, for his military, diplomatic and social exploits.
'But it is his courage in following his gender orientation in the face of the severest penalties that make this portrait one of the most inspiring and fascinating images’.
Long before Chevalier lived publicly as a woman he was feted as a soldier, champion fencer and diplomat who helped negotiate the Peace of Paris in 1763, which ended the Seven Years War.
Notorious: Chevalier d'Eon enjoyed considerable fame as Britain's first celebrated cross-dresser
Having made England his home, he refused to return to France when recalled, blackmailing the French crown with threats to sell secrets to the British.
Surprisingly London society accepted d'Eon as woman and he became well known for fencing demonstrations in theatres dressed in full drag.
Despite his commitment d'Eon was not the most feminine tranvestite. As well as a noticeable six o'clock shadow he hitched his skirt when climbing the stairs and remained quite coarse and boorish.
But this didn't stop pioneering feminists, such as Mary Robinson and Mary Wollstonecraft, championing d'Eon as a shining example of female fortitude.
Interest in d’Eon has never waned with a new biography appearing approximately every 20 years between the 1830s and the 1950s.
In 1928, Havelock Ellis coined the term ‘Eonism’ to describe transvestism and this remained in use until the 1960s.
In the last 30 years, with the development of the academic discipline of Queer Studies research into d’Eon has never been more energetic.
The Beaumont Society (which is named after the Chevalier d’Eon de Beaumont) was formed in 1966 to offer advice to the transgendered community.
Today it is the largest and longest-established group to give support of this kind.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Painting is stolen from pub (From The Oxford Times) - oxfordtimes.co.uk
Painting is stolen from pub
6:00pm Thursday 7th June 2012 in News By Damian Fantato
A THIEF snatched a painting of the Archangel Gabriel off the wall of an Oxford pub.
Artist Lorna Marrison exhibited some of her work at The Punter on Osney Island as part of this year’s Artweeks.
But her efforts took a sour turn when someone grabbed the painting off the wall and fled.
The 58-year-old from Eynsham said: “It has made me very sad. Hours of work had gone into that painting.
“My only hope is that whoever nicked it really liked the painting and wanted it, rather than it being thrown into a hedge somewhere.”
The painting, which was of the Archangel Gabriel as a morris man, was one of a series of eight, though the other seven were left untouched.
Ms Marrison, who has been painting since she was a child, has been exhibiting her work at Artweeks, an annual festival when Oxfordshire artists can exhibit their work, since 2000.
The annual event sees around 500 exhibitions take place across Oxfordshire with thousands of art lovers turning out to see them.
She said it would not deter her from exhibiting at the festival again, but she would probably attach her paintings to the walls more securely.
When Ms Marrison came to pick up her paintings on Saturday, May 26, she was told that one of them had been taken the night before.
The stolen painting was 10 inches wide by 12 inches high. It was painted in oil on canvas and framed in oak.
She said: “It was hanging on the wall just above head height so someone must have made a real effort to take it.
“According to the manager of The Punter it was a very crowded evening.
“The painting was at the top of my price range. I would have sold it for £450.”
Ms Marrison said she had not reported the theft to the police, but had made an appeal via her blog as well as social networking site Facebook.
l If anyone comes across the picture they can contact Ms Marrison’s son Keith on 07970 397041.
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Source: www.oxfordtimes.co.uk
That's no transvestite, that's my mother-in-law go on, print it DM . . . I double dare you xxxx
- me here, at home, home, 07/6/2012 15:57
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