General News

Submit your work!

All artists out there… submit your work to be shown on this blog. Simply send an email to info@bella-arts.com.au with image attachments (keep them less than 600 pixels wide) and a description to be included on this blog.

Do you have an art exhibition?

Promote it here. Send us a flyer or a couple of images and description, location, and we’ll put it up.

This blog is aimed at a world wide audience, so your exhibition can be located in any country!

Art Supplies Online

Bella Art Gallery’s online store, www.bellaartsupplies.com.au, is now officially up and running. The business has been running an online site for the last 12 months, but little has been done with it since more time was spent running their actual physical retail outlet.

In the last month, the store has now moved completely online and will continue to trade full time as an online business – what this means is that they have now been able to reduce their prices for their products. Those physical stores cost a lot of money! Even once postage is added, it should still work out cheaper once you buy more than a couple of items. Delivery Australia metro areas only.

They will be looking at ways to continue to offer low prices, which means the possibility of lower prices being offered for certain products. At the moment, each product has a before and after price (before being the price they used to charge in store, and after being the new online only price now being offered).

Not all of the products from their store are online yet, but new products are being added every day.

The Art Blog Shop

Introducing our art blog shop. From here you can shop for art related products through our art blog shop that are offered for sale through the Amazon website. A great range of art related products for adults and children.

Visit The Art Blog Shop or click the Art Blog Shop link above.

*All products in this shop are offered for sale through www.amazon.com. The Art Blog Shop affiliate link is http://astore.amazon.com/artsupplies10-20 and features content for sale from Amazon.com’s Arts & Craft category.

Cookie Cutters and Art

Who says cookie cutters should be used just for cooking?

Why not let your creative juices flow and use kitchen instruments in your art? Great for adding texture to paint, impasto and modeling compound. Use glue, paper mache on canvas and use a variety of kitchen utensils to create interesting textures that can be painted over with acrylics.

Here’s a tip, shape out some paper mache or modeling compound and use a variety of different cookie cutter shapes to create 9 different shapes, then lay these down on the canvas in a 3×3 format.

Next, paint your whole canvas in a soft background tone, depending on the colours of your room – for example a soft baby blue or a pale pink.

Finally, pick out a darker colour to your babckground colour (eg: if the background is blue, then choose a nice lilac or violet) and paint in your 3D shapes that you made with your cookie cutters. A simple and effective artwork that could be used to dress up a nursery for a child. Great 3D shapes that children can touch and feel.

There are heaps of places to buy cookie cutters, and heaps of sites on the web where you can order online. A simple search under “cookie cutter” will bring up heaps.

Find a cookie cutter online at www.cookiecutteronline.com

Sell Your Art for Free – Oil Paintings Online

Free Art Gallery, Buy and Sell Art Online
OilPaintingsOnline.com was created as an entirely free service to help artists get their work out to the public. It is a non-profit organisation.

They have been involved in the internet for nearly a decade and in that time they have developed the skills and knowledge to know how to create and run successful websites. In fact, the site owner has built over 40 websites and currently manage one very large one.

This site is a way for this organisation to put something back, free for others. The owner has a passion for art, and in fact paints with oils himself. When he first started to sell his art online he found it both costly and complicated – he wanted a simple site that would enable buyers to tell him directly who wanted to talk about buying his art then leave him free to make direct contact and progress a sale privately – he did not want to be paying a middle man any commissions or having his conversations “managed” by a re-seller.

Find out more at OilPaintingsOnline.com

Fantastic Book for Beginners to Acrylic Painting

“The Weekend Artist” by Australian art shop assistant Gerard Smith

“The Weekend Artist” is a superbly written book for the absolute beginner to the painting scene. Written by Sydney art shop assistant Gerard Smith, it is a step by step practical guide into everything you ever wanted to know about learning to paint decorative art pieces for your home in an easy to understand, entertaining, humorous and unpretentious read. In fact, the book itself is a good read even if you don’t intend to ever pick up a brush!

The Weekend Artist

Includes looking into acrylic paints (just what are they, why are there so many different brands, which are the best), choosing colours (what are primary, secondary and complementary colours, what colours look best with other colours), tools of the trade (brushes, palette knives, easels etc what do I need to get started), cleaning up. This is an essential tool for anyone wanting to start their own art projects, but don’t have the time or the funds to get to classes.

As soon as I started reading this book, I couldn’t put it down. The 224 page book covers absolutely all facets of painting. Not only do I recommend it as I am now “the girl in the art shop”, but because it was such an entertaining read. Gerard covers all those questions you always wanted to know, but thought too basic to ask, like “what does the word hue mean on a tube of paint?” What is a medium and how are they used.

This book is fantastic for anyone wanting to delve into the world of painting decorative pieces for their home, but maybe not so interested in becoming the next Picasso (although it is a great start for aspiring Picasso’s – always great to be armed with as much knowledge as you can get before entering the academic art field). As the title indicates, it is possible with the Weekend Artist to start and finish an art project, all of your own, in a weekend.

Gerard has several home projects that can be easily achieved and will look great on the wall. He tells you which paints and materials you will need to get and then teaches you how to apply step by step with lots of photo illustrations. I have achieved several of his projects, very easily and without too much frustration and have even managed to put some up around the house.

The book retails for around AU$39.95 inc GST. (Purchasers outside of Australia will not have to pay GST on the price. Price excludes shipping.)
If you would like to order a copy, email us at info@bella-arts.com.au

Creative inspiration, techniques and simple projects designed to unleash your inner artist.