New Artist: Christine Wilkinson

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Melissa Spence

If you haven’t noticed already, we’ve been finding some pretty awesome artists to join our family. This of course means more unique and new art for all of you! We just launched artwork from Christine Wilkinson. Her digital abstract collection has a lot of a psychedelic feel to it with it’s shapes and colors. Christine started hand drawing these shapes back in school in the 60′s, a foreshadow to what she would be doing later in life…working as an artist currently in London, England. She explores with her camera using light in many different forms: light on light, light through objects and light reflected off objects.

I find this piece, Diving for Pearls, so interesting with the movement all the lines create and the layers and lightness of the different color. Though a lot of her art seems to be inspired from the psychedelic 1960′s counterculture, in some ways I felt this piece was modern or even futuristic. It reminded me of a red robotic eye.

These two companion pieces, Green Pinko I & II, are very soft and feminine. They too also give us a feel of movement. I could imagine this is what it would look like up-close and inside of a bubble.

These series of images, Grid Formation I-III, give us a more abstract, rigid and masculine feel. The repetitious elements seem to resemble a candle burning motif. The different stages keep your eye moving along.

So if you like what you’ve seen so far on this post, check out more of Wilkinson’s amazing art on Gallery Direct!

New Artist: Brett Pfister

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Melissa Spence

Gallery Direct is excited to welcome another new artist to our family, Brett Pfister. Brett is the Print operator for The Canyon Gallery and owner of Mind’s Eye Productions. His background and degree is in Graphic Design, this knowledge shows in his photo treatment and technique in his digital art. Besides being a professional Graphic Designer and Artist, Brett also does Photography, Video Production and Web Design.

This is one of my favorite new images by him, Veiled Eden. The female figure and soaring birds really draw you into this image wondering what could be going on in this “garden of Eden”. The texture and lightness peaking through the trees really make it interesting as well.

This new image, Intrepid Home, is being printed on aluminum to be hung in our office gallery right next to our CEO’s office door. Brett has a couple really fascinating images using barren trees, including Stretching, Nostrum Locus, The Ends of the Earth, and Cynon Valley.

This image, Break, is also going up in our office gallery. The color, technique and texture he uses in this image really give meaning to it’s title. It’s a beautiful piece.

Come check out the rest of Brett’s images on Gallery Direct!

Print Your Photos Already

Posted on January 11, 2012 by jtamkin

I love taking pictures, and I think I am really good at it. I love showing my friends and family how they look through the little screen on the back on my Sony CyberShot– we all smile and say awweee — and then that
photo is never seen again- except maybe 6 months down the road on Facebook.

My New Year’s Resolution is to rescue these images from my camera and do something with them! I didn’t really intend to fill this blog post with my family photos from the holidays, but isn’t my niece adorable? She
is only 2 weeks old in these pics… and if I left her in my camera any longer she would be in preschool and I would sending outdated adorable pictures.

Alright, you get my point — so this is what I have done. I went to Gallery Direct and printed my favorite images from the holidays on canvas. I kept a few for myself, and I sent a few to my mom, grandparents and of course to my brother and his wife. It’s ridiculously easy to upload your photos and print them on a canvas. It really takes about 4 – 5 clicks of the mouse. Canvas prints are also very affordable, and with the 75% off sale, Gallery Direct is basically giving them away. Use code: Photo75

I must say– this simple gesture pretty much won me the award of
“family member of the year” as the phone calls and thank you’s I received were amazing, I think there were actually tears. I did let everyone in on the secret code of getting 75% off at Gallery Direct — Enter: Photo75 at checkout.

Alright, I am off to print some more photos, just thinking about it reminds me that I need to send my sister a birthday present.

World’s Top 10 Greatest Painters & Sculptors

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Melissa Spence

One of my most favorite college courses while studying art was Art History. It helped of course that I had a professor who was so passionate about our world’s greatest artists and masterpieces. I recall taking notebooks full of handwritten notes on these artists, and making flashcards of each painting and sculpture with all the known facts about them. I’ve been fortunate to see some of the masterpieces in person at the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Here is a top 10 list of the world’s greatest painters and sculptor compiled by Neil Collins MA LLB.

#10 Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
#9 Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441)
#8 Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
#7 Claude Monet (1840-1926)
#6 Donatello (1386-1466)
#5 JMW Turner (1775-1851)
#4 Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
#3 Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
#2 Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)
#1 Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

Did you know that Gallery Direct offers some of these amazing and beautiful masterpieces such as from Claude Monet? You can also search our Photo Vault for stock images from all of these artists or photographs of their works. We also have a Classic Art section where you can find masterpieces by many famous artists such as Klimt, Van Gogh, Degas and others. Even though they did not make it on this top 10 list, they certainly made their mark on history in the world of art.

Since these artists are so famous it’s a given that current artists will give us a new rendition (maybe with a modern twist) on some old masterpieces. Here’s an example from one of our exclusive artists Randy Slack.

Want a masterpiece hanging on a wall in your home or office, get it from Gallery Direct. We can print it for you on canvas to closely resemble the original masterpiece, or give it a modern look and print it on acrylic, birchwood or aluminum like this blogger did with Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Study: Men + Art = Happiness

Posted on January 3, 2012 by jtamkin

Norwegian’s are known for seeking happiness in life, they even build research teams tasked to discover how we can be more satisfied in life!

In a recent study conducted by these happiness seekers, it was determined that men that enjoy cultural activities are better off in mind and body than their uncultured counterparts. The study followed on over 50,000 men and women to tracked their personal satisfaction, perceived state of health, anxiety and depression.

Overall, both men and women who participated in cultural activities—including enjoying fine artwork, had lower levels of anxiety and depression, reported more life satisfaction, and generally “felt better” than those not participating in cultural activities.

But the biggest beneficiaries were men. And here’s the strange part: men more interested in watching and looking at fine art images— at home, in museums and art galleries – enjoyed the greatest benefits of all; even more than men actively participating in cultural and creative activities.

Lucky for you guys, Gallery Direct has a lot of images hand selected just for the guys! Here are our top “Guy Art” picks:

The Gunfighter by Benjamin Arnot

This image of the Cowboy is a favorite among the guys in the Gallery Direct office. Printed on aluminum and framed it sits outside the CEO’s office in our Gallery. This is a creation by Benjamin Arnot, he combines his painting with digital imagery, adding in a geometrical element. Very manly, yet tasteful!

Urban Radio II by Sara Abbott

Graffiti images are very trendy right now and are a top pick among our male customers. Sara Abbott has several graffiti images, including the image to the right. These images look great on any substrat, I think the bigger the graffiti image, the cooler the effect.

These next images are sexy, yet sophisticated. Appreciating the female form in a tasteful way can liven up any room, giving it a sexy contemporary look. Cherry Rain I & II by Sia Aryai

For more art for guys browse www.gallerydirect.com

New Year = Feel Good Art

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Melissa Spence

Happy New Year 2012 to all of our blog readers and customers!

Each new year many of us do our best to get inspired, motivated and feel good about our lives. And then come the 2nd week of January we loose the inspiration and motivation. So why not get creative, make your own inspirational and motivational art to hang on a wall in your home – something that brings a smile to your face and makes you feel good everyday you see it. It’s really not that hard to do, I’ll show you how…

At Gallery Direct we offer an Americana line and a Vintage line of art. You will see from both these art subjects that “posters” from that time period often had a message (type) on them. And now they have become great focal points and works of art to hang up and admire. You can create your own “poster” with your favorite inspirational and motivational quote, upload it to Gallery Direct to be printed – and then you will have your own one-of-a-kind artwork that you made to hang in your home!

First determine the size you want your “poster”. Go to the Gallery Direct website and click on the “Print Your Photo” tab on the top right hand side.

Choose the size you want it to be and using Photoshop (or a similar photo program) create a file at that size. To make a textured or colored background for your “poster” you can find free vector art, graphics and patterns at FreeVectors. I used Seamless Flower Pattern 3. Make sure the graphic or pattern you choose for your background is set to the print size you want at 300dpi. Next just add your quote!

For all of you that are familiar with the world of Pinterest, you can find a ton of inspirational, motivational quotes, or quotes that make you laugh, or quotes that just make you feel good from there. I chose a quote that makes me smile and laugh. Just type your quote on top of your background in Photoshop. To fancy it up, use some cool fonts. I found my free fonts at Fonts For Peas. I used Rage for the “R”, Before the Rain for “Nice”, and Haettenschweiler for “Normal”. And that’s it, you’re done creating your poster artwork! Flatten the image and save at 300 dpi. Format: JPG, TIF, PNG or BMP. File Size: 500KB to 50MB. And upload your file at Gallery Direct!