Re-organising the Studios and Galleries has taken me away from the trend I was on prior to the changes within our Artists Group, (mentioned in my last post). I've also taken it on board to develop and put up a web site for the group. A first for Working Artist Studios. You can see it here....

It uses a specially developed CMS, (Content Management System), this means each artist can add their own pages and edit the site. So it's going to be interesting to see how it develops in the months to come.

Meanwhile, over this very wet and stormy weekend, I've decided to work on much smaller sketches and paintings in the weeks to come. Previously all of my work was on 48" square panels. Really liked working big but it's slow and the resulting work takes up a lot of space, it also means the price of these pieces are high.

I've made a start already and hope to get a lot of fresh work up on a few of my sites. Crimson Salamander, which is my main online Gallery and Barrys Drawings which is.... pretty obvious!

Another result of this regrouping period is we've decided to dedicate one of our three Galleries to smaller more 'affordable' works. This should make our work accessible to a lot more people financially.

So plenty to get on with in the weeks ahead.

B.

Tags: Journal

So much work is going on with my various web sites at the moment, mostly Trails of the Spirit. I had scheduled in adding a total of over 15 pages to this site alone. As the design and layout was already established it was mainly content required. At first it was hard work then as it progressed I found myself really getting into it. Around nine years ago I wrote a book called STOP which was published by Collins Press At that time it was the same, at first hard going and then I got my second wind, so to speak, and the writing became almost compulsive, as I filled notebook after notebook.

So I'm enjoying my writing again, like meeting up with an old friend. I even invested in a piece of software to help make the whole process easier, especially at the beginning. It's called Scrivener and it's working out well. I find a standard word processor not to be writing friendly, at least to me it isn't. Scrivener helps by having facilities such as notes and ways of logging brainstorming sessions with lots more besides. Having a program that supports my way of working is great.

I've got to be careful I don't suddenly go overboard with my writing as already I've so many ideas for new publications I may have to give up sleep. I think I already have as I notice it's just gone 1:30 am in the morning here in Ireland, according to my trusty MacBook. So apart from writing my web content, my first printed Book/Booklet is going to be, 'What you need to know about visiting Peru, before you step onto the plane!' This is the working title. I think I'll have to come up with something a bit better! I plan on having this completed by September 7th 2008, I'm about one third the way through.

If you'd like to be kept informed about the progress and exactly when it'll be available, you can always use my contact form.

So on with my writing. I would like to keep it up as a daily practice, but that's completely up to me and my motivation. I've so many things I'd like to do on a daily basis already!

Barry
(Barry McCullough)

Tags: Journal