Friday, August 21, 2009
Provincetown, Massachusetts The Oldest Art Colony in the United States!
I live and work in Provincetown, Ma. which is the oldest art colony in the United States! Many fine artists make their home here. The PAAM: Provincetown Art Association & Museum, and also The Fine Arts Work Center are located in the center of town. Many Galleries show and sell the work of these member artists. It is a fine place to see and be seen if you have the opportunity to show your work here. I have been fortunate to have been invited to share a space here on Commercial St with an 89 year old Icon of Impressionist Painting. Her name is Ilona Royce-Smithkin. In September on the 4th, 2009 there will be a retrospective of some of her earliest works in oil at The John Lucas Gallery,437 Commercial St, Provincetown, MA 02657. John also has produced a catalog of the show which can be purchased at: www.jlucasgallery.com. Ilona has quite a beautiful and varied portfolio which spans over 50 years that is on display at our Gallery: The Karilon Gallery, 447 Commercial St., Provincetown, MA 02657. My work can also be seen at: www.russophoto.com also on Facebook as "Angela Russo Fine Art Photography". This is a fan page where I showcase an image of the week with a short description of how I photographed it. Please take a look and send me an email if you like!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
HELLO!
Well, it's Easter weekend,and I am happy that spring is coming!! I have spent a great deal of my free time looking at data for the current crop of wide format pigment printers for 07/08. If you are looking for one that has these features: great black and white, wide color gamut, and super fast printing speeds: forget it! The current 3 brands: Canon IPF8100, Epson 9880, and Hewlett Packard Z3100 have some of these attributes each. The problem for the new generation of printers is that if you want speed and quality, the printer (Canon IPF8100) will end up being so heavy that it will require 4 people to set it up! Then there are the 2 different types of heads:thermal and micropiezo. Canon and HP have thermal replaceable heads. HP is the winner as far as price for these @ just under $200. each x 2, Canon heads are about $600. each and their printers also require 2. As far as color gamut, Epson 9880 has the widest gamut, and their head is permanent. It has 3.5 picoliter droplet size, which is the smallest. This gives less patterning, or dot spacing. The other two have 4. picoliter size droplets. Canon's newest series of printers featuring the IPF8100 is almost 10 times faster in print production! I can tell you from experience, that this is a huge factor for photographers that require many images to be printed in a short and very efficient amount of time. Canon has the largest ink carts for the 44" size printers at 701ml. However, this printer is 12 color, so that would mean around $3800. for a set of ink in this size! HP is also 12 color, but their ink is typically 130ml which is far less expensive, but requires changing more often. In glossy mode HP has a clear coat cartridge which effectively tackles the issue of bronzing especially in black and white. The main difference that sets the HP apart from the other two is a spectrophotometer for custom profiles. Epson is 9 color even though it color gamut is wider than the other two! Whew!! Weighing all this has been a real education. So far, there are no real ratings or real data from other actual users of these printers. They are too new, and not much is out there to help decipher which would be best for my actual needs! I had a Canon IPF8000 last year that was rife with many problems and nearly ruined my business from all the breakdowns. I no longer have that printer (Canon hauled it away)! Now I am in queue for whatever I decide is next. I am leaning again to Canon. Their pro/customer support went far beyond my expectations. Unfortunately, the printer just kept getting error codes and malfunctioning. However, between those repairs the images that I printed were spectacular and so accurate. Although I am gun shy, it may be a Canon IPF8100 or IPF9100 in my future. I will post when the printer of choice arrives-
Angela
Angela
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Early experiences selling my art in Provincetown
I would like to tell you how the launch into the world of the steady and sometimes overwhelming popularity of my fine art photography really began. Also, don't forget to look at my web site: www.russophoto.com!
In 2003 I purchased an old house that desperately needed a cleanup in Provincetown, MA., a small coastal town at the tip of Cape Cod. It was owned by a man and his family since 1949. Not much had been done to it in over 50 years. Most of what he did do was comprised of dumpster finds and leftover supplies from other peoples houses and the Public Works Department stockroom.
I was visiting a friend who had invited my partner and I to stay for a night or two in his Pearl Street rental in the center of town. Earlier in the week he had spent part of his time looking for a possible second home purchase. Apparently, he had looked around quite a bit. He invited us to take a walk down the street to see a home that he was interested in. The house was #1 Baker Ave. It was a very charming old house with a white picket fence and a ton of decay. I was familiar with this place. I had actually shot it years before while studying platinum printing in Eastham, Ma. It had been built in the mid eighteenth century.
Mrs. Baker the Xth still lived in it. It had always been inhabited by the Baker family come to find out, since 1760. She was tough as nails when I approached her to take pictures of it. She said:"Do whatever you want, I don't care" sounding fed up, a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. That crusty old kitchen was a sight to behold! She wanted no part in the photo, and basically put herself out of view. She was like a relic, and so was the house.
Now here I was looking at it again years later. Mrs. Baker apparently long gone. The foundation looked in need of repair and the sills and shingles looked even more rotten than I remembered. The house was most likely the first in a historic neighborhood, so permitting was the rule of the day for just about every repair! I don't think there had ever been any real renovation done to this house, so heating and electrical were minimal.
My partner Sandy and I both told him that it would be a huge and expensive undertaking, and that it was a dump! He looked at both of us and said: " If you think that's a dump. just look at the house next door".
The next thing I knew, I was in the negotiating phase of buying the house next door: #3 Baker Ave.! The house had been on the market for about a year, with no serious offers. Apparently, when people were allowed inside, it just needed way too much work, and was so loaded with junk that was impossible to dispose of without huge expense. We both thought that repair was possible, given that the main structure looked sound. My one caveat was that the previous owner dispose of the tons of accumulated junk. The next thing I knew, we were in!
The first weekend we started to try to clean it up. I remember distinctly noticing an awful sour odor which immediately attached itself to both of us -particularly our hair! The old man who had owned it had lost his wife some years before and had probably cooked the same thing every night for years. Artifacts prove that it was some kind of waffle or pancakes. He also had a Boston Terrier who used the entire downstairs as a toilet. I recall having a good friend and former corporate client from my days as an advertising photographer over for a visit.They probably thought tat it would be much nicer than it was. Her husband looked as if he was going to cry or throw up at the state that the house was in!! Needless to say, their visit was cut particularly short when I took them outside and started pulling weeds that were over 3 feet long. They did buy us housewarming gifts: A large broom, and a big box of 33 gallon industrial strength trash bags.
There were few things in the kitchen worth keeping. I remember taking a sawzall to what remained of the kitchen counter! Big mistake! It was holding up the only sink that worked. I stopped short of destroying it when I realized that we desperately needed it. For the first few weeks we had to take "whore's baths"! Weeks later, my friend who was a plumber finally got the handicapped shower working. That was a great step towards progress! It only took three or four visits to the only real plumbing supply for miles. You see, that is what I left out so far: because it is the at " the ends of the earth", you are subjected to being held hostage for everything you purchase, unless you import it from a more cental place like Boston. To be continued......
In 2003 I purchased an old house that desperately needed a cleanup in Provincetown, MA., a small coastal town at the tip of Cape Cod. It was owned by a man and his family since 1949. Not much had been done to it in over 50 years. Most of what he did do was comprised of dumpster finds and leftover supplies from other peoples houses and the Public Works Department stockroom.
I was visiting a friend who had invited my partner and I to stay for a night or two in his Pearl Street rental in the center of town. Earlier in the week he had spent part of his time looking for a possible second home purchase. Apparently, he had looked around quite a bit. He invited us to take a walk down the street to see a home that he was interested in. The house was #1 Baker Ave. It was a very charming old house with a white picket fence and a ton of decay. I was familiar with this place. I had actually shot it years before while studying platinum printing in Eastham, Ma. It had been built in the mid eighteenth century.
Mrs. Baker the Xth still lived in it. It had always been inhabited by the Baker family come to find out, since 1760. She was tough as nails when I approached her to take pictures of it. She said:"Do whatever you want, I don't care" sounding fed up, a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. That crusty old kitchen was a sight to behold! She wanted no part in the photo, and basically put herself out of view. She was like a relic, and so was the house.
Now here I was looking at it again years later. Mrs. Baker apparently long gone. The foundation looked in need of repair and the sills and shingles looked even more rotten than I remembered. The house was most likely the first in a historic neighborhood, so permitting was the rule of the day for just about every repair! I don't think there had ever been any real renovation done to this house, so heating and electrical were minimal.
My partner Sandy and I both told him that it would be a huge and expensive undertaking, and that it was a dump! He looked at both of us and said: " If you think that's a dump. just look at the house next door".
The next thing I knew, I was in the negotiating phase of buying the house next door: #3 Baker Ave.! The house had been on the market for about a year, with no serious offers. Apparently, when people were allowed inside, it just needed way too much work, and was so loaded with junk that was impossible to dispose of without huge expense. We both thought that repair was possible, given that the main structure looked sound. My one caveat was that the previous owner dispose of the tons of accumulated junk. The next thing I knew, we were in!
The first weekend we started to try to clean it up. I remember distinctly noticing an awful sour odor which immediately attached itself to both of us -particularly our hair! The old man who had owned it had lost his wife some years before and had probably cooked the same thing every night for years. Artifacts prove that it was some kind of waffle or pancakes. He also had a Boston Terrier who used the entire downstairs as a toilet. I recall having a good friend and former corporate client from my days as an advertising photographer over for a visit.They probably thought tat it would be much nicer than it was. Her husband looked as if he was going to cry or throw up at the state that the house was in!! Needless to say, their visit was cut particularly short when I took them outside and started pulling weeds that were over 3 feet long. They did buy us housewarming gifts: A large broom, and a big box of 33 gallon industrial strength trash bags.
There were few things in the kitchen worth keeping. I remember taking a sawzall to what remained of the kitchen counter! Big mistake! It was holding up the only sink that worked. I stopped short of destroying it when I realized that we desperately needed it. For the first few weeks we had to take "whore's baths"! Weeks later, my friend who was a plumber finally got the handicapped shower working. That was a great step towards progress! It only took three or four visits to the only real plumbing supply for miles. You see, that is what I left out so far: because it is the at " the ends of the earth", you are subjected to being held hostage for everything you purchase, unless you import it from a more cental place like Boston. To be continued......
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Greetings from Provincetown, MA.!
Hi-
I am grateful to Carla Morse for creating a blog "space" for me to write about my experiences in the oldeset art colony in the U.S., Provincetown, Massachusetts. I am a fine art photographer working in 12 color 44" Giclee. My gallery mate is Ilona Royce-Smithkin. A much revered impressionist painter who is simply an extraordinary human being to share space with.
My large format fine art photography has been extremely popular. It has been quite a ride! Many times people have reacted in very emotinally charged and unusual ways when first seeing my work. Particularly my images of Cape Cod. This blog is my way of sharing my experiences with you.
Check back to read about my endeavors.
Angela
I am grateful to Carla Morse for creating a blog "space" for me to write about my experiences in the oldeset art colony in the U.S., Provincetown, Massachusetts. I am a fine art photographer working in 12 color 44" Giclee. My gallery mate is Ilona Royce-Smithkin. A much revered impressionist painter who is simply an extraordinary human being to share space with.
My large format fine art photography has been extremely popular. It has been quite a ride! Many times people have reacted in very emotinally charged and unusual ways when first seeing my work. Particularly my images of Cape Cod. This blog is my way of sharing my experiences with you.
Check back to read about my endeavors.
Angela
Angela Wanted a Blog
So, here it is - she is a great photographer I met in ptown and now she has her own blog!!! Enjoy!
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