Thursday 7 November 2013

Artists Society of Canberra and Me

Hi all,

Sorry it has been a while since I blogged on this site - I don't know where the days go!

Since moving to Canberra I have joined a number of art societies, including the ASOC - Artists Society of Canberra.  Everyone seems to be very welcoming and friendly and they hold meetings once a month.  The meetings usually have a guest speaker and are well attended.  I was invited to join the committee, but declined as I felt being so new to Canberra I was not informed enough about the art scene to be of use, nevertheless I did accept the position as their new librarian.  They have an excellent library of items including books, videos, magazines and DVD's and the library is well patronized by the members.  The only headache is the fact that it is stored in a Microsoft Access database (with more than a few limitations and idiosyncrasies ) on an ancient laptop running Microsoft software, and I'm an Apple girl!  Anyway, after a bit of swearing,  a long passage of time, a splitting headache and finally some help from my partner, I think I have grasped the hang of it, at least to the point I can operate it enough to book loans in and out and add new entries.   I've spent quite a bit of time doing a stocktake of every item and also doing my best to repair any torn jacket covers on the books.  I must say that it  is good being the librarian as I get first look at all the new purchases and some of the DVD's are excellent.

ASOC runs workgroups throughout the week where artists with the same interests can get together in the ASOC studio space at M16 to work together and learn from each other.  This costs each workgroup member the grand sum of $2 per week! I have joined an Artistic Expressions and a Printmaking Workgroup to date and am now mixing with a keen and  helpful bunch of friendly people.

I am also fortunate in that I happened to meet (at a coffee and donut shop) a very talented artist named Val Fitzpatrick, who kindly invited me to join her art classes for 2 1/2 hrs a week.  Val is a qualified art tutor as well as a talented artist and can turn her hand to any medium, but particularly likes mixed media and texture.  As fate would have it, Val was a member of the ASOC and happened to be the guest speaker at the last meeting, a few days after I met her and where she talked about a new technique she developed using soft oil pastels and soft pastels together in a particular fashion to create wonderful art.  She very kindly squeezed me into her studio along with about 6 other students, so I was very lucky to be invited to join them.  They all seem a lovely bunch of ladies and I have attended two classes to date and am looking forward to the third.

The ASOC has had a Facebook site for a while, which because they have such a good website, has been a bit neglected by its members.  Yours truly has now also been made an admin for the Facebook page and so I have spent the last week trying to drum up some traffic and interest in the site from the members and hopefully from the general public.  I am hoping that it will become a site where both groups, members and the public,  can chat, exchange information and art tips, be advised of art exhibitions and showcase their latest works, along with links to any sites they may have.  I have set up a couple of photo albums and would like to set up lots more in the future.  When I took it over  last week we had 8 likes - to date we have 14, admittedly a little less than I had hoped for (!) but I am hopeful that numbers will increase once the next newsletter is out and members are made aware of its existence.  Having said that, if anyone has reached this part of my blog without falling asleep, could I beg a favour and request that you check it out and "like" and "share" the site to anyone you think may be interested?  This is the link for it

 Artists Society of Canberra Facebook Page
 
and if you would like to check out the ASOC website it is at

Artists Society of Canberra Website Address

Any suggestions as to how I can make this Facebook page the best art society Facebook page on the planet are most welcome (positive comments only please). 

Thank and Cheers.




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