Shelly Gifford

A Gift of Art!

2011-11-19T22:42:00.001-05:00

Sugar plum fairy workshop... This lovely work is a part of the amazing workshop these girls are participating in this December at A Gift of Art in New Castle, Ontario, pop by the web site to see what's coming up...http://www.agiftof-art.com/

New photo blog...by shelly

2011-09-19T12:25:00.001-04:00

http://sgphotosoflife.blogspot.com/

This blog will be used to share more of my photos on a more regular basis with anyone who follows me on blip or blogger,

Have a wonderful day everyone!!

Doris McCarthy

2010-11-26T00:54:00.004-05:00

Blue Nude

My brief meeting with this incredible woman who changed my life... in such a brief moment in time... I am not surprised she lived to be 100, she seemed to be so full of life and had such a passion for the visual world! We also had a few things in common, I love the Gaspe, I was born there and raised there, ... This was also a place that was close to Doris McCarthy's heart, she painted there for many years and captured it's magic and beauty with such grace, in her paintings.
A few years ago...ok quite a few years ago now, ...after completing a course at The Haliburton School of the Arts, the group I was with decided to have a group Art show. One of the instructors invited Mrs. McCarthy, who happened to be in Haliburton at the time. She arrived and proceeded to blend in with the crowd, it didn't work... she was instantly a celebrity! We were all listening intensely, I finally had a moment to say hi and to shake her hand, she said hello and then in a very direct manor looked at my son who was probably 7 at he time, and said " look at me in the eye young man when someone is talking to you!... and so he did and so did we all after that! That's just the kind of person she was, I think when she spoke everyone listened! Then she looked at me and said "who did this one?"strangely enough, she pointed to my blue nude... I said it was mine, and she looked at me again and with a very serious and confident smile she replied," it is my favorite of the show!" I was a little stunned considering she was one of the greatest Canadian women artists of her time, a legacy to me ... I felt instantly honored and humbled both at the same time. Then she proceeded without missing a beat, " and who's is this?" She again pointed to a piece at the other end of the room, ... it was my drawing of a lighthouse on a cliff...I looked at her and said it was mine also. She did a moment of reflection looked at me right in the eyes and said, "well this is my second favorite..."
That was a very special moment in my life, one I had recently sort of forgotten about, I felt so much appreciation for being able to paint my colors and to draw my lines with the freedom that I could, because it was mine. I was shown how GREAT teaching from a GREAT ONE can stay with you for a lifetime, even if it is only a single vote of confidence for a brief moment in time... I am thankful that today I can still feel that moment.

See What's Happening at A Gift Of Art!

2010-11-08T13:37:00.004-05:00

Check out the great art, as well as some new workshops and courses available here!

www.agiftof-art.com

Manatoulin, how beautiful!

2010-07-20T19:20:00.001-04:00

Check out Darren's Superb Artisan chocolates at:

2010-01-06T13:17:00.027-05:00

http://silverculinary.weebly.com/

photo/design by Shelly

"Building a Mystery" by: Shelly Gifford

2009-03-23T22:18:00.009-04:00

Check out the show at the Journey through the Arts Gallery in downtown Port Hope..... Wonderful artwork of all kinds from local artisans and artists.
Come by and check it out ! http://www.journeythroughthearts.com/

Good Morning...

2008-05-21T13:37:00.010-04:00

"THERE'S A PLACE IN THE SUN, ...WHERE THERE'S HOPE FOR EVERYONE..." - STEVIE WONDER

What's new?

2007-10-10T12:00:00.001-04:00

This website is where I'll be keeping friends, family, art students and clients up to date about what's going on with "me" these days. Please stop by, whenever the spirit moves you, to see my latest creations or browse through the the Art Blog and the Photo Blog. If you're interested in something special in my portfolio, or would like to talk about a commissioned work, or just want to keep in touch, please send me an e-mail and I'll be right back to you. I'd love to hear from you. -- Shelly

Scroll down to check out our favorite Web Sightings at the bottom of the page.

Shelly Gifford Workshops for Artists

2007-10-09T12:48:00.002-04:00

At the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, I have taught painting in acrylic, watercolor and life drawing, (with the model) . Contact The Robert McLaughlin Gallery for more information on upcoming classes, or just email me for details of what might be happening locally in art.

Balancing Life & Work

2006-02-18T14:15:00.003-05:00

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery was incorporated in 1967 to “...meet the growing and diverse needs of its community through the advancement and appreciation of the visual arts.” The public trust objectives of the Gallery have always stressed collection, preservation, and conservation of fine art, particularly related to Canadian arts and culture, as well as the exhibition and interpretation of the collection through educational programming. The Gallery’s collection and resources are available for research, and the Gallery strives to serve the educational, intellectual, and aesthetic needs of the community both locally and nationally, while collaborating with other galleries that have similar goals.

The Gallery fulfills its mandate in three specific areas of activity: exhibitions, educational outreach, and community programming. The motivation for all activity is: to tell the story of Canadian art, its history and its current state; to provide challenging art experiences, formal and informal, through exhibitions and education for all ages; and to actively engage the local community in the wider possibilities of meaning and enjoyment in art.

The schedules for art education at The Robert McGlaughlin Gallery can be discovered along with other interesting stuff at the gallery.

As well as painting for my own collection—I've been spending a good amount of time in the past four years painting with my little girl, Brianna, ( she is a great artist too!)

Shelly Gifford Gallery Show

2005-03-05T16:21:00.000-05:00

"Awakening" is a showcase of local artists from Northumberland County presented by Journey Through the Arts Gallery showing original art by Shelly Gifford, including the original of Night Wind.

This show at 27 Walton Street, Port Hope, above Smith's Creek Antiques, from March 5th to March 27th, explores the figure and the landscape through painting, mixed media and printmaking.

In addition to original works of art by Shelly Gifford, you can experience recent works by Christine Benson, Wanda Martin Hicks, Whitney Lake, Debbie Linton, Patricia Papp, Heather Roy, Loraine Staples and Pamela Tate.

More of Shelly Gifford's works can be seen at Shelly Gifford Art.

Commissioned Art

2005-01-20T05:12:00.000-05:00

On the Shelly Gifford Art Blog, I've posted images of my artwork commissioned by clients, including a portrait of Erin, shown above. Commissioned work can be anything from the imagination of the clients, drawing from their life experiences, travel and family members, or abstract themes created to display in special places at home or office. Click on these pictures once, and then again to view enlarged images.

Book Cover Art

2004-10-27T13:39:00.000-04:00

Our latest cover art for a children's book, Still There, Clare, has been published--another collaboration with Tannice Goddard, who does the graphic design and layout. Preparing myself to create the illustrations for this cover, I wanted to:

Enter the world of almost-13-year-old Clare and her best friend Elsa. Clare and Elsa are opposites: Clare’s idea of style is a Superman T-shirt and torn jeans, while Elsa sports outfits with matching accessories. Clare is a long-distance runner who can’t always find the right words, while Elsa walks slowly but talks fast. Clare’s sense of humour is dark and ironic, Elsa’s is bright and witty. But the most unusual thing about Clare and Elsa is the fact that Elsa is imaginary.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and a creating the visual images for the cover.

Book Cover Photography

2004-10-27T07:43:00.000-04:00

Working again with Tannice Goddard, who did the graphic layout and typography, I shot the cover photography for The Sound of Living Things, a novel by Élise Turcotte.

The Sound of Living Things was recently published in English translation by Sheila Fischman, who also translated Wild Cat, by Jacques Poulin, another of our covers for the same publisher, Cormorant Books.

I like to really get into the stories and the characters of the books I illustrate or photograph covers for. As a bilingual Canadian, born and raised in the Gaspé, and having lived in Montréal as a young girl, these two books connected with me in both official languages.

Brianna, A Work In Progress

2004-09-18T01:33:00.000-04:00

Brianna likes to do what mommy does. Here she's doing a little "dry" painting. If only we could know for sure what she thinks she's doing. When I watch Brianna painting, it puts me in mind of something Henri Matisse once said, "I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it."

Pansies is now a finished work, and is featured on my Art Blog.

Children and their art is the focus of Shelly Gifford Kids.

Click on the photographs, once then again, to view larger images.

The Art of Haiku

2004-09-16T13:22:00.000-04:00

Pure white surfaces
blank pages or canvases:
limitless vision.

Web Sightings

2004-09-15T21:54:00.000-04:00

Most Expensive Photograph Ever: They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but how about millions of dollars?

CNN reports the story about this photo:

A photograph of a pond taken by Edward Steichen sold for more than $2.9 million, easily setting a world record for the highest-priced photograph ever auctioned, Sotheby's said.

"The Pond-Moonlight," taken in 1904 at Mamaroneck, New York, sold Tuesday for $2,928,000, including the buyer's premium, Sotheby's spokesman Matthew Weigman said. The buyer's identity was not immediately disclosed.

The photograph shows a pond in a wooded area with light coming through the trees and reflected in the water.

I really need a new camera.

Flash Animation of Artist's Sketch: drawing of a human form in phases from skeleton to fully clothed woman.

Van Gogh's Starry Night: Take a look at this photomosaic of the famous painting 'Starry Night'. The image is made with over 210.000 tiny photographs and a total size of over 1.500.000.000 points in other words it is a 1.5 Gigapixel Image. Click the image to zoom in.

Photograph Archive by Color: Here is every photo on Ephemera, newest to oldest, reduced down to its average color.

Watercolors: The world's finest guide to watercolor painting. Here you'll find information on all aspects of watercolor painting: papers, brushes, paints, "color theory," painting techniques, art instructional books, and more.

The Gifford Studio: Benjamin Gifford figures among the prominent names in Oregon's Postcard History. The Gifford Studio was one of the largest in the state and it was outfitted with carbon arc lights and high volume darkrooms. It was staffed with photographers, retouchers and colorists. I wonder if I'm related.

Steven James Brown: A commercial photographer, working in Toronto, creates some really unique art.

Steven does not use photography to document reality, but to alter it. He employs unconventional props and lighting techniques to achieve his intriguing still life colour photographs. His avant-garde style features intriguing subject matter, while remaining simple, iconographic, and vibrant.

He has a wonderful website to display his gallery online.

Colour Rules: Here are some helpful rules of thumb about color.

Going, Going, Gone, to the Dogs: This news confirms one of my greatest fears:

A pair of paintings from the famed series depicting dogs playing poker fetched nearly $600,000 at auction Tuesday.

The two works — “A Bold Bluff” and “Waterloo” — were among 16 paintings that artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was commissioned to create for a Minnesota-based advertising company in 1903. Of the 16, nine are of dogs playing poker.

Who knew?!

Gigapxl Project: High-resolution photography with large-scale format, has been featured here below, but never before on the scale of the Gigapxl Project. What a beautiful project of immense documentary significance.

One Frame at a Time: A photoblog by Victor Zhang, who's admittedly very new to photography, but is really quite good at communicating with pictures and words:

One thing I found after I took on photography is that I started appreciating some of the small things around me, things I didn't even notice before - shape of a building, flowers on a wall, reflection of sky on a window, and so on. As I grew older, I found life is more about small things, more about how you live through each and everyday. This seems to be a very good way of recording what's around me and how I see this world -- one frame at a time.

Art & Photography Magazines: The Winter 2005 issue of MakingRoom, a magazine about the process, intention and results of image-making, has just launched online. And the premiere issue of JPG Magazine is out in print.

Tsunami Satellite Photographs: Incredible satellite images of areas hit by the tsunamis, aligned "before and after" to show the effects of the disaster.

New Year's Panoramas: For the previous two years, the Panoramas website has featured fullscreen 360 degree QTVR panoramas created by Jook Leung, from the famous New Year celebration at Times Square. This year we can view fullscreen panoramas of New Year's Eve celebrations from all the world.

Judging a Book by its Cover: For its end of year special feature, the critics at Bookslut judge children's books by their covers.

...sometimes your book cover critic feels exactly like Lewis Carroll’s Alice: “And what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversation?”

Now, with the New Year upon us, it seemed fitting for Bookslut to look at new releases this month with an eye towards books covers that are subject to some sort of active design consideration.

A Painting A Day: Duane Keiser is a very talented artist, who has started an interesting weblog. A Painting A Day demonstrates not only his artistic talent but also his discipline as a painter. I think his art is some of the best work I've ever seen—by an artist that's still living of course. And I'm going to be checking it out every day. What a great idea!

The Vincent van Gogh Gallery: Visit this complete, online catalogue raisonné of Van Gogh's oeuvre.

Chalk La Strada: Street painting with chalk has been an Italian tradition since the 16th century. Chalk La Strada 2004 is the festival's 6th year as part of the "Little Italy Festa" which takes place in and benefits the Little Italy District, Downtown San Diego. The official website of Chalk La Strada has an interesting chalking demo in the Artists link, and a webpage about Kid Chalkers and their art.

Photojournalism: The National Press Photographers Association presents the winners of the annual contest for photojournalists in The Best of Photojournalism 2004.

Hang in a Gallery: Have ever wanted to be hung in an art gallery, along with famous works of art. Here's your chance. Create your own painting with ArtPad, frame it, and see how your art would look in a fine art gallery. You still want to hang yourself, don't you?

Sand Art Performance: Download this amazing video recorded at the Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival.

Zoom Quilt: Click, drag, zoom.

Just Coffee Art: Pour yourself a cuppa java, and sit back and enjoy these paintings created with just coffee.

The Group of Three: Children find art is child's play in this photograph found at Disclosure.ca. And be sure to check out Shelly Gifford Kids, which showcases the artistic creativity of children here at the studio.

A Labor of Love of Photography: JPG Magazine, founded by the husband and wife team of Derek Powazek (Ephemera) and Heather Powazek Champ (The Mirror Project), is coming in November.

Pen & Ink on the Web: From the sketching Doodlebug to fine Ballpoint Pen Art.

Canada Day Photos: A few of my favourite shots are now on display at Disclosure.ca. We watched the Canada Day Parade in Port Hope, got faces painted, and tried to plant a Canadian flag on our favourite piece of Canada--our own backyard.

Shake it like a Polaroid: According to Polaroid, you're not really supposed to shake a Polaroid picture during the developing process, no matter what you've heard from Outkast. Apparently, it can cause the photograph to develop distortions of the image. Artists use this phenomenon to create artistic Polaroid Manipulations. I've dusted off my Polaroid SX-70 Instant Camera recently to experiment with this technique in my art classes. It's fun. And while we're on the topic of Polaroids, here's another interesting PolaPolaPola Polaroid Project that's worth a look.

Trompe l'oeil: A French phrase meaning, literally, "trick the eye" refers to a style of art sometimes called illusionsim. Extraordinary fine art examples painted in this style are shown on this website. You might have seen some of these works before. What's really unusual, though, is this sidewalk art in the trompe l'oeil style--in chalk. So real, it's unreal.

Computers: The new iMac G5 looks really nice. It's amazing the work that is being created by artists on computers these days. Sometimes, it's difficult to tell reality photographed from a computer graphic image. Is it Fake or Foto? Sometimes computer graphics can demonstrate how a work of art is created. Take a look at this beauty. I'll be adding some more links to great artistic, photographic, and journalistic websites. And, I hope to have my work listed on Portfolios.com in the near future.

It's a Canadian game: Disclosure.ca, listed among our favourite photographic links, is a growing collection of photographs that explore Canada and what it is to be Canadian. One photograph was selected by the disclosure.ca judges as the best photo submitted in 2003. Nice shot.

That's the Spirit: It's inspiring to look up from our day to day work to appreciate the wonderful panoramic photography that the Mars rover Spirit is sending back to us on Spaceship Earth. If you've got a high speed Internet connection, you can enjoy this spectacular animated music video of Spirit's journey from Earth to Mars.

The Decline of Fashion Photography: An argument in pictures by Karen Lehrman is very interesting.

Gigapixels: This digital photograph of the view from Bryce Point in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah consists of 196 separate photographs taken with a 6 megapixel digital camera, and then stitched together into one seamless composite. The final image is 40,784 x 26,800 pixels in size, and contains about 1.09 billion pixels...a little more than one gigapixel. All I want for Christmas is a Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel, unless you really love me, and want to get me a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, wireless.

Palettes: Richard Rutter, a website producer in England, describes on his weblog some really handy online colour tools available on the Internet. These tools help the untrained or unreliable eye to come up with colour palettes based on complimentary and harmonious colours. In addition to those great colour tools, we like the 4096 Color Wheel and Color Cop.

Funtastic: Mr. Picassohead is a creative bit of fun with an artistic flare. From time to time, I'll add links to websites about art that are fun, as well as interesting. You'll find more links like this at the bottom of the left hand column, under the heading Funtasitc. Please come back to visit as often as you can to check out what's new around here, and have a little fun sharing our discoveries. :)

Flickr: This isn't your grandfather's photo sharing site!
My name spelled with Flickr photographs.