paintings prints and stuff

Today I received an invitation from Jaime Rodriguez, a Professor Ecology and also a very good painter, to join Paintmap - a really cool site where you add a google map link to show where your paintings were done. http://vivien.paintmap.com/ - this is a link to the images I've uploaded at the moment. It's great the way it shows where precisely they were painted - though sadly google map flattens all the hills and cliffs but you get an idea of the countryside and coast where I've worked. .... and of course for further images of seascapes there is alway The Book! link on top right of my blog. .

I've taken a few days off painting to catch up on a million and one other tasks so I thought I'd share some of the artists who blog and that I read regularly. I'm mentioning them in alphabetical order as they come up on bloglines. There are others but I can't list them all ! As it is you can see that I spend too much time on the computer! .... well it's better than Wimbledon, football, racing, you-name-it that himself is watching. First off Anita http://am-art.blogspot.com/ who does the most beautiful work in pencil and pastel. I was first amazed by the cutlery she drew in pencil and her current series of pastels, used in rather un-traditional way have an incredible presence and mood to them. Patrice http://aquamarelle.blogspot.com/ who not only handles watercolours brilliantly but catches the excitement and drama and movement of sailing equally brilliantly. Derek http://derekjonesart.blogspot.com/ who paints the figure and also recently has done a beautiful se

I decided to update the website http://vivienblackburn.com and add a page with selections from my sketchbooks on the various subjects that interest me. http://www.vivienblackburn.com/sketchbooks.html I'd find it really helpful if you would look and comment on the website - how would you improve it? (remembering I can't go into the html and change things, I have to work within the templates given - though they are fairly flexible) Katherine gave me some excellent advice, which I'm working my way through. One was not to have such a long list of pages on the left but to have fewer and then sub pages within them - what do you think? (I have to work out how to do that!) ... what else? The purpose of the site is mainly to showcase my work to potential new galleries - so I can't put prices on. Any feedback and advice would be gratefully received - even if I don't agree or can't do it! opinions and views are valuable. Thank you :>) I thought I'd add an image so