Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
The forum is boring
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Message
Posted
Here you are Syd - I've just posted something in the Gallery - it's at:
http://www.painters-online.co.uk/gallery/art-view,picture_193269.htm
Posted
Syd, I know me ..... I'd cheat. I might start drawing a stork from memory (though not having any memory of one would be a snag) but I'd take a furtive peek at a bird-book, I just know I would. I'm bad like that.
I do, somewhere or other, have a drawing of a heron - quite a few of pheasants - but I can't show those because it wouldn't be in keeping with your conditions. And anyway, they're not storks. I may not know much, but I know that much.
Posted
Re the Boring Forum......Dare I suggest that we are, sadly, most of us, not the keen young things of yesteryear, who leapt merrily into almost every Forum topic on the old site? Have we grown weary and heavy hearted, weighed down with anxiety about increasing waistlines, failing eyesight, shaking hands and arthritic spines and limbs which keep us upright at our easels for only so long in a day?
Dare I suggest also that many of us, including myself, are beginning to give in to the vagaries of age (with the exception of our wonderful Sylvia who seems truly evergreen. and tries so hard to inspire and urge us on) and not wanting the 'old' guard to fade out, we are trying to hand over the reins to younger members who seem not to be particularly interested or in evidence at present.
Dare I also suggest that we just love to be still communicating with friends we have known via the POL site for years,? So many older people are alone in their homes and would not have the opportunity to be in touch with their interests unless it were via POL. (Ask Esther Rantzen on her 'Silverline' service about this...you may be surprised) POL is the site I go to every morning, after reading my emails and looking at the day's news.
So for POL I say "Chat on" in between the painting tips we may be able to pass on to those who ask for them. Perhaps we should simply start a Chat Line for 'Artists who no longer Cut the Mustard?' Boring old fogies though we may be!
And YES Sylvia.That IS a Heron, not a stork. (Apparently the first female stork in the last 600 years is currently nesting in Great Yarmouth, for those who may be interested.) whereas Herons inhabit our ponds and waterways in search of fish.
Posted
Ruth - you sum some of us up very well.
I'm getting old, I know I'm getting old, and I withdraw from online platforms accordingly because .... well, because I can't, to be quite honest, be bothered. Mind you, Syd is an example to all of us at 91, and still interested; and Alan - however old he is: I calculate he might be around 84 - is another.
I think those of us of advancing years are less inclined to start conversations here, and more inclined to react to them; maybe younger people have more interesting things to do - but when they want our help and advice they come to the forum, and that's one of its pleasures so far as I'm concerned: I haven't taught for a good many years now, but if I can pass on what I know through the forum, well - that's quite satisfying.
So, kids everywhere - come on. We do have many answers; we've been where you are today; we've faced many of the same problems and have acquired a body of knowledge (which we need to keep up: out of date certainties are of no use to anyone) - ask, and it shall be given unto you. Cast us off like old socks and we'll keep it to ourselves, just to spite you!
Posted
Howdy, Annette, welcome aboard. Here's a bit of encouragement, I hope :) Life is too short to 'think' about doing a bit of painting. If you have a passion for a subject, no matter what it is, get a painting done. Doesn't matter how good or bad you think it is, just do your paintings to the best of your abilities. You maybe produce wonderful work, we don't know. Pop an effort in a thread, get feedback. Positive, constructive criticism is a boost, go for it, gal'
Posted
Heading towards 78 I'm really appreciating getting back to painting after a lot of years doing other things. Most of the reasons I eased off for were just that; not enough time and too much else to do. The only time I've ever exhibited anything was at our local town art gallery with a design for wallpaper ( I was eleven at the time), so my interest is purely non-profit. My wife can draw the curtains well enough, even draw buckets of water from the well, and she is very good with emulsion and gloss around the house ( ah, okay, I'm joking) but she at least understands my need to paint and communicate with like-minded souls. This is where (heading into a minefiled now) I feel T.V art programmes are really helpful in getting people interested and programmes like The Big Paint Challenge are useful because they get reactions about art, be they positive or negative, that normally wouldn't happen. I also belong to football and dance forums and the internet has been marvelous for communicating with others of my ilk. Granted I think Facebook type media is the work of demons populated by trolls and time-wasting idiots, (I joined once at a friend's insistence, but, like cult followers I managed to break free and run for it) but there are plenty sites like this that do great good. Call me ancient, pre-historic even, in attitude, but for their use in emergencies I would ban mobile phones as electronic voodoo dolls and long for a return of Dick Barton on radio. Right, off to find out what a stork looks like. Cranes ( feathered and mechanical), and Herons we have here, storks, nay. Have a nice day all. 😆
Posted
Might seem an odd question, but does the gallery seem to suffer from "mood swings" or is it just me? Admitting I'm still comparitively new and possibly a bit enthusiastic in my own offerings prolific input, but I'm basically a happy soul. I shouldn't really be surprised at anything in art, but is it the season for naked women fantasia and mixed up men with grey outlooks? I'll probably get over it after breakfast when somebody reminds me that my world is just a grown up Narnia...😆
Posted
Interesting question there from Jim, and yes - the gallery does seem to go through phases: partly - and this is a good thing - in relation to the season; that shows people are going out and painting what's in front of them (nothing wrong with painting snow scenes in June, if that's what you want to do, but - remember to look out of the window as well). And just now we have an influx of new work, which is also a good thing, from new members. I can get, I admit, a little bored with burgeoning bosoms, at least when they seem to be the real subject of a painting - it can lead to very peculiar anatomical distortions which are quite amusing, once or twice: but get annoying when you keep seeing dirigibles of such proportions as to drag their possessor to the floor the moment she attempts to resume the perpendicular. (I had to work on that one: orotund would be one way of describing that sentence; impenetrable might be another.)
But at least the display of 'princesses' seems to have sputtered to a halt, if you remember those stylized images of identical female figures clad in the flags of the nations, which so far as I was concerned wore out their welcome by the third iteration. It's never a good thing to look at the gallery and think 'Oh god no, not another one!'.