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Over the last few years I have heard a lot of comments about reproduction prints of artwork devaluing the original paintings. "Why would you want to buy a painting that has a had lots of reproductions made of it?" is the cry, and "I wouldn't want to see the lovely painting I bought as a cheap reproduction in Walmart!"

With the advent of POD (Print on Demand) sites like Fine Art America I expect that I will hear these comments more frequently however I disagree and here are my reasons.

Think about the Mona Lisa. How many zillions of copies are there of that painting in the world? Do you think these countless copies devalue that? Of course not, it actually makes the original more valuable. If I bought a painting that I loved and then it was reproduced and became so popular that it was in shops and homes everywhere, I would be absolutely delighted and proud that I had the "original". It's value in monetary terms would have increased and I would feel very good about my decision to have bought that artwork. An original is always special and unique. Feel very happy if you own an original and never feel that a copy made of it takes anything away from that specialness.

Not everyone can afford original artwork but they may love an artists work and want to feature it in their home. Art should be for everyone to enjoy and not just for those who can afford original work.

How do you feel about this?

I would really appreciate it if you share this on your favorite social networking site.

Last Friday night I gave a talk to an art society group about my art and printmaking. In the first half I talked about my painting process and showed some photographs. I set up the pictures in Power Point and connected to their projector. The color was a complete disaster which was a pity. It appears that they find it hard to get the color right when using the projector so in the future if I am asked to do this again for a smallish group, I will take my own monitor and use that, then I know that the colors will show correctly.

The second part of the presentation was about printmaking. I mainly make collagraph prints, a form of printmaking, which as the name suggests, comes from collage. I took a variety of my prints and also some examples of the collagraph plates that I make to print the images from. As usual everyone fell in love with the actual plates. I think it is the texture and depth of the plates after they have been printed that is so appealing. Because printmaking, and especially collagraph, is less familiar to many artists I think it was probably the most interesting part of the talk.

To brighten up this post I have added a photo of a small collagraph that I experimented with last week. I wanted to try using printing ink in a very transparent way. It's part of a larger plate that I wasn't happy with so I cropped the image down. It ended up being very simple but I think it has a very optimistic feel. Does it feel that way to you?

After spending quite a lot of time looking at art and thinking about what I really like ... which ended up being art with abstracted figures and faces in it ... I have gone off and started a series of non representational works. I decided to work in one size, 24 in square, as I already had several in this size and I like the look of a grouping of work all in the same size. The two I am currently working on are in a limited palette of black, white, grey, red and gold the gold being gold leaf. I love the way gold leaf glitters when the light catches it. I am not sure if they are quite finished yet but in the meantime this is what one piece looks like.

Gold leaf is a bit tricky to work with. It has a tendency to fly away from where you are trying to put it if you even breathe on it. You lay down a glue where you want the gold leaf and then you have to wait until the glue is almost dry before you lay the leaf on and smooth it down with a soft brush. Finally you have to fluff away the pieces of leaf that are not caught by the glue. Hopefully then you have leaf where you want it. I also have a glue pen which enables the creation of quite interesting lines in gold leaf.

Doing the non realistic paintings has made me quite unsettled about what direction I want to go in my art but I guess that's part of the allure of doing art, it's such a voyage of discovery.

I’ve been slow on the updates to my blog because it’s taken me some time to get back into gear after being away for so long. I’ve found it really hard to pick up where I left off however I think I am now getting back on track again.

To finish off about Portugal. We both like it there a lot. We love the outdoor life style and even though it was winter, most days it was sunny and warm enough to sit outside and watch the sea while we drank the great coffee that you get in Portugal. Now my husband won’t drink the stuff we make in the Bodum at home any more! After all this nice weather it was a bit of a shock to return home to Toronto and the snow and cold weather.

I have added a few pictures of places we think are interesting to visit near Albufeira. The first one is the Harbour of the Caravels in Spain. It features replicas of Columbus’s three ships in a lovely setting. It takes about and hour and a half to drive there from Albufeira but I think it’s well worth the effort.

The next place is a lovely hillside town called Evora. The picture shows the Roman ruin right in the center of the town. This UNESCO world heritage town is a great place to visit and you will see the inland area of Portugal where a lot of the wine is made on the drive to get there.

Finally the Roman ruins at Estoi and the newly restored palace which is now a hotel. http://tinyurl.com/45cafty and http://tinyurl.com/6yacv79
We also liked the market at Loule and wished we had made it to the Gypsy Market there but perhaps another time. The photo shows conger eel which I took because I thought the patterns on it were beautiful. I find all the fish on sale pretty awful and I can't see how the sea can sustain itself if so much is continually being taken out. After being a vegetarian for thirty years these things concern me.

One thing that was disappointing was the lack of small art galleries to visit. I am always looking to see art but only found one gallery and that wasn’t very exciting. There must be artists there somewhere but we never found them.
On the art front I have been making some collagraph plates this week and I hope to try printing them today. My next post will be about those.

See the full post with all the pictures at http://www.nonakedwalls.blogspot.com

'The past week I have been working on the details of my upcoming Open Studio. I don\'t know if you have ever been to one or taken part in one but I find them great fun. There is something quite exciting about seeing someone\'s private space, seeing how they do things, what is important to them. I love going to them but I also love doing them. This will be the first one I have done in Toronto after doing several in Ottawa, Canada and in York in the UK in previous years. It will be quite a challenge to garner enought attention at this time of the year with so much else going on espeically as I am new to Toronto and don\'t have a large group of friends and aquaintances to call on to help promoting the event however I\'m sure it will build up over the years as an annual event. I will be showing a selection of paintings and printmaking including some smaller works which would be great for gift giving. A gift of an original artwork is a gift that will continue giving joy for years, not like a fancy shirt or some other goodie that will be worn out or go out of fashion quickly.. If you live in Toronto why don\'t you come and visit? Details are on my web site, http://www.susanneclark.com

Check out my latest blog at http://www.nonakedwalls.blogspot.com

My art is in the toilet! This is not a depressing thing. Actually I feel quite happy about it as where else do people have a few moments alone and time to actually look at art without any distractions. The painting I am talking about is a very vibrant work in reds and golds featuring saxophones and on the deep red wall in the toilet, it looks fantastic! The painting is
in a show at Rev Coffee in Smyrna, just out of Atlanta. This is a fun coffee shop with an eclectic feel. They have lots of art on the wall and at night there is live music. The show opening last night had a really good feel and the coffee they make there is some of the best I have had.

Last night I also had the opening of the Dogwood Show at the Atlanta Artists Center. It's a nice show and one of their better ones because of it's diversity. I was lucky enought to get two pieces accepted and to win an Honorable Mention.

Next I will be showing at the Alpharetta Streetfest, 18th and 19th April, and then the Wesleyan School's "Joie de Vivre"on April 30th and May 1 and 2.

I am working on some very small musical pieces. They are 6 inches square and at that size the smallest work I have ever done. I am having fun with these and enjoying the challenge of working so small. Once I have a few finished I will post them. I hope to keep the cost around $100.00.