Pam Van Londen » ~News

Juried into the Contemporary Fine Art International

Pam Van Londen — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:54:20 +0000

Contemporary Fine Art International web site

I have just been juried into the Juried into the Contemporary Fine Art International, hosted by Kimberly Conrad, a Colorado daily painter.

This site showcases:

Representational Abstract Painters
Nonrepresentational Abstract Painters
Abstract & Contemporary Sculptors
Encaustic Artists
Selected Mixed Media Artists

Purple Treasury at Etsy includes Songwriter

Pam Van Londen — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:31:21 +0000

Natalya’s Studio, home of custom knit, crochet & felt designs, has created an Etsy Treasury which includes this purple painting of my daughter, the songwriter. Visit Etsy for a wonderful shopping experience.

Create an Online Presence ~ Workshop

Pam Van Londen — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:28:59 +0000

Create an Online Presence workshop at Linn Benton Community College

1-day workshop for artists, musicians, and small businesses

April 4, 2009
9:00am to 4:00pm
Room BC-204, Benton Center, Corvallis, Oregon
$95

To reserve a seat, dial 541-917-4929 for LBCC’s Small Business Development Center.

Corvallis artist and businesswoman, Pam Van Londen, will assist small business owners in setting up a freely hosted web site in just a few hours.

Agenda

Overview: what is a web presence and how can you have a successful one?
Demonstration: how to plan ahead.
Demonstration: how to keep inventory to streamline the process.
15 minute break

Demonstration and practice: how to optimize images and documents for fast-loading web pages.

1 hour lunch break (on your own)
Build a site: Create a web site and add your biography and a gallery (or other documents) (using a free online service).
15 minute break
Demonstration: 10 free options for promoting your new web site

Follow-up

One free consultation via email (must happen within 2 weeks of the workshop).

Student requirements

Comfort with basic computer skills. Please review this list to help assess your comfort level.
Access to web mail (bring username, password, and link to your online mail site).
Comfort with using a USB stick drive (also known as a thumb drive).
Bring in at least 4 digital photos, music files, and/or documents on a USB stick drive.

Navigation Sets

jamesholladay — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:19:26 +0000

Readings

Zen Garden: Templates applied to the same content. Style sheets are one aspect of style sheets.
Accessify.com’s ListoMatic: Online tool for generating menu bars.
Adding Style to Navigation Sets

Dynamic Navigation

Read about dynamic options once you’ve learned to style them with CSS pseudo-classes.

Many sites have more than one set of navigation:

Site-wide/global section topics
- Subtopics
Audience-specific topics
Tools
Administrative/legal

Site-wide/global topics

Keywords and phrases make up the main menu of a site. These words are the main reason people visit your site, so refrain from making the language too generic. For example, on the CorvallisArtGuild.org site, the main menu includes topics members want to read about:

Each of these main topics might have subtopics, which include a list on the landing page for the main topic, or a submenu attached to the main menu.

Audience specific topics

Most web sites have more than one audience. University sites have several audiences, and a menu for each helps target the visitor’s experience and save time browsing and searching. OregonState.edu‘s audience menu includes the following:

Tools

Example accessibility features such as skip navigation, text-resizing, and theme changes can make up a toolbar, in addition to basic functions such as printing, emailing a friend, refer a friend, and bookmark this page/site. Sites that have members can include a member toolbar which allows them to register, login, get a password reminder, and logout. An ecommerce site might have a toolbar for checking the shopping cart, checking out quickly, or updating the account information. Here are some examples:

skip | resize text | login | register | RSS

search | find a location | find someone | sitemap

UserID | Password | Register | Login | Password reminder

Preferences | Shopping Cart | My Account

report a bug | report broken link | contact us

Administrative/legal

Administrative and legal links are often hidden from view unless a visitor reads past the scroll line. Footers often include links to administrative or legal pages. In addition, they might include a repeat of main menus,and tools menus. For example, these sets of menus might appear at the bottom of each page of a site

Copyright date | Usage rights | Privacy Statement or Disclaimer | Webmaster email | Contact form
report a bug | report broken link | contact us
Main navigation

Page Layout with Style Sheets and the Block Method

Pam Van Londen — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:48:18 +0000

Basic Page Layout

Once the user interface language is defined, the page can be laid out in columns and rows that contain the visual scheme/images which are meant to improve the visitor’s experience at the site.

The Block Method

When to use which?

Compare what you see in the style sheet with what is displayed in the browser. Notice…

Which items use IDs?
Which use Classes?
Why?

Let these definitions guide your use of IDs and Classes:

IDs: The ID name or number appears only once on a page. It is unique so that a script could call it if necessary. It helps define an area of the page that will appear (just once) on each page.
Classes: Used perhaps many times on a page, such as floating containers with quotes in them; images floating left or right; stylized text in a chart; or a drop cap in the first paragraph of each article.

One, two-,three-, or four-column page layout options define the basic grid used to hold navigation and content components in a template. Columns and rows are defined using the

tag (XHTML) or

, and

tags (HTML 5) within Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) along with IDs (defined starting with a # symbol) which developers refer to as the block method.

Page designs can be Fixed or Adaptive. Adaptive layouts accommodate most screen sizes by expanding and contracting the content areas when the user resizes the browser window. This method of web page layout is becoming more common because it adapts to the size of phones, pads, laptops, and desktop computers. In a Fixed-sized site, the columns and rows typically sit in the middle of the window so they is visible even if the window is resized.

Review the page layout of OSU’s web site. Notice the different kinds of navigation, content, and placement of elements. Each area’s placement, color, fonts, width/height, etc. are defined by the style sheet using IDs and classes. Expand and contract the dimensions of the browser window. Notice how the content stays centered in the window when you resize the window.

Examples of Column and Row Options using resonsive or fixed options

3-column with or without headers and footers

2-column with or without headers and footers

1-column with or without headers and footers

Variations for HTML 5

Box Model styling with HTML 5: Pam Van Londen, 2009
Responsive Web Design Demystified: Matt Doyle, 2011. Elated.com
Coding a HTML 5 Layout from Scratch: Enrique Ramirez, 2009
Touch The Future: Create An Elegant Website With HTML 5 And CSS3: Line 25

Page Layout Guidelines

Set the page width between 640px and 1200px.
- If you want a larger width, keep it to 900px but design it to be adaptive based on the visitor stretching the window to the size/resolution of their monitor or viewing it on a phone.
- Most modern sites are around 900px wide with adaptions for handheld devices set below 640px.
- Visitors don’t generally want to scroll sideways as well as vertically, so anything beyond 900px is often not seen in the window of laptop users.
Place items or sections of a page in logical order.
Be consistent from page to page by designing a template from which all pages will be completed.
Use a simple grid system to lay out sections of the site.
- Keep it to a minimum; if four columns are too busy, try three or two.
Reduce the number of colors in the scheme.
- Try shades or tints of one color to add sophistication.
Introduce graphics and photography that are professional quality—not too light; not too dark.
Use the smallest dimensions and file size you can afford on images.
- Try to keep each image under 30k (that’s my rule; some say smaller).
  - The exception is for product shots that must have accurate color and detail.
  - Use thumbnails that link to larger images to reduce load time.
- Add alternative text attributes in all tags for each image in the content areas.
  - Example:
  - Alternative text allows visitors who listen rather than read a page to have information about the visual content.
  - Proper alt tags describe who, what, when, where, how, and why as much as possible.
  - Title attributes can be used if you want the text to be visible.
    - Most all browsers can see the title attribute, where alt attributes are generally only seen in Explorer.
    - Sometimes, the credit to the author/designer/photographer/artist is also listed in a title attribute, along with a link to the source.
Create visual harmony by keeping the style of images consistent.

Three person show at LaSells Stewart Center

Pam Van Londen — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:07:40 +0000

By invitation, my paintings will appear next to Mark Allison’s and Mike Rangner’s at LaSells Stewart Center for the month of December, 2008.

Join us at the reception on December 3 from 6:30 to 8:00pm.

Workshop Attendees Link Exchanges

Pam Van Londen — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:31:33 +0000

Create an Online Presence workshop at Linn Benton Community College

These links take you to new web sites created by attendees of the Building an Online Presence workshops. Watch the list grow!

Gorilla Grams Blog, Balloon Bouquets & Classic Decor, Costumed Delivery & Balloon Twisting

Dylan McMahon, Fine Arts

Carolee S. Clark, Painter blog, web site, collaboration web site by Carolee Clark

Donna Beverly’s blog, web site, collaboration web site by Donna Beverly

Rusty Van Rossmann’s blog by Rusty Van Rossmann

Procession of the Species (Albany) by Tia Swanson.

Herb Berman, oil painter by Regina Berman

Rose Gate Pottery and Boundless Gallery by Becca Lemon

Linda J. Edwards Visual Arts by Linda Edwards

Jan Maitland Portraits and Paintings and JanMaitland.BoundlessGallery.com, Jan Maitland

Barbara Levine and her blog, by Barbara Levine

Willamette Valley Farmlands by Ellen Hamill of Oregon Art Photos

Ted Ernst Pottery blog & website by Ted Ernst

Clay with Fire and Willamette Ceramics Guild by Steve Aulerich

Fibers of Faith by Cindy McNutt-Kaestner

Anita Cook Landscapes in Pastel and AnitaCook.BoundlessGallery.com by Anita Cook

Fine Fiber Press & Studio by Pat Spark and Kathe Todd-Hooker

SparkFiberArts and blog by Pat Spark

Noris Dairy, Angela Spalt

Umbrella Painting Journal by Diane Widler Wenzel

JR Young, PC

Enjoy the show at Bomb’s Away Cafe

Pam Van Londen — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:25:38 +0000

Through November, 2008, 13 of my landscapes in oil and acrylic are hanging at Bomb’s Away Cafe on Monroe St in Corvallis, Oregon. Enjoy lively music while viewing art at this local establishment.

Restaurant Hours
Monday to Friday 11:00am to 10:00pm
Saturday 5:00pm to 10:00pm

Bar Hours
Monday to Friday 11:00am to midnight
Saturday 5:00pm to 11:00pm

Juried into the LaSells Stewart show

Pam Van Londen — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:35:04 +0000

Three of my larger paintings have been accepted to the Giustina & Murdock Galleries Reflections on the Color of Life show at LaSells Stewart Center for November, 2008. The show runs November 1- 28 and the reception is to be held November 5 at 6:30pm.

Reflections on Color of Life exhibit

Pam Van Londen — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:06:33 +0000

Four of my pieces have been accepted for the Reflections on Color of Life exhibit at Giustina Gallery at La Sells Stewart Center which runs Nov 1 to Nov 26, 2008. Join me for the reception on November 5 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm in Giustina Gallery/Murdock Exhibit Area in La Sells Stewart Center on the [...]