Tweeting Your Way into Art Appreciation and much more

Of all Social Media beyond email it is Twitter that I like best. Why? Because it is flexible- you can use it to suit your own interests exclusively. No matter what your passion is, there will be someone making a statement or posting an image about your favourite topic. You only follow the people or the topics you are interested in. And if you don't like them you stop following them. It's that easy.

At the top you can see Paul Wadey's Twitter handle - @pwadey. This is what you search for and follow if you want to receive Paul's tweets which are predominantly about the world of art. Paul is exceptionally well informed and the knowledge he shares is invaluable. Often his tweets give me an idea to follow in the blog. What is wonderful about Twitter is that is almost always accompanied by an image.

If you read Paul's tweet you will see he is informing his followers about a painting Still Life with Apples and a Pomegranate (1871) by the French artist Gustave Courbet (1819-1877). You can see that Paul has included the handle for the British National Gallery (@NationalGallery) because that's where the painting is housed. Paul (@pwadey) has also made a brief statement about the significance of the painting and artist and that is that he painted this beautiful work whilst in prison. And that is the best part about Twitter- you get a significant snippet of information about your chosen topic. What you do with that snippet is up to you. You can store it away until something else comes up related to the same topic, do some more research which is usually what I do- or ignore the Tweet if it doesn't interest you.

Under the Tweet there is provision for you to respond if you so desire, the main ways being: you can make a brief comment of up to 140 characters though I think that is being extended to 280; retweet which means the information gets shared; tap like to show acknowledgement that it's a good tweet.

If you are going to take the plunge to try out Twitter you first need to download the Twitter App.

Here are some guides explaining how to set up your Twitter Account which is free.

Tweeters to get you started are:
Paul Wadey (@pwadey) - art expert with an exceptional knowledge.

Chris Gibson (@gibsonc85) for learning more about art at the coal face as Chris is an artist.

Matt Cameron (@mattcameron) for learning about social media and how to use it effectively.

And if you are totally disinterested you can pick up a pencil and paper and practise drawing eyes which we will return to tomorrow!

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