Be an OLD DOG SPONGE!

I don't know if it is a right brain, left brain thing but a great many talented artists that I have met seem to lack any kind of business sense and have no clue how to promote themselves.  I've been involved now for several years in the local co-op gallery scene and have observed a steady stream of artists that euphorically believe that the moment their art is hanging up on a gallery wall, the public will come flocking.  They will make enough to cover the cost of their wall rent and sales commission fee with a tidy profit left over to at least buy their supplies to create more lucrative art.

WRONG!  I have personally learned from these past couple of years that the attitude towards co-op gallery scene should be more treated as an educational process in your LONG journey to be a successful artist.  Very few can create a fan base overnight and there is so much great art out there that you have to keep your eye on your goals. 

GOAL # 1- Paint, Draw, Sculpt, Throw Pots, Weld, Make Jewelry or whatever else it is you do and do it OFTEN!  My skills as a painter have improved greatly over these past 4 years since I decided I might want to retire from my 8-5 accounting job and do art instead.  If your lucky like me you might be able to trade your skills learned from you OTHER career to discount that wall rent.  Co-op galleries are always in need of someone that actually understands accounting, balance a checkbook and knows the difference between a profit and loss and a balance sheet.  

GOAL # 2- Never stop learning!  Your education as an artist can't stop at your easel.   You have to learn all about sales,  marketing, web hosting, photo editing, writing, blogging, networking; the list goes on and on and it may seem overwhelming because as mentioned before, many of us are retired. We didn't figure this stuff out when our gray matter was young and in it's twenties.  We're in our 50's and 60's and so the cliche "It's hard to teach OLD DOGS new tricks" comes immediately to mind.  Make a list of your weaknesses and start LEARNING about them.  

GOAL # 3- Be a SPONGE! Find a buddy that is at least a little further on the road to success than you are and that starts by joining your local art guild.  That's what I did and now have a number of good artist friends that offer support and help.  Artists can be a crazy lot but even a very quiet and conservative person like myself was able to find a friend.  You can do it too!

GOAL #4-  Get your website up and maybe create an art Facebook page.  You're not going to have thousands of hits or friends right away but it does build like a snowball rolling down the hill.  Find an successful artist and check out their website and Facebook activity.  There is nothing wrong with sitting up your own website to resemble and function like theirs.  They more than likely paid thousands of dollars to have a professional site made and you can take advantage of that.  You are welcome to check out my website at- JulieTownsendStudio.com   I used a free website host called Weebly.com but this past week have been working on my co-op gallery website that uses WIX.com.  Both work find and are good options as I am sure there are many reasonably priced sites out there to choose from.

I'm pretty sure I could come up with a pretty lengthy list of goals this morning while I'm enjoying my McDonald's coffee and free WiFi, but these 4 are, in my opinion, the core of where you should focus on immediately.  

Show Synergy Carried to the Easel

This has been one of the most productive weeks that I can recall for me as an artist and I think it is due to the energy I got from having so many friends and family that came out to celebrate the reception of my first art show on Oct 12th.  I had so much fun seeing all my work displayed and talking about each piece. It was like being a kid in a candy store.  That excitement couldn't help but flow out onto my easel.


Here is a preview of my new works that I have painted or finished up this past week.  We are still in the process of photographing, naming, varnishing and cataloging them but hopefully in the next week they will all be available on my website gallery at JulieTownsendStudio.com or hanging up at City of the World Gallery here in Las Vegas.

Blue Eyes Crying- 6x6 Oil painting

Sand Harbor at Tahoe- 6 x 12 Oil

Seeing Shades of Red- 18x24 Acrylic

Springtime Pansies- 12x16 Oil

Who knew I needed a Garage to Park my Palette...?

For sometime now I have been thinking how great it would be for me to find a strip of plastic that would allow me to lay out my paints on it that was separate from the area on my palette that I mix my colors. This would allow me to change out the butcher paper without having to lay out new colors or transfer the unused paint to the new surface. It would also be easier to store the paints in the freezer without putting the whole palette in there.

Well low and behold I was looking at a fellow artist Facebook page the other day and noticed that she had her paints clipped to her easel. So on closer examination I knew I had to find out what it was she was using. She shared with me the name of a wonderful product called the Palette Garage. I think it is exactly what I was thinking about and the amazing thing is that your paints will stay fresh at room temperature up to 6 weeks by using a drop of clove oil. Now I'm certain we are talking only about Oil paints but just think how easy that is to grab and store in your painting equipment. Don't have to worry about the paints getting on things. Seems to me to be more handy that the stay-wet palette that I'm trying to use now.

I'm planning on purchasing one in the next few weeks to give it a try and I thought I would share this information to any of my blog readers out there.

 

Check them out for yourself at:

http://palettegarage.com/ 

Clawing Your Way Back to Creativity

There are many things in this life that want to suck the creativity right out of you and this past two weeks a family trauma has done just that.  I'm reminded of that commercial for Progressive Insurance where these people are throwing themselves on to cars and they are call RATE SUCKERS.   I get that same mental picture when I think of the heavy emotion of grief and what it does in your life.  Grief is is a huge black cloud that surrounds you and sucks so much out of you, especially in the area of creativity. 

Two weeks have come and gone and I haven't so much as picked up a paint brush and I keep telling myself to go in there and at least lay out fresh paint.  Recently, my theme has been gold prospectors and so I have a partially completed piece on the easel of an old prospector that is in real need of finishing.  Should I take a hike in the mountains, lay on the beach or just grab my sketchbook to try to begin the process of rekindling that desire to sit back down at my easel?  

I have for the past two years that I have been seriously painting, always taken my completed pieces with me when we would visit my shut-in mother-in-law.  I felt that this was something that she enjoyed seeing and each time she would comment on the piece as if it was the very first time she had seen my work.  Her recent passing has left a hole in my heart and a lump in my throat.  As soon as I can find the strength, I'm going to have to paint something especially in her honor but first I need to get this old prospector off my easel.

Current work in progress that needs my creativity to return so that I can finish this 16 x 20 Acrylic piece.  I'm planning to include a Winchester rifle leaning against the fallen tree and his bedroll and belongings hanging further up the shore. 

Recent piece that I'm calling "Taking a Break" that shows a hardworking prospector enjoying a simply cup of coffee, a warm fire and a plate of beans.

A sketch I started last week of old prospector that could multitask by enjoying his pipe and working his pan at the same time.

There is a BUG Stuck in My Paint

I have been reading a book by Kevin Macpherson called "Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color".  Mr. Macpherson is an accomplished En Plein Air painter.  (That is French for "In the Open Air")  This is an excellent book and I'm learning a lot about color, light and shadows from it's pages.

From someone who is a "Studio" artist, painting outside has a unique set of challenges as I experienced yesterday.  This style of painting is definitely something I want to learn and so I was very excited when my friend Lily asked me to accompany her along with few other artists with the Nevada Plein Air Group to Hemmenway Harbor at Lake Mead to spend a few hours painting in the fresh air.

I actually did learn a number of things and am anxious to improve my "En Plein Air" techniques.  The real truth is that yesterday I was basically pretending to paint and Lily is the real McCoy!  While she didn't finish her little 10 x 20 piece, she got a good portion of her painting completed and I was dually impressed. I spent a great deal of the time watching her ability to paint quickly so she could  catch the essence of the moment, not worrying about exact detail but rather reflection, light, color and shadows all come together so that she could catch the emotion rather than the exact image.

So different from painting on my beautiful new easel with all my supplies surrounding me and listening to either Willy Nelson or my new piano praise CD.  This will definitely take practice on my part but I'm anxious for the challenge of bugs stuck in wet paint, working in big floppy straw hats, dirt in my teeth and the sun in my eyes.