Saturday, January 17, 2015

Stumbling over Cow Bells

Sometimes in life you just fall over an opportunity that becomes obvious and I think I have just had that experience these past two weeks.  I remember reading an entry a while back from a blog I follow by Xanadu Gallery owner, Jason Horejs referring to finding a "Bread and Butter" work that propels your art like nothing else.  Mr. Horejs states, "Sometimes this bread and butter work is smaller in size and sells at a lower price point. Sometimes there is something particularly bold or unusual about the work that captures the attention and imagination of potential buyers.... Often the bread and butter work sells as quickly as the artist can produce it."  Reddotblog.com

Last month I happened to be walking through a store and noticed a small display of cowbells.  I looked at the bells for a moment and being the country girl that I am, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't that look cute if I painted a little chicken, a cow or a barn on it?"  I bought one bell and it set in my studio for several weeks.  Finally, last week I talked to my husband and he prepared the surface for me so that it would be easier to paint on and I painted my first little rooster on it.  Within minutes of posting the first image on my Facebook account, the bell had sold and I soon had requests for three more.  This week I have orders for a total of 10 bells and I'm still painting chickens trying to keep up with the orders.  My plan is to have them available on my website and on display at all three galleries that represent my work ( City of the WorldBoulder City Art Gallery and Janas Redroom ), but right now I'm just trying to keep up with the Facebook requests.

Today, I had a brain cell and decided to check the competition on the cowbell market and found other sights selling very similar items for $75-125.  Who would have thought.  I'm seriously considering my new pricing structure.  I do believe that I may have found my "LOAF OF BREAD" and it looks like I may just have fallen into a popular niche.  Cowbells will soon be available on my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com.  I will be creating a gallery options dedicated just to this type of art.

Here is a picture that I snapped last night with my phone of my most recent feathered flock pieces finished this week.  3 bells and one original painting on a 6x6 gallery wrapped stretched canvas.



Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Seeing Red Spots

I LOVE RED DOTS!
I love seeing RED SPOTS!  No, it's not a rash or the chicken pox but rather they denote a sale of art and to me that is the ultimate goal as an artist.  The measurement that you are heading the right direction with you work.  If the public appreciates your style well enough to fork over their hard earned cash, then you know they love what they see.

Yesterday I was thrilled to received a phone call from one of the Boulder City Art Gallery where I have several of my works hanging.  I was told I had a man there that was very serious about my "Autumn Gold" piece and while I was on the phone he made the decision to go a head and buy it and have it shipped to him.  I'm not sure where he lives but I will try to find that information out.

The original may be gone now, but you can always order a beautiful print, a pillow or a greeting card of this painting or any of my other pieces at my FineArtAmerica.com site.  Here is the link if you are interested in checking it out.

Fine Art America- Autumn Gold Print

You can also visit my gallery at my website at julietownsendstudio.com to see this and  my other works.



What a great way to end 2014!  I'm looking forward to seeing what 2015 will bring!

"Autumn Gold"- 24 x 36 Original Acrylic - This piece won the 1st Place Visitor's Choice Award at the Lincoln County Art Show in Caliente, Nevada in 2013!  I even got an amazing trophy for this piece.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Fresh Look for 2015

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are looking to 2015 with joy and excitement.  Here is this year's Family Christmas Photo
Merry Christmas from the Townsend's

I had to include our Funny Christmas Picture too!


The past two days I have been working to overhaul the looks of my website and this blog.  Gone are the heavy dark colors that draw your eye away from the main focus of the website.  I have just a few more house cleaning tasks to do on my website and I will be done with my remodel and then it's back to the studio for me.

Approaching the new year is a great time to begin scouting out other websites to see what the professionals are doing and what catches your eye.  If you don't have your own website and or blog to showcase your artwork or whatever you are passionate about, then I encourage you to step up and just do it.  I found Weebly.com to be fairly easy to navigate and as you can see I am on blogger.com.  Both are free and provide a good internet presence if you just take the time to keep them updated.

Check out my website at julietownsendstudio.com


Putting A Little Action In Your Dreams







Well, it is that time of the year again.  You know the time that we all begin thinking about the new year that is too quickly approaching. It has been 2 years since I left the 8-5 workforce, so in my mind that marks 2 years that I have seriously been pursuing my art career.  I've managed to hit many of my early goals and targets but now I find in this current economy it very difficult to grow and really be successful.  It is a good time to evaluate your true motavation and ask yourself why do you DO art.  Is what you are doing a business or is it a hobby?  This is the first important question to consider.  If your art is simply an activity that you enjoy doing with no regards to the profitability of the activity then you are a hobbyist and there is nothing wrong with that.  I on the other hand want to measure my success by seeing my hard work and effort actually helping supplement our household income.  I want to end 2015 with a positive bottom line. The concept is a pretty simple one....I want to make money with my art.

So I have been considering some 2015 goals and doing some research artist goals in particular.  Today I actually began compiling a list.  If you are serious about your art being a business then you must focus on measurable goals.  You need to DREAM and DREAM BIG, but more importantly you must put ACTION to those dreams or they are really nothing more than fleeting daydreams. 

(1)MAKE $1000 A MONTH FROM MY ART-That is how my list starts.  I started my list by establishing a monthly profit amount that I would like to see me attain.  $1000 a month may seem small to many established and successful artists or it may seem completely out of the grasp of many that are struggling to get a sale.  I'm currently in that struggling category and so increasing my sales is certainly a priority in 2015.  

(2) REGULAR ART STUDENTS- A good revenue source that many artists can utilize is that of teaching.  Having students is a scary step because it feels like I need to have become an expert at painting in order to teach painting and that is so far from where I see myself.  I have been told that your art improves greatly as you begin to teach others so for 2015 I am hoping to find those that appreciate my style enough that they are willing to paint with me and pay me money for that privilege.  Having just 3 weekly student taking 2 hour lessons at $20 an hour gets me almost half way to my monthly income goal.   

(3) BECOME A LICENSED ARTIST- A second revenue source that I am going to start to focus on is getting my art licensed.  It feels a little like moving away from fine art, but there is money there if you work hard enough and I actually really enjoy sketching and painting in more of an illustrated style almost as much as painting a large landscape. Much of my weekly goals for 2015 will be focused on creating designs that can be licensed by companies and eventually provide a steady stream of revenue.  I joined a greeting card facebook group and I downloaded an excellent how-to book by Kate Harper.  I have also been reading some excellent articles on the subject.    

(4) FIND A CREATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER- In my researching articles about artist goal setting, I noticed on several sites a common suggestion.  Find a friend that can be your creative accountability partner.  Someone that can weekly motivate you to keep your time and energies focused on attaining your goals.  It doesn't have to be another artist, but someone who has an equal drive to attain measurable goals that you can meet with or talk to and share everything you did that week to reach your goals.  I'm thinking of creating a private Facebook group just for that purpose.

(5) FIND GALLERY REPRESENTATION OUTSIDE OF LAS VEGAS- Gallery exposure is key and I want to expand my exposure outside my local area.  

I have a number of other goals listed and I won't bore you with all my ramblings, but I would close with encouraging you to a notebook and pencil and start your own 2015 business goals.  I would also love to hear from you about your plans or suggestions on how you reach your creative goals.


Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Don't Throw Away Your Revenue Potential....Rather Turn it into a THROW PILLOW

"Bluebird and Rose Hips" as a beautiful throw pillow






















Did you know that even though you have sold the original artwork, you as the artist still owns the image?  If you don't take the time to get a high resolution photo of the piece, then your revenue potential for all your hard work is over.  For the last three years or so I have made sure that I get a good photo of each piece of original artwork I produce  I can then load it to my website and make it available for purchase there like my own brick and mortar gallery.  I also upload the image to a wonderful site that allows my image to be custom added to a number of items.  This is a wonderful way to continue having a revenue stream.

How many of you have an account with FINEARTAMERICA.com? I love this website. This week alone I have sold 1 print and 2 pillows. All I had to do was upload my images over a year a go and after that, they do all the work including mailing me a commission check.
It takes time and no way am I saying you are going to make lots of money but I find it a great way to have my work available to the public so they can order pillows, prints, greeting cards or phone cases. You set the profit you want to make. I include a link button on my website for each of my works that says "PRINTS" that allow anyone interested in my work to go straight over to my Fineartamerica page.
2015 is a great time to make your art promotion a goal. 

Here is my link to one of the pillows I sold this week.  Doesn't this painting as a pillow make a wonderful gift?

Most of my artwork is available at on my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com so click the link and check it out.  




Saturday, November 29, 2014

Telling Stories With a Paintbrush

Today, I'm thinking of the words to one of my favorite Bread songs "If".  The song so beautifully asks the question, "If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can't I paint you?" and that makes me think about how powerful the visual image really is.  For thousands of years, man has tried to capture a moment in time on a flat surface using mixtures of minerals and plants to give him or her COLOR.  Now I'm not an art historian, but it is obvious that art has always impacted the human race and has played a very important role in our history.  Good art evokes emotion at the most basic human level.  It will almost always cause one to stop and ponder its meaning or reflect on a distant memory in ones past or a currently pleasure.  

As an artist it is always my goal that each piece I paint tell a story to those that see it.  I am always drawn to subjects or compositions that have a connection to my own past or to things that have great meaning to me.  

I grew up in the woods and hills of the Ozarks in Central Missouri.  My family owned 20 acres of land and 90% of it was covered with thick woods and even thicker, almost impenetrable underbrush.  Poison ivy, chiggers, ticks and copperheads were in abundance and were just a few of the things we had to battle with on almost a daily basis.  Besides dealing with a few pests, my childhood was one of amazing freedom to use my imagination, to run, to climb and just to just be free to play.  I loved being outdoors and would frequently take long walks up the gravel road, play in my clubhouse or ride my bike.  

I recall when I was about 13 my dad became concerned about me walking the half mile up the country gravel road to the highway to check the mail each day. With tears and pleading on my part, we were finally to arrive at a suitable compromise-I had to from that point on carry the unloaded shot gun with me to act as a deterrent in the event that some unknown criminal element would be traveling down the road and might wish to do me harm.  My how times have changed in 40 years!

Last week I decided after seeing a couple of pictures that my photographer son had taken of my grandson walking in a field of very tall grass that I had to try to capture that youthful spirit with my own paintbrush.  I thought about my childhood and that of my children and grandchildren.  How much more complicated just living is in 2014 than in 1974.  


This world has become very scary and I fear from my grandchildren but for this moment my grandson is simply being a little boy on an adventure as little boys have been doing for hundreds of years.  I could imagine he was hunting for some hidden foe or enemy.  Perhaps he is hunting for a deer or a wild turkey to bring home for his dinner.  Maybe he is just hunting for grasshoppers.  It could be a vast number of possibilities, but I decided to give my composition a stick in his hand because almost all boys will pick up a stick and make it a pretend sword or spear while out on an adventure in the tall grass.





I decided to call my piece "Slaying Dragons" and I must be on the right track because shortly after posting my last blog entry I received these two emotional comments on my Facebook page about this painting and I just wanted to share them with you today and I hope you too enjoy my little STORY!

Fellow Missourian and artist:

  • Larry Smail reminds me of me as a boy!

  • Julie Diveley Townsend actually Larry Smail it reminds me of my childhood growing up in Missouri too. I was spent a lot of time exploring our 20 acres of woods and hills. Spent my summers building forts and going on pretend adventures.
    Larry Smail we had great lives as youth!!!!!!!!!


 Artist and fellow student of master artist Jerry Yarnell:


  • Jeff Riddle My mind is a whirlwind of Mideviel Engish folklore and tales of great adventures, brutal battles and the triumph good over evil. You've done such wonderful work that you not only captured my attention and drawn me into the painting, you sent my mind on a journey back in time when I was that little boy. Totally awesome. If my brain ever slows down enough where I can jot down my thoughts I'll share it with you. Nothing better than a little story to go with your work. I occasionally do that with my woodcarvings.


"Slaying Dragons" is an original acrylic painted on a 10" x 10"gallery wrapped canvas and will be available along with many of my other pieces on my website at julietownsendstudio.com.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Slaying Dragons

This week I decided to paint a piece inspired by an adorable photo of my grandson taken by his dad while out on what he called "An Adventure".  It brings me back to the time when I had 3 little boys of my own and I can say emphatically that I loved being the mother of little boys.  Their energy and their adventure loving spirit would often land them into some sort of trouble.  There were moments that stand out in my memory and are not easily forgotten.  Like the time I came to work to discover that the jar of escaped slugs had all taken residence in my purse or when I found my best cooking pans being used as shovels to haul dirt from their diggings in the empty lot.

Yes, little boys want nothing more than to have a warm sunny day to explore the nature around them.  The protector, hunter and brave warrior characteristics that God instilled in their very DNA comes out in full view just like it did this day with my grandson when presented with only a field of grass and a stick.  

The action in the reference photo was fascinating and I knew I had to try to capture it.  My grandson out with his dad traipsing through a field of tall grass and you can see the spirit of adventure all over his face.   I added the stick into the composition but I'm pretty sure he would pick up one on his own very soon after this photo was snapped.  Its a natural action for 4 year old boys to pick up a stick and turn it into a gun or sword.  

I called this piece "Slaying Dragons" because I could imagine that his look of intent is the result of his mission to seek out some hidden enemy or foe as he carefully parts the grass in advance of his path.  Intently looking for movement or a spark of color that will alert him to the illusive dragon that most likely lies in wait just a few steps further up the path. Sword or dagger in hand ready to battle to prove his braveness, this little boy will grow up to someday be the strong protector of his own family.   



"Slaying Dragons"- 10x10 Original Acrylic on wide gallery wrapped canvas