I Only Need to Paint 1.53846154 Pieces a Week

These past few months or so I have been attempting to multi-task by switching back and forth using both my left and right sides of my brain. I took on a seasonal part-time job working as a tax professional for a well known corporation and continuing to paint as much as I can during my time off. It has been a challenge for sure and reminds me of the days when I worked full-time as an accountant and would try to spend a few hours in my studio each night when I wasn't too exhausted.

Well, I have been retired from full-time employment for a year and half and while I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by I have to consider if I have been as productive as I thought I would be.  After today I will be once again be unemployed and able to devote more time to my artistic journey.  

Recently, I've been greatly benefiting from an e-course that is being taught by successful Xanadu gallery owner and author, Jason Horejs.  This course is full of great and practical advice and this information is exactly what I need to get my artistic goals clearly defined and propels me towards my dreams.  

Mr. Horejs writes, "Having spent over 20 years in the gallery business, I’ve noticed a key common trait of financially successful artists: they are constantly in the studio, hard at work. I would describe these artists as productive and prolific.  The realities of the art market today are such, that in order to generate regular sales and establish a strong collector base for your work, you have to have significant inventory. To a certain degree it’s a numbers game. You have to have enough work available so that you can show the work in a variety of venues and get the work in front of enough people to reach the buyers. My research has shown that, on average, successful painters are creating nearly 80 pieces per year."

Okay...this probably goes back to the accountant and tax professional in me but I had to do the math on that.  80 pieces / 52 weeks = 1.53846154.  WOW!  That's a worthy goal and one I'm going to work to attain it.

An exciting side note this week as I work to build MY COLLECTOR BASE....I was so pleased that my piece, "Casting Out the Darkness" found a new home with a couple from Lake Havasu, Arizona.  When I spoke to the wife on the phone, She stated to me that she and her husband had seen the painting in January while it was hanging at the Boulder City Gallery and her husband just loved it.  So last week while she was here in Las Vegas for a seminar she contacted me and we made arrangements to meet up so that she could purchase the piece for her husband as a birthday gift.  Let's just say I was doing the happy dance right there in the parking lot of the Hilton Garden Inn!

SOLD-GOT TO LOVE THOSE RED DOTS!

24x24 Acrylic- "Casting Out the Darkness"

Sometimes it's CHICKENS and Sometimes it's FEATHERS

A hard reality that I'm certain that most artists have faced is that unless you are independently wealthy most of us actually want to sell our work....Probably so that we can buy more paints and a couple more canvases.  I hear artists talk about "The Good Old Days" before the economy failure and collapse, when there were collectors out there that actually paid money for your artwork.  Unfortunately, during that time period I was busy pushing a 10-key and was stacked up to my eyeballs with paperwork, working as the business administrator for a large private Christian school and church.  Painting was a far distant memory and the dream of being an artist was pushed so far down in my heart that I really didn't even give it serious consideration.

That all changed a couple of years ago when I decided to finally take that drawing class at the local community college.  For years I attended college classes there and online with University of Phoenix but each class always consisted of either being business or accounting related and it wasn't until I had gotten my BSBA did I even think I could take a "FUN" class.  With drawing 101 under my belt, I decided to give some online painting lessons a try so that I could try to resurrect that skill that I had so long let lie dormant. I went through the 12-week landscape lessons presented by Tim Gagnon (timgagnonstudio.com) and my excitement and confidence was reignited and the past three years are history.

So I have been retired from my "day" job for 6 months and now I'm painting full-time.  I've sold a couple of things this year but like all the other artists I know, I want to sell much more.  So I have my work hanging in a little co-op gallery in town and have packed up my "inventory" and hauled it out to a number of art shows.  I've created a nice website and paint almost daily.  I've decided that I'm going to offer smaller pieces that I can produce in less time and hopefully sell in a price range that will entice potential buyers to dig into their wallets.

Yesterday, even though I prefer to paint much larger, I created my first 8x10 masterpiece that I spent about an hour painting.  I chose chickens as the subject matter because I have witnessed the reaction that my fellow artist and friend Anna Norris got from the public when they saw her "Rainbow Roosters".  annanorrisfineart.blogspot.com  So I'm going to be offering 8x10's for about $50 instead of my normal price range of $150-$300.  This piece I think I'm going to call "Chicken Little" and it will be the first of a number of smaller pieces I'm going to paint in the next few months.  I hope you enjoy.

"Chicken Little"- 8x10 Original Oil