More Red Dots to Report

This past month I have the pleasure of seeing several of my pieces find new homes.  Getting to post an article about how much I love talking about RED DOTS is right up there with winning ribbons.  Selling a piece is the ultimate confirmation in my mind that your art is headed in the right direction.

"13 Pickers in my Pan" sold to a young man that came into City of the World on August First Friday event.

"Always Tea Time" was a commissioned piece for a special friend. 

Special Order cowbells finished and ready to ship off to Columbia Falls, Montana this week

Just One More Pan

I just finished another in my series "Seeking Color" and I'm excited how it turned out.  When I started my initial plans for the painting I envisioned an white haired prospector that even though his gold bag is full is stopping one more time along the mountain stream to try to find "Just One More Pan".  His bedroll, supplies and all important gold pouch are stacked near a fallen tree.  Next to him he has his rifle ready to grab if necessary.  He is intently working his pan and is excited to see a couple of gleaming specks have already washed up onto the pan.

This series is inspired by my love for the state of Nevada-One of the largest gold producing areas in the world.  Nevada mines 79% of all gold found in the United States and this rich history spans over 150 years.  The Nevada miner is a sturdy and adventurous lot. To the likely protest of his family in the east, he traded in his plow for a pic, shovel and a couple of gold pans to seek a dream only the streams of the Sierra Nevada's or the dry dust that covers the desert floor could satisfy.  Few actually saw that dream come to fruition, many died in pursuit of the dream and Nevada is one of handful of states that owe them much.

If you are interested in this painting or seeing others in this series, you can check out my gallery page or contact me at Julie@JulieTownsendStudio.com.  

"Just One More Pan"- 16 x 20 Original Oil Painting

When You Can't Paint...DRAW!

Often it isn't possible to take your whole painting get up when your traveling.  Add a couple of kids and that Honda will fill up quick. An excellent option in that case is a small drawing kit and a sketchbook so that you can take the time to practice your drawing skills.  This is exactly what I did this weekend.

I have been working on a series of prospector paintings so what better subject for sketching but old dusty characters, worn and weathered.  Sketching gives you a great opportunity to do in depth studies of your subject with very little space needed.  Let me share a couple of pages from my sketchbook with you.

Quick Sketch for a Painting

Practicing

More Practicing

I've Got Homework

I've been taking private painting lessons now for almost a year and I have to say that I have learned so much.  I would recommend taking lessons from a local artist if you are at all interested in improving your skills.  Even if painting is only a hobby, there is so much satisfaction in tapping into your creativeness.  In a world that is crazy out of control, painting gives me the ability to escape and create my own world.  It might be a mountain stream, an old barn or the ruins left behind by some long forgotten miner. They allow me to escape to another time or place.

Not only do I learn from painting the lessons with my instructor Lily Adamczyk, I find that I actually learn more when I bring an original piece that I have worked on myself and have her critique it.  Her experienced artist eyes can see small flaws and areas of needed correction.   I have on several occasions shared these critiques on this blog with the hope that as I learn there is someone else out there that actually can benefit from my lessons.

This piece that I'm calling "Taking a Break" is an 18x24 Oil painting that I have worked on for several weeks.  It is a particular challenge for me because of the size and detail of the prospector.  I usually paint in acrylics and appreciate the speed that the paint drys and so when I paint in oil I find myself impatient because you often have to wait for the paint to dry before you can proceed.  Often I will find that I'm just pushing muddy paint around the canvas which is what I did in this piece as I struggled to paint the rocks and the water.

Before taking my painting to my lesson

Here is the piece as it looked when I took it to my lesson yesterday with the following corrections brought to my attention.  Now I have lots of homework to bring this painting to the FINISH LINE.  I'm certain that I will share in a blog post very soon the finished product when I get all my homework done.   Here are my needed corrections:
    1.  Background trees are too bright and detailed.  Below you will see that one tree has been adjusted to better reflect the distance element.  I have to fix all of them to match this one. HOMEWORK
    2.  The water has too many lines and is too bright especially in the distance.  This makes the water look unnatural.  I have also not done a good job of painting around the rocks.  Normally in a composition like this you will have painted the water before proceeding on to the foreground but because of my going back and making changes I've actually worked on the water after my prospector and rocks were already painted in.  Lily helped me by showing me how to correct the water and so have to finish the river.- Homework
3.  We added depth to the foreground by adding more dirt area between the log and the rocks.  I have to correct the rocks by changing their general shape and color...More homework.
4.  The details in the grass blades need to be more defined.  I have painted them to uniformly by making them all the same size.  The grass in the background appears too clumpy and needs to have a more random appearance- More Homework
5.  We fixed the fire by adding more Naples Yellow to the flames rather than yellow and smoothing it out.  I have to add back in the smoke once I have finished with the rocks- You guessed it- more homework
6.  We added more highlighting to the log, the hat, the cup and plate, the gold pan and shovel.  By adding a darker background color the result was the prospector and the log popped more.
7.  The shirt required more rounding out in the back and adjusting in the front where he it would meet his pants.  Now my prospector has a little more natural look rather than the appearance of being stiff.  I had painted his suspenders with paynes gray and didn't think that as they came up on his shoulder the sunlight would change that color to a blue hue.
8.  The tone of his skin that was shadowed from his hat wouldn't only be grays but would have a glaze of skin tone.  Lily had me brighten up his cheekbone and nose to finish off his face with a more rounded appearance.  We also made a correction on his wrist where I had painted the shadow of his sleeve too dark.

My painting waiting for me to make those final details that will bring it to the finish line

Everyone Needs a Critic

I have one friend that I can depend on that will always tell me the truth about my artist endeavors. She will always tell me what she likes about my creation but equally she doesn't hold back with truthful criticism and since she has nearly 40 years of painting experience, I know that she knows what she is talking about. Sometimes it is hard to hear but it is EXACTLY what I need if I want to grow as an artist.

Right now, my week has been consumed with working on my very first commission piece and last night my friend had a great deal of sound advice regarding my progress. The issue with this commission piece is that the buyer has requested a combination of two of my existing paintings on one canvas. Both of these pieces were featured in the Mar/April 2013 edition of "Gold Prospectors Magazine". Now with many paintings that might not be a problem per say but in this case we are talking about two completely different landscapes; one is of a mining shack that I painted near Tonopah, Nevada and is smack dab in the heart of the Mojave Desert and the other one is of a prospector panning for gold in a mountain stream. The focus of both is gold mining but blending the two together is proving difficult.

I had followed her previous council and had created a rendering by doing a pencil sketch of the layout based upon the conversation I had with the buyer. The buyer said he loved the idea and so I proceeded to start my painting. Visually, I worked to combine the sky and mountains between the two scenes and then my plan was to separate the two scenes by using tall pines trees and shrub pine in the center as a division. When I was about 3/4 of the way complete, I sent a progress picture to my friend and she had a great deal to say about it.

First, she told me that it was breaking a huge compositional rule by having large trees in the center of my canvas and that these trees are the focal point when they shouldn't be. No matter if the buyer agreed, it was my job as the artist to direct him to a composition that works and while they may be buying the piece upon completion, I still owned this work. They will probably be in awe at anything you paint because they don't possess the artistic skill to paint anything and that is why they hired me. She didn't want me putting something out there that I might later regret. All I can say about this is that I sure have a lot to learn about this art business.

Then she gave me some helpful advise to consider a correction. She advised me to take a heavy bristol paper and to tape it on to the canvas in the problem area. Then re-paint the scene that better brings the two paintings together and that will minimize the center pine trees. This way I can visually see the correction before I start laying waste to my piece and deciding this wasn't going to work. Wise advice to be sure.

I have included the pictures of my original works and the current piece in progression so that you as the reader might learn along with me. After all, the purpose of this blog is to hopefully help other aspiring artists like myself by sharing my journey.

Packing up the Baby and Saying Goodbye

If you are interested in viewing more of my work then please check out my gallery page on my website at : JulieTownsendStudio.com


The experience of packing up a painting to ship off to a new home is one of mixed emotions for me as the artist.  It is both exciting and a wee bit sad.  I, as I assume most artists do, pour their heart into their creations.  So knowing that it is the last time you will actually see the piece has just a bit of sadness attached.  That emotion is very quickly pushed aside as I realize that a complete stranger to me also appreciates my work and is willing to part with their hard earned resources in this prearranged exchange. 

So yesterday, we followed the steps outlined in a very helpful blog I read a few weeks ago about preparing to ship paintings.  We bought that 1 1/2 thick foam insulation sheet from Home Depot and cut out (2) 18 x 24 pieces.  Brad went out to the shed and pulled out two pieces of cardboard from our stash while I retrieved the tape gun.  I snapped this last picture as we secured "Dreams in Shades of Gold" for the journey to Tawas City, Michigan.

As an artist I have set myself a number of small milestones that measure my progress.  This act of packing up my painting was one of those milestones....Sell a piece to a complete stranger!  Up to this point every painting I have sold has been to a friend or acquaintance.  No longer is that the case.  I have achieved a small but significant goal as an artist and this morning my McDonald's coffee is especially tasty!

Packing up my painting for shipping to the new owner

Prints are available at Fine Art America site.  Just follow this link:  http://fineartamerica.com/featured/dreams-in-shades-of-gold-julie-townsend.html

Dreams of Shades of Gold

Where are all the Miners?

I had the occasion recently to read the Editor's Note section of the Nov/Dec 2010 edition of "Gold Prospectors".  Now this magazine is my husbands choice of reading material and not necessarily mine, but I was drawn to this article written by Tom Massie, Editor-in-Chief of "Gold Prospectors", because he was discussing his observations as he wondered through the shops of historic, Prescott, Arizona.  Mr. Massie stated, "Now I've nothing against cowboys or western art, but as I travel through some to the shops I noticed that the swank trendy places offered western scenes of cattle roping and cowboys in painting, pictures and sculptures.  There were plenty of cowboy hats, cowboy boots, western blankets and indian apparel and art.  There just seemed to me to be a lack of anything relating to the prospectors and the miners in today's modern shops."

I couldn't agree more with his conclusion.  Being a long time resident of the wonderful state of Nevada, I am very mindful at just how important mining was to our past and present economic growth.  Nevada became a state in the west, long before any other of it's neighbors joined the union and that was directly the result of President Abraham Lincoln desiring the mining wealth of Nevada to aid in the Civil War efforts. 

I agree with Mr. Massie and while I  love a good cowboy painting, much of the inspiration for my work is received from those strong and sturdy miners that have left their presence know all across the state in the form of ghost towns, abandoned mining shafts and stories of a place that was often wild and lawless.  I decided that I would share just a couple of my pieces, including my newest painting called "Dreams in Shades of Gold",  that have Nevada mining as a theme.  I sent Mr. Massie an email inviting him to check out my website and this blog.  I wonder if he will send me a reply.