"BJ & Kitty Kat"
8" x 10" acrylic on gessoed masonite
This was a Christmas commission that was fun to paint... love those crossed Siamese eyes!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
BJ & Kitty Kat
"BJ & Kitty Kat"
8" x 10" acrylic on gessoed masonite
This was a Christmas commission that was fun to paint... love those crossed Siamese eyes!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
"Stepping Up" is a winner!
I am so thrilled! "Stepping Up" was chosen as 'Finalist - Outstanding Acrylic' in Fine Art View's November 2009 Painting Competition. It was one of 21 award winners in a field of almost 700 entries. Please visit the site and view all the amazing artwork.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to All!
Hope you get together with family, hug all around, do count blessings and don't count calories... which is exactly what our family does.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Apple Orchard in Spring
"Apple Orchard in Spring"
8" x 10" oil on gessoed masonite
My husband really likes this one. Impressionistic, there's lots of texture in the foreground blending into a soft atmospheric background. It's a romantic little painting.
Yesterday I posted summer... today I'm posting spring. Can you tell that I'm not a fan of cold weather?
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Truth from Lori Woodward
...at least this article really rang true to my ears. So much so that I wanted to pass it along in it's entirety:
Today's Post is by Lori Woodward, Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews. She is also a contributing editor for American Artist's Watercolor and Workshop magazines. She writes "The Artist's Life" blog on American Artists' Forum and is a regular contributor here on Fine Art Views. Lori is a member of The Putney Painters, an invitational group that paints under the direction of Richard Schmid and Nancy Guzik. Find out how you can be a guest author.
I believe that some of us creative types are inclined to spend a little too much time in the "dream" department and not enough time in the "do" department.
My elementary school report cards show hard evidence that I was a dreamer from the start. Words like, "looking out the window", "day-dreaming", "unable to focus" described my general behavior. In first grade, I ended up meeting with the school district psychologist weekly to see what the problem was. He reported that I was intelligent and needed to skip first grade. That didn't happen, and it would have been a big mistake if it had. My disinterest in school work had nothing to do with my aptitude... it had much more to do with the fact that I am a dreamer from the very core of my being.
The World Needs Dreamers Who Perform
Now don't get me wrong... Dreaming is a great thing because the world needs dreamers. Most artists are dreamers by nature, but the hard cold fact remains that if we spend the bulk of our time dreaming and scheming, and not creating great work, our dreams are not likely to ever come true.
Ask any successful artist how much time he/she spends actually creating artwork, and you'll find that time in the studio far exceeds time either planning or dreaming. You see, they settled on some plans and dreams early on and then took immediate action in pursing those dreams. I am honored to call a handful of highly successful artists my personal friends. I see how they conduct their careers and their marketing efforts. They all have one thing in common... they are productive. They paint/work whether they feel like it or not. They put the horse before the cart, first creating a dynamite work and afterwords, they apply the best marketing tools to get their work before collectors' eyes. In fact, these artists didn't have a hard time getting into galleries because the quality of their work is evident.
I'm going out on a limb here, and this might make some of you angry, but I have to say it because this is what I believe...
Marketing your art gets easier when your artwork is remarkable!
It's absolutely true that you don't have to be the best artist in the world or even in your locality to make a good living at it. There are many types of collectors who buy for a variety of reasons. But! If you desire to show in Scottsdale, Santa Fe, or New York City in a high profile gallery, you're going to have to be better at what you do than most artists in order to knock the socks off of the gallery manager and thereby amaze their regular collectors.
So, let me get back to my premise: If you spend any more than 20% of your time dreaming and planning, which implies that the remaining 80% should be spent creating work, you're not going to have enough work to make a living at it. It usually takes years of concerted effort to get good enough to entice the best collectors. Talent means very little - education, practice and "doing" are the real keys to success. At least these have been the keys of the artists I personally know who are wildly successful. By the way, many of them did not posses much "talent" during the early learning phases of their careers. More often, a good education combined with years of working is the way to get "talented".
Collectors are savvy spenders. You can't fool them into buying your artwork.
I haven't taught an art marketing workshop lately because I feel bad for the artists who think they can sell their work simply by paying for ads, submitting portfolios to galleries and "doing all the right things". All these things are necessary at some point, but not before their work is pretty darned good. Some amateur artists (those still in the learning process) just can't see the difference between their work and the work of seasoned professionals. Maybe they do, but think they can fool the collecting public by falsely talking up their work. Some, who are still in the beginning stages of learning, state that they are award winning artists on their resume. Those awards are not listed in their bio, and I wonder what awards they are talking about.
But don't give up just because you're not at the professional level yet. Anyone who has desire, intelligence, and self-discipline can get there. It helps to realize even the most celebrated professionals started out as a beginners.
Many of you who read this newsletter are experiencing the career of your dreams, and I'd be willing to bet you worked hard to get there. No dream ever comes true without concerted effort.
----------------------------------------------
This article appears courtesy of FineArtViews by Canvoo,
a free email newsletter about art, marketing, inspiration and fine living for artists,
collectors and galleries (and anyone else who loves art).
This article originally appeared at:
http://clintwatson.net/blog/15687/20-Dream-and-Scheme-80-DO
For a complimentary subscription, visit: http://www.fineartviews.com
-----------------------------------------------
20% Dream and Scheme, 80% DO
by Lori WoodwardToday's Post is by Lori Woodward, Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews. She is also a contributing editor for American Artist's Watercolor and Workshop magazines. She writes "The Artist's Life" blog on American Artists' Forum and is a regular contributor here on Fine Art Views. Lori is a member of The Putney Painters, an invitational group that paints under the direction of Richard Schmid and Nancy Guzik. Find out how you can be a guest author.
I believe that some of us creative types are inclined to spend a little too much time in the "dream" department and not enough time in the "do" department.
My elementary school report cards show hard evidence that I was a dreamer from the start. Words like, "looking out the window", "day-dreaming", "unable to focus" described my general behavior. In first grade, I ended up meeting with the school district psychologist weekly to see what the problem was. He reported that I was intelligent and needed to skip first grade. That didn't happen, and it would have been a big mistake if it had. My disinterest in school work had nothing to do with my aptitude... it had much more to do with the fact that I am a dreamer from the very core of my being.
The World Needs Dreamers Who Perform
Now don't get me wrong... Dreaming is a great thing because the world needs dreamers. Most artists are dreamers by nature, but the hard cold fact remains that if we spend the bulk of our time dreaming and scheming, and not creating great work, our dreams are not likely to ever come true.
Ask any successful artist how much time he/she spends actually creating artwork, and you'll find that time in the studio far exceeds time either planning or dreaming. You see, they settled on some plans and dreams early on and then took immediate action in pursing those dreams. I am honored to call a handful of highly successful artists my personal friends. I see how they conduct their careers and their marketing efforts. They all have one thing in common... they are productive. They paint/work whether they feel like it or not. They put the horse before the cart, first creating a dynamite work and afterwords, they apply the best marketing tools to get their work before collectors' eyes. In fact, these artists didn't have a hard time getting into galleries because the quality of their work is evident.
I'm going out on a limb here, and this might make some of you angry, but I have to say it because this is what I believe...
Marketing your art gets easier when your artwork is remarkable!
It's absolutely true that you don't have to be the best artist in the world or even in your locality to make a good living at it. There are many types of collectors who buy for a variety of reasons. But! If you desire to show in Scottsdale, Santa Fe, or New York City in a high profile gallery, you're going to have to be better at what you do than most artists in order to knock the socks off of the gallery manager and thereby amaze their regular collectors.
So, let me get back to my premise: If you spend any more than 20% of your time dreaming and planning, which implies that the remaining 80% should be spent creating work, you're not going to have enough work to make a living at it. It usually takes years of concerted effort to get good enough to entice the best collectors. Talent means very little - education, practice and "doing" are the real keys to success. At least these have been the keys of the artists I personally know who are wildly successful. By the way, many of them did not posses much "talent" during the early learning phases of their careers. More often, a good education combined with years of working is the way to get "talented".
Collectors are savvy spenders. You can't fool them into buying your artwork.
I haven't taught an art marketing workshop lately because I feel bad for the artists who think they can sell their work simply by paying for ads, submitting portfolios to galleries and "doing all the right things". All these things are necessary at some point, but not before their work is pretty darned good. Some amateur artists (those still in the learning process) just can't see the difference between their work and the work of seasoned professionals. Maybe they do, but think they can fool the collecting public by falsely talking up their work. Some, who are still in the beginning stages of learning, state that they are award winning artists on their resume. Those awards are not listed in their bio, and I wonder what awards they are talking about.
But don't give up just because you're not at the professional level yet. Anyone who has desire, intelligence, and self-discipline can get there. It helps to realize even the most celebrated professionals started out as a beginners.
Many of you who read this newsletter are experiencing the career of your dreams, and I'd be willing to bet you worked hard to get there. No dream ever comes true without concerted effort.
----------------------------------------------
This article appears courtesy of FineArtViews by Canvoo,
a free email newsletter about art, marketing, inspiration and fine living for artists,
collectors and galleries (and anyone else who loves art).
This article originally appeared at:
http://clintwatson.net/blog/15687/20-Dream-and-Scheme-80-DO
For a complimentary subscription, visit: http://www.fineartviews.com
-----------------------------------------------
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Geese in the Yard
"Geese in the Yard"
8" x 10" acrylic on gessoed masonite
Time just flew by as I took the palette knife to butter and scrape in the background on this one, then I scumbled and brushed in layers of paint. It has a fantastic warm glow about it and nice depth. I love the impressionistic feel to it. Viewed up close, every square inch of it is interesting, so I'll share some details with you. Keep in mind that the whole painting is only 8"x10", so these details are actually zoomed for you to enjoy.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Airborn
"Airborn" by Brooke Piceno
(my very talented 11-yr old grand daughter!)
7" x 9" acrylic on gessoed panel
"I decided that today I was going to paint my most favorite type of dog, and the photo I saw today inspired me to paint this. I hope you like it!" - Brooke
Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Buckskin & Baby
"Buckskin & Baby"
8" x 10" acrylic on gessoed masonite
Art on the Avenue
When I'm working on commissions, I find I need to intermix some small paintings 'for me' to keep me from getting too tight. So yesterday I put aside the oil portrait in favor of this horse painting that I've been mulling for some time. I also wanted to put something fresh in Art on the Avenue. My monitor shows it a bit more orange than the true buttery buckskin color on the mare, but maybe yours has it just right... hope so. Paintings always look better in person anyway.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Christmas is approaching
...and for an artist, that means most of my painting time is being spent on commissions. To keep from spoiling the surprise that they usually are, I will refrain from posting them until after Christmas. While the surface of this blog looks calm and still, know that this duck is paddling like crazy and enjoying every minute of it!
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