Apples of Gold in Settings of Silver

Welcome to my weekly blog about life as an artist. I like to share little do-able tips for making things easier in this very full and busy life we lead as the people who wear all the hats.

The Gang, 12x24, oil on panel

This week I'm writing about writing! Do you write about your art? It's one of the best things you can do for yourself and your art! We live fairly isolated work lives as artists. It's easy to begin to feel like you don't know much about anything, including your art. After all, you are uniquely and intimately familiar with all you do and you do it often, so it can begin to feel like nothing special. I'm sure there are many more reasons to write about your art, but here are 3 I've found.

1) Writing about your art solidifies your understanding and boosts your confidence.

It can help solidify your understanding of your process. When you begin to write about it with an audience in mind - like your neighbor, lets say, you find yourself having to bring out the details of what, how, where, when and why you do what you do. Thinking through your process in this way, really solidifies what you know. It's like teaching a class. You learn more than your students!  You begin to realize you are a vast storehouse of knowledge! Not that you know it all, but I'm willing to bet you know a lot more than you may have thought you did.

2) Writing about your art helps you grow in your artistic process.

As you examine and explain the different facets of your work, you begin to process ideas that may not have occurred to you previously. I promise you, you will gain new respect for yourself and your work. Thoughts like, "I want to try such and such next time" flash through your mind as you're explaining your current process. It can lead to new discoveries for you.

3) Writing about your art can give you insight about yourself and your artistic journey.

When you begin examining the whys of what you do, why you choose one material over another, one subject over another, etc., you begin to understand yourself, the artist, better. You begin to wonder why (at least I do) what draws me to certain things. What emotional response do I have to something and why. My standard answer to such questions as "why do I paint so and so", used to be "because I like it", along with, I'm ashamed to say, an invisible eye roll. I wasn't used to thinking about why and in my ignorance it seemed obvious that I wouldn't paint it unless I liked it. Writing forces me to go a bit deeper than that. Not too deep. No psycho analysis, but at least an intelligent answer. Something like "the expressions on their faces make me smile". Or, "I find scenes like this give me a restful, peaceful feeling. I relax when looking at these and I want to share that with others".

So, there are 3 short explanations of some benefits to writing about your art. As I said, I'm sure there are many, many benefits beyond these. Do you have particular insight into this? I'd love to hear about it!

Welcome to my weekly blog about life as an artist. I like to share tips for making things easier in this very full and busy life we lead as the people who wear all the hats.

Today I'm writing about ways to handle requests from individuals and organizations, who want you to donate your artwork. We artists realize we aren't legally allowed to write off more than the cost of our materials, but most people asking for donations do not know that.

Yellowstone Garage, a quick draw done at a fundraiser

I will tell you up front, none of these ideas are original to me. I learned them from Alyson Stanfield, who is an outstanding artist's consultant. Even though there are a couple of organizations I just donate to with no compensation, here are the 3 ways I learned about from Alyson, and which I've adopted for the other times I'm asked for a donation.

First, let the people making the request know that you aren't allowed to deduct the retail value of the piece of art, but can only write off the cost of the materials used, which of course is usually a fraction of the retail value. Then, let them know you have an option or options that you are comfortable doing.

The first option is for the organization to have one of their supporters purchase a piece of your artwork outright and then donate it to the organization. The organization can then auction or sell the piece. The supporter gets a full tax write off for the retail value and the organization gets the full amount the piece brings. Win-win for everybody!

The second option is to have the organization purchase a piece of art at a discount determined by you (maybe 40-50%), then they can sell it for the retail value or higher in an auction. Also a win-win for everyone.

The third option is to "consign" the artwork to the organization with the agreement that you will set a minimum bid (assuming they are auctioning items off) and then will split the amount the piece brings. Again, you determine the percentages for the split. This way if the artwork doesn't bring the minimum bid, you get your artwork returned to you and haven't lost anything. And if it sells you get a percentage. I would suggest setting the minimum bid at an amount you can live with, that won't diminish the value of your work, but will also be attractive to potential bidders. Again, a win-win.

I recently gave an organization I admire, the choice of choosing one of the above options. We haven't hashed out all the details yet, but I'm confident we will both be happy with the choice made. And, as I suspected, the gal I am dealing with had no idea that we can't deduct the retail value of our work.

I hope you find this as helpful as I did when I first read it in Alyson's newsletter! If you don't get her newsletter, I'd highly recommend it! Do you have another way of handling donation requests? I'd love to hear about it if you do!

Welcome to my weekly blog about life as an artist. I like to share little doable tips for making things easier in this very full and busy life we lead as the people who wear all the hats.

This week I want to address having a goal in mind for outdoor painting. That may sound silly, as though the obvious goal would be to make a pretty picture. But it isn't always that simple, and if you're new to outdoor painting, it is a good idea to choose one thing to accomplish. I'll give you a list of some possibilities.

But first, remember that outdoor painting is a lot different than painting in the studio. You have so much more stimuli outdoors and conditions to deal with that it's unusual to make a pretty picture the first time, or even the 50th time you go out. You'll enjoy the experience much more if you have one simple goal in mind.

Grant's White House, 8x10 oil on loose canvas

In this study I was trying to depict the different greens of the grass, foliage and roof.

Here are some goals I shoot for - one at a time.

1) Really see the colors of the grass and try to paint it accurately. There are many colors in our grasses in Wyoming and they seem to be elusive and challenging. Then, deciding how to approach this. Will I use combinations I haven't tried before? Will I use any tube green or make all my own mixes?

2) Use my artistic license and insert some atmospheric perspective where I really don't see any. Also a Wyoming condition, the air is so dry things seldom look as though there's any change in color or temperature from foreground to background.

3) Will I choose to work on drawing skills such as getting the perspective on a building right?

4) Concentrate on making shadows cool and sunlit areas warm.

5) Making shadows transparent and lit areas more opaque.

6) Will I concentrate on editing my scene?

7) Maybe I will only try to paint the big shapes and not worry about details.

8) Maybe I'll make a practice of keeping my color clean, and not muddy. I'll have to scrape my palette often.

9) Following the clean colors, maybe I'll make a point of not being lazy and I'll mix up new color when I run out instead of using something I already have mixed and thereby getting muddy.

10) Maybe if I'm really new at this, I'll just try to have a good time and take the whole experience as a learning session. If I like it, I'll decide what I would like to do better next time.

Grant's Porch, 12x9, oil on panel

A study about the direct and reflected light on the porch.

This list could go on and on, which is one reason why painting is so much fun! And painting outdoors is even more fun and ALWAYS challenging. So, if you're headed outdoors to paint soon, decide on one or two things you want to accomplish and work on that. I promise you it will be more enjoyable and you may find your paintings improving at the same time!

Welcome to my weekly blog about life as an artist. I like to share little do-able tips for making things easier in this very full and busy life we lead as the people who wear all the hats.

In a previous post I wrote about having your outdoor painting gear together in a kit of some sort, so when the opportunity strikes, you're all ready to go. This week I'm writing about a different toolkit. This toolkit is for hanging artwork at places where you are in charge of the hanging.

My bio and information at the bank.

If you're like me, you run across opportunities to hang your work in unusual places. Like a bank, for instance. Most of these places don't have someone in charge of hanging paintings and don't have elaborate hanging systems. So, if you want to take advantage of the opportunity it's your job to hang the artwork. I keep a toolkit on hand for this situation. It's pretty simple, but like the painting gear, if you leave something out, it's a bummer.

My tool bag is a cloth bag from Hobby Lobby, found in the crafty section along with aprons and other fabric things to decorate. In my bag are the following items.

1) Lightweight hammer. You don't need a 12 lb framing hammer!

2) Picture hangers or small nails. I prefer the hangers that have a hook and a couple of holes which the nail goes through.

3) Scotch tape

4) Hanging wire, because you never know when you might need to make a repair

5) Push pins

6) Screw drivers, both straight and a phillips

7) Pliers

8) Scissors

9) Tape measure

10) Trash bag for things like cardboard corners that are on your paintings, etc

11) Labels for your paintings ( Of course, these go in per each event, unless you have some generic ones you can add info to at the event. I like to type my labels up so this is according to each time.)

12) Business cards, you never know who might be around while you're hanging, and there might be a place you can leave them for people to take

13) An email newsletter sign up sheet, if there's a place for it

14) A short bio so people can know a little bit about you

15) A card reader for processing credit or debit cards. This may seem far-fetched, but you never know when you might have an opportunity to sell a painting!

I don't always use all of these, but there have been times when I wished I had at least one of these with me and had to make an extra trip home or to the store.

What do you have in your toolkit?

Welcome to my weekly blog. I post tips I've learned over the years, mostly for oil painters. Today I'll tell you how I glue a painting done on loose canvas, onto a board so I can frame it.

If you happen to be using loose canvas and come up with a painting worth keeping, you can glue it to a board after it's dry. Make sure it's really dry. Enough so it won't damage the paint if it's face down on a surface, or has material placed over it.

You will need a good glue such as Elmer's Wood Glue or Miracle Muck. I've heard of using gesso, but I'm not sure about it. I use Elmer's Glue.

A board of appropriate size to fit the canvas.

A squeegee or plastic card or, your hand will work.

Paper towels, a wet and a dry

Heavy object for pressing

A clean, non-abrasive surface to work on

I start by trimming the extra canvas off the painting. I trim the edge so there is about an 1/8" to 1" larger than the finished size I want. If necessary, I make a couple of marks on the back side of the canvas for guides. That way I can gauge where to place the board in the next step. Lay the canvas, painted side down, on a clean, padded surface. I use either a small piece of carpet, or a couple layers of fabric, on my table for this.

Glue on my board

Spread a good amount of glue on the board. Use the squeegee to spread it around. You don't have to spread right to the very edge, but if you don't go to the edge, make sure there is enough glue spread out that you will be able to press it out to the edges in the next step. Make sure to wipe the squeegee off with the wet towel and wipe up any that drips off the edges.

Glue spread on my board

Board placed on the canvas

Making sure the glue is all the way to the edges.

As soon as the glue is spread, place the board on the backside of the canvas and press it down all over. Carefully pick up the canvas and board and lay it down on the clean surface, canvas side up.  Using the heel of your hand, beginning in the center of the painting press out toward the sides and corners, pushing your hand in that direction as you go. Look for bubbles on the surface of the painting, and press them out if you see any.

Weighted painting

Once you're satisfied that all is well, place the painting on a hard surface (if you don't want to leave it where it is to dry) and cover it with a protective layer of canvas or cloth and weight it down with a heavy object. Leave it like this for as long as directed according to the glue drying time. When it's dry, trim off any canvas that is larger than the board.

You can see I will have a nice little painting once I trim those edges.

Voila! You have a painting ready to frame!