Apples of Gold in Settings of Silver
In the past two months I've made two out of town trips, back to back. They added up to being gone from the studio for more than two weeks, doing things not related to art, and I could feel the effect of it creeping in when I got back the second time.
What effect you ask? The one that creeps in when I haven't painted for a while, usually because of life circumstances. Sometimes those things are related to art, but often they aren't. After a while I begin to feel like I don't remember how to paint. Or that I have no idea what to paint. Or, why did I ever think I could paint?
That's when having a simple small step process comes in handy. Rather than feeling like I have to immediately get going on a wonderful painting as soon as I get home, which is very intimidating. I've recently made a workflow "schedule" which has been very helpful.
It just sort of came to me one day when I was thinking about the work flow I had when I was doing eBay. I had quite a system of steps that insured I didn't get things all mixed up. I was painting and selling five paintings a week and needed a way to organize the whole process. There were many steps, but if I followed them everything went smoothly. It was great!
I'm not doing eBay anymore and haven't for a lot of years. I also hadn't really managed to create a good workflow in all that time. Things would go along well for a while and then something would throw it all out of whack. Then I'd spend weeks trying to get my groove back.
I've found myself to be easily overwhelmed by too many choices and decisions. This simple schedule is clean, clear and not overwhelming. If I do the things on it, I know I'm good to go. All the things that need to be done, will be done. There isn't too much for any one day.
It's helpful when I do have an interruption to be able to walk into the studio on whatever day it is that I'm back and see what I'm supposed to be doing that day. Wow!! It's been life changing. No overwhelm. No wandering around trying to remember what to do. No sense of guilt for not being on track.
Do you have a schedule you follow? How do you handle time away and then the return? Is it hard for you or not a problem at all? I'd love to know!
It's been a crazy year for me starting last summer. I moved my studio downstairs, which was great, but it took a long time to set it up and be comfortable enough to paint. Lately life events, like my husband having a total hip replacement, and other family things have taken a lot of time.
All the things have been important things and I wouldn't want to not do them. But there are other things, little things that can creep in and begin stealing painting time if I'm not careful.
Learning to guard painting time is something I've learned to do as an artist. It isn't always easy and it certainly wasn't easy in the beginning. I felt guilty for saying no to friends who wanted to go do something. I also struggled with saying no to myself. Often I was the real problem.
One thing I did was set working hours and show up as if I was working for someone else. That helped a lot! Without that it was more a case of whether or not I felt like painting and that was just too subjective to be reliable.
Another thing that helped was getting dressed for work. Just because I work at home doesn't mean it's okay to show up in my sweats. I didn't dress up (unless I felt like it), but did dress as though the job was somewhere else, and for someone else.
Between having set hours and dressing for the job I was able to show up ready to work. Lately I've discovered having a painting schedule to be very helpful! By that I mean I have a few painting ideas in various stages and I have them loosely scheduled to be at a certain point at a certain day. That way I never have to walk in wondering what I'm going to do that day. With that schedule I can prepare at the end of the day for the next day's work. If it's going to be starting on a little gouache study, then I make sure there's clean water in the container, that the paint is laid out and the paper I'm going to work on is taped off.
Added to that process is a sequence of studies going from gouache to pastel to oil. I may never go any larger than the oil, but even if I don't there are three versions of a painting done and ready for my website. This has really taken the overwhelm out of the mix. And funny enough, this has helped my creativity rather than hindered it.
So, those are some of the boundaries I've set with myself. These boundaries have helped tremendously in protecting my time when it comes to the little things that can creep in from outside also. Not only that, but they actually help when the big life events happen. With somethign like this in place, it's easier to pick up where you left off before things happened.
Through the Aspens
11" by 14"
oil on linen panel
It also allows me to fit in some of the spontaneous things that come along. With these boundaries in place, there's still room for other things. I can tell someone who wants to have coffee, I'd love to, when I'm off work, so to speak. It's made things better all around. When it comes to your painting (or other art) practice, what has helped you set boundaries?
Edgar Payne said "knowledge precedes execution". For a long time I didn't really know what he meant by that. But I've come to realize he meant you have to know what to do next, before you can proceed.
What do you do when you don't know what to do next? Sometimes I reach a point in a painting where I'm not sure how to proceed. I've learned from experience the best thing to do at this point is stop.
Last Light
16" by 20"
Last Light is a painting that I'm calling finished. I started it a few years ago. It's undergone a few versions, but it wasn't until this last one came to mind that I was satisfied with it. Most paintings don't take a few years to finish, but I'm glad I've learned to be patient enough to let that happen if needed.
I've ruined so many paintings over the years by trying to continue when I wasn't sure how to go about it. What to do then? I've found having a few paintings you've started is a great way to get a lot of mileage without ruining any of them. When you've come to the end of knowledge on one painting, you can go to another.
This painting is in the works, but I've reached a point where I need to stop until I know what to do next. It isn't quite where I want it to be, and I don't want to lose the good I have by trying things that are just guesses. I can let it rest a bit until I know what to do next.
I try to have at least four paintings going at once. More is even better! When I've reached a stopping point with one, I can go to another one. Usually my stopping point is because I'm not sure how to proceed. Working on a different painting for a while helps me to see the other one with fresh eyes when I go back to it.
I can work on this one for awhile without feeling pressure to finish the one above. There are also a few on my shelf that are in progress. It's great to have options!
Sometimes working on the next painting helps me solve whatever problem I had with the previous one. Insights come, confidence is recovered and I can go on.
Other times I don't find the solution so quickly. When that happens I still have paintings I can complete rather than going around and around with frustrating attempts with the other. I've ruined far fewer paintings since learning to work on multiple paintings at a time.
What about you?
Do you have a dedicated space for your art? I know lots of people just starting out don't have that. I remember not having a space as a child, but as soon as I committed to being an artist in my early forties, I made a studio on the front porch. (It was enclosed and heated). Of course that might be because being an artist was always serious to me.
Not that I always have been unafraid to show my work. Nothing like that. The seriousness was about having a space and doing the work. It seemed apparent that there had to be a space that was just for that. I knew if I had to drag everything out and put it away every time I was going to paint, it would hardly ever get done.
That first space wasn't much. As I said, it was on the porch. It probably took up about sixty square feet. But it held my art books, pastels, drawing materials, and a flimsy easel, which was actually a display easel. The light was south and east, not north, but that was okay. It was my place.
It was always ready for use when I was ready to use it.
Back then I was a single mom of two kids, going to school and working a couple of part time jobs. Later, when I remarried, and moved into my husband's house, there was no studio. Every room had a purpose. And it was, in my opinion, a pretty fancy house. Not the kind you would use any of as a studio.
New carpet, real furniture from a furniture store, not used furniture from a second hand store. But it wasn't long before the dining room, which never got used for eating in anyway, became a makeshift studio and study area.
When we built our current house, the "den" became the studio. It was about ten by ten. It sufficed until my son moved out and I immediately made his old bedroom and the den into one room. That was my studio for twenty years, until I moved downstairs last August. Whew!
Here you can see my old framing and shipping area from when I did Ebay, my pastel painting area and the drawing board I got from an oil company's drafting room.
This is my current set up for oil and pastel painting spots. I added the rug to brighten up the space. It has great light from the north facing windows, on all the painting areas. The easels can be moved around as needed. I think this is my favorite place so far, despite having very fond memories of them all!
My gouache and online work spots, along with a chair to scrutinize my paintings from. At the other end of the room are shelves to hold small paintings and studies, framing tools and a framing table, as well as small shipping supplies.
Honestly, I sometimes dream about how to set it up if the entire room was my studio. At the moment it doubles as an Airbnb rental. The beginning of the week is blocked off from people being able to book, so there's enough time for painting. The Bnb is available on weekends. Maybe someday the whole space will be for painting.
So, how important is it anyway, to have a dedicated space for your work? Super important! I once read about an artist who used a second bathroom for her studio. She understood the importance of a dedicated place to paint.
How about you? Do you have a place to do your painting? I hope so. And if not, I hope you will consider making a place for it.
Do you get cranky if you go too long without painting? Apparently I do. I didn't realize it until someone pointed it out to me. Really, at first I didn't believe it.
But, then I noticed it was true. Ha! Who knew? Apparently that person did. Maybe other people did too . . .
It's been helpful to know about this. Before I would just assume I was in a bad mood and needed to "suck it up and get over it", whatever "it" might be. That could be part of it, but the bad mood starts when I go too long without painting.
It often begins with a sort of unvocalized sense of guilt. It hangs over my head, and dogs me throughout the day. One of those general senses that you try to shrug off and make go away. After a while it keeps nagging. That's when the grouch starts to set in.
I know both my studio and work have been abandoned - by me. The guilt and frustration build.
It often leaves me feeling not like myself. As though I don't have any definition or sense of personhood. I forget what I like and what I don't like. I don't remember what I've been doing with my time, but I know I've been busy.
Sometimes it happens because I say yes to too many requests, thinking each time that it will be okay this time and then I'll get back to painting, but often it goes on for too long.
That's what happened last year. It went on and on and actually caused some physical illness eventually. Thankfully it wasn't very serious, but it was real! I said yes to too many things to please others and paid the price for it.
Once you start saying yes to too many things other than your painting, it seems to snowball. It's easy to blame it on people who just won't stop asking you to do things. Then the resentment starts.
Then, if you're like me, you get confused because aren't you supposed to do that? Put others ahead of yourself, I mean. Not think too highly of yourself, and esteem others more highly? Then I'm in a mess, feeling guilty for not painting, guilty for resenting people who ask me to do things and thoroughly confused. And VERY cranky!
How about you? Do you get cranky when you go too long without painting?
October Tea, 24x24 oil on gallery wrapped canvas
If you have wanted to be part of a 30 day painting challenge, but felt it was too intimidating, here are some helpful ideas for approaching it.
1) Choose a theme for the challenge. You can have more than one theme, but having at least one will make it easier to stay focused throughout the month. The theme can be anything from your subject matter, your style, your medium, your inspiration, a color scheme, or multiple color schemes. For instance, you could paint 4 different subjects in as many different ways as you can come up with. Or just one subject. Whatever you choose, having a theme makes it much easier.
2) Choose just one or a variety of color schemes. This is a continuation of the suggestion above. You could paint the same subject in 30 different color schemes! Or, you could paint a variety of subjects in, say, 4 previously chosen color schemes. Or just one color scheme used on 30 different subjects. You get the idea!
3) Choose one size to work with. This is one of my favorite things to do. Whether its a familiar size or something I'm not used to, I like to use the same size canvas or panel, or paper, to work on for each painting. I like it because it seems to bring some cohesiveness to my often scattered approach. And if they're for sale, you can let people know ahead of time, what the price will be for each piece.
4) Choose a goal. Another possibility is to choose a goal for the challenge. For instance, your goal might be to get better at painting colorful autumn trees. If this is your goal, you can be free to explore and practice them, without feeling pressured to make a great painting each day. They can all be just studies for your own learning.
5) Get all your supplies together. This is a no-brainer. But, if you don't have all your substrates together or all the paint you need, or even mailing supplies for the paintings you sell, it makes for a miserable month. And you're more likely to quit before the month is over.
6) Make a workflow list. I like to make myself a step by step list of steps to take after the painting is done. Photograph, upload to Artwork Archive, add to my website, add to the challenge site, post on Facebook and Instagram, send out in an email newsletter. That's quite a few steps and I need to have it on a paper I can refer to each day. Remember to provide a link from each of those venues, back to your painting on your website. And if you don't have a website, some of these steps will still apply to you.
That's about it! Really, you CAN do this! It just takes a little preparation. You'll be ready next September when Leslie Saeta will be hosting another 30 day challenge.
Day 13, Strada Easel Challenge
6x8 oil on panel
As my Spin instructor always said, "No challenge, no change!" Just like it's true for working out, so it is in art. I've participated in 30 day painting challenges before, but this year I decided to participate in TWO challenges at the same time. The first challenge, Leslie Saeta's Thirty Paintings in 30 Days is the one I've done before. The second challenge was the Strada Easel 31 Day Challenge.
Leslie's challenge consists of posting 30 paintings, one a day, for 30 days. She has a blog where everyone who does the challenge can post their work. There are no rules really and the whole point is to get a jumpstart to your painting. For the Strada Easel challenge each painting or drawing had to be done from life, each day, not from photos. We posted our work on their Facebook page. There will be 5 winners of the Strada Easel challenge. The prizes are Strada Easels! The winners are chosen randomly and it has nothing to do with the caliber of participants' work. I hope I win!
To make the challenge more challenging for me, I decided to paint portrait sketches. I haven't done portraits for years and wanted some practice, so I asked my newsletter readers to send me any photos they'd like to see me paint. I told them there was no obligation for them to buy the finished paintings and I received 16 photos from readers.
And, oh, ya. I also decided to challenge myself with including a quote each day in my newsletter about choosing to have an attitude of gratitude.
It didn't take long for me to wonder what I had been thinking when I committed to both challenges! Either one would have been pleasantly challenging, but doing two at once was VERY challenging.
But, no challenge, no change! During the month I stressed, I almost cried, I grit my teeth, I questioned my sanity, especially when I had to wipe off my canvas 2 times and start over, before I was satisfied, and I grimly (some days) chose to be grateful about it all. But there were also days when I smiled so much, painting adorable faces of laughing children, or the one of the grandmother and her grand daughter. And of course, some days I had to paint a cow, and they always make me smile!
About half way through I decided to not think in terms of only 16 more days, but to think in terms of a day or a week at a time. I also decided to switch from painting outdoors to sketching indoors. People, if possible because it would support my paintings of people. And other things when no people were available.
So, besides it being challenging, did I change? You bet I did! At the beginning my confidence was at low ebb. I'm not sure why, but it was. It took awhile, but near the third week, I began to feel stronger. And the feedback from my readers was amazingly encouraging! I love my readers! They kept me trying hard to produce good work.
I ended with a huge sense of accomplishment. I had set myself a goal of 100 mid to large size paintings for the year. I've never painted that many in a year before and I wasn't sure how that would go. But now I know I can do it. The challenges helped me establish a real daily routine of painting and posting.
Another result was I finally established a sketching routine. For at least 3 years I've been knowing I need to sketch more, but just couldn't get myself to do it. Nothing like the gauntlet being thrown down to make me do something. I now have a routine and a desire to sketch. Priceless!
I also realized that in my own way, I'm competitive. Not necessarily to beat someone else, but to beat myself. I'm the same with working out. I love to do better this week than last week! I would have liked to quit a few times, but because I had said I was going to do this, I couldn't quit.
And last, but not least, my painting and drawing skills improved. There really is no substitute for daily practice! Just putting in that time, makes small improvements you may not see right away, but you begin to feel it.
So, if you're interested in improving your work, try a 30 day challenge! Leslie will host another in September. And there may be some others out there now, but you can always do your own personal 30 day challenge.
Next time I'll write about some helpful ways to approach a 30 day challenge.
Here's 25 of the 30 paintings I did for the January Thirty Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.
To see all the paintings click here.
Have you ever wanted a one on one consultation about marketing? Or have you been a little at a loss as to how to go about online marketing? I not only was confused about my hit or miss marketing efforts, but really wanted to get a handle on it. I had taken advantage of a lot of the great info that FASO offers, but still at a loss as to how to put it all together into a comprehensive marketing plan. It was obviously working for some people, but why not me?
Just over a year ago I decided to get some help and scheduled a marketing consultation with artist, Leslie Saeta. I had first seen her work on Daily Painters a few years ago. I was enamored with her splashy sailboat paintings and the fact that she was selling them so successfully. I thought she had been in the art biz for decades. Then I saw a Facebook post she shared about the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge and decided to join it. It was a lot of fun and I was impressed with her upbeat, friendly and fun personality that was evident through the challenge. During the challenge I saw that she did marketing consultations and had spent her prior work in marketing. She had only been a professional artist for 7 years! Seven years! When I read a few short testimonies about how her advice had helped some artists I was aware of, I decided to schedule a consultation too.
Leslie sent me a list of questions to answer about my plans and what I wanted for my art business. I knew she would be reading these to get an idea of where I wanted to go and where I felt I needed help. I also knew she would be checking out my online presence, including my website, Facebook page, blog, newsletter, Instagram and any other places I was using. I knew we would have a full 90 minute consultation and I would want to take notes.
And boy, did I take notes! It was obvious Leslie had done her homework when she began discussing specifics of my website and Facebook sites. Leslie was fully prepared to answer my questions and advise me according to how I had answered the initial questions. She went far beyond just answering my questions in a general way, and gave me specific ideas (very specific) that were tailored exactly for me. We discussed things like pricing, how to build an email subscriber list, how to direct people to my website and never "waste" a post on Facebook, among other things. Leslie helped me take what I was already using and tweak it to make it work the way I wanted it to. She really took the time to help in everything I had asked. Not only did the consultation give me a comprehensive plan, but she also gave me the confidence to implement all of it.
I consider the consultation with Leslie to be the turning point in my business! I implemented everything she told me to and immediately began to reap the benefits. In no time I had more than paid for the consultation and have gone on to have the best year ever, tripling my previous annual income.
So, if you're serious about using the internet to make a living as an artist, do yourself a favor and schedule a consultation with Leslie!
Winter's Day Done, 12x16, oil on linen
Have you ever missed a deadline because you forgot when it was? Forgotten where a particular painting is? How do you organize and keep track of your paintings in all their various locations, along with the shows and exhibitions you enter? Or the galleries you have work in and what work is in them? For years I've used my own simple method making folders on my desktop to hold show info including what paintings were in them. It worked well for me, mostly because there weren't too many of them. But this year I almost lost track of a few things and decided I needed a more thorough system.
My current opening page on Artwork Archive
Enter Artwork Archive, art inventory system and huge help in organizing your art business. I was hesitant at first, because I'm a cheapskate. But after checking it out more I decided it was time to do something and it was a lot less expensive than hiring an assistant. With an assistant or this subscription, I still have to be in charge of making sure the right info gets to the right place. So, hiring a person had no advantage to me.
So far I have found that with Artwork Archive I can
Upload images of paintings
Enter all info concerning the paintings
Enter locations of my artwork
Move my artwork from one location to another
Enter show and competition info
Assign paintings to shows
Record sales
Generate reports
Make a consignment sheet for a gallery
Make labels for paintings
Keep a contact list
Make and keep notes about paintings and shows visible only to me
Get insights about my sales trends
See a list of sales
See my schedule of tasks for the next few months
Receive an email on Monday listing all the tasks I need to do for the current week
A public page where people can view my work
At this point my favorite benefits are that Monday morning email and being able to make consignment sheets. I think the show info is running a close second because I can see that I'll be able to edit the dates, etc for the next year, without having to enter all the show info again. As I said above, it still depends on me making sure I enter the correct info about paintings and shows, but once that's done, the program generates the reports, task lists, and insights. That's pretty cool!
I'm sure I've only begun to plumb the depths of this program, but already I'm seeing the benefits of being more organized. And I feel much better about expanding my business next year, using Artwork Archive.
How do you keep track of everything? I'd love to know, because I'm always on the lookout for making my life a little smoother!
Happy painting!
Wyoming Gold, 24x30, oil on canvas
Do you have a method or process you follow once you've finished a painting? I developed one years ago when I spent a year and a half selling on eBay. It was a time when I was consistently painting 4 or 5 paintings a week and selling each one. I had never done anything like that before and I wanted to be very organized about it. I didn't want to send the wrong painting to the wrong person! So I developed a work-flow.
It served me pretty well for a few years, even after I ended my eBay selling. Then, last year when I sought a consultation with Leslie Saeta, she helped my develop a new - and better - work-flow. It was similar, but had a few very important changes.
This coming year, I will be changing that work-flow a little bit. I thought I'd share my steps with you, incase you're looking for a method you can follow consistently. Here it is in a short list-
1) Photograph the painting
2) Save the photo in my 2017 Original Folder on my desktop
3) Edit the photo and save in my 2017 WebReady Folder on my desktop
4) Enter the photo and all pertinent info in Artwork Archive
5) List the painting on my website
6) Share the painting on Facebook/Instagram
7) Share in any pertinent groups on Facebook
8) Include in my next newsletter
9) Possibly include in a blog post
When I was selling on eBay I had a storage rack for the paintings. It was a board with slots cut into it. Each slot held a painting and I put them there to dry in the order I painted them and listed them. I'm not doing that now, because I'm not painting so many, but it was handy at the time.
The new adjustment to this process is the addition of Artwork Archive. I'll be exploring it this month and using it full-time beginning in January. More about it next time.
