Jumping Jacks – Dog #23

These Jack Russell Terriers belong to a friend, and true to their character, they are happy, lively and fun.  I love their energy!

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White Poodle – Dog #22

White dogs are hard (black ones too).  They usually come out too blue – or something.  I am looking at cool light and warm shadows, so the blues are the lighter colors.   Just read (again) about cool light in the Richard Schmidt book.  Blinding flash of the obvious – since white will cool any color and it is the lightest and coolest color on the pallet, then cool highlights are “easier” to achieve than warm ones…. (this isn’t exactly what Richard said, it’s what I took from it and played with today).

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Great Dane at Westminster – Dog #21

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The Westminster Dog Show is wonderful for photos!  It is the only major show (that I know of) where the public can wander through the grooming and boarding hall.  It’s crowded, loud and colorful and some of the photos reflect that.  I love this photo of a Great Dane and have wanted to paint it since taking it in 2008.

Beagle Baying – Dog #20

Life has gotten in the way!  We are building a house in Texas (live in California) so I was in Galveston week before last.  Too many meetings, stuff… Then I managed to total my daughter’s car and came home two days later.  Of course, I also trashed myself and so drugs have been the way of the day for the past 10…  Finally back to painting!  Feels good!!!

I have to admit, beagles are not my favorite breed.  They are loud and unruly (I’m a German Shepherd kind of a girl).  But I fell in love with Uno when he won Best of Show in Westminster, so I have taken another look at them.  They are also fun and happy, affectionate and “beagle people” are quite in love with them!  When I think of Beagles, I think of baying in a field.  So here he is!

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“Getting out there” or Populating the Websites

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I have had more websites than Carter has pills.  I’ve been cleaning them up, canceling and streamlining.  Phew!  Now, instead of websites, I have a couple domain names that link to a central site, a place where my work is showing as daily paintings and this blog.

My first few years of painting was a steep learning curve.  I did some work I like, and a lot I don’t.  You won’t be seeing the really bad stuff since I have either destroyed it or hidden it!  The website contains some fun pieces from my journey and my most recent work.  None of it has been marketed until now; so the games begin!

After having a custom site designed (and it looked really good), I decided to go back to FASO.  I love the community, the customer service and the simplicity of use to update photos.  I’ve finally done it – have myFASO website populated!  That means that all the paintings are uploaded.  They aren’t, however, all edited with information and prices (that’ll be the next step).  This is the second time I’ve set up a FASO website, and I’m here to stay!

My Daily Paintworks site is the first place I put a new painting.  I plan to put them in at auction for the first week, then go to a fixed price through the FASO site.  And I’ll be reviewing some of my inventory over the next few months to “get them out there” also. 

Art as a Business

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Over the past year I have been slowly working my way towards sharing my work with the world. I’m pretty ambitious regarding my goals for the year. I’ve caught this blog up to present, and have put the “skeleton” of my marketing plan in place (next blog).

My ultimate goal is to be represented by a number of brick and mortar as well as online galleries.  I want to be regularly selling paintings in the Daily Paintworks site as well as my regular website within the next 90 days, and to be in two galleries within a year. 

A year ago I attended a workshop hosted by Jason Horejs of Xanadu Gallery.  His advice on work ethics, consistency, pricing and how to approach a gallery were wonderful and are covered in his book, Starving to Successful.  That and Alyson Stansfield’s I’d rather be in the studio!  have given me a blueprint that I am working through for my marketing plan.

As far as the business training is concerned, I will be coached by Leslie Saeta  on marketing, and am following Jason Horejs Mentoring program.

In addition to marketing, I will continue creating inventory and exposing my work to the world.  I will be following a daily painting regime and working on my drawing skills.

I joined the Daily Paintworks and just finished my first ever “daily painting challenge.”  While I missed the last 4 days (I’m also building a house and had to travel to Galveston to meet with contractors, bankers, etc), I’ve found myself getting cranky if I can’t at least do something during the day!  I plan to do a number of topical series (the first is 30 dogs) and will put brush to canvas every day – even if I don’t finish a piece.  On those days that I don’t produce a new painting, I will feature one of the ones I’ve done in the past year.

My drawing skills are my Achilles heel (or at least I think they are).  I have enrolled in the Watts Atelier online course so I can continue working on my figure drawing skills.  Stan Prokopenko’s online tutorials are also wonderful for figure drawing.  And the Sketching from Square One book by Richard Scott is also proving to be very helpful. 

Chihuahua– Dog #19

I didn’t feel like painting today.  There is a lot going on; I’m about to leave for Galveston and have lists of things to take care of before I go.  So, I almost didn’t.  Then I thought I’d just block him in.  Of course, once I got going, I couldn’t stop!  Those eyes kept me in the canvas!  What a sweet soul!

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Where's the Beef? Cows in a field

The Leslie Saeta workshop using palette knife was an inspiration.  We used a limited set of paints (funny enough, the same 5 I used to use with Charlie Kello) and never touched a brush.  This is the second piece we did (first was the dinghys) so I felt a bit more adventuresome.  I really pushed the colors and temperatures.  Enjoyed posting the progress on Facebook and getting a running commentary from my friends.  The last thing we did was put in the background greens.  I think that is the only thing I'd do differently.  Even though I chose a green that went with the colors I'd used, I prefer to have at least the beginning of background on the canvas while I'm painting the rest so that I can make sure all the colors work together.

The other part of working with a palette knife is the total loss of inhibition regarding amount of paint on the canvas.  I love working with thick paint, want to translate that over to my brushwork as well!

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Jay - Dog #18

Jay was rescued in Maryland by family.  He is a poodle terrier mix – and lives up both reputations: smart and ornery!

I am working on technique ideas on this one – I’m looking at using the transparent paints in the background to set the palette, and then played with palette knife on the dog.  I ended up with brush on the eyes and parts of the nose… and some of the fur.

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