Yellow Candle - Day 5

Day 5. Life got in the way yesterday! I love working with the 4 color groups from Susan Deihl's workshop. Makes choosing and mixing a palette so much more sensible! I chose warm muted for this painting - the metals on the candle sticks just seemed that way. The palette knife is still a challenge for me, I just don't have the control. And am working on getting a variety of edges.

Yellow Candle

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11x7

1612.1 Temple Girl

I shot this photograph while visiting Japan in 2012.  I've always loved the color and motion.  Started the painting in the Michael Steirnagle workshop in Scottsdale and ended with inputs from Larisa Aukon online!

Temple Girl

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24x24, oil on canvas

“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. 

Corgi in Water – Dog #16

This is the second of a set of my friend’s Corgis.  I’ve always loved these photos, enjoyed doing this!  Dogs and water, how much fun is that!  I used the palette knife a bit on the background, mostly brush work, though.

I have changed up my plan: I’ll paint daily and do 30 dogs.  Every day may not be a dog, depending on where I am.  Last week I was in a Leslie Saeta workshop and we did cows and boats.  Next week I’ll be in Galveston; and I have a VW Beetle in the Snow I’m working on.  So, there may not be dogs every day. 

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