3am planning session - time of my own

I guess we all have 3:00am planning sessions lying in bed thinking.....2 or 3 in the morning is always good planning time for me. If I remember any of it in the morning, it's clear what I should pay attention to. Aside from my 72x96 floundering on my easel, I'm working on several other things;  securing framing for a smaller works show opening this coming Friday at my Crossroads Gallery. It will feature about 40 plus paintings from 2009. None have ever been in a frame or exhibited before. Yesterday after working on it 24/7, my first shipment arrived. All are standard small sizes up to 16x20, all sizes popular amongst artists........I found inventory seriously low out there in better framing... especially if you want multiples in a size as I did. Thanks to JFM it got done at the last minute! They were low on inventory too so a portion had to be custom. Not a problem for me because I like mixing stock and custom framing together.... it raises the framing bar over simply using stock frames.

What it tells me tho is the art business must be booming out there......how cool is that! I actually thought the framing would be the least problematic of everything in front of me. Boy was I wrong!

 SOME FIRST PLEIN AIR PAINTINGS

Some works being released Friday evening at Crossroads

2 Libby Terrace 10x10 oil on panel (3-18-09)

(my first ever plein air painting)

Frames make a difference

11 James at Libby Terrace 11x14 oil on panel (4-14-09)

826 Libby Sunrise 11x14 oil on linen (6-12-13)

(Most recent plein air from the same location)

12 Libby Terrace on Easter Sunday 14x18 oil on panel (4-12-09)

The other thing my 3am planning session stirred up was quality art prints. Every once in awhile I churn that idea around a bit. I always thought it would be an end game move but now it seems to make some "cents". Perhaps my decision to release work from 2009 marks the end game. Plus, prints could fill a gap my work doesn't fit anymore.....the affordable market.

Recently I decided to release older works to give me painting time and not have to worry about keeping fresh work available. It gave my inventory or collection a value I never considered before......the value of time, time to call my own and still stay in the game. I had that in the beginning, but it started to slip away with gallery needs, commissions and untold numbers of events all taking my time away from what I do well.....we all face it. The question is how to get it back! The next five years are important... I can paint, but it's what I paint that's important now. I don't need more inventory nor do I want to paint for it! I'm sure in the future there will be works added to it, but not because I need it.

Effectively, with the opening of the Crossroads "In Search of Light and Colour" Friday evening, I will have reclaimed my time as my own again!

However, the real reason I was having my 3am session was about the canvas on my easel.....after some hard core evaluation, it's fairly clear to me my canvas is too big for this particular idea. Aside from all the distractions, I need better reference material and more work on a smaller scale before bouncing up to a billboard. If I were ready, it would have worked out of the gate.....in time it will!! I decided to move on, change subjects to something I'm comfortable with sizing up and get on with it!

Later.....