WOW! Like all this year, August "ZOOMED" by too! It must be true, time flies when you are having fun. So, I must be enjoying myself painting and spending my weekends coaching artists. Its refreshing to spend time with folks that have the same interests and often the same drive to be good at what we do.
When deciding to become a full time professional oil painter, experience told me I would need a quality product to sell first if I expected to be successful. Success is also financial, able to make a living at it. Who needs a career vocation you can't support yourself and family with?
As a painting coach, developing a product able to hold a wall and sell, is, in a nut shell what I work towards with each team member. Everyone starts somewhere. Each is a bit different, so my approach adapts to fit. Not everyone wants a career in art, but only to simply paint for the pleasure and to improve their skill level. Regardless, the main goal for everyone is to improve.
It doesn't happen over a few hours, a few studio classes or even months of work. It also requires homework to continue in between. There are a lot of parts to making a good painting. Accomplishing that is just the first part of a bigger picture. How to market your work. How to make a living at it and pay the bills. Good work will generally set all that in motion by itself. Its part of a sequence that happens naturally. Hard to force it!
There is no magic pill to fast track this with..... one exception.... know what you want at the front end.... then develop a plan to get there. What I know from my own experience.... there is definitely a natural sequence to it. I see it, hear it, read it, over and over from successful artists who experienced it. If it gets out of order then you tread quicksand more than not. If you can wrap your head around a basic idea, follow through.... any process can be fast tracked. Ignore everything until you're ready to jump in and get it done. One step at a time, one painting at a time. First step: Learn how to handle paint!
Basically I'm in passing it on mode, giving up all my little secrets..... passing on things that worked for me on many fronts when it comes to making and selling art.... if nothing else, how to get someone to stop a moment and enjoy a work of art.
The Swimming-in-Paint, coaches "WOW" award for the September open house at Crossroads is coming up fast! Our last opening in July was pretty successful. A number of paintings left the gallery to find their first real walls to hang around on. Congratulations to all the Swimming-in-Paint artists who participated.
MY LAST PAINTING OF AUGUST
When deciding to become a full time professional oil painter, experience told me I would need a quality product to sell first if I expected to be successful. Success is also financial, able to make a living at it. Who needs a career vocation you can't support yourself and family with?
MY THIRD PAINTING OF AUGUST
As a painting coach, developing a product able to hold a wall and sell, is, in a nut shell what I work towards with each team member. Everyone starts somewhere. Each is a bit different, so my approach adapts to fit. Not everyone wants a career in art, but only to simply paint for the pleasure and to improve their skill level. Regardless, the main goal for everyone is to improve.
MY SECOND PAINTING OF AUGUST
It doesn't happen over a few hours, a few studio classes or even months of work. It also requires homework to continue in between. There are a lot of parts to making a good painting. Accomplishing that is just the first part of a bigger picture. How to market your work. How to make a living at it and pay the bills. Good work will generally set all that in motion by itself. Its part of a sequence that happens naturally. Hard to force it!
MY FIRST PAINTING OF AUGUST
There is no magic pill to fast track this with..... one exception.... know what you want at the front end.... then develop a plan to get there. What I know from my own experience.... there is definitely a natural sequence to it. I see it, hear it, read it, over and over from successful artists who experienced it. If it gets out of order then you tread quicksand more than not. If you can wrap your head around a basic idea, follow through.... any process can be fast tracked. Ignore everything until you're ready to jump in and get it done. One step at a time, one painting at a time. First step: Learn how to handle paint!
Basically I'm in passing it on mode, giving up all my little secrets..... passing on things that worked for me on many fronts when it comes to making and selling art.... if nothing else, how to get someone to stop a moment and enjoy a work of art.
MY FAVORITE GROUP OF AUGUST PHOTOS
"BEATRICE"
(How many of us started our love of art like this?)
"BEATRICE"
(How many of us started our love of art like this?)
Beatrice is following her moms lead making art..... certainly how many of us got started. My clearest childhood memory was of my mother helping me make cardboard furniture cutouts in a highchair.
The Swimming-in-Paint, coaches "WOW" award for the September open house at Crossroads is coming up fast! Our last opening in July was pretty successful. A number of paintings left the gallery to find their first real walls to hang around on. Congratulations to all the Swimming-in-Paint artists who participated.
A special shout out to Liz Longstreet!
Liz Longstreet, August 12th 2017 Swimming-in-Paint
Liz was our last "WOW" award artist. Her hard work captured the hearts of collectors and was rewarded with many sales this year. This time she knocked it out of the park and sold (3) of her (4) exhibit paintings. One sold before we could even hang it! There is already an interested collector for her newest creation above.
Longstreet did her homework, followed a plan and stayed focused. She studied and practiced how to paint her subject first, used more paint with lots of learning paintings. One painting at a time. Some were small, some were big, and each led to stronger paintings like the one above. Over the last year Longstreet developed two subjects she can paint, rotate, stay fresh and improve with each rotation.
She also deployed a new paintable signature to brand her work going forward.
NEW SIGNATURE
Longstreet joined Swimming-in-Paint one year ago on August 6th 2016. Liz, like the rest in studio that day, painted the same blue and white Koi (below).
ONE YEAR EARLIER
Liz Longstreet, August 6th 2016 Swimming-in-Paint
To be viable in a gallery our work must draw the viewer in, to first notice our work and then want to touch it closeup and if it moves the viewer, to take it home and live with it long term. Love it at any cost. Scary but true! Perhaps why being an artist is so challenging. This is a fast moving target like no other or certainly in the top ten of difficulty to hit! The variables are extensive but one thing is constant....they gotta love it at 30 feet, and be touchable closeup and personal!
SOME OF MY FAVORITE AUGUST PAINTINGS
TERRY LACY
TERRY LACY
BARBARA BYRD'S KOI & LILY PADS
BONNIE JORDAN'S POPPIES
FINISHING TOUCHES & A NEW START, PARIS
SUSAN PAAVOLA'S ATMOSPHERIC JAMES RIVER BRIDGES
FINISHING TOUCHES & NEW START, YEP! ANOTHER
NEW MEMBER, SANDY NARDONE
FINISHING TOUCHES & NEW START, PARIS
KATHY RIVERA'S BEDROOM
BEV PERDUE'S ATMOSPHERIC LANDSCAPE
In a few days the fall "ART SEASON" launches and for the next four months we will be insanely busy. Artist opportunities abound,.... seems like everything these days revolves around art. Somehow we all get through it in one piece. So, I am going to be enjoying this particular labor day weekend off, because all hell will break loose on September 5th!
Life is not boring unless you want it to be.
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