Preparing for Shows

I guess one of the problems that all artists face is preparing for shows. I love painting and drawing, but I hate getting ready for shows. A lot of that is my art storage problems. Tons of art, and it is hard to find the art I want for a show, and to make sure I have a photo of the art, that I haven't scheduled the art for more than one show, that I have enough marketing materials (and holders) for the show, that everything is framed and ready to go, etc.

I am not the most organized artist, but I am not the worst either. I find the preparing for a show, and getting ready to go is discouraging. This week I have to hang a solo show on Wednesday, and then I am going to a fair type show on Saturday. The solo show requires more work to set up the marketing for the month, but the day show is so intense it will be hard.

I find when I have two shows like this, I only do what is necessary in my personal life. I cancel out my visits with friends, and just focus on the art shows.

I like the shows and get excited about the potential, but also dread the work. I guess I am like most people, I hate doing the work. I like the artist life, but there are some jobs I really could pass on.

I am still working very hard to draw and paint everyday, despite the strain the shows put on me. Besides making me happy, all the drawing and painting is appreciated when I need lots of art for all these shows.

I guess the other thing I really hate about the shows is trying to come up with prices. Prices are hard to set, and I don't know of any formula that is used by a majority of artists. I do my pricing based on my experience, and what I expect a particular market is willing to pay. I do price my art consistently, but if I think a market is not capable of paying for my larger art, I bring smaller works to the show. I never produce inferior or rushed work. The quality of my work is a direct reflection of who I am. I just change the size of the work to change the cost of the piece.

I guess I am just getting discouraged by all the marketing, and shows. I dream of the day when I will have a group of collectors, and not have to worry about galleries, shows, and marketing.

Balancing the Business of Art with Creating Art

I am going a bit crazy now and will be crazy for the next two weeks. I have four shows to get ready for, and a major competition to bring paintings for the judging. I don't know about other artists, but I find this a bit daunting. I am going to create a set of lists for each show, and what art I am putting into each, to make sure that I don't put something into one show, that really should have been put in another. As well, one of these shows is a solo show, so I have to hang it, and prepare the area, and that is even more work.

The main point of all this, is it is tough balancing the demands of life, the demands of the business side of my art, and doing the art itself (which is why I got into the business of art). I draw everyday, and I paint several times a week, and this is going to change soon to painting and drawing everyday. The creating of art is my most important part of my life as an artist. I must never let the day to day demands of the business side, start to push away my time to draw and paint. Like tonight, I will be starting to paint at midnight, and I am not at my creative best at that time.

I know there are business emergencies that must be handled, but in all honesty, I feel that if drawing and painting are really important, they must come first and the emergencies need to come second.

Since I have been drawing everyday since January 1 of this year, drawing each day seems to come naturally to me now. I draw when I take a coffee break, from TV or just to relieve stress. I find that painting has not reached this level in my life yet. I feel that with painting, I need to prepare surfaces, get water to clean brushes, and put acrylics out on the palette, then I can begin. So what? I guess I am angry with myself for not putting first things first.

My sketching club is disbanding for the summer, and I am going to use this time to paint plein air, and alla prima. If you are following these blogs, you know that I have also been painting alla prima at long pose life drawing sessions as well. I can see a lot of room for improvement, but I have also been surprised at how well the paintings have gone.

So has the business side of art for me. I am working very hard at Internet marketing, and that is taking up a huge amount of time, as I build the market I need, but I have to have patience, and look at it as if it is a multi-year project, which it is, and not let it drive me. Creating art is what I want as my driver, and good art to boot, and not the demands of business. Having been a businessman most of my life, I can easily get trapped in the business demands, so I must stay alert to my past habits taking control of me.

Well, off I go to paint. I haven't had time to create digital images of my work in the last couple of weeks, so I will post an image with this blog entry that I do have an image of, but hopefully soon, I will get to the business side of photographing my new art. Certainly, before the work goes into the next show.

Opportunity Knocks

Okay, so I was feeling sorry for myself. It was of my own doing. I decided not to continue with my sketching group this summer. They all decided to pay our old teacher to lead us around sketching over the summer. With the economy as it is, and money being so tight, I decided that I could go it alone, and use the money for drop in drawing sessions instead. I was feeling sorry for myself, because I know I will miss the comradery, and insights of my fellow sketchers. I draw everyday, and many of those times I go sketching by myself. What I don't do is sketch with friends except for my sketching group.

My grandfather used to say "Never a door closes, than another one opens." Well, I have been pleasantly surprised to find that artists from some drawing classes I go to are all now inviting me to draw or paint with them. Some are groups, some are just one friend, but it is like once the others knew I was not going regularly with a group, they felt more at ease to invite me on their outings and I am thrilled.

I originally joined the sketching group to find places to go draw at a later time by myself. Instead, what I received was much more. Friendship and fellowship of other artists. And now I am finding that fellowship is much broader than I had ever imagined. I always thought of art as a lonely creative process. I have trouble talking and drawing or painting at the same time, and I have seen demonstrators having the same problem. I have heard that art is a lonely vocation, but I believe that as an artist, I need fellow artists as much as I need to breath.

It can be tough being an artist. We create, and often do not know where or when we may be able to show our work, or if anyone will like it. We display our souls to the public for all to see, and criticism, or poor reviews wound us to the quick. Eventually, we develop leathery skin that helps us withstand the negativity some people show us, and we are still able to move forward and create, but that does not mean it does not hurt.

This is where other artists come in. We share a common bond in our drive to create art, and our need for recognition. Other artists I know who critique my work have always done so in a constructive way, and never mean. They are honest because they know how important honesty is to each and everyone of our development, but they do it knowing that it can be very wounding, and really want to help.

Also, I find discussions with some of my artist friends to be mind expanding. For instance, I always believed that an artist develops a "style" and then enhances and continues to develop it. I was amazed when two of my artist friends said they believed they had several styles, and used different ones at different times. This was a completely foreign to me. I was struggling because I thought my multiple styles to be unnatural, and now I can accept them as just what I do.

Artists supporting artists is one of the keystones to the joy I feel living an artist's life.

The above image is the last sketch I did with my sketching club. I did it in charcoal because it seemed right. I wanted to depict the mass and roughness of the boulders, and I focused on feeling the shapes. At times I felt more like I was carving out the boulders, than drawing them on paper. A powerful experience, surrounded by my fellow artists, sharing a common bond.

Long Pose Life Drawing

It is not always easy being an artist. I had signed myself up for a long pose life drawing special sitting at the model's studio (she is an artist herself). It was advertised as a master artist session, and I can tell you I felt far from a master artist. I had been working Friday on a big canvas painting of my older daughter, and this painting has been nothing but a struggle since I began it several years ago. It started out all wrong, and then I tried to change it, but I found that my goal for that particular piece of art kept changing as well.

Finally, I got settled down, and repainted it in consistent colours and it has come up very well. Now, everyone is telling me it is pretty much done (my follow artists at a drop in painting session, but I was still struggling with the painting. I wanted it to be very realistic, but is really is pretty nice in its more painterly condition. I struggle with this, because I have changed my goals for this painting so much, am I copping out?

Well, this being said, I was facing this long pose modeling session and feeling pretty down on my skills with acrylics. I was again struggling with painting or drawing ( which I would feel more comfortable with), or just not going at all. I felt I had to go, as this was a limited seating session, and others had been closed out so I should go. The model was expecting a certain number of people and it wouldn't be right not to go.

So now I was faced with the dilemma of painting or drawing. Since this was a long pose, it was one of the few opportunities available to paint the model from life. Usually, the life drawing sessions are short poses, good for drawing practice but not long enough for painting. I had decided that if I were going to paint, I would try open acrylics, because I was really annoyed with the rapid drying times of acrylics, and the lack of blending times. (I have been seriously thinking about switching to water based oils, because of this.) My last experiment was a small kit of open acrylics (about six tubes - the Classical set by Golden).

So I went to the session, anxious about finding parking, anxious about finding the studio, never mind parking, and anxious about making a fool of myself in master session with a type of paint I had never used before, but I screwed up my courage and went. I felt that perhaps I was feeling less confident about my abilities than I should have because of being mad with myself over not having a clear goal for this large painting I was working on, and mad at myself for not trying the open acrylics before the modeling session, but time just wasn't there.

I got there about 45 minutes early, found parking easily, and was still somewhat anxious when the session began. Then we started with some one minute poses to warm up, and I found these comforting, as the drawing and the short poses where what I was used to.

This is why art is wonderful. Once I got more relaxed, I was able to get into the zone. I really liked the drying time of the open acrylics, and I could blend the way I wanted to. As well, so of the people at the masters session were friends of mine, so I didn't feel so intimated, and I meet a really nice artist there and hope to see him again at other sessions.

The painting, which I did not have any lofty hopes for, but for which I did make sure I had a clear goal in mind, really pleased me. It followed, and finished on time, and it represents the way I love to paint the most. We had great lighting,and I used it to my best advantage to make the painting more dynamic, and to bring out the mass of the figure.

I was thrilled with my new paints, my new painting, and my new friend. The lighting was great, and this happens to be my favorite model. She is very professional and easy to work with.

I found that by facing my fears, and pushing past my feelings of inadequacy I was able to have a marvelous experience, and learn the lessons I needed so I could overcome my inadequacies.

I haven't finished the studio touch ups on this painting yet, so I am going to post a painting from my archives instead.

Trip to Prince George

Sketching on the road is more challenging than I thought. I was traveling to see my daughter's convocation at the University of Northern BC, in British Columbia. I just got home yesterday, and it was a wonderful trip. I had clear, warm weather for the whole trip, and it was a great family event. One of my frustrations was that there was so much beautiful scenery. The trip was 14 hours each direction, so I really didn't have much time for stopping and drawing. I also had to teach a course on-line the first travel day, so I did not get out until after dark. The first day I sketched while waiting to get on the ferry. I did not have much time, but I did get a quick sketch in of the terminal market. It was challenging with the time frame, but I managed to get a likeness of the market. It was then that I found that I had forgotten my pencils. I had brought pen, ink and wash, but for the short time I had, I decided to sketch with the ballpoint pen I had. It was not as satisfying as using my sketch pen, but it was all I could find. I had it in my head, I would be able to erase and correct my work, but I could not do it. That increased the challenge. It is strange, because a few years ago I did most of my sketching with a ballpoint pen, and then switched and got hooked on a sketching pen. It just has a different feel, and as an artist, I really enjoy the feel of my tools as well as the drawing itself.

The next sketch I did was of a flower vase in the restaurant where I ate. It was a really nice steakhouse, and the decor matched. I was faced with a problem there too. I only had the ballpoint pen and small paper, as I did not want to bring my fancy pen sketching. I was tired, and hungry, and close to my final destination. I just wanted to get to my daughter's house. I am glad that I took the time to do the drawing. It really was an exercise in simplification first. I had to find a reasonable set of symbols for the little flowers of the lilac, and then in the end, I added a leaf in the lower left to put the leaves around the flowers. I also had to subtly widened the vase base without making it look changed. I was able to do this because of the shading lines.

Next, I found that I did a sketch while waiting for the convocation ceremony. I tried to draw the stage, but that did not work out as well as planned. The lighting made it hard to identify the images, and they were complicated. Oh well, not every sketch is a winner, but I had taken photos of the same image so I can revisit it in the future.

The next images I got to draw were really fun. My daughter and her husband have three cats. and this gave me a chance to work on cat sketches from life. I always thought that cats just sat around and for the most part didn't move. Boy was I surprised. They are constantly moving around, but small movements. That just goes to show, that I have some fundamental misconceptions about life, that my sketching corrected. Everything that I need to know, I learned from sketching. I like that expression. I think I will put that in my slogans memory.

These sketches were not as good as some, but I captured the action, and they look like the cats, even if they are not the best poses. I considered them a success, because I learned a lot about the subject, and captured the moving cats by drawing from memory a bit.

My final sketch was done the night I was driving home. I finished supper, and went out with my sketchbook as it was getting dark. I found a spot around the corner from the main street, and was standing on a deserted street, sketching in peace. Suddenly, this guy comes up to me, and tries to hit me up for money. I was fine, but it made me realize that in a strange town, after dark, I was standing on a deserted street because I chose my location based on what I wanted to sketch. I should have been more cognizant of my security.

There were a lot of lessons I learned on this trip. First, I need to carefully pack my materials, and make sure the tools match my hopes. Second, I need to leave more time to sketch. Third, I need to make sure that I am more careful about my personal security when I am in a place that is new to me. I learned that I need to sketch a lot more subjects that I usually ignore, to learn more about their habits (like the cats). Life is wonderful, with new discoveries all the time, and sketching is a great way to make those discoveries.