Feb
03
Two funny things happened to me this week…….
1) Yesterday I received an e/mail from Pop Revolution gallery saying that my painting had not been accepted into their RED themed show in February. Boohoo for me…..Then today I received an e/mail saying that their rejection notice was incorrect and that I HAD been accepted into their show. Yeah for me…… Weird, huh? I tell ya – this art business can drive you crazy.
2) Amy Bryce (what’s your title?) of the Sharonville Fine Arts Center sent out an e/mail announcement of my March solo show….and in it she said I have a WICKED sense of humor. Okay, that made me laugh……however, I know a few people who would say a few more derogatory things about my sense of humor! Fortunately, my husband loves me for it. Calls me the Queen of Satire…and I guess it shows up in my artwork, too. Just can’t seem to help it.
That Smiley Face looks wicked…doesn’t it?
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Posted in Life Gets In The Way, The Business of Art
Feb
02
Today was a sad day for me….the painting that I did to enter Pop Revolution‘s RED art competition was rejected. Over 100 paintings by 72 artists were entered…..60 paintings were accepted…..but not mine. That puts me in the bottom 40%…not a position I’m used to and certainly not a position I ever want to become used to.
Okay, none of us like to face rejection…..and in this case I wish I’d gotten an explanation. The painting wasn’t good enough? Didn’t fit the theme of RED well enough? I’m a lousy painter…WHAT WAS THE REASON???? What’s funny is that I almost never enter competitions like this…..I want to paint what I want to paint and not something that fits into someone’s idea of a good theme for an art show….but my goal this year is to get into more shows and art galleries. And my first attempt was rejected…..
Personally I find this painting to be rather exciting….what could I have done to make it better? I could have put more expression on her face….maybe splattered some paint all over her legs…but I think the over-all painting has a lot of movement in it.I think it reflects excitement and a passion for painting.
So…how am I dealing with this rejection? I went online….typed in how to deal with rejection as an artist and found an article on Joanne Mattera’s art blog. Click here to read the article. Reading it helped a little.……..she has written several other articles regarding rejection, maybe if I read all of them it will help a little more. And you know what’s really sad? I’m an adult, I’m a big girl….but I asked my husband if he’d go with me to pick up my rejected painting. I feel a little embarrassed about being rejected……
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Posted in Art Shows, Life Gets In The Way, The Business of Art
Jan
31
Every month more people find my website by searching for cute butts rather than by typing in my name. I’d like to consider that a compliment…..(hahaha)…. but I know it’s because in one post I said that my nude model had a cute butt. So…..I titled this post Nudes and Plaids in hopes of driving more traffic to my website….isn’t that how it works? Sex sells?
Today I worked on getting those damn values correct again…..lightened the closest walls by painting on Greenish Umber+White. Darkened the baseboards. Spent lots of time on the statue and plinth. Notice that the NUDE statue is a bronze-ish color and the plinth is more greenish.
Painting this statue would have been the perfect time to just do an under-painting using values of Burnt Umber + White…and then glazing over it with Yellow Ocher or Stil de Grain Yellow. Why didn’t I think of that sooner?It would have saved time.
This is my 2nd attempt at painting plaid…still don’t have it all figured out. First I painted all the black lies…and let it dry. Today I thinly glazed white over the entire dress…..adding a blue-purple mixture to the portions which I wanted in shadow. Then I re-painted the black lines into the white paint. Since I was painting wet-into-wet the black lines picked up the white paint and they became grey lines. Next I went in and painted solid black lines where the grey lines crossed over each other. Also went in and painted the white squares whiter where I wanted the dress to come forward.
Does any of that make sense? Is anyone aware of an online tutorial about painting plaid material? I sure would like to find a better way to do it….but maybe there is no easy way.
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Posted in Painting, The Business of Art
Jan
11
Wow, who knew painting could be this much fun??? Spent the morning working on the realistic portions of the painting…and the afternoon using a palette knife…..
What’s funny is that I really felt like I’d been BOLD when I painted the figure, floor, and paint cans……but it’s definitely TIMID looking next to the abstract painting in the background. What can I say? Working with a palette knife is fun….and fast. The only problem I had was when I tried to paint close to the figure….I ended up getting green paint all over the face. Now I just have to hope that the background dries quickly enough that I’ll have time to work on the rest of the painting before the competition deadline.
Thought: Maybe I should be an abstract palette knife painter. It feels much more like play when I use one.
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Posted in Inspiration, Painting, The Business of Art, Tools of the Trade
Dec
12
Was web browsing yesterday and followed a link to www.newyorksocialdiary.com with an article about designer Sarah Shaw dated 8/12/11. It showed photos of her fabulous Manhattan residence….and it showed fabulous art hanging on the walls.
Okay…that girl is swimming….over a piano. Had to look up the New York artist, Hope Gangloff….of whom I’ve never heard…and of course she’s very successful and very famous. Shows what I know about art….right? People always ask me where I get my ideas for paintings…..well, I certainly don’t have Hope’s degree of imagination. Really like her work….it’s everything mine isn’t…..including hanging in New York galleries and expensive New York residences.
Then I saw another painting which was by New York artist, Will Cotton, who happens to be internationally famous….and also previously unheard of by me.
This is a portrait which Will Cotton did of Sarah Story.
Good ole world famous Will Cotton has also done several paintings of Katy Perry. His art is described as landscapes of sweets inhabited by human subjects. Now why didn’t I ever think of painting people with cakes on top of their heads…or swimming on top of a piano? Makes me feel quite unimaginative……
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Posted in Inspiration, The Business of Art
Dec
01
What do you do when an 80+ year old woman pushes her walker up next to you, hands you a sticky photo, and says’ “I want you to do a painting of my dog.”?? Well…..if you’re me…you inwardly sigh…take the photo home, and try to make lemonade from lemons.
Meet Puddin’ a dog rescued from the animal shelter who was a pet to Daisy for close to 15 years. My friend Melanie looked at the photo and said “what a cute dog.” I looked at the photo and said “WHAT IS IT?” Apparently I’m used to painting from better photographs than Melanie…..
I got online and researched Skye Terriers….they sorta look like hairy dachshunds with big ears. Took several photos to Daisy, she picked out a pose that she liked….and I forced myself to start painting.
Okay, so it’s kinda corny looking…..okay, it’s very corny looking…and not as realistic as I usually like to paint…but it’s finished. And now we return to our regular programming about Portrait Painting….and please don’t ask me to paint your dead dog.
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Posted in Painting, The Business of Art, Tools of the Trade
Nov
28
I was paging through the most recent issue of American Art Collector magazine and was surprised to find a picture of one of my paintings in it. Can you see my painting?
The painting in the ad is Time Waits For No Man.
Now, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see my painting in the Xanadu ad…after all, I’d paid $220 to a part of the group ad. But we’d just celebrated Thanksgiving and I’d forgotten that the December issue of magazines comes out in late November. My painting is right in the center fold of the magazine (No, not Playboy centerfold!) which is not an optimal spot. If you ever place an ad remember that the upper right hand corner of a page is the best spot….because that’s where your fingers and eyes go when you turn a page. The second best spot is the upper left hand side because that’s where your eye goes after you’ve turned the page.
I did advertise in the December 2010 edition of American Art Collector. A 1/4 page ad cost me $1200 (yes, gasp!). I sold a painting as a direct result of the ad….a collector from California called and purchased it. However, the hits on my website actually went down that month. Logically the hits should have gone up….so I don’t know if everyone was just too busy with Christmas preparations to look at the magazine. Maybe December isn’t the best time to advertise…however, it’s the annual Figurative issue, so I thought it would be a good match. We’ll see if lighting strikes twice….
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Posted in The Business of Art, Tools of the Trade
Nov
14
Wow, I totally suck at self-promotion. Last week I said I’d be doing a painting demonstration Nov. 19th….actually I did one over the weekend on the 12th! I’d probably fire a PR person who screwed up that badly! To set the record straight…I will also be painting on Nov. 19th at the MasterPiece Gallery in the Florence Mall….and to further clarify….that’s Florence, Kentucky – not Florence, Italy……
I hate having people in my studio when I’m painting….but I had absolutely no problem painting in a storefront. Either I have a big ego or I’m a ham.
Occasionally people even stopped to watch me paint.…and they came into the store to ask me questions. My favorite comment of the entire day: “You paint good for an old person.” I guess the preteen was surprised that I could still stand up without using a walker…much less hold a brush and paint.
Nic Green was also there doing caricatures. I’m always amazed watching someone do caricatures…his are really good, too.
So, if you have nothing better to do next Saturday….come and watch me do a demo….it’s as much fun as watching paint dry……
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Posted in Painting, The Business of Art
Nov
10
Saturday November 19th I’ll be doing a painting demonstration in a store front window at the Florence Mall in Florence, Kentucky. I’ll be there from 10a.m. – 5 or 6p.m. …it depends on how much energy I have! The store is called Masterpiece Gallery.
They’ve recently started carrying prints of my artwork….the Cincinnati prints, some of my Fantasy prints as well as notecards and bookmarks.
See….my artwork is right there next to an original oil reproduction of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. The store’s owner is Judy Adams. We did a photo session together this week…and she’ll be one of the figures in my painting. I thought it would be fun to be painting a portrait of her in the storefront. That way people can compare my painting to the real thing and see if I captured her likeness.
I love this photo…her face looks so beautiful. Expect to see this pose in one of my future paintings.
Judy was very sweet and let me photograph her in the store….in between waiting on customers! There will also be a caricature artist at the store on Saturday…..so it should be lots of fun. At least I hope so……who knows? I’ll probably feel like an idiot standing in the window and painting.…poor shy little me.
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Posted in Painting, The Business of Art
Oct
18
My niece, Amanda Boehmer, has been doing some guest blogging on her friend’s blog called Surviving Motherhood. Her series of posts has been titled Booties In My Briefcase….which makes me laugh…I can just imagine Amanda sitting in a meeting at Proctor & Gamble and opening up her briefcase to find booties inside! Imagine pulling out booties instead of a business report! Would you laugh or be embarrassed? Amanda would definitely laugh.
Amanda asked if anyone had something they could offer as a give away on the website in exchange for being blogged about. Surviving Motherhood gets 50,000 hits a month and mine gets…well, let’s say…it gets somewhat less. So I offered her a print of Living Is An Art.
The print is 16×20″ and fits into a standard sized frame….that is standard for the U.S. I’ve been told that other sizes are standard in other countries…I’m guessing metric. The contest closes at 12:00 noon on October 30th. To enter just go to the October 18th post of Surviving Motherhood and leave a comment saying which one of the alphabet letters you’d like to make more time for in your life. Personally I’d like more time to Make Art !!!!! And so now I’m going into my studio to paint. Good Luck.
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Posted in The Business of Art, Tools of the Trade