Juggling Commitments and Schedules.
August 4, 2010
The excitement grows as we enter the dog days of summer…and it has nothing to do with the temperature, football summer camp or vacation time. Starting now, the notices about acceptance into fall and winter shows keep artists on their toes with anticipation. On top of that, many major shows are in September and October. For those shows we have been accepted into, we are furiously painting to have great paintings to ship to these events. AND this is also a time when we must submit to important shows for late winter, spring and summer of next year!
Visualize this comic image – Here you see the artist with a paintbrush in one hand with finished canvases flying off the easel – with the other hand he fills in the blanks on submissions, creates perfect digital images of paintings and stuffs envelopes with portfolios of works and prepares paintings for shipment. The artist’s eyes scour the email for acceptance into shows and researches new shows, peruses her inventory of photos for stimulating images to paint and visualizes completed paintings. Simultaneously, this artist keeps his website, blog, newsletter, accounts and spreadsheets up to date, teaches and converses with galleries, workshop invitees and the most important people - clients. We are also husbands or wives, parents and friends. Only this is one of those few professions where the livelihood comes directly from a personal core, the heart and soul of the artist, and the results return directly to the core also.
Have I completely bored you with this diatribe of words? Sorry! For you artists reading along, I ask that you laugh out loud with understanding and good visual acumen!
So yes, I have been busy in the studio, have been accepted into some great shows and obviously I am keeping my blog up to date tonight – in a wild thunderstorm and, yes, I am saving my file after every sentence.
None of these paintings below are really finished – I’ll tweak them here and there before they get framed and shipped out.
Grape Creek Walk 12 x 9 Oil
Last year, after participating in the wonderful Art for the Sangres Show in Westcliffe, Colorado, our hosts hiked with us down to Grape Creek in the valley below. Fall was in the air and the reflected light from leaves turning gold and copper gave the whole world an amber hue. Here the low water slithers over well rounded rock formations occasionally reflecting our beautiful Colorado blue sky above.
Morning Shadows 12 x 6 Oil
Painting these small vertical pieces is always so much fun. It seems as though you can say a lot more in the vertical spectrum – though that is only an illusion. Early morning sun created dramatic lighting and long tree shadows on the water, still quiet from the night, The mountains lay in deep shadows of cool light except for the pulse of sun on northeast facing slopes. It doesn’t get any better than this.
No more suspense! As of today, I have been accepted into American Impressionist Society 11th Annual National Exhibit and Paint the Parks Top 100 2010. I am currently painting up a storm for Representing the West, the Artists’ Gathering Show at Chico Basin Ranch and Art for the Sangres – plus I simply must have a lot of really good paintings for other submissions! Work, work, work! Right now, plein air painting is set aside for good quality time in the studio. With this storm brewing outside I certainly prefer the studio anyway.
Storm Approaching 8 x 16 Oil
Appropriate for the current weather outside, here is one of the completed plein air paintings from my visit to Zapata Ranch a few weeks ago. All I had to do was finish the foreground and define some of the details – not too much though, as I wanted to keep this in the plein air style.
Log Shed 9 x 12 Oil
I completed this one too, very quickly adding the branches and leaves on the cottonwood trees. And I removed the chimney (there actually were three!) because it looked contrived and out of place. I never paint reality, just my emotion and preferences.
Last Light on Blanca 12 x 16 Oil
Sunset and sunrise are challenging. I couldn’t get this down fast enough as a plein air, and though I did an early morning plein air of the scene, I succumbed to some photos and my memory to paint this one. It’s not finished, so keep watching as I work on this one. I wonder where it will take me?
Good luck to all of you artists making submissions and painting your hearts out in hopes of good sales and some words of encouragement. For everyone else, thanks for letting me carry on with my artist’s angst.
Now…….go buy some original art, please.
Ciao,
Ginger
