One Artist's Journey

I have 43 paintings done and 60 days left in the challenge. I really need to make an effort to paint at least one painting a day until New Years Eve. Gotta, gotta, gotta.

Submitted five paintings to the Riverside Art Alliances fund raiser, “Off The Wall.” they say they make 50,000 for the museum each year. That is impressive. So I submitted five of my earlier works, By earlier, I mean last month. I put in 3 “Dwellings” pieces and 2 “Abstracts.”

the are cheap too. If you liked those, you should probably go down and check them out. They are framed and going for $200. Half of that goes to the museum. One of the dwellings is going for $100. That is the deal. If you submit more than three paintings, one of them has to be for $100.

The “Artists Reception” is next week. That will be fun to go to.

Alley #1 - 16" x 20" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $400

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 1
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 43

I really like the painting I finished today. I think, however, that it is a little dark because of how I have started doing my paintings. I draw on the gessoed board with a woodless pencil. The I start to paint with gesso to cover up lines I dont’ want to show.

There is so much graphite on the board that it gets picked up with the gesso and paint and I think it makes the painting a little dingy.  What do you think? Is the painting clear enough to tell? I like the picture, I like the composition, I like the colors. I just don’t know if I should use fixative to lock the graphite down before I start painting.

Heartland - 20" x 16" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $400

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 2
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 42

Today I painted two pictures. I hurried through everything I had to do this morning and had a few hours in the studio. One I am really happy with. I designed it from my memories of going with my father to fix peoples’ horses on ranches in Southern California. My father was a horse vet and I used to go with him during the summer and hold the horses for him.

The other painting is an abstract, kind of based on satellite imagery. I love doing satellite searches on Google Earth an Google Maps. Streets and houses and crops. They all form a really cool pattern.

Abstract #14 (Satellite) - 20" x 16" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $400

These were both 20 x 16 paintings. I have moved up a size because there are more frames at Michael’s for that size. The trouble with painting larger pictures is they take more materials, but more than that – they take more time. Even if I hurry and speed right through a painting, it takes a couple hours per painting. I am really thinking that if I don’t hurry and get at least one painting done a day, I may not complete 100 paintings in 100 days.

The days when I could kick back and do four paintings in a day are over I think. No makeups now. I have to work daily to make my quota.

Pricing is HARD.

On the one hand you want to make as much money as you can, right? So you want to price your artwork high. I also want to brand myself as a serious artist and serious artists charge high prices for their art. You see a $300 price tag and think, “Oh, it is a hobbiest painter.” You see a $5,000 pricetag and you take that artist seriously, whether they are any good or not. If they aren’t good, you wonder what you are missing, right?

On the other hand, if you don’t price your work so your audience can buy it, then you won’t sell anything… and 0% of 0 is still 0.

I am new, my work is still fairly small and I want to sell what I am making. All signs point to lower price. So I brought myself to mark it at $297. I guess I could go to $247. But much lower than that, and it is kind of like, “What’s the point?” Except that I love to paint. hmmm….

Here is my art. "Autumn Valley" and "Sailboats" - the two on the left. They are hanging in the "East Wing" which is a fancy way to say "the big studio room off the main gallery."

Today I sat in the Redlands Art Gallery. It was the first of my two days to sit.

Lynn, a real sweetheart who makes great jewelry, was my trainer. We had a crazy, busy morning, but I learned how to use the system. We have a new POS system and everyone is learning how to use it.

We had a lot of interesting visitors come to the gallery and we sold a few things. It was a good day. I lowered my price for the two paintings I entered. I started at $600, then thought better of it and on Saturday I dropped by and brought it down to $400 and then today, I was still thinking about it and dropped the price to $297. Let’s get this thing sold and make some Christmas money!

This is the Redlands Art Association's Art Gallery on State Street in Redlands, California.

I joined the Redlands Art Association last week. They have a member show every 5 or 6 weeks. Today we submitted art to hang. It isn’t a juried show, so it doesn’t really go on the list, but my art is going to hang in public. Woohoo.

This is how it works at our gallery: We can submit two hanging pieces. They should both hang. We pay $5 for that and sign up to sit in the gallery for two 3 1/2 hour shifts. I will need to come earlier next time because most of the morning shifts were already taken.

I need to get some “table pieces” done for the next show. Those are glass and ceramic pieces, glazed tiles, gourd art, etc. You can submit 10 of those for the same price.

Me teaching my first art class in a school

Today I taught an art class in my 2nd grader’s class. I had spoken with his teacher during our parent/teacher conference. I mentioned that I was an artist and could teach a class. She took me up on the offer and today I taught my first real school art class.

I did the second exercise in Steve Aimone’s “Expressive Drawing” book. We did some automatic drawing with a little “veiling.” the kids did a great job and I think I blew it when I said “OK kids you have 2 minutes left…” because they just started whiting over everything and scribbling over everything they had just done. There were a few really nice pieces.

I told them their parents just might not understand what they were doing because it wasn’t really a picture of something. So they should just tell their parents it is “Expressive drawing.”

One little girl was crying because she scratched her paper and the teacher wouldn’t let her get a new one. I asked her how she felt and then told her to draw how she felt on the paper. She started scribbling within the lines she had just drawn and it looked really cool.

One boy's "Expressive Drawing. I like the use of color to add a focal point to the drawing.

I will have to try this again if the teacher will have me back!

Dwellings Series #6 - 20" x 16" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $350

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 2
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 40

I got to paint Original Acrylic Paintings today. This week has been soooo busy! For a guy that is unemployed, that is really saying something. I haven’t had a second to  paint.I am starting to get worried about the 100 paintings in 100days. Smaller canvasses were a snap, now I am up to 20″ x 16″ and that takes more time and paint to do Original Acrylic Paintings.

Anyway, today I cleared more space out of the studio because my panels are getting bigger. I need space to store, gesso, paint and store again, so I moved some boxes out. They are in the middle of the landing now and have to go somewhere else, but I can do that later.

Abstract #13 (Ginger) - 20" x 16" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $350

I am returning to some of the earlier paintings I did. I re-did a “Dwellings” piece today in a larger size. It went pretty well. Original Acrylic Paintings are easy to store. I don’t know what oil artists do. Doesn’t it take days for them to dry out?

I also did an abstract that my wife says is one of her absolute favorites. That is saying something because she is very supportive of everything I do.  Thanks Babe!

Kanji #4 - 12” x 12” Acrylic on Masonite - This is the painting that sold.

I am so excited!!!

Today I reached a milestone. I sold my first painting on ebay. I told you I posted 5 paintings online about a week ago. There was a free deal where I could post 5 things for free. So I did.

I posted 5 of the kanji series. This morning, I was reading my email and got the news from eBay that the auction was over. And I didn’t sell the painting – do I want to relist? I got 4 of those, but then the 5th one said “Your eBay item sold! Contemporary Abstract Asian Kanji Acrylic Painting” How cool is that!?

So what did I do? I went out and spent 3 times what I made in supplies! Go figure!

The Mission Inn in Riverside. Photo courtesy www.simplycreate.files.wordpress.com

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 0
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 38

After a week off, I am back to work. I am excited to paint. But of course, I spent the morning online paying bills and looking for local art organizations.

I am on to step 2 of my master plan. I have built a small body of work over the past several weeks and now it is time to tell people about what I am doing. I plan to write press releases and join organizations for artists.

We have a local artists group, the “Mountain Artists Network” that I will probably join, mainly to support the local art scene. There are several artists that are listed on their site that I think it would be beneficial to get to know. Like minded artists anywhere are an asset.
http://www.mountainartsnetwork.org/

Then there is an art association in Redlands, a nice city down the hill from here. It is a classy city and is doing a good job to support the local artists. I visited the web site and they have a “hanging-day” for members every six weeks. You bring your art and can hang two pieces and then you work for 8 hours in exchange. Sounds like a fair deal. I will probably drop by tomorrow and sign up for that group and start exhibiting.
http://www.redlandsartassociation.org

Then I found the web site for the Riverside Art Alliance. http://www.riversideartalliance.org/index.htm

Riverside is the biggest town around here with any kind of art scene. They are working hard to develop the arts in this area and I would love to support that. I read something on the web site that I can’t find now, that said  major cities are judged by their support of the arts. I think they are doing good things, so I am excited about joining them too.

They are having an “Off the Wall” fundraiser. Artists can submit up to 5 pieces of art. Everything is priced below $300 and it is a 50/50 split with the association. They are raising money for the Riverside Museum. They have done it for 6 years, so I guess it is successful. The entries are at the end of this month and you don’t even need to be a member to participate!

Talk about good timing. I usually hear about great opportunities right after they happen and then I have to wait for a year for it to come around again. Not this time. I will let you know how it goes, but right now it looks like I may join 3 art associations. Talk about busy!!