One Artist's Journey

Me with one of the "dwellings" paintings I submitted to the "Off the Wall" show in Riverside

Tonight I went to the “Off the wall” Artist reception/show in Riverside. The art filled two galleries, pretty much from floor to ceiling… well, at least 10 feet high. It was really interesting. Some of it was fabulous, but some of it was not. Enough said about that.

Two of my friends, Richard Manookin and Serena Potter, exhibited their art too. It was fun to see their work. I didn’t see them, though.

My beautiful wife, Christina, was kind enough to accompany me, so it was a mini-date night.

Three of my paintings are hung on this wall. Can you spot them?

After the show we walked outside to the car and there was a band playing in front of a local church. It was fun to stand and listen to them for a little while.

It reminded me of living in Honolulu, where on the weekends, you could wander the streets and hear bands and see performances here and there. I miss that part of living in a large town that supports the arts. I love the mountain town I live in, don’t get me wrong, but large, thriving cities have a lot to offer.

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.

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.