WIP - Just In Time for Apple Blossom Time

Part of my plan to get back to work in the studio is to finish some works in progress, or WIPs as we artists call them. The next one to go on the easel is one I started en plein air three Springs ago but never got back to. It's titled "Apple Blossom Time". Very original, don't you think?

The real apple blossom season won't arrive in these here parts for another month, but it's already Spring so that got me in the mood to work on this painting while waiting for a canvas to dry for The Peppermint Kid. I didn't think it would take me long, and it hasn't. But, I'm not entirely happy with it so it will go back on the easel today for some touchups. In the meantime, here it is to date. If you click on the image, it will take you to a page with the original plein air version and the current version.

A trick I learned in art school is to view your art with a reducing lens or in very small form in order to find what's wrong with it. Once I saw the thumbnail version of "Blossom" (I always give my paintings short studio names when speaking of them), it jumped out at me that the tree shape is too regular and round and the top of the tree is squashed by the top of the canvas. Now I know what needs to be fixed and can't wait to get back to it later today after appointments in the big city of Traverse City.

"Blossom" is 8 x 10 inches, oil on canvas. Stay tuned for the update.

Too Many Art Supplies; Not Enough Space!

Most artists would agree that it's impossible to have too many art supplies. We just can't resist all those luscious colors and tend to accumulate them until they seem to reproduce themselves, and then we run out of space to store them.

That's the situation I found myself in last week when I wanted to paint. The new acrylic sets that I bought for a mural project that I decided not to do after all were still sitting waiting to find a home in the studio. They were in the way. So, instead of painting I ended up going through drawers, clearing out junk, moving supplies to the supply closet or setting aside duplicates to take to our getaway place in the woods. As usual, that set off a chain reaction of moving on to more studio projects, like clearing off the top of the taboret next to my easel so that there would be room for the laptop to be used for viewing reference photos. To accomplish that I needed to move a plastic cabinet that was storing pastels. In its former life it had been a tooth cabinet for dentures in my husband's dental office, and the drawers were just the right size for storing pastels. The problem was that it was just too tall to fit anywhere else, so in the end, I decided that it, too, would go to the Atlanta house.

Moving that cabinet made a huge difference in my easel workspace. As you can see above, the laptop fits perfectly in that spot, the small fan now sits on a flat surface in front of the window, and my brushes are now within easy reach. Before I had to get up out of the chair and walk around behind the easel to get to them. (I sit to paint because back problems prevent me from standing for very long at a time)

As I was moving around doing all this, "stuff" was crunching on the floor under my feet because Molly Kitty had knocked a plant off the shelf in front of the window. So out came the vacuum cleaner to vacuum up the remnants of the mess. While it was out, I figured that it might as well be put to use to clean the rest of the studio which was very dusty. Out came the cleaning rags and the Pledge, and now I have not only a neat but a clean studio to work in.

Above you can see my easel set up for painting. On the easel is my next painting project, "Apple Blossom Time", a plein air painting that I started two Springs ago but never finished. Also on the easel is a print of the reference photo, and on the taboret is the laptop which is displaying that same photo. Also visible are cabinets which hold pastels; lots and lots of pastels! I don't use them much anymore, but I do like to look at the lovely colors.

One of these days when the studio is a little more tidy, I might give you a tour of my whole workspace, such as it is. It's small so every available space has been put to use, and it is now quite functional and pleasant. In the meantime, that apple tree painting awaits! I can almost hear the bees as they buzz around pollinating the flowers.

"Piling On" on the Field of Art

To tell you the truth, 2007 was a difficult year. Nothing really tragic happened, but somehow I struggled through the whole year never quite understanding why until I did my annual year end assessment in January. That’s when I realized that one by one the setbacks and disappointments had piled on one another, never giving me a chance to recover in between.

2006 had been a difficult year, too. My 92 year old mother declined rapidly and had to be put in a nursing home. We three sisters had to clean out her apartment and dispose of her worldly possessions which felt like we were erasing what was left of our parents’ lives. My computer hard drive died and I was forced to upgrade the operating system on the new drive and upgrade all my software. I haven’t yet had the time to learn it all again and can’t yet properly print my reproductions and business cards.

Wisely, I made the decision in early 2007 to cut back on marketing and showing in order to build up new inventory of artwork, but that never happened. Starting in January the piling on began. I learned about a local equine art show that I wasn’t invited to enter. It seems there were politics involved, and the curator only invited her “friends”. Next, I lost my only gallery because I hadn’t provided him with anything new for quite a while. But the biggest blow to my ego and self esteem happened a few months later when I lost a portrait commission because I’d taken so long to get to it. It was mortifying; something that had never happened before.

The final piling on was like a three hundred pound linebacker landing on top of the heap. In fact, I wrote about it back in January, but it is still a sore issue. In July I was contacted by a licensing agent who was wildly enthusiastic about my art and made big promises about making me into the next Chris Cummings of the licensing world. It seems she knew far less about equine art licensing than she let on, and I was never able to pin her down as to which of my images I should send her for the big branding promotion she promised. I finally sent her some images and waited and waited. Finally she informed me that the images weren’t suitable and that I hadn’t sent enough to launch a branding campaign. A short time later she rudely cancelled the contract, by email no less, blaming me for her failures. After all the time I’d spent doing research on licensed horse images and my own sales records and planning out paintings for licensing, I was both humiliated and furious. Now I’m glad to be rid of her; a person I wouldn’t want to do business with anyway.

There were a number of other setbacks over the year but these are the major ones, all art related. Confidence in the quality of my art and in my ability to succeed as an artist was shaken at the beginning of the year and never had a chance to recover. Is it any wonder that I found it so difficult to paint in 2007? We artists are such sensitive souls that it doesn’t take much to throw us off track and shake our confidence.

So far the good news is that 2008 is perking along much better. The tax materials are now at the accountant’s and off my long To Do list. I ordered some new art supplies and new canvases and am really liking the looks of the Masterpiece Belgian linens. A new canvas is waiting for the Bard portrait, and by tomorrow my mother’s taxes should be done, and I will at long last be free to paint again. I can’t wait!!

The painting above is an old pastel dog portrait which has always been one of my favorites. I’d like to add some dog paintings to my portfolio again, and “Casey” is a reminder of that.

Winter Sunrise on Clam Lake

Shortly after I got up this morning, I was greeted by these views as the sun rose on our frozen lake. These are the views I see from my studio window, and this morning the trees were all blanketed with a coating of freshly fallen snow, looking just as if they'd been sprinkled with powdered sugar. The rising sun bathed them in a peachy glow that lasted only moments before the clouds rolled in and the breeze picked up to empty the branches of their white confection. 

It's very rare to have this set of circumstances all occur at the same time, and I was glad to have caught it. Today, my artwork came via the camera which fortunately was loaded and ready to "fire". 

I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed the real thing. Tomorrow another storm is going to sock us in again, and there will be no Peach Dawn to look forward to.