Previews: Stay Tuned for These Future Blogs

The paper mosaic at left is a depiction of the children. A reflection of where my blogs will go. I have tried to go through my mental calendar for the next 6 months and see what could possibly be happening that would be interesting to a reader. With my youngest of two children going to college (in Golden, Colorado)in the fall I anticipate many changes.
1. What is outside the studio window? What is stimulating and what is distracting?
2. The differences in working in my studio at home and working in the studio/gallery space I rent and share. It is open to the public.
3. How to talk to visitors in the open studio.
4. Preparing for the group show in early June.
5. Picking pieces to exhibit in the show.
6. Stress of producing pieces with a deadline and a high school graduation and company from out of town.
7.What to wear for painting at home, grocery shopping, and painting in gallery/studio public space. Seems silly, but I think about it everyday.
8. How I designed my year old home studio. The books I used for reference and inspiration.
9. Which artists do I get inspiration from? Where do I find reference photos of their work?
10. How I file ideas in my "morgue." When did I start that habit? How do I edit?
11. What to listen to while painting. Sounds I paint by.
12. When pets of the feline variety want to help paint.
13. How teenagers coming home for lunch change the atmosphere. How it doesn't change when they aren't here.
14.The rhythm of the day.
15. Coping as preparations are underway to take my son to college.
16. Coming home without him.
17. Strategies for being new empty nesters.
18. Lease is up in September. Is the public studio space worth the investment?
19. Incorporating my aesthetics, lots of pattern and color into landscape paintings and other realist subject matter.
20. Going through photos of trips to look for reference shots.

Pattern Becomes Lumpy After Dark Art Retreats

All of the positive comments about pattern have reinforced what I probably already knew, "Do what you want to do. Be true to you."
There is a point in every painting where I stop and wonder if I am finished. This usually happens when I have just completed an area I am very happy with. The fear of ruining what I have just achieved is watching me. This is Art's dark side. He sits in the corner and taunts me. He is filled with doubt. He is going to expose me as a fraud, I will be found out.
Then days later I remember I can paint over it if I don't like it. This stewing period brings back sanity, I shoo the dark Art out of the studio, out of the car, and away for the time being. The evaluating has ended and the action can begin again. Happy Art who brings flowers and smiles has returned and is quietly reading his favorite book in the corner of the studio.
Wow, sounds like psychosis with a capital PSY.

Posting a Profile

I have finally posted a profile. I had resisted posting one afer receiving two creepy inquiries about paintings over the Christmas holidays. This caused me to back off of the internet.
Putting a photo on my profile is most frustrating, I take truly terrible pictures so opted for the paper mosaic self portrait. IF anybody can give me pointers on taking good portraits, good self portraits they will be my new best friend. I produced a huge yearbook for an affluent elementary school for 5 years. In that time I learned to take good photos of people of all ages, but I am still, myself, most unkind to cameras. I believe a large part of who I am is in motion. I should be talking, moving, moving my hands while I talk. Hmmm so photos of me should be blurry.
I realize I should also have a photo of Art in my profile or somewhere on my blog. If you have read my profile you will understand this statement. I need to get him camera ready so we can, together, have a photo-op.
(In photo see my first best friend, my sister, Lesley on the left. On the right, my first stint as a flower girl.)

German Lumpy is Loompy

Lumpy walks across the German fields and into my painting. He is a midsize dog living in Bad Liebenstein, Germany. His name in German and in my memory is pronounced Loompy. I always find it helpful to know how to pronounce names even when I read them silently to myself. Maybe that is from years of reading aloud as a mom or librarian. Well, regardless, I am working on pieces for the June gallery show in Sanford. We need new work to exhibit. No pressure, to create and be fresh and original. So I started a painting using a photo I took of Lumpy. He is my model, since I don't want to be anatomically correct, I have taken artistic license and given him a sex change. I was going to put a quote I find hilarious on the top of the painting, I guess this becomes an illustration at that point, does it? The quote by Groucho Marx is "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." As you can see I tend to fill every inch of my pieces with detail. An empty space seems lacking. So here I am on the verge of filling every square inch with pattern or letters or something when an artist friend says,"that is a good painting as it is." Oh no terror in my heart, stop painting, no fill space, stop painting, no fill space with somebody else's witticisms. This artist's dilemma.

How to blog 101

I have signed up for a class on creative, scintillating, exhilerating blogging. I need some pointers and direction and here, to the rescue, the artbizcoach, Alyson Stanfield, http://artbizblog.com and creative nomad,Cynthia Morris, http://journeyjuju.com. Sound like the perfect teachers to me.
Who am I trying to direct my blog to? I would love for my friends and family to tune in and see what is going on in the creative part of my brain. Potential collectors, galleries and customers for illustration (possibly in publishing or art directors)are an audience I am trying to reach too. Living near or far isn't an issue to me with the technology available. A gallery on the other side of the world would be an interesting challenge for shipping, but doable. Creating a dialogue with or receiving comments from these readers would be interesting and help fill the silence when I post things.
So many people have little time to surf the net so I would like to offer a good short read and a visual to go with it for the readers in a hurry. I really enjoy writing so would like to add an asterisk and something creative for anybody with a cup of coffee or glass of wine and some "down" time. A daily painting could be part of this too. The first blogs I did were based on the journal pieces I was working on.
I think that is the answer to blogging 101, question 1, part 1 and part 2. Sure helps to think this through and put it down in writing.

It has been a long time

It has been such a long time...I have since moved into a space at Gallery on First in Sanford, FL. http://www.galleryonfirst.com A place to work and show the work. People come through to see the art in the main gallery, Jeanine Taylor Folk Art, then find themselves wandering the perimeter to see the studios and working artists. Seems like a win win. I am sharing the space with Dan Tashlin, a very talented realist painter. Who is also a very nice man. The other artists are very supportive and have made me feel very welcome. Their families have even stopped in Studio 3 to say hello and introduce themselves.
I have done some new work being in this energy filled place. And somehow I have found myself back with the fat ladies on the beach. I am doing small paint sketches and working toward some larger pieces for the opening on June 6 where we all show our new work that has been hidden from the public during its creation.