Turning in my art to the gallery

Dear reader,
Today was an exciting day.  I was nervous this morning because after all the painting and preparation to try to get into a local art gallery the time had finally come for me to turn in my art work for a show.  I had previously paid a member's due to become a member of the art association.  I had had my art work juried to see if my art qualified for showing in the gallery.  I had chosen the work to put in the show, framed it and put the hanging wire  on the back of the frame.  Now it was time to bring the work to the gallery for the show.

When I took my work to the show I was nervous that something would go wrong and I wouldn't be able to show after all.  I thought maybe they would take a second look and reject my pieces.  Or perhaps they would say I had framed the work incorrectly. Fortunately when I got there things went smoothly and I was able to leave my work at the gallery for them to hang.  I felt relieved after leaving my art in the gallery. I was glad to know I had finally reached this goal that I had been working towards for several months.

Now that my work is there I look forward to going in to the gallery to see it hanging on the wall in a professional setting. I consider this one step in the direction of trying to be a full time artist.  Right now I earn very little money from creating my art but I want to continue to work towards a goal of earning a living from art.

The next goal that I have in mind is to choose an art competition to participate in.  I don't expect to win an art competition on the first try but I would like to find an appropriate competition and then successfully submit my work so that I can go through the submission and competition process.  I'd like to see what it's all about.

The photo below is an update to this blog entry.  I am standing next to two out of three of the paintings I entered in the art show.

Making it in the Art World

Dear reader,
A friend recently posted on facebook a question about what it takes to make it in the art world.  For the past year and a half I have been thinking about that and similar questions.

How do I earn a living making art?  What kind of art should I make?  Should I make art that looks pretty and likable and could sell for a low price?  Should I make art that has a lot of thought put into it? Should I strive to make art that requires a high degree of skill?  What is the right venue for selling my art? How should I price what I make?

I find that there are often so many questions related to this topic that I start to become confused and start to think around in circles.  ( Then I start to wonder if I should make art on the topic of directionlessness.)

I can't claim to be any kind of expert but I'm starting to notice that there are several different paths for the creative visual artist to sell his/her work depending on the type of work he/she does. The options I am listing below are based on my experiences and books I have read on the subject.  Here are the categories and paths that I have come up with.

1. The Craft Artist
Price of art: low
Education Needed: A few classes in the area of specialty
Time spent of each piece of art: Not much time.  The artist has to balance the idea that the product should look good but must still be profitable for the artist to sell.
Where to sell: craft shows, craft fairs, farmer's market, online stores, online marketplaces
Goal: Create art that is easy to sell to a wide audience at a low price point.

2. The Artist
Price of art: medium
Education Needed: A degree in the area of specialty
Time spent of each piece of art: one day to two weeks. ( I speculate)
Where to sell: art shows, art fairs, galleries, online store
Goal: Create quality pieces of art that involve a high degree of skill and that possibly look good when placed above a couch. Enter art in contests in the hopes that one's art will win and one can therefore be justified in charging more money for his/her art.

3. The Contemporary Artist (An artist who deals with contemporary issues)
Price of art: medium to high
Education Needed: A degree in the area of specialty
Time spent of each piece of art: one week to two months (I speculate)
Where to sell: galleries, art shows(?), artist's website (?)
Goal: Create art that provokes thought.  Talk about art and their thoughts on social issues.

Submitting art work to the jury

Dear reader,

I mentioned some weeks ago that I was joining an art association.  As a member of the art association I have the opportunity to submit artwork to be juried.  If the judges feel that the art work is good enough to be in the gallery then I can show there.  I'm submitting images of the three paintings above for their consideration.  If they accept the work my next step is to prepare it by putting the work in frames.  

If I can get in to this show I'm hoping to try to get in to other shows as well.  I'm not sure what shows I want to be in.  I'm also not sure what direction my art is going in.  However, I figure I'll have to keep going and making art and see how things develop.

Update:

After writing this I found out that my art work has been accepted!  I will be showing my work in February.

Looking at Light - Impressionism

Roses and Succulent in a Vase

2016

Photographed outside with natural light using an ipad

Roses and Succulent in a Vase

2016

Photographed inside with indoor lighting using an ipad

Roses and Succulent in a Vase

2016

Photographed inside with shade and some indoor lighting using an ipad

For my most recent painting I set up a still life with two rose stems and a succulent in a vase.  The vase is a clear glass and a little water was added to the bottom.

When I began mixing the colors and applying them I noticed that the vase and flowers were in the light and my painting was in the shade.  So when I began applying the paint to my board it looked very different from what I was mixing. I decided not to correct the colors to look right in the shade. Instead I decided to make a point of mixing all the colors while viewing them in the sunlight and trusting that in the final painting all the colors would match up even though the painting itself was in the shade.

This is different from what I normally do.  I usually start by mixing one of my main colors and then mix the colors more relative to this color rather than matching them closely to the colors I actually see.  In this way I am looking at how they are working together on the canvas or board rather than matching them strictly with the colors I see.  I notice that because the canvas starts out white this tends to influence me to make my light and medium values lighter than what they actually are.  By matching with the colors I see and not matching the colors with each other I notice that many of the colors I mix have darkened a lot.

I made a comment on facebook about the painting I was working on and light. One of my former students commented on how light in painting relates to Impressionism.  This got me to thinking about how I was approaching my painting in a way that was like Impressionism. I had not previously considered making a painting from the point of view of an Impressionist. It has prompted to think more about how and why the Impressionists made paintings the way that they did.

Above I have posted three photos of the same painting in different light settings.  They show some of how I am seeing the colors change when the painting is in light and shade.  What first started me thinking about the colors and lighting was the two shades of green on the rose leaves.  In the sunlight they look different but in the shade they look very similar.