Art Fair Business

Danville's Mountain 24x36" oil (sold)

Hi there, it is cold here in Northern CA, so I am posting one of my summer pieces to warm me up! Hills are very green right now, but will start turning gold as soon as the rains stop sometime around April. By July they are golden.

Art fairs, Street Shows, any outdoor art show start up after April. Some sooner, but as a painter I don't venture out before the end of April. Even then I may get rained of once or twice. You MUST have your clear plastic and clamps to cover your work. Professionals do not go running home when it rains. And if you did, you may not be invited back to the show.

Now is when you need to be selecting your shows and applying. Entering art shows can be and art form in itself deciding which one to enter. Take good photos of your work to send in with your applications.

Time to rethink what shows worked for you and what shows didn't. Maybe a show didn't bring in the revenue you wanted. But think about the show, how was the networking? Did you hand out a lot of cards or flyers? Did a lot of interested patrons sign your mailing list? Was there high quality art surrounding you? Has that particular show done well in the past? Do not be too quick to write off a show. Times are hard right now, I do believe it will pick up. Look at the show as an opportunity to network, and to exchange ideas with other artists. Quite often a zero $ show can actually be your best show!

Are you new to shows? Artists need to make several appearances at a show before they really are up and running with the sales. The public needs to know that you are stable. That you really do do this for a living and are not "fly by night." I have realized that people want to buy your art. Then they want to come to your booth at the next show and tell people, I bought one of her originals. Or they want to talk to me about their purchase, tell me all the complements they have received on it. They want to tell me where they hung it. Your collectors become family and they like to come visit you whenever you are in town.

Time to pour my cup of coffee and start pouring over my applications.

Next post: Rethinking your booth at the show.

Priming Canvas

El Capitan Meadow 18x24" oil

Above is an example of a painting in progress that shows the prime color that I use under my painting. I prime with acrylic paint and I use 1 part yellow, 1 part red, and 3 parts white. I tend to mix up a batch in an old butter tub and prime 10 to 20 canvases at a time. There is nothing worse for me than to have that urge to paint and to not have a primed canvas ready. You can oil paint on top of acrylic but never paint with acrylic on top of an oil painting. It will not stick and it will peel off.

I like to prime my canvas with a warm color. If I am painting outdoors it keeps the white canvas from blinding me. But I use this color under all my paintings as I feel like it really warms up the painting as it comes through some of the colors. I often paint late at night in my studio. I am not sure if it my lack of sleep or if the lighting is not good enough, but when I view my late evening's work the next morning I can see small what I call holes of white peeking through all over the canvas. I to tend to paint thin. I suppose if I really globbed on the paint like an impressionist I would not have this problem. But now the prime color shows through and I actually like the effect. Rarely do I ever go in and touch up those "holes" anymore.

Try this mix, or come up a shade of your own. I like using acrylic as it keeps me away from the thin wash of turpentine or thinner and color. Any opportunity to avoid exposure to and use less solvent is a plus health wise.

Rainy Monday

Spring Blooms 9x12" oil on canvas (sold) plein aire piece

Today we are getting dumped on in the SF Bay Area. It is really raining here. A good day to stay in the studio! The above painting is what our local landscape will look like in about another 2 months. It is very green right now, but the wildflowers are not in bloom yet. Spring Blooms is a view of Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County, CA. from the Walnut Creek area.

I am going to sort through my brushes today. I never throw a brush away. When it gets worn, it just gets delegated to a new container to be used for a different purpose, (ie blending, scraping, etc). Well, at the moment I am counting 11 containers of brushes on my paint table that sits to the left of my easel. And as I reached for one, a moth flew out of it! When moths take up residence in your brush container, you know they haven't been used in a while..... Like I said, maybe it's time to get rid of a few.

Then I will move on to priming some canvases and cutting some boards. I want to glue canvas on to board to use for outdoor plein aire painting.

Winter days like this is a wonderful time to do all these tasks and get some studio painting done. Time to put the coffee on, I have some work to do......

Whoa, where have I been?

American Canyon 4" X 8" oil on canvas

Well, I certainly have not been very good at posting lately. Saying I suck at it would be putting it mildly. Life has its way of getting in the way most certainly.

It is a delicate balance of Art and life. Keeping dinner on the table, the garden in check, bills paid, and new art on the easel. I could sit and post that I cleaned up the garden today after our recent storms and turned two compost piles, incorporating many bags of free coffee grounds from Starbucks which promptly raised the temperature of both piles. But I know you don't care about that.......... where's the new painting? is what your thinking!

Since we had a high of 42° yesterday I painted in the studio. This little photo was done earlier than that as it was dry and ready to be photographed. I painted it from a watercolor sketch I made on location in American Canyon, Utah. Going through your field book to find something to paint is a great thing to do on a cold gloomy day when you don't want to go outside. My moleskine book is full of future paintings. And small paintings are fun and quick to paint and can be priced very reasonably for shows which helps in this economy.

Pacific Fine Arts Festival in Walnut Creek, CA

Come by and see me in Walnut Creek this weekend, Fri., Sat., or Sun., on the corner of Cypress and Locust. St. outside Sherman Clay Piano Store.  I haven't been blogging lately.  Too busy painting, and being a mom and working on the house.  A delicate balance.  Painting my muse on a daily basis even if is is late at night when no one is stirring.  No one asking me where the remote is, or what's for dinner.  As much as I love the computer I have to be careful with it.  A quick minute on it to check my mail can easily turn in to an hour!

Another Yosemite Painting

El Capitan Meadow  18x24" oil on canvas, studio piece

This is my newest painting, just delivered to the gallery.  It is an autumn scene of El Capitan Meadow in Yosemite with Half Dome in the background and El Capitan there on the left.  Again, this was done from field notes and sketches that I had done.  During the fall you can catch the meadow ablaze in color like this.  Almost appearing like it is on fire!

Yosemite is truly one of my greatest inspirations and favorite place to hike and sketch.

Yosemite Falls

Lower Yoemite Falls  20x16"  oil on canvas  studio piece

This painting was done using a plein aire sketch that I did earlier in the summer last June.  I literally finished it and then delivered it to a gallery and then realized that it was now hanging in the gallery and I didn't have a single photograph of it!

I pulled it off the wall last weekend and took a shot of it. I'd hate to see it sell and not have a photograph of it.  Be sure to always keep good records of all your work and photos of it.

In this painting I tried to show the power and energy of the falls and the calmness of the mist and haze in the atmosphere.  Balancing it all out.  I  love Yosemite.  Paint what you love and it will show in your work.