98 visitors, 6 paintings sold, 2 commissions, phew! Very few breaks, great conversation with interesting people – Steve visited China almost 100 times and I could have listened to him for hours, Peg is an Irish citizen, someone else is interested in drawing lessons, TJ showed me a great photo of an old car in a field. . . it was quite a day!
This is the first time in the history of Three Rivers Studio Tour that Friday was included. I had 17 visitors including Cousin Charlotte whom I had met before but had no idea is a Marshburn cousin! I also met Abigail, a 3rd grader who wants to be an artist. When she reported to me that Father John Griesbach allowed her to paint on a painting at St. Anthony’s Retreat, I called her back into the studio to help me with some grasses on a painting. (Me, competitive??) This is how my studio looked before people arrived today.
My studio is in 2 buildings.
This is where I draw and do paperwork and occasionally teach private lessons.
This is inside the original studio, which was a shed for planing wood because the former owner used to make Cuckoo clocks!
Remember I said, “Pick something you love, because you will be looking at it for a long time”? Kirby loves this band called “Slipknot”. It is her fourth drawing with me. She is doing a very careful and thorough job. This is creepy to me, so I mostly help her from across the table, viewing the drawing upside-down. This is a very helpful technique when learning to draw, or even after one knows how to draw. It bypasses the part of your brain that names an item which prevents you from actually seeing, and forces you to see just the sizes, proportions, shapes, angles, etc.
This isn’t my real studio but it is the building where I paint. Hunh? Guess you’ll have to attend the Studio Tour, March 19, 20 and 21 to learn about it. But wait! There’s more! See that door with poppies on it? It is now NEW and IMPROVED!
Here is another example of working from a photo. The first step is to decide size and placement; second step is laying out all the pieces with a very light outline. Figuring out how to space the flower petals took some organized thought. This is Maleah’s second drawing with me. Lots of people already draw some before taking lessons; some have never tried it but have always wanted to. People get a little nervous and say “I really don’t know how to draw”. My answer to that is “No need – that’s why you want lessons!” 😎
After drawing one’s hand, the next step is to work from a simple photograph. I ask students to bring in photos, preferably their own. This is because A. there aren’t copyright “issues” (why do I dislike that word so much??) and B. one is familiar with the subject and C. one apparently likes the subject if the trouble was taken to photograph it! I say over and over “Pick something you love, because you will be staring at it for a long time”.
This is Rod’s first pencil drawing. Really! It is a step by step process, and break it down into as many steps as it takes for someone to be able to draw. This includes lots of demonstrating and explaining and practicing on scratch paper.
Learning to draw is about learning to see accurately and learning to handle the tools to depict what is seen. The first lessons are copying exercises, and then we move to drawing one’s own hand. This is how it can look:
All drawings start with the outlining stage. Here, Sara has her outline in place, and has begun to shade. We use a plexiglass viewing window to transform the 3 dimensional hand into 2 dimensions for the outlining process. This makes it easier to see what is really there. (It doesn’t show in this photo.)
People often confuse the word “consignment” with the word “commission”. May I help? Consignment: agreement to pay a supplier of goods after the goods are sold. Commission: to give an order for or authorize the production of a piece of art. I’d like to add a third word here: “conversation”. It means an exchange of words. I learned a long time ago not to count my chickens before they are hatched, although that is still my greatest talent! (also known as “optimism”) For the first several years of my business, I used to get so excited after someone said he’d like me to do a drawing for him. I was counting eggs, chickens and dollars, forgetting that until money exchanges hands and there are photographs on the table, it was simply c o n v e r s a t i o n. However, it never hurts to think about those conversations and tentatively plan. A lady emailed me to say she’d be coming to the studio during Studio Tour and she hoped I had some paintings of Fiesta ware. I don’t, but have been looking for a reason to paint some. I know that she did not commission me and hasn’t committed to buy anything. That’s okay, because I’m eager to do this subject matter. If I do a good job but it doesn’t suit her, someone else will probably want it! Here are the beginnings of three new paintings (probably best viewed from the back of a fast horse, or perhaps without corrective lenses at this point):
Oh, look! There are 2 Mineral King paintings – what a surprise! 😎
When I participate in various shows, I usually have expectations for great sales. (Optimism is a necessary ingredient for the self-employed.) Sometimes instead of sales, I just have conversations and hand out business cards and meet people. That is called “exposure” in Artland. It is a necessary thing – one needs to be exposed to the public in hopes that they will become the “buying public” someday. However, one can die of exposure, so when one’s career is a bit more established, those exposure events should be limited, in my opinion! Generally speaking I don’t do too many of those types of shows anymore, but Saturday night’s was pleasant despite the low turnout. Met lots of nice people, handed out business cards, sold a handful of paintings. The good news (there is almost always good news) is that I will have plenty of paintings available for The Studio Tour! Here is how my display looked:
Here are my semi-wild cats, AKA The Brown Ears (to separate them from The Boys, Perkins and Zeke).
If their tails don’t show, I still can’t tell who is Butch and who is O’Reilly.
Cashmere has missed her second appointment to be spayed at the veterinarian’s office. If she has kittens, want one?
Now that Butch has watched me try to catch his Mom and put her in a box, i.e. try to murder her before his very eyes not once but twice, I doubt that I’ll ever get to touch him.
O’Reilly continues to be an utterly delightful little feline!