Painting in Order to Sell

Farewell at Dusk, 10×30″, oil on wrapped canvas, $500

There is an ongoing topic among artists about whether or not it is right to paint in order to sell. In general, the two schools of thought are:

  1. Do Your Own Thing And Express Yourself And If Nothing Sells At Least You Haven’t Sold Your Soul
  2. You Are In Business So You Had Best Please The Customers And Be Grateful They Like Your Work Enough To Part With Their Hard-Earned Dollars

It is clear that I belong in School #2.

Paint it out

Sometimes I paint something because I love it, and then I have to paint it out because no one in the local market of buyers agrees. The recent conversion of a river scene to sequoia trees is a prime example.

Paint it again

Sometimes I paint something that sells, so I paint it again and it sells again, and so on and so forth. Here is a recent example of that situation. Six times? Seven? I lost count. Because it was so popular, I painted the most recent version in hopes of selling it at the Silver City Store this summer. (Nope. . . is it waiting for you?)

Sawtooth Near Sunnypoint IX, 12×24″, oil on wrapped canvas, $550

Paint what I love

And the best of all is when I paint something just because I want to, and then it sells. But sometimes that feels disappointing because I wanted to keep it. (So what’s the problem? Just paint it again!)

Paint it better

Sometimes I paint something, it doesn’t sell, and then I have to figure out why not. I did that with this painting of redwood and dogwood, and it sold very quickly after the do-over. (I was tempted to name it Red Dog but knew that was a loser from a marketing standpoint.)

The challenge with every scene, but particularly those I’ve painted many times is to make it the absolute best I can every time. No auto-pilot, no “phoning it in”, no sleep-painting. Focus, focus, focus. 

As I often tell Nancy of Kaweah Arts, “I came here to earn a living, and I’d rather repaint a scene that bores me than be a waitress.” 

The best way to not be bored while repainting a popular scene is to continually challenge myself to find a way to make it the best I can. Because. . .

I use pencil, oil paint, and murals to make art that people can understand of places and things they (not me) love, for prices that won’t scare them (but allow me to continue eating).

Facelift, Figuratively Speaking.

The heat backed off a little and two places that sell my work requested more. 

I started with the river painting do-over. It sat on an easel with its buddy non-selling river painting. . .and got a facelift. . .…but we will wait until the bruising subsides and the stitches get removed.

I mean we will wait until it is dry enough to be scanned before doing an actual comparison.

And a Final List in a Week of Lists

List Lady, that’s me. They help me think and prioritize. (I like charts too… doesn’t everyone?)

This list is all the things that I can do instead of making lists when this very busy week is in my rearview mirror (figuratively speaking).

  1. Fix the oil painting of the North Fork of the Kaweah River with Blossom Peak(s) in the distance.
  2. Paint a new oil painting of pumpkins, titled “Unspiced #2” as a replacement for the painting “Unspiced” which I feel confident will sell. (Yeah, yeah, I know, I told you this already.)
  3. Paint out another river picture that has been hanging around too long. I believe this one is still here because very few of the visitors to Three Rivers and Kaweah Arts recognize this view of the river. (It’s not because the boulders sort of resemble potatoes, but thank you for your thoughtful input.) I plan to use the canvas for another Sequoia tree painting, because that is what the bulk of the passers-through our area want to see.
  4. Paint a few more Sequoia trees for Kaweah Arts.
  5. Design and bid 2 more murals, this time for a new building in Visalia called The Loft or The Artist Loft or Loft for Artists. (Notice how the word “loft” ceases to sound correct after a bit of repetition?) That bid proposal has a deadline of December 11, but I have a few very strong ideas and have to figure out if I need to paint the scenes to scale for my submissions or if I should use existing paintings that are somewhat proportionally correct.
  6. Relearn how to write blog posts without resorting to lazy listicles.

Waiting. . . and Making Lists

Today is a peek into the life of a professional artist. A working artist. A self-employed artist. A rogue, solo, maverick artist. Something.

So many jobs on hold. Time for a listicle:

  1. Finished a commissioned drawing but the customer isn’t ready for it.
  2. Framed a drawing requested by a business to use in a display, but the proprietor hasn’t told me when she’ll be there to receive it.*
  3. Been chosen to supply art for a new office building but the Committee hasn’t made its decisions yet.
  4. Been asked to paint a mural but the Asker hasn’t returned my calls.
  5. Sketched a few ideas for that mural but since the Asker hasn’t told me the budget, I don’t know how big to make the mural.
  6. Designed and bid 3 murals for a large project and waiting to hear if my ideas and prices are acceptable.
  7. Ready to paint a replacement in anticipation of selling something from Falling into Winter at Exeter’s Art Gallery and Museum (formerly known as The Courthouse Gallery). I’m certain this one will sell. (6×12″, Unspiced, $125)

*UPDATE: THE DRAWING OF THE GATEWAY BRIDGE IS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE THREE RIVERS HISTORICAL MUSEUM.

Projects Pending in a Lazy Listicle

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog.

Today’s post of pending projects comes in the form of a Lazy List. This is because A. Many details are unknown; therefore B. Details cannot be revealed yet, and C. I am busy!

  1. A cabin sign (this has been pending for awhile because I was gone and it is too hot to paint and several other excuses which no one wants to hear)
  2. Drawing lessons resume September 6
  3. A mural on a bathroom at a county park
  4. Some drawings for a new county building
  5. A mural on a county library
  6. A group show at Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery and Museum titled Falling into Winter means I need to round up some appropriate pieces

Quick, I need to find a photo to reward you for completing this list.

I agree with this sheep about today’s blog in terms of excitement.

What a rude set of photos. Kittens make everything better, and they keep their tongues in their mouths too.

After tomorrow’s monthly Learned List, I will be quiet for about a week. Let not your hearts be troubled.

 

Sold in Summer

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog. 

Sales have slowed down a bit, which makes me concerned for my sellers and their businesses. However, I remain both busy and optimistic with some new projects pending. That will appear in another post.

Sequoias, some poppies remaining from spring, one commission, and the rest was Mineral King, of course. No pencil drawings this time.

 

But, summer isn’t over, not in weather, nor the calendar. Of course, the calendar says September 21 is the beginning of fall, but everyone knows that Labor Day is the other bookend to Memorial Day, holding together those weeks that remind us of the beach, fluffy reading, swatting mosquitoes, fireworks, watermelon, road trips, cowering in the A/C, and a sense of NEEDING to be off work.

Thus we conclude another peek into the (seasonal) business of art.

A Repair and an Agreeable Customer

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog.

Repair

This returned painting now has a cleaned up sky, new snow on Bearskin and new whitewater in the creek. I photographed it wet, which is why the color looks patchy. It is not actually inserted in the frame, which is why it looks unframed. Duh. I just propped it in the frame so I could photograph it.

Redo for an Agreeable Customer

 This sign was well used and loved for 10 years.

The customer asked for a larger one this time, so I ordered a 20″ round instead of the 12″ version. After applying 3 coats of exterior paint to both sides, I decide that the back of the round would make a more interesting sign than the flat front. The customer is very agreeable, so that’s what I will do.

I used oil paint on the first sign because I was unable to achieve a satisfactory level of detail with mural (acrylic) paints. Because this one is bigger, I am going to try it in the mural paints, and then if the detail needs to be tightened up, I will finish it off with oil paints.

I love these custom jobs for agreeable customers with no deadlines.

 

 

Many Happy Returns (and some not quite as happy)

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog. 

Three Returns

One advantage (and disadvantage) of being in the art business in the same county year after year after year, is that sometimes your art gets returned to you. Some are happy returns, some are hassley returns.

The circle is a sign, painted by me about 10 years ago. The customer was happy and now the disintegrating sign needs to be replaced, larger this time.

The citrus art was for sale at Farmer Bob’s World, and nothing sold. The customer wasn’t happy, apparently. (Who was the customer? No one.) I am happy that I can sell it in a place with greater visitation.

Many years ago when I began oil painting, a friend (because almost everyone in Tulare County is a friend, unless he is a friend of a friend) bought this painting. That friend has moved on to his reward, and the painting was given to the Mineral King Preservation Society. The MKPS brought it to me because it needed a little attention after all these years. This is not a happy return because my friend is gone, but it is a happy return because I can spruce it up.

Interruption: What is Pippin Doing?

If This Ever Gets Returned…

The customers presented this painting to the happy recipient, who got a little teary-eyed. He and I have many things in common, and we just chattered away about various aspects of this painting, such as how the idea was conceived, what exactly is in it, why I left some things out, and how much we love this view. He is sort of like anutter brutter from our utter mutter. (And if this painting gets returned, I’m hanging it in my house!)

No More Return

I returned to this colored pencil drawing. The original concept was to only use the 24 Prismacolor colored pencils in their limited set. Those stupid pencils kept breaking, so I started using lots of other colors too. It reminded me of one of the many reasons I quit using colored pencils.

I doubt if I will be returning to colored pencils any time soon.

Not Returning This Either

About a year ago after a whole lot of trouble, I finally bought a mini fridge for the painting workshop. The freezer is where I store my oil painting palette, a convenient luxury. The big box store was TERRIBLE to deal with. A few weeks ago when I retrieved my palette, it was HOT inside the fridge. Sigh. I unplugged it, pulled it off its pedestal, propped the door open, and now I have to figure out how to get rid of it. I am NOT going back to the extremely inept, incompetent, undertrained, understocked, understaffed, and apathetic big box store. Instead, I will consider it one year of luxury, now both a memory and a hassle. (Learned in June 2021, #10)

Just Twelve Colors

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog.

I have an artist friend in Kansas named Carrie Lewis. I found her on the internet some years ago while looking to see what other artists were blogging about, and how their blogs were working. Carrie works in colored pencil, and because I love to draw, used to use colored pencils, and still help some of my drawing students with colored pencils,I thought I could learn from her. 

A few weeks ago she asked me to write a guest post for her. This is the link: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Colored Pencils. 

After she posted it, the ideas started coming for more posts. Along with those ideas came intense summer heat and a desire to cower in my air conditioned studio instead of painting in the swamp-(barely)-cooled workshop.

I own a tremendous number of colored pencils, and I seldom use them for anything except putting color on American flags in pencil drawings and lending them to my drawing students. (I have way way more than these, and this is after thinning them out a few years ago!)

Because I paint using the primary colors, I’ve wondered why I think I need so many colors of pencils. I don’t. I really don’t need them all. Colored pencil manufacturers sell starter sets of 12 colors, and it is a great challenge to see if I can produce pieces using only those 12 colors.

My first set of 12 came from Aunt Shirley for my birthday in 5th grade (age 10, I think). I still have 2 pencils from that set. (I can tell by the typestyle.)

By looking on the internet, I learned the 12 colors that were originally in the Prismacolor starter box. (It was clear plastic and it finally cracked. . . wahhh. It was so cool.) I also learned which 12 colors are in the Polychromos starter set. Then I went through my pencils and filled a box with those 24 pencils, along with back-ups and pencil extenders (circled in photo). The back-up pencils are for Prismacolors, because they break and break and break and. . .

I started a colored pencil drawing using just the 12 Prismacolor pencils.

Colored pencils are difficult for me to get an exact match, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is making beautiful, plausible, believable, realistic art. Because. . .

Using pencils, oil paint and murals, I make art that people can understand, of places and things they love, for prices that won’t scare them.

Good For Something

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog.

It is hot outside. The painting workshop has a swamp cooler, which is good for some temperatures.

The heat is good for drying paintings outside. 

The recently watered studio garden is good for Pippin.

The studio has a little air conditioner in the wall, which is good for days that the swamp cooler cannot handle.

Painting is too messy for my studio, but the studio is good for drawing.

Next week I’ll show and tell you what I am doing inside as I cower in the A/C, hiding from the heat. We Central Californians are mostly used to very hot summers, and we know how to deal with them.