No Shows Scheduled For Now...and that's a really good thing!

False Starts:

I signed up for a 2016 weekly drawing forum in December, and (so far) I've posted exactly two drawings.

And since I started this blog, I have thought that I should draw more (and more frequently) and post more in this blog.

I've recently figured something out; that's not "me".

Unlike many artists, I don't draw "just to draw"; I think of an image--generally, for a painting--and I use drawing as a way to work out the composition for th painting is going to be.

I don't draw well fast; many artists seem to be able to create a detailed, skillful image quickly, effortlessly.

Not me.

I have to work at it, layer by layer (I use LOTS of tracing paper in refining my drawings) until I get something I like, something that approaches what the image in my head looks like.

I think one of the reasons why I haven't been producing as much art over the past year, is that I was (still) trying to force myself to draw more, and more often, and I want paying any attention to the ideas in my head, or how to develop them.

I've stopped that.

I'm back to working on a painting that I started more than two years ago, and I have a couple other paintings, too.  (Another thing I've realized is that I'm also not one of those artists who works on one painting at a time.  I'm more comfortable moving back and forth between several drawings and painting projects at the same time.)

For the first time in a long time (possibly the decade since I graduated from school) I don't have a show planned--and I'm perf call fine with that.

I am making plans; I want to have eight to twelve NEW paintings done by early Fall, and then I'll start looking for a place to show this new work.

But, for now, I a just going to concentrate on making the new pieces, and making them look as good as I possibly can.

No deadlines, no pressure...just the at I like it.

The image is a new painting in progress, a small commission piece, 6x 9, oils-on-panel.

One step towards my resolution: SOLD!

Tomorrow, I'm picking up That Certain Inner Radiance from Noir Arts & Oddities, as it was purchased by a local collector over the weekend.

It's my best sale in several years, and a terrific start towards my 2016 goal of selling more of my work.

I'll post the newest painting before the end of the month, too.

2016 Goal...Learn how to sell my art!

I'm not going to write a list of goals for the coming year this year, as I really only have one goal--figure out how to sell my paintings.

And, that one goal depends on another important thing happening--make lots of art to sell.

When I've set specific numeric goals in the past, it hasn't really "worked".  So I'm not going to psych myself up to make one painting a month, or anything along those lines.

And I'm not going to go looking for a show, or a gallery, until I have at least ten good, solid paintings finished.  (That's not a goal; that's a simple fact.)

So, my "goal" is to 1) make lots of new art, 2) find a gallery that will offer me a show, and 3) sell a bunch of the art in that show.

That's it.

Now, back to painting!

P.S.  It's always better for me to work out my goals once I've already started working on them.  "Arterial Trees" is nearly done, and I started a new painting last night...

More progress...

 Here are the "left" and "centre" panels in their current state of progress...

New Painting In Progress..."Arterial Trees"

Several years ago I bought three identical frames, with the hopes of making either a three-painting series, or a tryptich.

I opted for the latter.

This is at the very early stages, and it's going to involve several layers.

The background (sky) is airbrushed acrylics; the arterial tree is in oils.

Much more to follow...

Reflecting on InkTober...

No, I didn't post a new drawing every day for Inktober.

Not even close.  (Obviously.)

Yet, I did create a new drawing (that will be transferred to a canvas or panel this week, and which will become the start of a new painting by the end of the year).  Also, I did start a new painting, which you will see here shortly.

Perhaps tomorrow!

But, more importantly, InkTober did give me a chance to think about my art--and my art-making habits,--nd I arrived at a few sobering realizations, many of which I already knew, but hadn't internalized, or actualized.

(The time to internalize and actualize, is now.  Duh!)

I've come up with TONS of ideas for paintings, sculptures, and installations, over the years.  Hundreds easily, perhaps thousands.

I've discarded most of these (in all honesty, perfectly good) ideas because they remind me of another artist's work, or because they don't say what I think "my art" ought to say, or both.

This is a problem, first, because most people haven't seen the variety of art and artists I have, so they wouldn't recognize the similarities--and second,  if I create a number of pieces that each look "sort of like" a certain artist's work, together they won't' look like any one artist's work, and so will be taken as "my work", anyway.  Third, if I had bothered to develop these ideas past the "concept" stage, in all likelihood the simple act of me actually working on them would have taken them far beyond the "derivative" stage, and into a place where they would be built from "my style".

So, enough navel-gazing, enough "soul-searching", enough procrastination, enough feeling like I'm not good enough, or original enough--and far too many excuses.

New art is coming.

 Lots of new art.

Coming soon!

Work in Progress...

It's much easier to see "flaws" in your work if you step back from it, turn it upside down, or take a picture of it and look at it smaller.  I see lots of mistakes on this--and lots of potential, too.