Sunday, July 20, 2008

Endings and Beginnings





I've known for some time that I needed to shed a heavy responsibility in order to devote more time to not only painting, but marketing my work. Editing a newsletter was fun, and it used both my devotion to good design, as well as my love for the written word. But, and this was my own fault, it ate up so much of my time that there were at least seven or eight days a month when I neglected art. I polished and fussed with it so much that it ended up earning me a prestigious national award!

I was delighted of course, but I had already decided that it was time to jump headfirst -- scared or not -- into the ocean of professional artistry, and struggle mightily to swim with the big fish.

I've spent almost a month making sure that I painted every single day even if I couldn't spend many hours at it. This was my top priority, since I knew that the sweet flow of a paintbrush's confidence was in the hand of a practiced painter, not one who hesitated and floundered.

That's why I haven't been updating my blog as often. I'm also starting a newsletter, which will be intermittent, to send those who have chosen to receive it. That short, and infrequent, newsletter will only be to report news of shows, new paintings on my website or in other locations, and other items clients and potential clients would find of interest.

While I'm still working on portrait commissions, I also have one or two noncommissioned paintings in progress at the same time (One of the benefits of working in oil -- if you can't paint on one because it's too wet, you can go to another painting!).

So here are some of the paintings I've been working on that I still haven't posted to my website.

-- Nancy

www.nancyparkart.com
paintslinger.blogspot.com