We're Worth the Money!

Doctors and lawyers are called professionals, and are paid in sums that, in most cases, guarantee a luxurious lifestyle. The kind of intense education they've undergone, and frequently upgrade, builds a respect for their professions that pays them well. Some put in eighteen hour days and work weekends, and these don't have a lot of time to enjoy their wealth.

Artists should also be called professionals. We start learning as children, and never stop the process of developing our skills during our lifetimes. Expensive travel and workshops. Equipment and supplies. Minds that are always open to new experiences in expanding our talent and inspiration. If we think of ourselves as professionals, it adds an left-brain consciousness to our right-brain creativity.

On paper, so that you'll be able to look at it again during periods of self-doubt, total up the value of the physical necessities for your overhead. Two large easels, one French easel, canvases and masonite, frames, oil paint, watercolors, with brushes for both. Add in your entry fees for shows, and shipping costs to get your art to these shows. Art magazine subscriptions to learn where to enter these shows. If you travel to art fairs and exhibits, add the tent, vertical surfaces for hanging paintings, horizontal surfaces for paperwork and crafts, and seating. Motels, travel expenses and larger vehicles or trailers should go into this list. Learn a word: amortization. Then look at all the equipment you've worn out and replaced, and how often you run through your brushes and paint. The cost of replacement is amortization. (I realize I'm only talking about painting, but you sculptors and crafters make a list, too!)

That's the physical. Now add in the mental part of absorbing new information through your art sources: museum or gallery fees, researching new venues, setting up a web site, and the bravery of approaching respected galleries about representing your art. This is the part I still haven't gotten the guts to do -- after all these years of growing in my art, to be rejected by a gallery would feel deadly.

All of these things, plus the continuing education of attending demonstrations and workshops, reading books by master painters and draftsmen, should all now be applied to the physical costs of materials, equipment and amortization. Add it up as if you're an accountant making up a business plan for someone else -- then apply it to yourself. I'm taking the prices off the paintings on my website. I'm following through on a business plan. My next step is finding a gallery. Rejection happens to everyone. It's just business, and we all will find the right gallery for us.

Remember what your doctor's receipts look like? "Short visit, return visit, lab," etc.? Include everything and remember that you're a professional. Never sell yourself short. That self-respect and knowledge will bring in more people who love your art enough to pay well for it.

We're definitely worth the money.

Nancy
www.nancyparkart.com
paintslinger.blogspot.com

Painting with an Artist Friend

I never realized how lucky I was to have a friend who was an artist and a peer in achievement. We enjoy getting together and painting. We both volunteered to do demonstration painting at the Festival of the Arts in Oklahoma City April 22nd. We also volunteered to come back on the 24th. It was windy, so we set up inside the tent this time, and Verna posed for me instead of painting.

On the first day, she set up her easel about eight feet from me, facing the other direction, so it was obvious to another volunteer, Fred (whom we had never met), whenever we walked over to each other and offered constructive advice. We also ask each other to give a critique during a session. Somehow, it never seems intrusive when someone you respect as much as we honor each other. I have learned very much from her, and I’m sure she feels the same way about me. She was helping me to lose edges and soften shadows. I was helping her to emphasize her light source with a cast shadow and making her center of interest the area of greatest contrast.

Fred, the “stranger” artist, did not realize what we were doing, and thought we were behaving rudely to each other – until he finally noticed that we were very receptive to each other’s suggestions. Then he asked what we were doing. When we explained, he recognized the advantage immediately. After an hour or so, he came over to me to ask me to “critique” his painting!

I’m not sure that what Verna and I were doing felt like a critique when we asked each other for help. I think of critiques as reviews of finished work, whereas we help each other during the painting. One of the reasons we can do that is that our styles are different and complementary. Neither of us expects the other to follow the leader, so the friendship is both comfortable and challenging at the same time. Any advice she gives me, I take seriously and usually act on it. She gives me the same respect, and I think the differences in each individual’s area of knowledge is extremely helpful in learning and growing.

I wish that everyone had such an artist friend. We are both lucky in finding one another, not just as friends, but as cultivators of technique, talent, tips and education. This is a portrait I did of her at the Festival of the Arts – and yes, she gave me advice freely as I painted. Such gentle advice falls lightly on the sensitive artist’s soul. Find such a friend – I know you can!

Nancy Park

www.nancyparkart.com
Paintslinger.blogspot.com

Uncovering Your Unique Style

Artists have always been labeled, but we’re more flexible, and unfortunately more amenable to accepting others’ opinions of what kind of art we’re doing than we should be. When we start out as artists, we create art that is so natural to us that we mistakenly think we have no particular style. I remember trying to let figures emerge from dark backgrounds like Rembrandt. It was a style I was trying on for size.

A neighboring young artist’s walls were filled with vivid, striking images that he outlined in black. When I talked to him about his dramatic style, he looked puzzled. He said, “… but that’s the way I see the world – it’s not a style.” Another artist I worked with used soft colored images that were tonally similar. Again, this is the way he saw things. It was his reality.

Many of us have had the experience of leaving fine art for a long time before we rededicate ourselves to it. Raising a family or holding a job can take all our creative energy. I was both lucky and unlucky to have a “day” job that both fulfilled my artistic urges and denied them.

How? Easy.

1. I was a commercial artist who started out learning how to do the psychedelic Peter Max style illustrations, then followed the trend into Art Nouveaux Redux, and rather prided myself on being able to imitate any artist’s style for advertising and publishing purposes. That was my day job, and I won awards for it. It fed me, clothed me, and put a roof over my head.
2. At home I was a fine artist who did portrait commissions and painted my own dreams. I joined art groups and painted from models; entered shows and sometimes came away with awards and cash.

But, even working at home, I still thought of myself as an artist with no particular style, because of my ability to imitate the styles of others. I had no identity as a fine artist that I could recognize.

Now that I’m doing fine art exclusively, I’m thinking. Really thinking hard. You have to think about what you’re doing, or it’s only irrational excess. Animal reflexes. And the thoughts are: what way do I paint when I am painting exactly what I want to paint? Are there particular strokes or color mixtures that are part of my identity? Is there a particular “twiddle” that is mine and recognizable as mine? Look at the masters and see if you do something similar to one or two of them. Look away from your works and quickly glance at them, with a cold eye, as if you’re a stranger. That cold eye can also be encouraged if you hold a mirror to the artwork and look at its mirror image.

And ask yourself the crucial question: given that I can paint/draw/sculpt any subject that I want, what subjects identify my art and my style the most?

Now that we’re beginning to recognize our style, our quirks and our particular genius, do we want to trim away the subject matter that does not reflect our style well? Hard decisions have to be made, because each of us is allotted only so much time in the world.

I’m still in the middle of trimming my inventory to my most beloved subjects; the ones where I apply every brush-stroke with dedication, but you’ll see my website cluttered with many things that I haven’t been able to abandon. It’s an ongoing process, and I work on it. As long as you create, you’ll always keep honing the effort to refine and nourish your own style.

Nancy
www.nancyparkart.com

New Paintings Up!

I've just added ten more paintings to my website. To take a look, click the url below. Here are a couple of the new ones. Ah, art is all of life itself!

Nancy
www.nancyparkart.com

Festival of the Arts

The Festival of the Arts, Oklahoma City's biggest draw in outdoor art shows, has invited the Oklahoma Art Guild to participate in the show by asking members to do demonstrations from Tuesday, April 22nd, through Saturday the 26th. Four of us will occupy one tent and paint (or whatever each volunteer does best) for four-hour segments.

The demos are from 10 am to 2 pm, 2 pm to 6 pm, and 6 pm to 9 pm. I'm delighted to be one of the demonstrators! The best way to spend time well is to take a dip into eternity, and that's what creating art does for artists. (The pay's certainly not that good!)

Here I am, working on the first sketch in a portrait commission.

Nancy
www.nancyparkart.com

Oops! Correction...

I should have looked at my painting first before I said anything. It's the artist's painting that is in the sweet spot! Sorry.

Nancy
www.nancyparkart.com