Painting, Painting, Painting

Today is going to be another painting day.  Still have lots of unpainted items in my inventory so I need to get those things painted and ready for either online and local shops.  Several years ago we were doing shows and festivals regularly, therefore I had lots of business.  So to support those sales, I bought lots of things to paint.  Then life happened.  My husband had some medical problems that seemed to go on and on and some other things happened also.  With so much going on, I didn't paint much and we didn't have many sales.  Those unpainted items have just been sitting in our garage/workshop for a couple of years.  It doesn't do any good for items to sit unpainted, no opportunity for sales.  They just take up space and don't produce any revenue.  So, I am trying to get all or most of that "stuff" painted, then photographed and load to my online stores.

On October 1 and 2 I will have a booth at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens, just down the road from where we live.  Received confirmation yesterday.  This will be our first festival in about 18 months, so I need to make sure that I have inventory for this show.  There are also a couple of small local festivals for which I am going to sign up. With the economy it will be interesting to see how sales are.

Up early and a cool morning.  Maybe I can get lots of things done today.

In addition to all the painting that I have been doing, I taught a painting class yesterday at Michaels, two students.  We worked on painting trees for two hours.  Feedback was good, both students agreed that they would like to learn techniques rather than having a small painting done.  Good feedback.

Tobacco Barn

Tomorrow, I will teach my regular Thursday class at the YMCA.  Painting an old tobacco barn.  Last week we had lots of interesting discussions about angles and perspective.  So, we are going to finish this painting then have a class on just perspective and how to determine angles for buildings.  Jerry Yarnell published a book on Perspective so that is what I using to study and learn more about perspective.  Most of us don't realize how much you have to work at something to get ready to teach.




       

Art Show at Town Crier Antique Mall

Yesterday was an interesting day.  Temp outside registered 102+ at our house about 3 in the afternoon.  However, the official temp at the airport was only 98.  Walking outside, it felt as though you were walking into an oven.  Luckily I spent almost the entire day inside at the Town Crier Antique Mall in Belmont, only about 3 miles from my house.  This is a new store which opened in March.  Yesterday, they had an art show and invited me to participate.  So I gathered paintings, lighted painted wine bottles, wine bottles covered with polymer clay, and some frames covered with polymer clay leaves which included original photography, and headed over there on Saturday morning.  I was also invited to set up a painting studio and paint during the day, so I also had my oil paints, easels, canvas, business cards, and some brochures.  Great opportunity to promote my art.

Town Crier is a nice store with a variety of items from antiques to new items.  The store is divided up into several rooms with partitions between each booth.  Like most stores, there are large and small booths for rent.  I was able to set up my easels and paints in one of the larger unrented booths. The Art Show was in another of the large unrented booths.  Unfortunately, there were very few entrants for the show and Nancy, the owner and an artist, was unable to get additional judges, so I agreed to be a judge with Nancy.  I took my items out of the show and placed them for exhibit only.  We awarded five ribbons for place and additional ribbons for participation.  I felt good about how we awarded the ribbons.  One of my painting students, Mary, received a ribbon for her work which made me very proud.

The morning and early afternoon were very slow with only a few customers. One customer looked at my art, was surprised that I was painting an animal portrait and accepted a brochure and card.  She said that she was not aware that anyone local did animal portraits.  I was working on an oil portrait of a Schnauzer, still in the very early stages.  I try never to get my hopes up that someone who talks about my work and accepts a brochure will call and commission a portrait.  Too many times have I heard people say that they will call and you never hear from them. That sounds like dating doesn't it?   Cannot count the number of brochures and business cards that I have given out.  That is the nature of the game. Took a break mid afternoon and went home for a couple of hours then returned about 6 hoping for more traffic in the store.  Still there were very few people in the store until closing.  The owner even commented that the fish camp (our local name for a fish restaurant) had very few cars in the parking lot so apparently people were not out and about yesterday because of the heat.  Gave out a couple more brochures last night.  Nancy seemed genuinely interested in my art and made several comments about the variety of art.

Maybe something will come of my investment in the day, maybe not.  At least I was able to get some work done on the Schnauzer.  I will keep painting and I will keep trying to promote my art in different ways.  I will also continue to make contacts wherever I can.  You never know where something or someone will lead.