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I am a better than "good" artist these days.    I am confident of my acquired skills and freedom to create.    I am a great teacher and good at it because I love it.         I am a responsible artist.    I work for the art community and organizations that support the arts:  Past President and now newsletter editor for the 100+ MidAmerica Pastel Society;  On the board of the Olathe Arts Alliance;  Volunteer with the Olathe Visual Artists doing monthly free workshops for the community;    I also belong to and support  several regional and national art organizations.   I try to stay as involved in the art world as I can.   Okay!  now that I have bragged about my worth to art, you can see that I am good at what I do.  right?

I have discovered that there is more to be a responsible artist than what I have laid out above.   And that I am really, really bad at it, in fact a miserable excuse when it comes to getting my art to the public... Being a marketer.   Professional Artists must make sure their art is seen.   I promised  my viewers and  myself several months ago  a blog a month.   Other artists do it.   I promised I would do an informational newsletter quarterly.  After all I do a newsletter for an art organization quarterly.  I don't even change out my old work on my website and add new paintings/drawings.    I leave anyone who may be interested in my work.....  hanging.  

So why you ask, or maybe you didn't because you already know.   I was told from day one, that if you are going to create art, you have a responsibility to yourself to show/display it.  And that when you show your paintings and drawings be prepared to sell them.  Ok I did that.  But as my expertise grew and my pricing structure did as well, the ability to hang a piece on the wall and see it walk out the door was no longer the norm.  I had to take time out of my creative life to become a marketing agent for my work.  That, like doing my sales taxes is unpleasant,  boring,  and very time consuming.  No artist wants to spend time on anything but creating.  Well maybe spending time with the grandkids, but....  you see where I am going.

If I want to be creative, I need paints, canvases and paper, Pencils, brushes, an easel and memberships to to organizations to keep yourself engaged.  And when you aren't good at marketing and selling, You're probably gonna need a "sugar Daddy".  Well I don't have one!    I am going to have to buckle down and "invest" time in all aspects of this new career.  

In the months and years to follow, I swear to myself and you, whoever is reading this, that I will work With the bad stuff.  This is mid August.   watch for  it.  August is a lot of whining and promises.  then September You will see some fun and new stuff and quite frankly some unabashed requests to look at the art, consider it for your home, and maybe contact me about a commission.      Yah I really mean it.   I am serious.   I will not fail! 

Go forward with your life, day to day, but don't expect tomorrow to look like what you planned it to look like.  Maybe it will be just what you thought it would be, but maybe not.  So be prepared to rethink, rebuild, and move ahead with no plan.  

2020 has been the year to test our resilience, to build character or to cause us to just hunker down and wait for this crisis to be over. I was just ready to get back to work, to teach, to do some workshops, and take on new students.... all socially distanced, some on-line only, and to do some writing.  But we decided on just a short trip mid-September to a secluded cabin in NE Iowa since we had been so confined since March.   Gorgeous place on 50 acres with a trout stream, and no people around.  We cooked our own meals, we stayed in and just enjoyed the scenery and night skies.  Brought our own linens and blankets, cookery, dishes, and silverware.  Perfect. 

Except for having to get gas on the way up and back, and a few fast food pick ups, no contact with anyone.   none!!!   Nevertheless, within 4 day of our return, we were sick.  yup Covid 19.  Fast forward 2 weeks and 3 days, and we are feeling well enough to get back to what we thought we'd be doing 3 weeks ago.  We have been very lucky, very blessed.  Felt crappy, but recovered quickly.   sooooo   back to planning the classes, the workshops... but always with a contingency plan, a back-up, if you have to spend your days sleeping rather than painting.  

I have purchased some wood panels from Trekell to paint on.  They are called floating panels, and combine the painting surface with the frame.  The painted surface looks like it is floating in the frame.   I will be using them for flower paintings and on a black background.  So Far the rounds are for lilies, the ovals for either orchids or wild flowers with bees, and the larger Renaissance shapes for floral bouquets.  Hope to add at least one a month so check back frequently.     

Think you might want to know more  about how those beautiful, vivid, pastel paintings are done?  OVA is sponsoring a free,  beginning discussion on the art medium of dry pastel on Saturday, July 25 from 2-4 pm at First Gallery Olathe, 12755 B12 Murlen Rd. 

Pastel was the medium of choice for many of the great masters...  Degas' ballerinas, Morrisot's beautiful children.   Today, there are art associations and shows just for pastel artists, and many professional artists who work only in pastel.   The Gallery will have a collection of Pastels for display for the weekend.  So plan on some extra time to enjoy the paintings.

This short workshop was originally scheduled in April, but Covid intervened.  Masks required and distancing will be enforced while you are in the Gallery. Only 10 reservations will be accepted.  We will start with a short history, the different types of pastel and how they are made.  We'll talk about the tools a pastel artist uses, and the types of papers available.  Then you will get to try the different brands and types of soft and hard pastels and get to take home a few samples.   Although the workshop is free, we would ask non-OVA visitors for a small donation for the Gallery.  Contact me at [email protected] if you have questions, or would like to reserve your space.  

The death of a favorite coffee cup is one of life’s little tragedies.  The handle fit your hand perfectly.  It kept coffee and tea hotter than all the others.  The color was so pleasant when you needed something uplifting. 

   I was washing dishes this morning (our dishwasher is broken!) and my morning coffee cup dropped from my soapy hands.  As it fell, I said a bad word because I knew when it hit the floor what the outcome would be.  I would need to make a change.  I didn’t initiate the change.  It was forced on me and I wasn’t going to like it.   Stupid soap.

    Change is not always welcome. Change is often forced on us and acquiescence is not always easy.  I didn’t use the word "acceptance" here for a good reason.  Change always brings opportunity and we have look for it and consent.   

    I was cleaning out some very old art magazines, and as I always do before they hit the recycle pile, I go through each one looking for articles worth keeping.  Articles I may not have been interested in years ago, now have new meaning.  One caught my eye and I read it top to bottom before I pulled it out.  It was more of an editorial comment, meant to encourage us to read on and it worked.   I kept the whole magazine. 

    As we grow as artists, any kind of artist,  we must think about some change to our style.   WOW!  How apropos for me right now. As we exercise our craft, improve our skills, and learn new techniques, why would we want to continue to do the same piece in the same way.  Why would we not want to make our work more exciting, more technically correct (for visual artists...  think composition, value and temperature)?  Why would we not want our work to draw in more viewers and tell a better story?  Why would we not want our work to attract buyers?    One thing can always be said about change.  It always offers opportunity.

    For those of you reading this who draw and/or paint, the article advocated looking at old work and choosing those that appeal to you today.  It suggested we repaint a scene with stronger color, or more or less detail, and then choose which variation appeals to you more.  It suggested we look at other painters’ work and think about what it is in their work that appeals to us.   How did they get that look and how can we add some of those colors or techniques to our work?   The most important take away from the article was that we should never shun an opportunity… Never be afraid to try something new.  Even a small change in the way we live, paint, create could be the new, even better, coffee cup. 

Art isn’t always about creating something beautiful.   There are art events that are not creative or exciting.  Cleaning and maintenance are mundane to say the least, but a necessary part of the process, and sometimes just a messy disaster.  Let me tell you about Crimson.  Alizarin is one of my favorite paint colors.  It is a deep, cool, transparent, staining red.  It makes gorgeous skin tones, intense purples and lavenders, and is perfect for so many flowers, skies, fabric.   

It was time.  I spent the morning cleaning up my palette, and putting way tubes of paint.  I found a tube of Sennelier oil Alizarin Crimson.  It was kind of a “spendy” tube of paint and I really love the hue of that particular Alizarin.   The plastic cap was cracked and oil had been leaking out, so I decided to use one of those metal tubes you buy to save a color you make, to save the Alizarin.  In case you are not familiar with those tubes, you can buy a box of them.  They come with a plastic screw lid and the bottom is open.  So you fill the tube from the bottom with the paint and, with a needle nose pliers, you press the bottom closed and roll it up to seal the tube.  Easy enough… I’ve done it a dozen times.

Since I’ve already hinted that there might be a disaster, you've already figured this “fill” didn’t go well, so let me fill you in on the "gory" details.  I insert the top of the Sennelier tube into the bottom of the new tube and I squeeze the paint from one tube into the other.  Easy peasy!!!  I roll the old tube up as I go so I am not wasting a bit of that precious Alizarin and the new tube is filled.  So now I just have to close the bottom. 

I can’t find my really good skinny needle nose pliers, so I grabbed a pair out my husband’s toolbox.  As I grip the bottom of the new tube with the pliers and squeeze it closed, I notice that these pliers have a little metal ridge near the tip.  And said ridge has punctured a small hole in the thin and pliable metal tube.  Alizarin is oozing from the puncture.  For those of you not familiar with Alizarin, as I said above, it is a very transparent, oily, staining, bluish red paint.  I have to stop to clean up the pliers, my hands and the tube from the oozing red paint.  I try a new tact, and switch to my regular pliers.  I am going to squeeze the end of the tube along the folded bottom to stop the leak, and roll the rest with my fingers just far enough to get beyond the puncture.   

I give the edge a slight squeeze with the pliers, and unfortunately am a little too far in.  I have punctured the tube, again.  A larger puncture, this time, that didn’t just ooze paint but exploded it onto the floor. The pliers are covered with Alizarin, and it is running down the tube and my hand.   I have just uttered a rather loud obscenity, and my husband comes running to the studio, sees blood red running down my hand, a glob of blood red on the floor and the trash can full of bloody paper towels.  You can recreate that scene as you will.  And I will not be repeating here what he had to say, but it had to do with the artistic mind, common sense, and leaving his tools alone.

So a word to the wise for all of the artists reading this,  before you replace a lid on any oil paint tube, take a half a minute and wipe any excess paint off the top before replacing the lid.  This will not only keep your paint from drying out or leaking oil, but will keep your lids from cracking and breaking, and is a much easier way to save those expensive oil paints!!