Coming: A Jungle Painting

I've been inspired to do a tropical/jungle painting...with a white peacock sitting on a branch or something!

It'll be somewhat of a first for me. But I entered an exhibition at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino, CA. If accepted, I'd like to have this painting in the show, along with some desert subjects (always gotta have desert subjects!)



OK, OK...this peacock isn't white, and he's not sitting on a branch, either. It's likely the treeferns will be moved around somewhat, too, and the scene will be darker than the photo.

But having the photos gives me some raw materials to look at as I work out the details. I may include coconut palms, too -- the idea for that came from a digital image I saw on deviantArt.com. In the end, the finished image will be completely my own, and it'll have a mystical, fantasy feel about it.

Now -- if I don't get into the exhibit...well, I'll probably still make this painting. But it won't appear on my Website, which will feature only desert artwork. (If it appears there at all, it would be on my monthly newsletter.

This painting will be a lot of work, but I think it'll be fun, too. And it'll give the creative juices to flow in a direction I'm not used to.

Once again...wish me luck!

Art Shows Are Done

Both art shows are finished, I picked up the remaining paintings from the 29 Palms show today, and now it's time to do some reflectin'.

Unbeknownst to me, my #1 art collector purchased two small paintings during the run of the 29 Palms show. (He also bought three pieces before the shows even began). So that means I sold four items at the 29 Palms show, plus two paintings at the other (San Dimas), for a total of six paintings between the two shows and three paintings directly to the collector. Grand total = nine paintings!

Thankfully, after commissions I should receive enough funds to replace the shocks and tires on my Toyota p/u truck, which should enhance the safety and reliability of our vehicle considerably.

On another note, The Wiffee and I had dinner with some potter friends last night. As we often do, we talked about issues like the art business and surviving this depression. Their experiences with recent shows indicate California, especially southern California, has a -zero- art market these days. The potters felt shows in Montana and Colorado were much more profitable for them, although they encountered more expenses with the far-away shows. My own research suggests Texas, the South and the Eastern seaboard are more likely receptive to the type of painting I do (but not necessarily southwestern themes, except for TX). All far away. Si-i-g-g-h-h-h...

So...I think my continuing strategy will be to focus on selling via my Website and do everything I can to make it more visible and search-engine friendly. For now, shows (other than the two I just finished) are too expensive to enter and too risky to try, and I really can't afford to spend money on a lot of frames right now, either. I'll paint small pieces with the idea of making them the absolute best I'm capable of, and spending less time painting and more time computing.

We'll see how it plays out. When the depression ends, maybe I can turn to the usual venues again. But for now, I gotta guard our money carefully.

More Sales?

It's getting close to the time when I'll be heading back out to San Dimas to do the second weekend of the art show (see previous posts for details).

Last Friday, two small paintings sold (not that I was some great salesman -- the customers bought the pieces without, as far as I remember, even talking with me first). Attendance seemed OK to me, but the docents and staff felt there were fewer people than usual. Problem: the Los Angeles County Fair is going on this month, and it's not that far away. Apparently, businesses in San Dimas suffer when the fair is running its course. One local shop I stopped at was closed -- an hour early!

Saturday night, a few people showed up, but things were pretty slow.

So, both this show and the show in Twentynine Palms have produced two sales each. I'll get enough to buy a new set of tires I badly need. Four more sales, and I'll be able to buy a new set of shocks, as well. Even more sales, and maybe we'll be able to pay bills and/or have other repairs made. Let's hope for more sales!

Just this weekend to go, and then the San Dimas show is finished. Then I face a different challenge: I received a jury summons, and if I actually need to appear, it'll be next Monday.

Oh, brother!

Art Shows in San Dimas

I'll be making some valiant efforts at trying to sell paintings the next two weekends in San Dimas, CA at an upstairs gallery space in a historic house. A restaurant operates on the first floor, and in theory, anyway, people eat dinner and then wander upstairs to look at and (hopefully) buy art!

So-o-o-o ... I'm hopeful I'll be able to add to our bank account so we can survive a bit longer, if not a LOT longer.

On Tuesday, I hung the paintings, adjusted the lighting and took care of all those details that go with doing a show like this. Following are some pix of the two rooms I have all to myself:



Wish me luck! I'm still looking forward to taking a painting break and see if I can overcome some of this burnout I've been experiencing. (Some sales might even help that -- but we'll see!)

Today's Artist Reception

Ahhh ... survived today's artist's reception, with ME as the artist. Three hours of standing, schmoozing, nibbling on goodies, and staying inside trying to keep cool. (It's still HOT here in the desert!)

But it was fun, and it got me out of the house -- being a full-time artist has turned me into a hermit who needs to be in the studio and, to a lesser extent, near the computer. So events like this encourage me to keep my social skills polished.

So far, we've sold two small paintings -- one sold on the day I delivered the paintings to the gallery, and the other sold today. Let's hope this trend continues!

The photos show the room containing my paintings and some of the people who came to check out my stuff. Some of these guys are artists themselves. Networking is always a good idea, even for artists.

Still Not Over

I guess the recession still isn't over.

I e-mailed an artist friend to find out how he did at an outdoor western art show he did Memorial Day weekend. This is normally one of his better shows, and I've never heard him say it didn't go so well.

Until this week. It sounded like not only did he NOT do well, the other artists didn't either. Apparently he's also considering not doing the show again, at least for a while. Translated: until the da*ned economy picks up.

I guess the recession still isn't over.

LQAF

"LQAF" stands for the "La Quinta Arts Festival." (La Quinta is a town east of Palm Springs, CA). The Festival is going on this weekend and is generally considered a good show for artists to be in. It's located in a high-income area and sales are often good for the artists. The economy has hit this show as it has others, and I'm not sure where it rates today compared to other shows.

The Palm Springs newspaper featured an online photo gallery of the show, and the CBS affiliate broadcast a story on the LQAF. As you might note from the images, the art one sees there does NOT look anything like the traditional paintings I make (see my Website). This is one of the reasons I don't enter shows like this anymore -- I don't fit into these contemporary art festivals.

And in the case of the LQAF, I have other, more personal reasons why I won't enter, or even pay to visit, this particular show. In fact, I know a number of artists who feel the same way -- we have the same axes to grind, I suppose. I can't say how many of us have already burned bridges with the Festival folks.

Still, for the locals, it's relatively inexpensive entertainment and (hopefully) OK profit for the artists who are showing there.

Good luck to all.

Art Studio Tours

This last weekend I participated in the local art studio tours.

If you've been been on one of these (either as an artist or a visitor): the artists open up their homes or studios (or both, for guys like me who have their studios in their homes) so people can see where the artists work on their creations. Of course, the primary objective for the artists is to sell stuff.

In some ways, a studio tour is more work than an art show in a park or similar setting. A space in a park normally doesn't require cleaning, dusting, sweeping, moving items out of the space and putting them elsewhere out of view, and other miscellaneous activities.

I'm typically tired after a show, but today, all I did was sleep!

At least we made some money, but not enough considering: (a) what we need, and: (b) considering how much time and work went into it.

Well, art shows in the parks aren't going that well for most of us artists, and I'm not convinced a studio tour is that much better, especially in this economy and in southern California.

This is one of the pieces I did manage to sell.

Dante's View

Our local artist studio tours (officially known as the Hwy. 62 Art Tours) begins tomorrow morning. I would have loved to have had time to get more paintings done, but I think I always feel that way!

The main thing is: in about 50 hours from now, I should know if we'll have enough $$$ to continue on and survive for a while longer.

This is a piece I finished recently with the Art Tours in mind, although it isn't a local scene, strictly speaking. This is Dante's View in Death Valley National Park. (I guess someone must have thought the view was a little like Dante peering into the depths of hell!)

The white areas are salts and minerals that are left behind after rainwater runoff from the mountains collects and evaporates. The salt pan isn't always present -- the last couple of years I was in Death Valley, I saw very little white. Apparently, rainfall was too low (even for Death Valley), and I assume high winds blew the salt out of the Valley.

But the two times I was at Dante's View, the landscape was absolutely stunning.

I've also noticed a couple of ravens that always seem to hang out near the parking lot. I painted one of them flying out into the space to the left, able to see (but maybe not appreciate) the overwhelming beauty of this special place.

Whew!!!

Re: the title -- that's not "Whew, it's over." It's "Whew, am I working my butt off!"

The area I live in is having two weekends of open studio tours where many of the artists' studios and homes in the high desert are open for business. I've been preparing for this coming weekend (24-25 October), and it's been VERY busy.

I won't have as many items available as I had hoped, but I'll still be able to offer a variety of price points for numerous desert paintings, as well as a few western landscapes.

The sponsoring organization has both a hardcopy program (for $10 -- I'll have a few of those to sell) and an online pdf version, as well. You can see it here. (It is a 20-page document, so be patient as it loads up). Information on finding me appears in the upper righthand corner of page 6.

This will be a busy week, so I don't know if I'll be able to post again until the studio tour is over. So -- have a good Monday and a great week!

Three Exhibits

I was juried into the show in San Diego! It's hard to believe, but now I have works in three different shows and locations:

• Gallery 21, Spanish Village in Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, April 2-13, 2009;
• Hi-Desert Nature Museum, Yucca Valley, CA, ; March 7 - April 25, 2009;
• Twentynine Palms Art Gallery, Twentynine Palms, CA, March 30 - April 28, 2009.

All paintings in these shows are, of course, desert paintings. It'll be interesting to see how desert paintings go over in a seaside community.

The paintings in the San Diego show are featured above. So if you're in any of these areas within the dates I mentioned, stop by and have a look. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me through my Website at http://www.southwestspaces.com.

Show Me the Art, If Not the Money

Art shows are funny critters. By art shows, I mean the outdoor kind that spring up like mushrooms for a weekend at a park, street, plaza or parking lot. Then by Sunday night, like a mirage, all evidence of bustling activity vanishes.

Shows can vary widely in the patrons who comes, from serious collectors to impulse buyers to people who want to walk their dogs and get a dose of culture at the same time. You can see a range of artists and their wares, too--some are "Artists with a capital A," others are simply self-employed individuals who happen to have some skill at creating artwork or craft items, and some who are not artists at all but who buy artzy-looking things wholesale and sell them retail.

Some day I'll have to write a collection of short stories based on what goes on at art fairs. I could show both the artists' and the buyers' viewpoints, having done both myself over the years.

However, I've decided to stop doing shows and focus on other venues, preferably galleries and a few select western (indoor!) art shows. But if you attend art shows (or if you show your art at them), don't be surprised if you see some guy with a pad of paper and a pen, looking around and writing things down. Who knows -- you may become a character in a short story some day!

I took the accompanying photo of a show I did several years ago at Fountain Hills, AZ, northeast of Scottsdale. (I obscured the faces and the signage to protect the innocent). You can't really see it "post-obscuration," but a female on the right in a red top looks like she's gagging herself. (Hmmm...was this how she felt about what she saw at the show...?)