Getting Ready For Another Show - but at an artists' co-op

I've been invited to be a guest artist at our local Artists' Co-Op Gallery!  This is my first time in such a venue. 

This involves some business-type stuff that I haven't done before.  But it is fun and I am learning. 

Framing by myself is one such thing ... not fun right now ... (*!#&%!!) but necessary.  I think I need a workshop on Framing 101! 

Making a price list for my own records is the next most important thing.   I saw an example of someone's list on a source (I don't remember - sorry) like the magazine Art Calendar or one of its web newsletters, or, maybe it was ArtBizBlog.  These are all wonderful sources for artists wanting to learn about the business of selling and the business of being in "business", and marketing, and other such things.  When I finish all my "to do" list to prepare for this show, I'll post links to these sources for you artist folks out there in blog-land that are interested.

Anyway, back to the Price List.  I set it up in Microsoft Word as a table - to be printed out in landscape format on 11x14 (legal sized) paper.  The titles of the columns from left to right are: 

1. Title/Size/medium/surface
2. Awards received for the artwork
3. photo of the art without frame
4. Frame cost, glass, etc.
5. Photo of art with the frame
6. Sale price listed
7.  the % of commission
8. The net sale after subtracting commission and frame costs
9. Sold to:  name/address etc. (for future use - hopefully the co-op has this information to give to the artist)

This has really helped me compare the artwork all together, to value it.  (The actual art work is in various places - in boxes, in the attic, in closets, in frames on the wall, in the storage shed...). 

Only problem is...this takes time!  I didn't have time to paint today!  Need to concentrate on time management.

Critique and Saying Goodbye to New Friends

It was a fantastic week.  My thanks to the coordinators and hostesses from Sierra Pastel Society and Thaelia for her gorgeous cabin "base camp".  Richard's presentations, talks, demos, and 1 on 1 with all of us at our easels was amazing.  Then he topped it off with individual critiques of each of our week-long pieces that lasted from 1:00 till 6pm! 

One Very Thoughtful Artist went to each person's notebook and wrote his comments there for them while they were up there with Richard with their work.

The first comment I will focus on right now is :  "Respond to the underpainting - ask yourself 'what is the least amount of pastel marks do I need to make?'" 

Another key comment was: "Do shapes, set values, then a few small spots - a few powerful marks - will be more poetic - when little notes are allowed to stand out, it sings."

Thank you Richard for helping me grow!

Friday Morning at McKinley's Workshop

On our last paint-out, we went back to the river.  One of his suggestions throughout the workshop was to do the same scene over and over on different days, different light conditions.  Through familiarity of a scene you get more intuitive and poetic (The Big Goal).   (Oops, I kinda forgot that! - and I painted a new scene - again a small and intimate scene with high contrasts). 

It was OK, but again I was reminded to develop bigger shapes in the beginning (sometimes I get obsessed with things like dead twigs...)

To fix at home:  the greenish dark border over the top of the big rock!  Like, take canned air to it!  And, need to do more highlights on the foreground left willow.

Thursday Afternoon on Carson Pass

This location was supposed to be our afternoon site, so we just stayed.  Richard did a demo of rocks for us.  It was very inspiring, like all his demos!  Photo is at the end of this page.

I decided to do another small, intimate scene with high contrast - which is easier for me at this point - rather than the big expansive scene.

Some little plants around the rocks are starting to turn red and orange.  Here is my underpainting.

While adding pastel, the sun went over the ridge and gusty wind came up.  Being the wimp that I am, I did not work long on this, and I think I'd like to do a "do-over" at home of this scene.

Here is Richard's demo - awesome as usual.

Thursday AM - an interesting start of the day

On this day we headed up to the Carson Pass (very high - 8,650 feet) to a lovely spot where juniper trees similar to the old Bristlecone Pines grow.  As we were hiking and looking for spots to paint there was some activity in our parking lot.  A helicopter was picking up canisters to take to the mountain tops for avalanche control.  With that much noise and dust blowing, we decided to move down to a lower parking lot with a view of Red Lake.

Hiking around at this elevation did slow down many of us.  I live at 5,000 feet and I was so tired hiking around for a place to paint, that I (and most of us) decided to paint right beside our cars.  My view of Red Lake was obscured by trees.  I also wasn't in the mood for painting a lake, so I "dried up the lake" and made it a meadow, and I eliminated the trees in front.  Here is my underpainting.  My tip for the day while painting it was to not get too fussy and loosen up in the watercolor underpainting. 

This painting was a struggle and I got myself into a dead-end and didn't know how to get myself out of it.  So it was interesting to see how Richard bailed my painting out a bit with his additions.  I have photos of the location and will try again at home with the suggestions I was given.  I might even put the lake back in!

Wed. Afternoon of Day 3 - McKinley Workshop

After Richard's 1:00 demo in a grassy meadow with a view of the mountains (picture of his demo below), We spread out to paint.  It might have been around 4:00.  I cut a 9x12 piece of white Kitty Wallis so I could finish quickly, and I picked a really simple scene that was up close and had strong contrasts.  I made the watercolor stronger this time since the morning one was weak.  That made a big difference for me.  I was delighted that I could do just a few pastel marks over the watercolor - and left most of the watercolor showing.  (Yay!)

Here is my underpainting:

Here is Richard's demo:  a complete painting - ready for framing!  Really informative demo - he is great at putting his techniques into words - and watching him work was totally inspiring!

Wednesday AM - Day 3 - McKinley Workshop

We got to start painting at 9am, with the morning light.  I took a photo of my scene (long shadows and light halos on the willow and brush tops) but by the time I set up, did my value sketch, and did the watercolor underpainting, the sun had rose and the halo look was gone.  Hmmmm.  I forgot what it looked like, forgot what color it was.  My painting came out weaker than I had planned, but I felt I was getting better at the underpainting part of it.  And, this was the first time I tried a square format.

Here is the underpainting:

Here are some basic tips I got for this:  While applying pastel over the underpainting, I need to move incrementally, and occasionally take a paper towel (or piece of pipe foam) and drag one little area of pastel down and over the watercolor - to help the eye move from pastel to watercolor.  It helps with an interesting transition from defined to undefined (fuzzy), or texture to soft watercolor.  This technique also helps to soften dark edges or contrasts at the edge of the painting where they eye would be lead out of the painting (see the dark lower evergreen tree at the right side of the underpainting.