Small Works

Been busy with more painting; earlier this month I became a member of a local art league. It's very economical and you get on the mailing list of all their yearly events. 

I decided to enter their Holiday Small Works show; the submissions can only be "5 x 7" paintings and they exhibit for the entire month of December. My goodness, that is one tiny canvas!! Don't blink, you'll miss it! 

Since smaller paintings are more challenging to paint for me, I knew I couldn't over think it, just keep it simple. I really enjoyed the new color palette, they were very fun to do. 

In addition, I'm wrapping up a 30"x40" Equine painting for my aspen gallery, we leave next week to drop off inventory.

They sell my horses, but this year I'm giving them wildlife work as well; good way to test what response they'll have. 

I must be insane!!

Dear Deborah:

 

Thank you for your correspondence and your interest in our Gallery.   At the moment we are not seeking any new representation and are in a mode of trying to downsize the number of artists we represent.  

 

Currently we represent 32 artists full time, and in a perfect world I would prefer less allowing me to better promote the ones I have.  So, when I look at new artists work, I have to ask myself  “who would I take down that I have sold before, so that I can see if I can sell this new work, or new look in the gallery?” 

 

Your work is very good and I thank you again for letting me review it. 

This particular gallery above is in Texas. Like the others, I thanked him for his time and reviewing my works. This process lets me know I'm taking my work in the right direction. In such an economy, and the future uncertain, no doubt this is probably one of the hardest times many artists have experienced...

I have recently learned that 90% of the sales from my Aspen gallery, are for clients visiting from Texas, Florida, and the Eastern Upper states.....could I be any further away from my market? I think not! But it is time to get creative and visible in those places, the most economical way possible!! 

Criticism II

Sorry for the delay here, I've been on travel. It's so fitting this entry follows the last post. Since my recent work has expanded into wildlife, I decided to follow up with a gallery I've had my eye on for awhile. It's one of the top galleries in town, very reputable. Not only do they feature high-end art, they have the clients to follow and they're very good to their artists. They have a reputation of paying when the work sells. (This topic is another blog post! I'll come back to it, promise) A little backstory here, my last correspondence was 2 years ago;  it's good, when possible not to burn your bridges, you never know when you'll need them again. An artist currently in the gallery suggested I contact them when I showed him my horses back in 2007.

So I emailed this contact with examples of my work, (all horses - I was fairly new at them, experiencing with a looser, impressionistic style). He thanked me and had problems with my rendering of their anatomy. Well to be honest, he ripped my work up one side and down the other.....I was beginning to wonder why my artist friend had referred me.....but I thanked this contact for his time and asked if I may follow up in the future, which he welcomed. 

But inside I was fuming!!

Confused, defeated, but knowing I still had talent and needed to continue, I set this experience aside - keeping a critical eye on my anatomy of horses.

And now, a few years later with wildlife subjects added, I decided to follow up. I'm going to paste his response below:

Deborah,

Thank you for your email and photos.  You have some very nice paintings in this group.  My main concern is the backgrounds of the paintings.  Not very exciting.  I know, you want to focus on the animal(s) but there still needs to be some interest there.  Also, the separation between your subject and the background is not evident.  The wolf painting is a good example of this.  I like how you executed the wolf but the background seems to be right on top of him/her.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Though my work may not be "there" for him just yet, this response and critique is much improved from our last.  He likes my animals and has no problem with the anatomy, and this time it's a selection of multiple species. His concern is backgrounds; which is a relief. Honestly, backgrounds do baffle me, they're not the focus of my work - the animal is. I have some ideas for experimentation in my next series of works.

He knows his gallery and clients, and what sells. Playing with some background changes does not compromise my artistic integrity or alter the focus of my works. Some artists think any suggestion of change means to forfeit their vision and to them I ask: Is it really? Though I may come from an emotionally invested angle with my work, he views it as commodity; it's a product. The difference between art as a livelihood vs. art as a hobby, comes down to this:

Is the work sellable?