Category: Beginnings

Recently I’ve felt stalled in my work as though I’m stagnating in an isolated pool. It hasn’t helped that over the past few weeks I’ve had one rejection after the other for major wholesale shows and grant awards. One of them even sent me comments from the jurors that focused on my technical skills. That might be okay if I were just beginning to paint but I’ve been at this medium for 30 years so I think I’m past that. So I’ve decided to crank things up a notch and give my promotions a shot in the arm, because that’s really what’s been stagnating. The vacuum I’ve created has become too stifling so it’s time to break out.

Since the economy is still in the drain and people continue to have less money to spend on non-necessities, I’ve decided on a strategy to make what I do more affordable and at the same time get more stuff out there. For a number of years now a lot of artists have gotten into the concept of doing a painting a day. It started with one artist who wanted to challenge himself, and so he began a discipline of painting a quick study and posting it on his blog each day. Soon it caught on, he developed a following, sold most of the little gems, and the rest is history. I’ve toyed with the idea of following his and others’ leads but have always rejected it as too much work. I’ve now decided that’s just been my excuse for not diving in and seeing where this might lead. But not anymore.

I’d like to grow my following and sell more paintings. Starting small is manageable for me and hopefully for more people who like what I do but don’t feel they can fork out a lot of money for the big stuff. My goal is to do this for 100 days. We’ll see what happens and I’ll go from there.

So, this is my first one. Calla Lilies is the title. Watercolor on paper. All paintings will be $50 plus shipping, which will be around $12 cause these will be unframed.

Simple, huh.

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Quilt Show week is past and so Paducah, especially LowerTown and downtown, is back to normal. I spent two afternoons of the weeklong festivities painting outdoors by the gazebo on Broadway. A local artist, Jeff Spicer, organized the outdoor painting and creating sessions, inspired by his own successful activity last summer painting outside of Wildhair Studios on Broadway downtown. So far, the artists’ public activity has been met with a lot of enthusiasm. Who knows, maybe the city will agree to let us do this on a more permanent basis along the streets of downtown and at the Texaco station in LowerTown.

I was a little nervous about the prospect of painting in public, not so much at being watched, but because I’ve never much enjoyed painting outdoors. The elements seem to always be a problem – too hot, too cold, too windy, and there are usually bugs bothering you. I never seem to be able to get comfortable. But Jeff told me he’d have some tables set up and chairs, so I figured I’d at least see what I could do. Just to be sure, I ended up buying a portable small table from Walgreen’s and a fold up stool, both of which I could also use at art fairs.

Both days ended up sunny if windy, and there were lots of people on the street as expected, it being Quilt Show week. The previous week I’d started a new painting destined to become “Mexican Place Settings,” a still life of sorts of two tables, overlayed with colorful hand-woven Mexican tablecloths, surrounded by several wooden, brightly painted chairs that are typical of Mexico. The painting had presented a challenge of pattern and execution, how to make the tablecloths look realistic with a woven pattern while not over working them. I’d had to spend a lot of time with precise drawing to make the chairs appear correct in perspective, with their arched ladder backs and spindled legs and backs. And up until I carried it off to paint at the gazebo or be damned, I had spent the week previous worrying about how to pull the painting off.

As it turned out, there wasn’t a lot to be worried about. To my surprise, I enjoyed the heck out of being outside and painting. Maybe it was having a good set-up with two tables, one to paint on and the other to use for my palette and other materials. Maybe it was the shade overhead from the tree behind me and the constant breeze (sometimes wind) that kept me cool and easily dried my work without need for a blow dryer. Or maybe it was just having fellow artists around me doing their work too, and people coming by from time to time to watch and offer a friendly comment. I’ve come to realize how much both of the latter mean to me and how much they help to inspire me in moving forward.

My quilt week guest, Ginger, offered her own take on my worries about finishing the painting. Well, of course you were nervous, she confided. You were giving birth to something new to the world. You were bound to be worried over it. Those were birth pangs you were experiencing!

How ‘bout that. My first birth pangs.

One of my New Year resolutions was to start a new blog, one of my own that would be separate from the Cowango blog, writings about our travels and life in Mexico. Since we’ve moved to Paducah, that blog has almost been mothballed, its reason for being having pretty much disappeared. Settled here in Paducah with only periodic trips back to our casita in San Miguel, the blog needed re-thinking. I’ve felt a greater need to have a separate voice to devote to my watercolors and my efforts at making my way in the art world.

So, the fireworks are over, the calendar has been turned to 2009, and I can’t think of a better way to start things off than with a new venture. Besides the blog, I’ve promised to paint more this year and work on marketing even more than ever. Right now it feels a little like trying to start a fire. Gathering little twigs and pieces of dry grass, arranging them carefully to allow for some room for oxygen and enough energy to create a spark that will ignite even bigger things and become something of substance to give off warmth and sustenance. I’m still trying to get that flame to take hold.

Maybe this blog will be the spark, along with some luck, to get things moving along beyond where I’ve come so far. I’ll share my work, progress, thoughts, and whatever interesting pieces of flotsam and jetsam that comes my way.

The year closed with an experimental piece completed as part of a community art project about communication and community. One artist started by creating a painting, which was then viewed by three other artists, who in turn created their own work inspired from what they saw from the original painting. This continued on with subsequent artists looking at those works and creating their own paintings or pieces of art. Kind of a visual game of “Telephone.” My painting was one of 15 works of art that became part of The Ripple Effect exhibition at the Maiden Alley Cinema in Paducah exploring communication and other themes brought out as a result of the project. My painting’s theme of religion played off the idea of religious community portrayed in the artist’s painting I viewed. The process shook me up, took me into a new direction. Now I’m wondering what else it may tell me.

– Stefanie