The phrase has been haunting me for over a year now. This is the second time circumstances have risen that challenges me to push my art to the limits. Painting, drawing, teaching, commissions—how does an artist who is on fire keep the coals warm? The saying “a person has either time or money, but seldom both at once” can’t be further from the truth. Time to paint, no cash for supplies; cash for supplies, no time to use them.
And now, after the first, hard face-plant into the Oregon mud, the phoenix has flown through another blissful state of employment and perches above another puddle. The lesson? Who knows, but I still haven’t given up, and that has got to count for something. Employment gave me the opportunity to paint alongside amazing painters, travel to inspiring landscapes, and stand before models whose beauty begged a tear. I drifted in and out of Art Academies, real and virtual, and poured over books, magazines and internet sites, all the while filling the pockets of the middle men between here and the gallery walls.
I suppose the time for study is over. Now is the time to put out the work, like a mad person racing from the growling beast lying in ambush ahead. I am listening to the voices in my head. Paint small, paint large, put your money in prints, there is no money in prints, increase your prices, cut your prices, but my favorite advice, coming from my current mentor: “Paint tuff!”
Follow along. The paint is still wet.
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July 18, 2011 at 10:41 pm |
Nice painting!
July 18, 2011 at 11:47 pm |
The question still is…what to do first? Paint or work…eat or paint? Some struggle to continue painting but must do it anyway! Brave are the souls that just go for it! You go girl!