Promote! Promote! Promote!

That is the mantra on the art discussion threads I have been reading. Have a blog! Send out tweets! Send out Facebook updates! Send out emails! Give your business card to everyone you meet! On the main website for my art - Bellesouth Studio -in the discussion area it's been stressed over and over to comment on other artists! Like their work! Moves you up in the ratings!

So, I started trying to do as much as I could - promote, promote, promote! And that's what I have been doing all month. Have I gotten any sales because of my work? Not yet. But I did get a relapse, and realization that I was becoming anxious about the whole thing. So, with prayer, I had to stop and regroup. Here are some things I realized:

*Yes, some promotion is vital, but I am not a "normal" so I pay.

*I pay with my energy - it was all being used up in these endeavors.

*I pay because I cannot create new art, my energy is gone.

*It takes time to create a following.

*Am I doing this to become rich and famous - no.

*What was my purpose in creating? To worship and praise God for my gift.

*I have to choose wisely about how I use what energy is given to me.

*One thing I cannot do, which is one of the best ways to promote, is to do art shows. I cannot set up, sit all day long, and break down everything. Perhaps I can find someone who would be willing to share my art in their space.

I've neglected my blog, I've neglected my art, and some art I have done has been the crummiest I've seen come out of my brush. They immediately got a coat of Gesso so I could start over.

So, find out what is best for you. There are no rigid rules. What is the most important thing? For me, it's being in the mindset to create when I am able!

After They Left

(click for details)

Sometimes when people leave, the space they filled seems so empty. A little bit of you goes with them, and their echo is all around you.

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Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

The Latest Commissioned Piece

I mentioned a few blogs back that I was going to be doing another Pear picture, because a couple saw the first one I did:

(click to view)

and really liked it so much that they asked if they could have a similar one done. We all knew it would not be the same, because they needed to fit a specific narrow area in the kitchen. So the canvas was 10 x 30 and rather than having one pear, as originally planned, we decided on having three! I love that it has its own personality and I think they will like the way it came out:

(click to view)

This was made using acrylic paint, gel medium, oil pastels and ink.

 Long and skinny, but fits the requirements!

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Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Been A While

Which I'm sure is not news to anyone, if I have any readers left. This past month has been a difficult one, as I have had to learn how to balance trying to promote my artwork, within the confines of this illness. I have been adding photographs, and older pieces of art to my galleries at FineArtAmerica.com and trying to keep up with the different groups I've joined to promote within the site itself, and I have also run myself into a flare/crash, so I have also been spending a lot of time on the bed. I will go sort of backwards here, and show you what I am working on now, then in the upcoming days, show what I have added to the site. (And you can always just go there and see it by yourself!)

Remember, these are all unfinished.

A few whimsical pears .....

An abstract with OPEN paints .....

And a collage.

I'm very tired, so I will leave you to ponder on how these will turn out and hope that you will come back to see!

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Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

It's A Mistake! Well No, Not Really.

As artists, we all turn out something we look at and frown - what was I thinking! We may be so frustrated that we have a strong urge to throw it into the trash. But wait! Hold onto it for a while, you may discover something you didn't see before.

Here is a piece that I did when I discovered Heavy Gel and stenciling. Wow, I thought - this is great! And I happily overdid it until the end result was just not something to write home about.

The coloring was nice, but what could you say about the piece? No focal point, no point at all actually, other than showing what different stencils I had. So I stuck it on a shelf and decided that at some point I would comeback to it and figure something out.

Fast forward about a year later, and I pulled it off the shelf, and had another look at it. Suddenly I had an idea! I put more Heavy Gel on it to bring it up almost to the where the stencil shapes were. I painted several layers on it, and rummaged through my stacks of papers, did some cutting, some detail work and arranged them on the piece. And ta-da, here is what we have now!

What a difference, right? So don't be too hasty about mistakes - they could be "happy accidents" in disguise!

Click on any photo you would like to see closer!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!