This Month in the Studio, May!

Art shows are hard and fun all at the same time. The spring 2022 local art show has come and gone and it was so good to reconnect with my art buddies and talk to the customers. I did well, sold 3 pieces which paid for my booth with a little bit extra! Typically this is the only show I do every year when I am lucky enough to be juried in.

Set up was a dream this year. We were at a new-to-us venue and there were no stairs!! Unload the car onto a dolly and wheel it all in! My worn out knees and back appreciated the lack of stairs! As I was setting up I realized I had a hole in the back art wall of landscapes. Moving something over, to me, didn’t fit the layout I had planned but I did have this one almost finished piece that would be perfect for that spot! So after set up I came home and finished it. I sold it Saturday morning! Funny how that worked out! So in the end I still had that hole in the back wall after all!

Typically following the show, I slide into this creative slump: partly from lower than expected sales, partly from having to cart everything back home again but mostly just because it’s exhausting. After my first show I didn’t paint for 6 weeks, and for this daily painter, that’s an eternity. After the show last September I hardly painted until just before Christmas when I was asked to paint a Cardinal for a Christmas present and that sale resulted in one of my kingfishers selling! This year I made a plan for after the show, a plan with a list of what to do, paint, read, create and so far so good!

My good intentions of getting this blog out before the dying days of May were interrupted by a massive storm and a 4 day power outage in my area in Ontario. I barely painted, I barely came into the studio and when I planned to paint outside, it would rain. With the constant worry of a dying cell phone, I couldn’t even update my blog using my phone. On Tuesday evening my power was restored and I continue to be very grateful for the hardworking line workers who worked tirelessly to restore what they could when they could. I learned some lessons with this last power outage, buying and keeping charged a charger pack for my phone and a small battery pack to run a light and charge my devices; never let my car drop below a 1/4 tank, even though my neighbourhood gas station is two blocks away. Our town was entirely without power for 3-4 days so my convenient gas station was of no use to me as I was running very low on gas; and yes, I lost almost everything in my fridge and freezer.

In the studio, not alot has been happening. I continue to work on my Monopalette workshop mixed media classes, even though 2 of the last 3 classes were about drawing and painting 3/4 profile view of faces. Not my favourite thing to draw or paint, I drag my heels kicking and screaming all the way to my sketch pad. The power outage was a perfect excuse for me to not complete the class, but I have learned that what I avoid will persist in my doubts so later today I will work on that class. This month though, I did have a sort of epiphany about my whole body reaction to anything portrait. As I was really letting my inner critic kick my inner artist’s butt one day, I thought to myself what could anyone have possibly said to me in my young life to make me have such a visceral reaction to portraits? It must have been a whopper to continue to have a strong hold 4 decades later!! So I straightened up, took a deep breath and told it to F*** OFF! Letting go of that belief is long overdue and slowly as I keep practicing I am experiencing less of a body reaction and more of a “meh well, ok” kinda attitude. A baby step but a huge shift for me as an artist. I continue to build my art journal, experimenting with watercolour and collage. The canoe page is really quite lovely!

One of the paintings I took to the art show, which received alot of attention and compliments but didn’t sell, sold yesterday! A couple had their eye on it and yesterday, the time was right for them to purchase it. It is a particular favourite of mine and although I am sad so see it go I am elated that its found its forever home! What a great way to end this month! This is my first online sale of this year, so I am super happy about it!

Cedar Moon #5

That’s a wrap for this month in the studio. I hope everyone is well and is taking time to recharge. I am going out to buy more art supplies! Bye for now.