Well this year has been one for the books. I remember in January how I felt like this was going to be a good year for me. I was going to get out there and be in some shows, expand my circle of viewers make connections with potential collectors. I joined some prominent art groups like the International Guild of Realism and Oil Painters of America. I felt that was a real win for me to be curated into these well respected groups. I was accepted into IGORs Spring Online show as well as OPAs national show which was to be held in the spring in Fredricksburg Tx. Then Covid happened and we all had to shelter in place for months and all the scheduled shows were canceled or delayed. I took that forced time off from my day job as a massage therapist to paint. As a professional massage therapist for 30 years I am used to moving around all day. Switching to standing at the easel was a new activity for my body and it took some getting used to the different demands that standing at an easel puts on my body. Lots of stretching and walking and going to the chiropractor got me up to speed. I was now putting 6 to 8 hours a day instead of 2-3 hours a day at the easel. Having a day job I felt like I needed to squeeze time in the studio but lately I have had all day if I wanted. I have really enjoyed that space of time to work.
I have many ideas of what I want to paint and with this extra time I decided to work on some of them. I have been wanting to work on a few painting involving antique store finds. They vary from old toys to tools to ornaments. My approach to these paintings is to respect the collection as is. I don't arrange any of the objects. I see something that's interesting in a collection of things on display. I'll write more about this in another blog entry.
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| "Certified Quality" |
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| "Toy Truck Trio" |
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| "Kitchen Craft" |
I did get a call from Valley Art Gallery regarding a series of painting I did a few years back of Oakland but the project got sidelined for one reason or another and then out of the blue its back on and they gallery was able to rent one of the paintings to the business for starters.
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| "Davidson way and Vermont St" |
In July I had the pleasure of doing a commission for a neighbor of an old family truck to be given to my neighbor's dad. I know some people hate doing commissions but I rather enjoy the opportunity to work with someone to create something special and meaningful for them and this paint was no exception.
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| The Williams' 53 Chevy at Lake Almanor |
I got another real big treat in July when Western Art and Architecture called me to do an artist spotlight interview be published in the November issue. This came from being in the OPA national show. As a result from the publication I got another commission to paint a car portrait of a 53 Buick Super Eight
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| 53 Buick Super Eight |
As of now I am finishing up a couple of paintings of old Christmas ornaments in boxes. They've come out pretty good. I have a couple more in the works. They offer a new challenge for me with both the shiny reflective quality of the ornaments and the old graphics printed on the box. I do like to challenge myself to push the limits of my abilities and to find out what makes me tick as an artist.
So all in all it hasn't gone as planned but it wasn't all bad either. A lot of good came of this disruption of "business as usual" from the pandemic and the not working. I got the time to paint like I had complained about not having the time before and I LIKED IT! So now its time to look forward to a new year and new goals and to leave space for the unexpected.
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