The Flowers of Hawaii

May 16, 2013 by Susan L Stewart | 1 Comment
Yellow Hibiscus

Yellow Hibiscus

I have been feeling stale, stagnant, in the studio the last month or so. Part of that is because art making is a solitary experience, especially for me. I love being alone but it doesn’t give me much of a chance to be visually stimulated. Don’t get me wrong,  I am comfortable being around people, but I prefer to know a few people

Koi Pond

Koi Pond

well than a lot of people casually. My second love is writing, another solitary occupation.

One of the reasons I love to travel is that I get out in the world to see new, exciting, colors, people and places. I don’t normally sketch while on vacation. I’ve never been a plein-air painter and quick, thumbnail, sketching is not something I do as a rule. Instead, I take hundreds or even thousands of photos to use as

references in the studio.

Beautiful Red and Green

Beautiful Red and Green

What I’m looking for in outdoor spaces and different cities and countries is inspiration. My three weeks in France last year has given me enough material for at least a dozen paintings. I thought that was a record until we spent two weeks in Hawaii recently.

I’ve never been to Hawaii so I had nothing to go on except the typical tourist posters and other people’s testimonials. We spent a week on Kauai and a week on Maui. The scenery is beautiful. We took the helicopter tour on Kauai and an 11-1/2 tour of the Hana coast on Maui. I took over 1,500 photos during the vacation. As I was looking through them, I was struck by the flowers. There weren’t as many varieties as I expected, but there were plenty of them.

 

Before I turned to abstract acrylic art, I worked in pastels to create florals. They aren’t the standard flowers in a vase, but more like a single flower on a contrasting background. I love working in pastels and the soft, velvety results I can get. They are just incredibly messy.

 

As I looked at the dozens of floral photos, I started to think of the years I spent covered in pastel dust happily painting away. Actually, I’ve been thinking of adding florals into my body of work for quite some time.

One evening, as I sat in the condo listening to the ocean outside, I moved some of the photos into Photoshop. I used a few commands I rarely have an opportunity to use and turned them into something that is so different that they could end up being a new series of abstract floral paintings.

I’m looking forward to studying the opportunities of creating something new. It’s still in the “meditation” stage where I sit and ponder the possibilities and play

with different photos and Photoshop enhancement. This could take three weeks or three months. I never know until I wake up one morning and say, “I can’t wait to get started!” Then I cancel all of my appointments and other commitments and prepare to spend many hours in the studio.

It’s going to take some time before I’ll be able to post progress, but I’ll keep you in the loop.

Happy painting!

Susan L Stewart

Click on images to enlarge.

 

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10 Useful Tips for Photographing Your Art Professionally

April 13, 2013 by Susan L Stewart | Leave a comment

(Originally published on Work Your Art at http://www.workyourart.com/category/blog/)

A photo record of the beginning of a new painting

A photo record of the beginning of a new painting

Here’s a quick tip: If you have a digital camera you don’t use frequently, keep it in your studio. Having a camera close to you during your creative process will make it easy for you to take those important snapshots along the way. Apart from using them for your website and blog, with a photographic record you will be able to enter competitions, send photos to prospective buyers and keep an eye on your progress as an artist. Here are a few photography tips to help you take professional pictures of your art.

Lighting

Lighting is the most critical element when trying to get a true representation of your art.

  • Don’t take art photos in artificial light – lamps, pot lights in the ceiling, pole lamps, halogen lights or even “daylight bulbs.” Some of today’s energy efficient light bulbs have a strong blue cast to them; others are much warmer with a yellow glow. It is impossible to get the painting’s colors right with artificial lighting.
  • Instead, place your painting on an easel at a 90-degree angle (perpendicular) to a large window. This will ensure you are working in natural light. Be sure the light isn’t falling directly on your artwork. If the light is very strong, hang a sheer white curtain on the window to diffuse it or wait for a different time of day.
  • Don’t use a flash.
  • Avoiding a “hot spot” or glare is difficult if you are taking photos of a glossy surface. To make things easier, take photos of your finished painting before putting a gloss varnish on it.
  • If you have a photo with glare, do not post it on your website, send it to a competition or show it to a gallery owner. It reflects badly on the artwork and on you as an artist.

 

Photo editing software

Very few people can take a photo that doesn’t need some adjustments in a photo editing program. You can use the free software on your computer: iPhoto on a Mac or Picasa on a PC. These programs address many editing issues but not all of them. Do some research to find one that fits your needs at a reasonable price.

While editing your artwork, keep changes subtle, especially when sharpening. People should be admiring the painting, not wondering what you did to it. If your changes are harsh, you are hurting your chances of selling it.

Never, ever, ever include anything other than the painting in a photo – no frames, blue ribbons, walls, couches or people. Always take the photo straight on to the art, not at an angle. The idea here is to show your art, and only your art, without distractions.

 

Finally . . .

After you download your JPG photos to your editing software, convert them to a TIFF before making any changes. This feature can usually be found in the “Save As” dialog box. If you edit a JPG image, every time you save it you lose a little bit of the digital information. If you only save it two or three times, it won’t make a big difference, but if you’re doing major work on it, TIFF will preserve your image. Once you’re done, you need to go back to Save As and change the TIFF back into a JPG.

These are just a few things to consider when photographing your artwork. Online resources can answer most of your questions. You can post a question on UglyHedgehog, a wonderful online photography forum. Photography is an art form much like painting. The more you practice it, the better you will get. With a little research and study, you can teach yourself what else you need to know.

Until next time,

Susan L Stewart

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I took a day off

April 5, 2013 by Susan L Stewart | Leave a comment

I took a day off.

Now, some of you are saying, “So? People take time off all the time. What’s your point?”

Others are saying, “That sounds so great. I wish I could do that.”

This is a very big deal for me.

Red Canna • Pastel • 22″ x 15″ • $245 • Framed

I owned a home-based desktop publishing, graphic design and printing business for 23 years. My husband ran the print shop in our basement, and our daughter started working for me when she was about nine.

I used to joke that we didn’t have a business in our home; we lived in a business. People called at 4:30 a.m. – when I asked her why, she said she was up – people showed up at our door at any time of night – 7:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. to do business and, of course, very few of them thought we should have family time on the weekend. I never turned the ringer off on the business line so even if I was trying to take a break, I could hear the business in the background, beckoning me to come back.

For some reason I have never understood, I allowed the business to control me and my family – even when we were on vacation. Unless we left town, I rarely took more than a couple of hours off.

Truth is, I like to work. On those rare occasions when everything was caught up in the business, I wrote bad novels, played around with art supplies, and read all kinds of books.

I sold the business in October 2008. After four months of nothing to do, I was losing it. In March 2009, I started a new business as a travel agent. I tried it for a year but didn’t enjoy it at all. I look at it as my transition from owning a big business to being retired, although I still don’t think of myself as being retired.

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Snake burns house down

March 27, 2013 by Susan L Stewart | Leave a comment

Let’s face it – everyone makes the occasional bad decision. However, most of our decisions don’t end up burning our house down.

Here is a link to a news report and photo: http://now.msn.com/snake-starts-house-fire-after-woman-tries-to-burn-it

There are a few critical decisions you need to make that can either get your artwork in front of buyers or burn your artistic house down.

  • Your website is your art’s exclusive online gallery. As such, you will want it to showcase your art in the best possible way. If you don’t have money budgeted for a website, there are plenty of free website templates where you just plug in your information.

In my experience, and in the reviews I’ve read, WordPress is the best way to go. Be aware: there are two WordPress sites, WordPress.com and

Shaft of Light • Acrylic • 8" x 10" • $50

Shaft of Light • Acrylic • 8″ x 10″ • $50

WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a place to set up a blog. Use WordPress.org to create your website including a blog.

If you can spend some money, hiring a web designer can make a big difference. One place to look for a designer is on Elance. Posting your job is free. After posting it, you will get plenty of people applying for the job. Be sure to ask for references and a list of sites they have designed to see if their style will fit your needs.

I can highly recommend my web designer, Laura Hardesty. She built my art website, http://SusanLStewart.com. She’s professional, creative and reasonably priced.

  • Social media can be a huge time waster! Don’t try to cover all of the social media available; choose one or two to begin with. Of course, the question is which ones? Facebook and Twitter are the most obvious choices but they aren’t necessarily the best choices. For example, last year Facebook made a change to how the site works. Now, when you post something on Facebook, it only goes out to about 15% of the people on your list. If you want to reach everyone, you have to pay for it, and it isn’t cheap.

You’ll need to do some research. What works for someone else’s art may not work for yours. There are social media experts online who can help you sort things out and many of them share their advice for free. Two of my favorites are Hubspot for marketing and SEO, and Artpromotivate for a great variety of topics for artists. The key here is to not spread yourself too thin! Remember, the other half of social media is blogging.

  • Blog, Blog, Blog. And when you’re done with those three blogs, write some more. Many blog sites will allow you to set up an automatic distribution schedule. You write the blogs, set them up to come out on certain days and walk away. Hootsuite is a free site to set up automatic posts.

Publishing a blog post once a week is hardly worth the effort in terms of getting people to your site. Try to start with a minimum of twice a week and work up to three times a week. I don’t know about you, but I get annoyed with sites that send out blog posts every day, let alone twice a day. My inbox is so full that even if the posts are interesting and informative, I usually unsubscribe.

If you want to start by posting twice a week, give this a try. Take a weekend and devote those two days to the blog. If you write eight posts, you will have enough for a month. Set them up to come out on certain days and then forget about the whole thing until the next month. You don’t have to stop at eight; if you’re on a roll, keep writing.

Even if you find the whole blogging experience strangling you and eating into your painting time, keep at it. I have been a professional writer for more than 25 years and I still find blogging frustrating and time consuming. However, it has been proven time and again that blogging is one of the most effective ways to increase the number of people who see your website and potentially buy your art.

The key here is balance. Marketing can take over your life. You have to balance the amount of time you spend marketing and the amount of time you spend in the studio. If you haven’t been spending enough time in the studio, you won’t have paintings, and if you don’t have paintings, there’s no need for marketing.

Until next time,

Susan L Stewart

 

 

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Paintbrushes are not the same

March 16, 2013 by Susan L Stewart | Leave a comment

You don’t always get what you pay for.

 

This photo of three of my brushes shows the Qualita Colada at the top with the bare wood on the handle. The blue brush is from Loew-Cornell and the pink brush is from Grumbacher. Both of these brushes have lasted for decades and are still going strong.

 

Sometimes, no matter how much research you do, you just don’t get what you pay for. Although many artists don’t need or use paintbrushes, most of us do and they aren’t cheap! About a year ago, Jerry’s Artarama was having one of their huge sales. You can get art supplies at amazing prices during their sales and I wait until then to buy in bulk.

I bought six new Qualita Colada brushes during the sale. I had never noticed them in an art supply store so I was making my decision based on online endorsements.

I really like my Colada brushes. The bristles are soft and flexible, they don’t leave streaks in the paint, and the handle is comfortable. Then, about a month ago, I noticed that the yellow covering protecting the wooden handle was flaking off. It wasn’t long before the yellow on my favorite sizes was nearly gone. I’ll keep using them, but I won’t buy more.

I think my favorite is the blue Grumbacher. The bristles hold their shape whether the brush is wet or has a little bit of paint on it. The pink Loew-Cornell is another workhorse in my studio. I can highly recommend both of these brands from practical experience working in acrylics. I’ve also used them for watercolor.

Taking care of acrylic brushes extends their life. If paint dries on a brush, soak it in undiluted Murphy’s Oil Soap to just past the beginning of the ferrule (the metal part where the bristles start). I use full-strength MOS and may leave a brush in it for 24 to 48 hours. This treatment gets the paint out almost every time.

Until next time, happy painting!

Susan L Stewart

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Taming the Email Monster

March 2, 2013 by Susan L Stewart | Leave a comment

I think it’s safe to say that of all the things I have to do to run my art business, reading email is the one thing I dislike, and put off, the most. I get so many emails each day that it would take hours to keep caught up. Once a month – sometimes more frequently – I spend hours dealing with every email. When I get my email box to zero, I feel like celebrating, usually with chocolate. For those of you who struggle to control your email, here are a few things I do that help.

  • The best and easiest way to control the time you spend on email is to set a time each day when you read it. I do it first thing in the morning while I eat breakfast. I set a timer to one hour and take care of as many as I can in that hour. Just like dealing with paper clutter on my desk, I look at each email once. Then it either goes into the trash, or

    Carousel Horse • Acrylic • 22″ x 31″ • $235

    archives; saved in a Safari folder or moved to Bento (more on that in a bit.)

  • I know this sounds drastic, but I only look at my email twice a day: first thing in the morning and the last thing in the late afternoon. It works for me, but I’m trying to think of what advice I can give to those of you who exchange business emails throughout the course of your business day. Does “I’m sorry,” help? Probably not. If this is your situation, you might need to add one or two more email sessions to your day.
  • Turn your email alert off. With your email alert enabled, your concentration is interrupted through the day. Research has shown, over and over again, that people who multi-task are significantly less effective in their job. High-pressure jobs are already stressful; don’t make it worse by responding to the email bell like Pavlov’s dogs.
  • Opening your email to find 125 messages waiting for your attention is enough to make you want to go back to bed. Many people use one address for personal and business. Create a second email address for your personal mail and untangle it from your business. This will make it easier to find and respond to the most important emails first.
  • The majority of the emails I receive are from websites dedicated to helping artists set up the business side of their career and teaching them how to market their artwork. These websites have amazing, helpful articles that I just could not figure out how to keep track of.
    • I tried printing them out and putting them in manila folders with titles like Social Media; Approaching a Gallery; Website Development, etc. It wasn’t long before I was drowning in paper. I tried setting up folders on Safari for various subjects, but without a better search function, it was hard to find which articles were in what folders.
    • Then I found a software program called Bento. At this point, Bento is only available for Apple products but there are PC equivalents; you’ll just have to do some research. The thing I like about Bento is how easy it is to use. If you’re reading an email and it has information you need, just press the Bento icon at the top of the screen, tell it which notebook (folder) you want to keep it in and that’s it. If you want the information available on your iPhone and iPad, install Bento to those devises and it will sync to all three.

I still have too many emails to respond to but at least I’m finally organized enough to find them a home and retrieve them when needed. How do you handle your email? Please share your thoughts and solutions with us by going to the comments link at the top of this blog post.

Until next time,

Susan L Stewart

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Time Management Technique: The List

February 27, 2013 by Susan L Stewart | Leave a comment

“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist,

and the less the artist does the better.” - Andre Gide

 

Fish Collage • Mixed Media • 20″ x 30″ • $125

I was speaking with a good friend the other day. We start our conversations with good things and then move on to the difficulties we’re facing. For me it was my standard: trying to live my life and create art while coping with Fibromyalgia. My friend was feeling even more stressed than usual. She is a wife, mother, working woman, active in their church and trying to get her travel business up and running. She tried to explain to me how tired and worn down she was feeling. I assured her I understood, and I do, because it wasn’t that long ago that I juggled the same balls.

I shared a technique with her that has helped me many times when I feel overwhelmed. For lack of a better name, I call it “The List.” Get a spiral bound notebook or journal – something to keep the pages together. Then start writing down everything you do. And I do mean everything. For example, an artist might start their list with:

Add highlights to painting X

Varnish painting Y

Prep the canvas for new painting Z

Update art supplies inventory

Read “American Artist” – or whatever art magazines you subscribe to

Choose a summer outdoor art festival and get an application in

Plan and implement marketing for new show

Send out email notifications

Send invitation cards with a photo of my art to people on my contact list

Post on FB

Post on Twitter

Send out press releases

Post new work on Pinterest

Blog on Tuesdays and Fridays

And more …

That doesn’t include all of the non-art activities like grocery shopping, fixing dinner, carpool, working, reading email, cleaning the house, paying bills, visiting family, bedtime stories, feeding the dog and on and on and on.

The key to this is to take your time and write down everything. Work on the list for at least a week, preferably two. You will be surprised at what shows up on the list when you give it some time.

Once you have your list completed, spend time reading and analyzing it. Make a note of how much time each activity takes. Give it a 1-10 scale of how important it is compared to having that time to paint. Ask yourself, “What can I stop doing? What can I delegate?” Maybe it’s time to give up a volunteer position to have more time for your art.

Here is one of the things I found on the first list I did. I had several friends who were very active in our county’s Republican Women’s Club. They invited me to go to one of their get-togethers. I did and had a great time. So I made time to add another activity to my already impossible life. After a few months, the Club needed someone to do their newsletter. Since that was one of the things my business specialized in, I volunteered. A few months later, a therapist I was seeing suggested I try The List exercise. I was amazed at all of the things I was doing. I took my list to my next therapy appointment and we went over it. When I got to newsletter editor of the Republican Women’s Club, I stopped.

At that time, I was a registered Democrat!

I couldn’t help but laugh. When I got home, I called the president and resigned. One down, 20 more to go. What I found interesting was that as I was canceling these commitments, beyond someone saying, “We’ll miss you,” or “Thank you for your help,” no one tried to talk me out of it or made it unpleasant. It just goes to show that you can walk away from time-consuming activities and people will still like you.

As I’ve said in an earlier post, a large part of being an artist is making choices. Deciding how to use your valuable time is one of the biggest and most important choices of all.

When you do The List exercise come back and leave a comment. I’d love to hear how it worked for you.

Until next time,

Susan L Stewart

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Thoughts on being an artist

February 24, 2013 by Susan L Stewart | Leave a comment

Summer Thunder • Acrylic • 22″ x 30″ • $265 • Framed

It’s such a stereotype to say that I always knew I was an artist but that’s what I believed when I was young. My mother was an artist, and I grew up surrounded by art supplies and the understanding that I could paint whenever I wanted to.

When I was about eight, our teacher assigned us to write a two-page story. By the time mine was completed, it was a small book, stapled along the edge to make a spine, complete with illustrations of purple aliens with huge green eyes. I remember struggling with the conclusion.

For some, art is something fun to play with on a rainy afternoon, for others it’s a hobby. For many, it’s a way to let the world see who we are on the inside. We are so committed to this form of self-expression that we are happy to pass up going to the movies or out to dinner so we have more time and money to create our art. For those of us who take it as a serious business, we are willing to persevere until our work is available to the public and recognized by artists and non-artists alike.

I wish someone, anyone, a teacher, a friend’s parent (it never would have come from my parents), or a stranger on the street would have given me a little encouragement. I took all of the art classes available in high school. If my art teacher had said, “You should think about going to art school,” it would have changed my life. It never happened and as the years passed, art faded into the background amongst the other demands of my life.

I’m in my late fifties now and have been painting for 20+ years while being a wife, mother and owning a successful, stressful, business. Since retiring four years ago, I’ve been painting full-time. I started seriously marketing my work in 2012. Here are some things I believe about being an artist.

  •  Being an artist is so much more than “wanting.”

Believing that if you want it bad enough you can make it happen is not true. No one has to be able to draw a straight line without a ruler, but there are so many components to being an artist that sheer determination it is not enough to carry you through the difficult times.

  • Being an artist is so much more than “knowing.”

Knowing implies knowledge and an understanding of who you are as a person. It’s all of the complexities that make you an individual. However, knowing that you are an artist and adding “artist” to your résumé does not make you an artist. I identified myself as an artist for decades and many, many times, when filling out a form, I put “artist” down as my occupation. Never mind that I hadn’t picked up a paintbrush in years and didn’t even own a sketchbook.

Starting with “wanting” and adding “knowing” is a viable foundation to begin the work needed to become an artist.

  • Being an artist is all about making choices.

It’s asking yourself every day if this is how you want to spend your precious time on earth. And it’s asking yourself that question every time it gets hard — which is just about every day. Being an artist means that you want to go into the studio and create art every day even if that studio is the kitchen table or half of a closet.

  • Being an artist is all about not making excuses

To grow as an artist, you can’t put off your art until you are “in the mood,” have a good idea for a painting or more time or  _____. (Fill in the blank.) Your skills can’t improve unless you paint regularly. You need to experiment with different brushes, media, styles of art and subject matter.

Becoming a better artist is no different from becoming a professional pianist or prima ballerina. It takes practice, commitment and passion. If you can’t get into the studio to paint, then spend some time with your sketchbook drawing a plant, a cup or a flower. It doesn’t have to be too difficult but you don’t want to sit there drawing smiley faces, either.

  • Being an artist is hard.

Ideas are not always plentiful. A major reason to keep a sketchbook is to record an idea. Write it down, sketch it out or cut out a picture in a magazine and paste it in the book.

Figuring out the most effective marketing path to take is like Dorothy trying to find Kansas while she’s in Oz where nothing makes sense. You might be surprised at just how difficult it is in the beginning. There is inbound marketing, outbound marketing, email, snail mail and so much more. Thankfully, some very good websites teach marketing for artists. Two of my favorites are Alyson Stanfield’s Art Biz Blog and Hubspot.

Finally …

I believe very few people are “born artists.” Occasionally you hear of a child prodigy but for the vast majority, it takes a lot of hard work and commitment. You need a thick skin to stay on track despite being turned down, yet again, by a gallery. You have to be able to accept a negative review and chalk it up to “one man’s opinion.”

Being an artist is rarely about making tons of money and riding around in a Lamborghini. It’s more about keeping your 15-year-old station wagon going so you can get to the next outdoor art festival. To do something you love instead of sitting in a cubical in some giant corporate office reading spreadsheets all day is a wonderful gift; a gift that can’t be taken for granted; a gift you have to consistently use and nurture. Yes it’s work, but the rewards are well worth the sacrifices.

Until next time,

Susan L Stewart

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Vincent van Gogh and finding my style

February 15, 2013 by Susan L Stewart | 2 Comments

The café made famous by van Gogh in his painting “Café Terrace at Night.”

I’ve been painting for more than 15 years but it’s only been in the last two years, since selling my business, that I have been able to paint full-time. My output has increased dramatically, and I can see significant growth as an artist, but I’ve been a little frustrated.

I have read two things about being a successful artist:

An artist needs to find his or her unique artistic “voice” or style; and to always work in a series.

When you do that, your work can be shown as a collection and that’s what gallery owners want. I always took this directive to mean that I needed to figure out my style now, before I could do much marketing, especially to a gallery.

In October 2012, my husband, our daughter and I spent almost three weeks in France. France has never been high on my list of countries to visit, but I was pleasantly surprised by how nice and helpful the French were, the excellent service we received and their patience with the fact that none of us spoke French except for Parlez-vous anglais? which means, “Do you speak English?”

The olive groves just outside the gates of the mental hospital in Saint Rémy. Vincent admitted himself and spent a year there.

For me, of course, the trip was all about art museums.

Vincent van Gogh is my favorite artist. He only spent the last ten years of his life as an artist. During those ten years, he produced an amazing 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, sketches and drawings. His art speaks to me on a level that no other art does. The Musée d’Orsay in Paris has two connected rooms with 25 of Van Gogh’s paintings including Starry Night, the Church at Auvers, his Bedroom in Arles and self-portraits. These are the brightly colored paintings with the bold brush strokes that you think of when you think of van Gogh.

One of Van Gogh’s paintings of the olive groves. He lived in the asylum from May 1889 to May 1890 and then moved to Auvers-sur-Oise to be closer to his doctor and brother. He died two months later on July 29, 1890. Many believe he shot himself in the chest but new research suggests he had been bullied by some young men and it was one of those who shot him.

Then, in January 2013, Tom and I went to Becoming van Gogh at the Denver Art Museum. Becoming van Gogh show cased his early works. These were mostly drawings he did at the beginning of his career. They tend to be dark and smudgy with somber subjects of peasants and their poverty. Unlike the art I saw at the Musée d’Orsay, there were very few of the vibrant paintings we expect to see from Van Gogh.

When you are able to study an artist’s body of work from the beginning of his career to the end, you can see the progression in technique, the changes in subject matter and the evolution in style. The changes I saw in van Gogh’s art in Paris and Denver clearly illustrated this point.

After seeing van Gogh’s work, I realized I have had several styles over the years. I started out in the early 1990s using oils to create paintings with southwestern themes. In the late 1990s, I changed to pastels and painted nothing but flowers for several years. Now I use acrylics to paint abstracts. Developing a style is an ongoing process that I will work on for the rest of my art career. If someone asked me today what my style is, I’d have to say, “I’m not sure yet, ask me again in five years.”

Until next time,

Susan L Stewart

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From Dilettante to Pro – Making the Switch

February 4, 2013 by Susan L Stewart | Leave a comment

When I think of the word “dilettante”,” I think about someone who “dabbles” in art, not one who takes it seriously. Then one day I looked it up in the dictionary. Here’s what I found:

Dilettante: (noun) – Mid-18th century from the Italian meaning “a person loving the arts.”

Quite a different take on the word.

Copper Canyon • Acrylic • 20″ x 16″ • $135

I have been painting for more than 15 years. Most of that time, I was also running a very successful – and stressful – home-based business and raising two children. I was that “person loving the arts.” I painted whenever I could find time, but I never had a consistent amount of time to really mature as an artist. Some years I created five paintings; other years I didn’t create a thing. It wasn’t until October 2008, when I sold my business, that I was able to turn my full attention to my art.

Changing focus from just having fun painting on the weekends, to becoming a full-time artist complete with a marketing plan and business cards is a very big deal. Don’t misunderstand, there’s nothing wrong with being a part-time artist with a singular goal of painting for yourself, friends and family. Countless numbers of men and women can be found on a Saturday at the lake painting the water and ducks, clouds and landscapes.  For some, there comes a time when that just isn’t enough.

Making the switch from hobbyist to professional, hinges on practical issues

  • Are you ready to invest a considerable amount of time creating a marketing plan, setting goals and treating your love for art as a business?
  • Do you have enough experience to go pro? This not a problem – you gain experience and grow as an artist by painting every day.
  • Can you afford to take lessons, if needed?
  • Do you have money set aside for equipment like brushes, paint and canvas?

Expect a learning curve that will take a lot of hard work and self-confidence to get through. Keep in mind, too, that there is no timeline set in stone for creating your new business or for becoming a pro. On the contrary, professionals in any field never stop learning and growing. As with any artistic form: drawing, painting, sculpture, dance and music, the more you do it, the better you will become. Spend as much time as you can every day painting and working on your marketing.

So, what do you do if you don’t have $40,000 for art school?

Although I have always wanted to go to art school, it just never worked out. My art education has been spread out throughout my adult life. Our community college has an excellent art department and I have taken a few classes there over the years. I still go to workshops. I found a small, local art guild that holds one-day workshops for $30.

With the amazing amount of art information on the Internet, it is possible to get the book learning you need: color theory and good design principles for example. In addition, I have found amazing online professionals with blogs, webinars, teleconferences and free courses to keep me challenged and excited.

Professional Artist (formerly Art Calendar) is one of the best art magazines I subscribe to. In addition to great articles about marketing, business practices, galleries, artists and social media, the back of the magazine has an extensive list of art competitions, exhibitions, public art, grants and residencies. I learn a lot, get some great ideas and stay up with the latest styles in contemporary art.

If you want it bad enough, you’ll do it

Often when we say we want something – “I want to take my art to the next level and start selling my work.” (which is what I said) – we don’t really know what we’re asking for. That’s all right. Take the first big leap. If you find yourself in a puddle of mud, wipe yourself off and keep leaping. If, on the other hand, you take the first leap and you’re in over your head in crocodile-infested waters, instead of taking on such a big project, you may want to start out with smaller tasks. Only you will know.

It’s been almost four years since I sold my business and I have seen an enormous change in my style, color palette, technique and subject matter. I have more than doubled the amount of time I spend at the easel each week and I have seen a remarkable shift in the quality of my work. I am starting to get noticed, and my goal for this year is to make at least one big sale. If this is your dream, you can do it to.

Until next time,

Susan L Stewart

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Posted in On Being An Artist