Value of Art and Culture

 Sometimes people ask me why art is important? They think it is just decoration. Why invest in original art? 

Art affects every part of our lives. Our cars, furniture, kitchen tools, gardens, and almost all products are the result of art design. 
Without original art we have no culture, no refinement in our society. We have more civility with art, and that is sorely needed. Art and culture are the barriers against chaos and meanness of society. We must teach our children that all the arts are vital to their society in every generation. 
Art is not just for the wealthy or highly educated. It is for all of us. I still am stunned by the portraits of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and others. Artists are the historians of our own time on this earth. 
My collectors like to think of my paintings as vacations. They can go to that place and leave the stress of their day instantly, even if just for a moment. I have never believed in reproductions. I think they cheapen our art and encourage a throw away attitude about art. 
When a collector buys my work, they have exclusivity. No one else will ever have that painting if they wish to keep it and pass on to the next generation. Original art is special, and should be treasured. I have a large variety of prices for that reason. 
We should be teaching our children that art is vital to our society for every generation.
Life is wonderful for country painters.....

Clear Up

 It’s been awhile since I went through my older paintings in storage. I think it is time to clear up my inventory. Some of the paintings in storage are some of my favorites, so they are rotated into the studio inventory again in future. Others were part of my experimentation of palettes, brush work, and other elements of painting. There is nothing wrong with them but I have advanced beyond them and improved. 

 

I am thinking of filling my browse boxes and saving the frames for new work. I’ve not had a painting sale since 2018. Some if the smallest paintings will go into my free art gallery. It will be a fair amount of effort to sort through the work and put it in the sale bins, but it’s nice to give people a chance to own original art at a good discount.  It’s good for me to move them out too.  I’ll have them ready by September 1.

 

Country painters always need studio space….

Influencers

 I study marketing a lot, to enhance my career. Artists have to sell paintings to live.  There seems to be a thing now called influencer marketing.  It is all the rage.

I know several artists who depend on this scheme to make a living. The idea is that they must have thousands of social media followers to sell art. The necessary number is a hundred thousand +. They must post a certain number of times a day, follow celebrities, and other “influencers”, have the right hash tags, and many other requirements. They must use sales funnels and landing pages. These formulas will make them successful.

This idea is appalling to me. These are artists who will say that I just don’t understand. In my view, this is like going to a get rich quick convention. Whatever happened to being a real person who actually works hard in the studio every day, who actually cares about the people who follow and share their own lives with their favorite artists? If this is a turn off for me, you can bet it will be for art collectors. No one wants to be constantly sold to and manipulated with formulas.

I am admittedly old school. Most of my collectors are my friends. I actually care about their ups and downs, good and bad days. My collectors are real people with real lives, not numbers on social media. I’d rather have a hundred friends than 100,000 strangers following me because they think I might be cool or know someone cool. 

Life is real for country painters....

Painting Fun

 I’ve been practicing my acrylic skills this summer, first with small paintings on watercolor paper, and lately the 8x10, 11x14 and 12x16 sizes. I have slowed down a bit and pay attention to the stages of the painting. I think carefully about decisions. Hopefully I will be ready for the fall season of tea parties and my front porch show at The Artisan’s Guild on October 29th. It is all good fun!

 

Country painters have a wonderful life…

Exciting News

 

Back Light Fun

 I’ve been having fun with recycled unsanded wood panels. My contractor saves wood scraps and cuts them the sizes I use. I love the texture, lines and knots in the wood.

This painting is an example. One of my favorite landscape situations are

 

strong backlit trees. They are more difficult for me than frontal or side light. Getting that halo around them is difficult to do without exposing too much of the texture. It is easy to do flat dark tree trunks but they look fake. Getting just enough texture in the tree trunks, and variety in the light behind them is the challenge. This one is pretty abstract but it was great fun!

Country painters love to learn……

Studio Tour Review

 The studio tour was a huge success for me. A good crowd came on Saturday. Lots of sales! Sunday was calmer, with fewer guests but a more relaxed day with old friends. It was excellent in every way. I hope the tour includes me again next year.

This week I’m working on some commissions and trying to catch up so I can get back to my experiments with palettes, my summer project. I’ve worked through three tetradic palettes and now I’m using my favorite long time palette of cadmium red light, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light, Payne’s gray and titanium white. In the winter I substitute yellow ochre for the cadmium yellow. This is a no risk palette. You cannot mix a bad color combination with this palette.

Country painters love to experiment…..

Gainesville Fine Arts Studio Tour

 This week I’ve been preparing for the studio tour on this Saturday and Sunday 10 AM - 5 PM. A shout out with kudos for Deb and Wes Lindbergh, who did all the hard work for this
event. 

Due to a resurgence of Covid, I will be wearing a mask on both days. I urge you to wear one too. My studio assistant won’t be joining us due to a Covid infection.  So sad! My sister will lend a hand, so please do come. I will keep the studio sanitized during both days. 

I’ll be serving hot dogs, potato salad, Cole slaw, fresh fruit, and chocolate bark. We will enjoy a cup of tea or soft drinks. I know it is hot, but my studio is air conditioned. If you want to avoid the afternoon showers, come morning through lunch time.

I’ll have lots of paintings to show in sizes from 4x6 inches to 40x60 inches. Don’t forget my free art gallery too. Ya’ll come!

Country painters love their friends! 

Farms and Ranches

 

 

For the last 20 years or so I have focused my work on agricultural land in Florida, Alabama and on occasion, North Carolina. I taught painting at the folk school in NC for a few years, and my daughter went to college in Alabama, so I had good painting time there as well.

 I grew up around agriculture, farming and ranching. My daddy’s best friends were farm and ranch men. I tagged along with him and studied the fields, woods, and pastures with great interest. We had horses and a cow or two out here. I would say farming and ranching is in my blood. I know a lot of farmers and I am a great admirer of them. They put in long days of hard labor and they are true environmentalists. They manage their land with great skill and protect the wildlife who live on their land. Many of them have invasive plants removed regularly, so that their lands are truly primal Florida, the Florida I grew up in. They are naturalists and have great knowledge of the rhythms of land. 

 Many Florida painters focus on the coast, beaches, boats, tourist towns, and what most people think of Florida. Few tourists understand that the real Florida is something else entirely. Kudos to our farmers and ranchers. 

 Life is wonderful for country painters.......

Paint Endlessly

 Long time painters are hot wired to paint every day or often. I produce hundreds of paintings every year. My methods change throughout the years, due to interest and health, but the habit of painting every day stays with me.

 At one time I only painted out doors. That lasted about ten years. I began to see that my technical skills declined considerably. I realized that plein air painting by itself was not the answer. I also learned that outdoor observation was far more important to my knowledge of the natural world.

 Now I spend most of the year painting in my studio, paired with a lot of time walking and observing the natural world from my trails. I do most of my studies at my design table on 4x6 watercolor paper, and paint in the studio two or three days a week. I paint out on the trails in the winter months, when it is cool and pleasant. 

It doesn’t matter what method I use as long as I am working every day and learning as I go. 

 Country painters have a wonderful life…..