art season
It's high art season even for those of us who are 'independent'. I somehow thought I'd be over it after fall Open Studios but then there was the Visual Aids show and two more shows installing soon [the Off the Point show linked to the title above]. And maybe another open studio...not sure if I can handle that one as I am itching to paint again. Each one of these takes up precious painting time.
Life has sped up so much in recent years that I wonder if it's possible to get any faster. But it seems to keep accelerating. I stopped watching TV as there didn't seem to be time for that. Even boyfriends now seem to be a luxury in terms of time.
And I am much more efficient these days. When I was younger there were whole series of days given over to not being able to get out of bed, answer the phone or voracious reading, obsessively...Some of these periods were inspired by a car breaking down. Maybe having a better car has saved me from those dark days!
(But seriously, I never had one of those dark depressions after I started running.)
My open studio went really well but one has to struggle to not be influenced by what people are buying. I think the artist is the only one who really knows where the art is going and then often not consciously. I can only hope that people respond to my best work. Sometimes a really good piece is snapped up as soon as it hits the rack or wall.
Views of tourist attractions always sell well even if they are quirky but one really has to find a new way to show them. Views such as the Palace of Fine Arts are interesting more as a survival exercise. One gets so many interruptions and comments that it is really an exercise in just staying focused. I used to call my class at the Palace of Fine Arts, the "Master Class". And it's always amusing that even if you only have one brushstroke on the canvas, that people will stop to tell you how nice it is. People love painters.
And everyone's mom is a painter.
A couple of years ago I was painting one of the California aqueducts outside of Tracy. This one was a river encased in concrete flowing south, near I-5. It was an exciting view for me, with lovely mountains reflected in it. I was standing at the edge of the 'bridge' over it, really I was right next to it. I knew I had to be very careful and I was painting as fast as I could (as I had a fellow painter with me who was not into the site), but near the end of the painting I had to keep standing back to look at the piece. I nearly fell it, really it would have been very nasty. Luckily I didn't stumble or anything. Gosh...seems like an angel follows me around sometimes.
Life has sped up so much in recent years that I wonder if it's possible to get any faster. But it seems to keep accelerating. I stopped watching TV as there didn't seem to be time for that. Even boyfriends now seem to be a luxury in terms of time.
And I am much more efficient these days. When I was younger there were whole series of days given over to not being able to get out of bed, answer the phone or voracious reading, obsessively...Some of these periods were inspired by a car breaking down. Maybe having a better car has saved me from those dark days!
(But seriously, I never had one of those dark depressions after I started running.)
My open studio went really well but one has to struggle to not be influenced by what people are buying. I think the artist is the only one who really knows where the art is going and then often not consciously. I can only hope that people respond to my best work. Sometimes a really good piece is snapped up as soon as it hits the rack or wall.
Views of tourist attractions always sell well even if they are quirky but one really has to find a new way to show them. Views such as the Palace of Fine Arts are interesting more as a survival exercise. One gets so many interruptions and comments that it is really an exercise in just staying focused. I used to call my class at the Palace of Fine Arts, the "Master Class". And it's always amusing that even if you only have one brushstroke on the canvas, that people will stop to tell you how nice it is. People love painters.
And everyone's mom is a painter.
A couple of years ago I was painting one of the California aqueducts outside of Tracy. This one was a river encased in concrete flowing south, near I-5. It was an exciting view for me, with lovely mountains reflected in it. I was standing at the edge of the 'bridge' over it, really I was right next to it. I knew I had to be very careful and I was painting as fast as I could (as I had a fellow painter with me who was not into the site), but near the end of the painting I had to keep standing back to look at the piece. I nearly fell it, really it would have been very nasty. Luckily I didn't stumble or anything. Gosh...seems like an angel follows me around sometimes.
posted by Carolyn Crampton at
10:53 PM
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