Thoughts From Marsha

I create paintings in pastel, oil, or acrylic as most of you know. I love to draw and sometimes create a “painting” that is technically called a “drawing.” I think of them as painting with a variety of pencils. I am also learning to use a medium called “gouache.” If you don’t know, it is an opaque watercolor and it dries very fast! And, it is fun learning something new.

But, doing the artwork is the easier part in my opinion. I get asked many times what is involved with being a professional artist.

What else am I doing on days I don’t paint?
Many non-artists have no idea a lot of time is spent on other art-related things, not doing the painting! There are different skills needed to be a professional artist besides creating, like photographing the artwork, creating and keeping up with inventory lists, naming the art (OMG), framing, storage, writing about your art and marketing.

Oh... and of course if marketing, you may want to place your work in galleries, or have your own one-person or group shows locally. Those things require a dedicated calendar to keep up with them. I talk about the calendar below! It is what actually started me doing this blog post.

I had a really good post almost complete when it disappeared and had not been saved! Be sure to have a system in place to do your inventory and writing in a word processing program to save it many times while doing the typing! Don’t do what I did, and create it on a site that might not get “auto-saved” if your computer has a glitch. Another item to add to my list of non-artist jobs.

But, back to what happens normally during the days and weeks of being an artist!
Looking for and gaining gallery representation (if wanted) is a big step. If you want to be represented by a gallery you have these jobs: finding a gallery, decision of what goes to them, create an inventory report to give them, and then delivery, changing out the artwork, and bringing home unsold artwork. Remember, not everything you create is gallery worthy!

They love for you to do some marketing on social media to promote your work through them! So don’t forget about knowing how to use social media!

There is a lot of information out there about what to do when wanting gallery representation. Find what works best for you. Don’t make it complicated. Start locally is my first advice.

Another item I mentioned above is entering shows.
 ... a big part of being professional and a category all on its own. I have to be able to do other things required to market my artwork like photograph and create inventory records, etc. My day may start with keeping up with the calendar.

This year I hit the road with a vengeance! And you must know that is pretty literal. The road ... entering shows is one big one. That means I must know the deadline (open to close) ... the actual dates (sometimes the time may be middle of the day) for entering a show.

The deadlines (dates) for one show are many: entry dates, notification of acceptance or not, delivery or shipping dates if accepted, reception date, actual dates of the show from beginning to ending, and the pick up or shipping return dates.

Besides the deadline to enter, you must check for these parameters to enter: maximum size requirement, framing requirements, date produced (usually must have been within two years), correct medium (many different organizations for “certain” mediums), pricing, correct size of image to submit, number of pieces allowed to enter, and price to enter.

I have to keep a quick list ... front and center ... close at hand ... with those dates or I can easily miss one!

I sit those chosen paintings aside with a “sticky note” attached noting the name of the show. That helps me not accidentally sell it, or take it to a gallery, or submit it to another show!

And regarding my show deadlines... here is what I have been doing:
I have lived with twelve deadlines this year! Remember my comment about “hitting the road with a vengeance” mentioned above? Some have passed and some still coming along. There is where the calendar comes into play. As of today, I was accepted in six shows, not accepted in three, and missed one deadline. I still have one more to enter within the next week.

That meant a lot of trying to keep the inventory straight and labeled correctly.

A quick bit about photo editing software!
If you are entering a show, you need to know how to edit your photograph of the painting. And, you need to know how to photograph it to the best possible image to start with ... meaning what lighting you use when doing the photograph.

There are many photo editing programs, but I have found that the Photoshop Elements is the best at a reasonable cost. Then you have to load it on your computer, and learn how to use it. You may have another that you love!

This day and time, our cell phones take wonderful photographs and we seem to have them with us at all times. If I use mine (which is most of the time now), I then attach it to my laptop and upload the photos to the computer inventory for the year. Yes... I keep file folder that say: Painting, Year, Print, WIP (work in progress) ... that last one is where I upload my new photos and it has the “working title” name for that particular painting in progress!

So... I have covered quite a number of daily activities besides the creating of a study or painting. I know there are other things I do sporadically when working on my art career.

This post is long enough and thank you for reading this far. I am sure you have thought of questions you’d like to ask. Please do feel free to contact me with them. Or, make a comment below!