Julie T. Chapman - ArtBlog

Hooked everyone with that, didn’t I?? Hey, it’s a rare opportunity to sound pretentious and use - or in this case and better yet, make up - an “ism”.

What spurs this post are recent forays I’ve made away from strict representation (OK, not that anyone would describe me as strictly anything). Such adventures are consistently scary and, if they work (which is rare), fun. By definition, embarking on an adventure means we don’t know how how the story will end. I hate like hell to spend a week or more on prepping for and creating a painting…and then tossing it in the burn pile. But my low tolerance for boredom and repetition means self-inflicted pain at times. (How DOES Thomas Kinkade stand it, anyway?)

The image here is one such foray afield. In general, paintings can only briefly imply the passage of time; with this piece, my concept (HA! using the “c” word) was actually to depict it - in this case, a burrowing owl after his grasshopper prey. I watched this little guy for three or four hours one fine autumn day in the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, WY and came away with this idea, which has been ruminating in my head for half a year.

There will be more explorations of concepts that are not strictly naturalistic if I am to grow; I wince in anticipation.

P.S. No further blog posts until late next week (eg, Wed 4/2 or after) - heading off for a long weekend in Idaho Falls and our first agility trial of the season.

Painting: “Mighty Hunter”, 26 x 16

Since my last few posts have dealt with artist angst and what to do when stuff ain’t working, I’ll post one more in this vein. It’s a quote. Well, only sort of a quote. I don’t remember who said it, or exactly what the wording is, or where I read this. Now that I’ve sold you on how great this quote is, here it is:

The difference between a good artist and a great artist is the size of their wastebaskets.

Which I take to mean that the great artist is more critical of her work and throws more of it away…although I suppose it could be argued that this really means the great artist is so good that he doesn’t have to discard much.

BTW, I don’t think I’m brave enough to post images of any of my rejects here. Sorry, not interested in sharing failure with the world. Rejects are in a ‘destined to burn’ pile in the basement. One small consolation: the work in my reject pile is getting better…not that I’ll pop the champagne cork on that, thank you anyway.

Not that this EVER happens to me. But what’s a (wo)man to do when faced with difficulties in the studio? Suggestions:

• Check email
• Update your website (surely there’s something that needs doing!)
• Post to your blog
• Check email again
• Email (or better yet, call) a gallery dealer: “Howz things??” (and hey, it counts as work!)
• Take the dogs for a walk
• Split wood
• Pour a large drink and do a crossword puzzle
• Check email again
• Clean the studio (hey, at least you’re in there! and god knows there’s dog hair everywhere…)

When you’ve run through all of these options and the painting STILL isn’t working and you’ve decided you’re the worst artist on the planet and how the hell did you ever think you could make your living at this anyway fergawdsakes, you have a couple more options:

• Pull out a book on a REAL artist who actually who knew how to paint…and study it
• Sketch some new painting ideas
• Slather all that paint on your palette onto a piece of Yupo, or even onto that painting that isn’t working (no sense letting good paint go to waste, at least!)

If any of these suggestions work, tell me so I know what to do next time. Not that this ever happens to me.

“No one made me do this. I love being an artist and wouldn’t do anything else. But it’s strenuous. We artists don’t just shake things out of our sleeves. It demands mental concentration, and at the end of a hard day of painting, you are drained. The positive thing about being an artist is that every once in a while you make a breakthrough, and you really see the possibility of new horizons in your work.” - Woody Gwyn

Today I need reminding of this. I started a piece that was a risk, and I don’t like it. Which means I don’t like my studio, or my career, or my ideas, or my life at the moment. It happens. Woody is right, BTW - a hard day of painting (whether good or bad) is tiring. The muse never lets go, though.

Did you know that my originals, or those of Howard Terpning, are valued only at the $10 or $20 worth of paint and canvas used to create it - at least according to the IRS? Currently, an artist who donates a piece of artwork - think charities and museums - can deduct essentially just the value of the materials used in the work’s creation. A collector can donate purchased artwork and deduct fair market value for tax purposes, but the work’s creator cannot. (Maybe Congress is worried that there are folks selling $50 paintings on eBay who might take a deduction of $5000 for a donation).

Legislation has been offered before to correct this clearly ludicrous situation, but has always died due to lack of support or interest by artists. Congress is (amazingly) actually doing something and trying again in this regard; it’s (amazingly) easy to take action on these bills, by going to the Advocate for the Arts email action center.

I have to say, though, that the current materials-only-deduction thing has let me weasel out of numerous requests for donations. Why is it that artists - all good souls to begin with, and many lacking much money - get tapped so continually for donations? I get requests often enough that I would have no work left to send to my galleries if I responded to all these. I’ve salved my conscience by telling the requestor:

• about the deduction issue
• that I focus my donations in just one area (that being The Nature Conservancy)
• that if they have a benefactor who is willing to purchase my artwork and donate it to their auction (the typical venue for requestors) I’d give them a small discount, the benefactor would get a deduction, and the auction would get a good painting - a win-win all around. Oddly, no one has ever taken me up on this.

BTW, someone wrote about the whole “artists being tapped for charity” issue not long ago in a magazine somewhere (not that I can remember where or who or when) and suggested that part of the problem is that we’re all too damn eager to fork over artwork to some charity for auction, in the hopes that we might get some recognition for our saintliness. And that we oughta stop being so forthcoming.

This rather resonates with me; I’m not really willing to hand over a nice painting that took me several weeks to paint and that might sell in some two-bit animal rescue auction in Outer Timbuktu for pennies on the dollar compared to my retail prices because the bidders don’t know my work, are not art aficionados, and are (typically) just at the auction looking for bargains. I do donate prints occasionally, but no originals. I have never yet had someone contact me to say “Hey, I saw that nice print of yours in the Outer Timbuktu coatimundi rescue auction!” (let alone “…and I gotta get me some of your work!”), despite all the glowing promises by the charity about how much publicity the event will get, and that I can send along a couple pounds of business cards to spread around.

OK, grump mode off.

P.S. I have yet to paint a coatimundi.

From an essay in the December ‘07 Southwest Art by Susan Hallsten McGarry, written about Gene & Rebecca Tobey’s work:

Excellence in execution does not necessarily keep an artwork alive for generations. Two additional elements are also essential.

Foremost is personal expression - communicating a meaningful emotion or experience.

Second is expanding that statement beyond the individual, inducing viewers to bring their own emotional interpretations to the piece. This indescribable combination raises fine art to a timeless language that resonates across cultures.

In other words, I boil this down to: “work with passion, and leave some things unsaid (or ambiguous).” I’ll have more to say about passion in future posts, but for now . . . what do you think?

“Chestnut Dreams”, 12×16 oil on handmade canvas panel
Ernest Fuller Fine Art (Denver, CO) - 866.946.1296

In the vein of stuff that might possibly be useful to someone else: reports from some recent shows. First up, Kelly Singleton talks about her first outing at SEWE (the Southeastern Wildlife Expo) a few weeks ago, Feb 2008:

My experience at SEWE was apparently typical of the first-timer there - hardly any sales. This year in particular was bad for everyone - sales were down for everybody. Even John Seerey-Lester I was told sold none. He was overheard saying that he’s not coming back. The economy was mostly being blamed for the dismal sales. I sold one painting, on the very last day of the show, and that was to a collector of mine. I talked to many of my artist friends that had shown at SEWE before, and they all told me that they had terrible first showings there. They all encouraged me to come back next year though, that once you get the first time under your belt, it should be better. From what I gathered, it seems that the people that attend SEWE do not take the artists seriously until they’ve been there a few years. I heard the same thing about the Waterfowl Festival in MD. I was told SEWE’s featured artist this year, Peggy Watkins, even sold nothing her first year; second year she came back and nearly sold out; third year they invited her as the featured artist and she did extremely well.

I noticed that pencil work and loose painterly work was what was selling. Detailed work was not moving at all . . . There was also a lot of work for the viewers to take in, over one hundred artists, I don’t know if this necessarily helped matters.

I should say the show was very well run by its staff/organizers. And the PR was excellent; it was well advertised and promoted. This is a huge event in Charleston and the amount of people the show attracts is incredible - something like 40,000?

Thank you Kelly for sharing these thoughts and experiences!

I attended the Peppertree (Santa Ynez, CA - near Santa Barbara) last November. That was my second time to the show; I’d previously attended in May 2006, I think. At the prior show, I sold one piece; this time, I sold none, despite having what I thought were some very good paintings there (of course, I’m hardly objective). What did seem to sell: more traditional things (nothing with the kind of contemporary edge I lean towards), especially with horses and kids; and work that I, being the total art snob I am, would call kinda gimmicky - paintings on stone, or over-the-top giant black walnut animal carvings (things 6 and 10 feet high). About 20% of the work sold - a statistically rigorous survey based on walking around counting up red dots - which is not a high enough percentage to entice me back. So the trip was a tax writeoff; given that it was snowing in Montana, and 75 in Santa Barbara, we made the best of it.

Every year my students inspire me, both directly and indirectly, to keep doing these workshops. So herewith:

WINTER 2009: Thursday, Feb 5 - Sunday Feb 8

SUMMER 2009: Thursday, June 25 - Sunday, June 28

Workshop fee is $1500; a nonrefundable $300 deposit is needed to hold your slot. You can call Triple D (406 . 755 . 9653) to use your credit card for deposit, or send a check to them or to me. As always, returning students receive a 10% discount.

As usual, we will start at the crack of dawn on the first day, Thursday, and continue to 2:30 - 3:00 PM on Sunday. Triple D will offer an extra day of photography, for a very reasonable fee, on the Monday following each workshop for those who want to shoot animals that weren’t part of the workhop. (Summer 2008 workshop folks: you’ll also have this option). We may also have the option of doing a horse shoot on one of the workshop days, depending on student interest.

You can see details on my website - what’s shown for 2008 will be substantially the same in 2009. A very few highlights of my winter 08 workshop are shown on my Workshops webpage just to make you salivate. Folks are already signing up for 2009, and my summer 08 workshop was full months in advance . . . so if you’re thinking about it, please let me know!

Three new paintings have just arrived at my galleries! “Suspended Animation” and “Heeler”, the two rodeo pieces, are now available at Legacy Contemporary in Scottsdale.

“Larger Than Life”, my ‘bighorn abstract’, is now hanging at Ernest Fuller Fine Art in Denver.

…are due to Suzanne Ellis, who just won the Grand Prize in the 2007 Paint America Top 100. Suzanne attended one of my summer workshops a few years ago, and her winning painting was of (drumroll, please!) Daisy the badger - one of Triple D’s animal models! Check it out at www.paintamerica.org. Suzanne also had a piece juried into the Mini Top 50.

Waytago girl!!

P.S. Also in the category of “Cool Stuff”, an article about Andrew Denman on createbetterpaintings.com is very worthwhile (he’s listed at the top left of the page). I’ve shared exhibition space with Andrew at Birds in Art and at Western Visions; he is an extremely nice guy with a beautiful, original interpretation of the world. His technique is unusual and the article does a good job of covering it.