Julie T. Chapman - ArtBlog

A gallery dealer of mine and I were chatting once about a certain well-known wildlife artist, and the dealer said “I’ve heard all the stories about this artist copying others…but how can you wildlife artists keep coming up with original ideas?”

My answer to that: time in the field. There is nothing like going to the source - the animals themselves - for fresh inspiration, new light, seasonal stimulation, whatever. Whether your fieldwork is a zoo, a pasture, a park or preserve, or your own backyard - time with the animals will renew you artistically.

This morning I made one of my favorite field trips: driving the full Red Sleep Mountain loop at the National Bison Range, about 55 miles from my house. The road is 20 miles long and usually takes me at least 3 or 4 hours, depending on the wildlife. Today, the bison were in the high pasture and nowhere near the road (you’re not allowed to hike off road), but fortunately pronghorn were scattered all over the north side.

I also had the delightful experience of seeing, and even photographing (sorta) my first wild badger - I saw something small running through the prairie and my first thought was “cat”. Then I thought “what the aitch ee double hockeysticks would a kittycat be doing in the National Bison Range??” When I caught up to the critter my second thought was “raccoon”, but it was too low and lacked a tail. I lucked out and caught just a couple shots before the badger went to ground. Coolness! And, as always, joyous to be out soaking up Gorgeous Wildlife Energy.

I haven’t been in the cheeriest of moods lately due to a number of factors (financial stress, the ugly nature of the health-care debate, rather chilly weather in August - not ready for summer to be over! - and life, the universe, etc.). My husband, a former rocket scientist who now works with complex economics, sent me “10 trading rules” that seem rather apropos for life in general:

Rule 1: Believe you can win. If other traders can do well in the market, so can you. However, if you don’t have enough courage and confidence in yourself, you will never achieve success. The events over the past year have tested many people in this regard and some now think the game is rigged against them. Nothing could be farther from the truth as opportunities remain. Those who will win in the markets first start by believing they can do it. Then they back up that strong belief with serious hard-work and determination to find their trading edge. However, it starts with you first having faith in yourself. [Ed: believe in yourself as an artist!]

Rule 2: Don’t be seduced by results. You must stay in the present and focused on executing each trade to the best of your ability. Don’t let yourself think about how much you’re going to win (or lose) in the market or how great of a trader you are or not, but instead focus on what matters most - each and every trade you make. Do that and the results will take care of themselves. [Ed: each painting is its own new challenge; the Chinese have a saying: “Every painting, first painting”.]

Rule 3: Sulking won’t get you anything. The worst thing you can do for your prospects of winning is to get down when things don’t go well. If you start feeling sorry for yourself or thinking the trading gods are conspiring against you, you’re not focused on the next trade. Good traders readily accept their mistakes and move on to the next trade. They don’t let one bad trade carry onto the next one. [Ed: throw the bad ones away and go on to the next piece.]

Rule 4: Beat them with patience. Every time you have the urge to make an aggressive trade, go with the more conservative one. You’ll always be OK. The moment you get impatient, bad things happen. In tough markets, stay patient and let others beat themselves. [Ed: sooner or later your work will be recognized, if you focus on your own vision.]

Rule 5: Ignore unsolicited advice. You’ll have lots of well-meaning friends and experts who want to give you advice. Don’t accept it. In fact, stop them before they can say a word. Their comments will creep into your mind when you are trading and conflict with your own strategy. If you’ve worked on your game, commit to the plan and stay confident with it. [Ed: stay true to your passion as an artist.]

Rule 6: Embrace your personality. The key is to find what works best for you. There are many approaches out there, but there is only one trading approach that will utilize your best skills and talent to create and sustain an edge. The worst mistake you can make is to simply embrace a strategy of someone else that doesn’t match your own personality and strengths. [Ed: see #5]

Rule 7: Have a routine to lean on. Every trader should follow a mental routine on every trade. It keeps you focused on what you have to do, and when the pressure is on, it helps you manage your nerves. You may not have control over the market, but you have control on how you trade the market. Having a routine will inject consistency that will keep you calm under pressure. [Ed: make art a part of your regular schedule - daily, weekly, whatever - and keep at it.]

Rule 8: Find peace in the market. The market has to be your sanctuary, the thing you love, and you can’t be afraid of making mistakes. Yes, you’ll experience both good and bad times, but you must enjoy and revel in the challenge. [Ed: the process is more important than the product. Never lose the joy of creating!]

Rule 9: Test yourself. Don’t look for easy trades and setups at all times. Test yourself by working hard trades and difficult markets in order to test and improve your skills. For example, if you’re uncomfortable with trading options, spend a month just trading options. If you’re uncomfortable with shorting stocks, spend a month shorting stocks. We only get better if we constantly test what we think is most difficult. [Ed: try new methods, materials, subjects…keep yourself growing.]

Rule 10: Find someone who believes in you. Having confidence in yourself is important, but it helps to have someone who believes in you, too, whether it’s a spouse, a friend, a teacher, or a mentor. No man’s success can be entirely attributed to his own actions. You must surround yourself with people who believe in you at all times. [Ed: boy, this is so true.]

I recently received an email from one of the regulars on this blog, who wrote:

“I have recently started painting in oils again after a long stint with acrylics.

Would you consider a blog topic about how artists approach the need to varnish the finished work (especially when using oils). Do they actually wait the recommended six months to sell a finished work so it can be varnished? Do they use retouch varnish first then the final varnish - or do they even varnish at all?”

What I do: wait as long as I possibly can before varnishing. Sometimes a painting needs to go out to a show or gallery within a few weeks of its completion, but I’ll make sure the surface feels hard-dry everywhere before varnishing. I recently read that it’s better to protect the surface with varnish, even if you’re not waiting months, than not to do so at all.

I don’t use retouch varnish; my understanding is that it’s intended for use on a painting in progress, so that the artist has a similar level of sheen everywhere (no ’sunken’, dry areas).

I do two thin coats of final picture varnish, and I like the spray stuff - no fussy brushes, bubbles, etc.

OK - how about everyone else?

One of the regulars on this blog asked me to talk about Quickdraws. She’s a sculptor, and says she’s avoided doing these in the past but has been talked into taking the leap; she’s worried because normally she’s a self-professed “slow” sculptor, and that she might get stage fright.

I do one Quickdraw a year (the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival) though I suppose the demos I do in my workshops sorta count … however, in my workshops I’m talking and waving my brushes around a lot and making relatively little progress in the meantime. My main observations are:

• Choose a fairly simple subject, one you know well and feel very comfortable depicting. This is probably not the time to paint an entire pack of wolves taking down a bison while the rest of the herd mills about.
• Have a plan: know your composition and painting size, have your frame ready (for flatwork artists). I’ve noticed that sculptors tend to at least have their armature ’sketched’ into place before packing on the clay (probably a good idea).
• If you’ve not done a Quickdraw before, practice - see what feels comfortable to accomplish in the hour slot.
• Have everything set up and ready - including colors mixed - before the start of the hour.
• Realize that adrenaline will take over at the actual event. For me, this means I actually whack the paint around more with bigger brushes - I tend to forget I have anything smaller than a #10 or #12 flat with me. Adrenaline makes me looser.
• Size matters: I see the highest prices at the JH Quickdraw each year on the biggest pieces. People are impressed by size.
• If you’re able to chat with spectators, great. If not, don’t worry about it. I tend to tell spectators before I start that I get very focused and sometimes don’t hear their comments or questions, and so my apologies in advance.
• If you can work near a buddy, so much the better. I have a couple artists I like to be near, and we trade insults, jabs, and repartee the whole time - entertaining the crowd is always A Good Thing.
• If you can, have a support crew to help entertain the crowd and to help you get your one-hour masterpiece framed up. I have a number of Jackson friends who show up to cheer me on and tell others about my work.
• Have some business literature nearby - business cards, flyers, whatever - unless this is under your gallery’s aegis. Since I’m painting about 50 feet from Legacy’s doorstep, I just refer people to Legacy Gallery to see more of my work, and I tell them I’ll be there after the auction to chat.
• Take advantage of any opportunity to say a couple words about yourself and your painting during the auction, if you’re permitted.

There you have it - Quickdraws in a nutshell!