Julie T. Chapman - ArtBlog

Just finished - my first elk piece in quite a while. A 12×12 done alla prima (”from the first”), no undercoat:

 Aside from nearly complete paint coverage - can anyone spot some of the differences between #1 and #2 above?

The finished piece, “Bugle Boy”, 12×12 … after letting the piece dry a couple days so I could put down all those subtle antler modulations without dragging up a lot of green background paint (ugh!).

…and a detail shot to see some of the paint texture and activity (palette knife alert! loads of fun!)

Just a quickie post. Out of the blue, I received an email from Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, OK to be part of their 2010 “Masters of Influence” Invitational. The concept is that they (Lovetts) choose a Master (in 2010, it’s Frank Lloyd Wright) and the artists who are invited to the show create a piece that somehow incorporates that artist’s homage to the Master chosen, whether directly or indirectly.

The concept is wonderfully intriguing, and I wasted no time accepting, especially since I love FLW’s architecture, stained-glass windows, etc. Of course, now I’m hit with the stunning reality that I have to create something worthy of the invitation and FLW’s influence - not an entirely comfortable situation.

The 2009 MoI can be seen here.

After the encouraging response - from both artists and collectors - to recent Artzines featuring some WiP (Work in Progress) photos, I’ve been documenting more of my painting process. I had time off between Christmas and New Year’s, so I painted like a fiend (god it was great!). Herewith, one of the pieces I painted then, in progression:

Step 1: just the textured panel, with a wash on it

Step 2: about 20% of the painting laid in - some background, and the pickup rider mostly done

Step 3: about 60% of the piece done - pickup rider and his flashy palomino

The final piece: “Rough Work”, 24 x 18

Learnings:

• boy do I love red (duh), though it’s challenging as hell to paint something that evokes really BRIGHT red at the correct relative value scale to the rest of the piece
•  I’m having so much fun with texturing my panels beforehand it’s almost illegal
• taking these WiP photos is actually helping me do a better job with the final paintings - it forces me to take a step back, and seeing a little digital version on the back of my camera makes the flaws or compositional needs of the piece just JUMP out at me.
• The compositions I enjoy most are totally “in your face”
• I really do enjoy lots of entendres in my titles (there are a few in this one - interpretations invited

Some of you may have noticed that there’s been some wind whistling through the empty spaces here, that my posts to this blog have become rather more spaced out than they used to be - but you have all been kind enough not to point it out. What gives?

I’m no longer a full-time artist. This feels like a confession of failure, somehow.

The economic downturn has been hard on both my art business and the business my husband is in, so a few months ago I found high-tech employment. Yes, right here in Missoula, Montana! (although it is a California-based employer). High-tech jobs here are scarcer than white bison, so I’m grateful; the work I’m doing suits my strengths and experience, and I’m good at it, but it’s not the same as being home in my studio with my crazy agility shepherds, the smell of oil paint, and colors and brushes and equipment waiting for me.

Well, maybe my current experience in the dual-career arena can be useful to others. So let’s keep up the conversation, and hope that the economy begins to turn around for those of us in the discretionary-purchase business. In the meantime, I am back to working the 70-80 hour weeks (between my job and art) that I thought I’d left behind in California.

P.S. the benefits with my new employer are superb, something we haven’t experienced in YEARS. Let’s all hope that whatever health-care reform results from the mishmash now in front of Congress benefits the self-employed more than the pathetically nonexistent ‘health care’ I had before, and paid through the nose for the privilege of having, I might add.

Lately I’ve been receiving a direct email from Southwest Art about once a week, and it seems to be aimed mostly at artists (so somehow their profiling is working). Is anyone else getting these? some sound intriguing, like the “artist network online seminars” that are being presented.

The next one coming up (Tues 12/15) is titled “Art Critique 3: Improve your Work Through Expert Advice (Learning the Language of Art)” - and you can submit your work prior to the event for critique. One hour, $69.

I’d love to hear from anyone who attends any of these and would be happy to post your comments/experiences here.

…with demand for your work?

If so, this email I recently received might be just the thing:

Dear Sir and madam
Allow me to introduce ourselves: We are the Oil Painting Studio.
We would like to offer our painting and giclee prints services to you.
In our studio we have 30 highly skilled professional artists with over 12 years of
experience creating paintings for our international clientele. We have worked
creatively worldwide with a large number of commercial enterprises, professional artists and galleries in Europe
and America. They all praise our professional high quality of production and artistic
workmanship. Many of our clients use our works for their business and art displays…
We safely and professionally pack and ship your paintings through FedEx or
DHL. Please send us an email today describing what is your desired topic to be painted, and some indication of
the approximate size. In return we will send you a pricelist. The Shipping cost is
based on your location and the size and dimensions of the painting or paintings required.
I hope that we will have a chance to cooperation and be good friends!
We are Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards
The Oil Painting Studio

Aside from the entertaining English (I didn’t know you could have “me” as the antecedent to “ourselves”), I’ve been laboring under the quaint notion that original art should come from the artist’s inspiration and passion for the material - not subject to mail-order mass-merchandising assembly-line production. Or is that just so…last century?

…that popped into my email recently.

The first is that the Autumn issue of the Wildlife Art Journal has now been posted. (The 5 questions I asked my good friend, British sculptor Simon Gudgeon, are part of the issue). By the way, I forgot to announce it in my November Artzine, but you can also find the 5 Questions/5 Answers that Andrew Denman asks me in the autumn issue as well.

The other note is that North Light / F+W Media is offering a seminar on photographing your artwork this Tuesday, November  17. For those of you who find the topic intimidating, or have always gone elsewhere to have your work photographed, this may be a quick and fairly inexpensive way to learn about how to do it yourself. (I talk about this in some of my workshops as well).

…or go home.

At a recent workshop, a young artist asked me what she should paint to get into a gallery in Jackson Hole. I was perplexed by the question; she was asking specifically whether she should paint a bison, or a bear, or something else.

Her question really needed answers in several different dimensions, so here goes:

1. First, you gotta paint what you love if your work is to be exciting to both you and collectors. As we’ve talked about in this blog just recently, animal artists tend to be completely bonkers about animals, which is A Good Thing. I’m so inspired by my reference material every time I go through and look at all the beautiful horses, the big bison, the lithe cats, the pouncing coyotes, the corvids with chutzpah and the swans with grace, that I can hardly choose what to paint next.
2. Secondly, doing one painting of a particular subject to get into one particular gallery almost certainly would not work. Galleries want to see a body of work with some consistency in style, showing knowledge of your subject. (They also want to know that you’ll be a good business partner with them - so be sure you know how to handle framing, consignments, collectors, shipping, paperwork, etc etc etc).
3. If - like this artist - you’re very early in your career and still not sure what or how you want to paint, then take the time to develop and grow your skills. Compare your work to the best; be self-critical.
4. And finally, we come back to something we’ve touched on before in this blog: have a vision, have something you really want to say about the subject matter, and pursue that with passion.

For some reason I’m in the mood to write about this. So - my top tech tools:

• Adobe Lightroom: if you’ve been to a recent workshop of mine you know that I absolutely, positively cannot imagine living without this tool. It is the be-all end-all for cataloging, organizing, and applying darkroom functions to my tens of thousands of digital photos. I have LR 2.x; I notice the 3.0 beta is now available.
• Adobe Photoshop: essential for final edits in cropping, color-correcting, resizing, and exporting images into at least a dozen different formats, not to mention messing around with (moving, resizing, etc.) image elements when I’m playing with a composition.
• Email: I can’t imagine living without a fairly powerful email tool! MS Outlook allows html-formatted emails, so I can create my Artzines in nice table arrangements with pretty fonts, pix, etc. Now that I live on a Mac, I’m limping along with Apple Mail, which (sadly) lacks the power and functionality of Outlook. Looking forward to when Apple mail isn’t so limited…
• yousendit.com: this is my tool of choice for uploading large image files to send to galleries, magazines, my licensing agent, etc.
• Web design: I do my own web design - formerly with Frontpage, now with Dreamweaver. Not for the faint of heart; if you’re not technically inclined, go to one of the providers of full web designs for artists, or of template-based websites.
• Macbook Pro: this beautiful machine goes everywhere with me - workshops, photo safaris, etc.
• External hard drives: I have 4 right now - a 500 GB portable that’s powered by USB and pretty much lives attached to my laptop; two 500-GB Gtech practically bulletproof things; and a new 1 TB drive. All my photos are backed up in at least 3 different places, hence the need for lots of drives.
• Large LCD display: my reference photos are displayed on a 27″ monitor next to my easel. (I *wish* I had the $$$$ to afford a nice big Apple Cinema display! someday…)
• And of course…my pro digital camera and lenses - my bread-and-butter field tools.

This leaves aside things like word processors, desktop publishing tools, and spreadsheets - but I figure those are ubiquitous enough that they don’t need mention.

Anyone else? chime in!

Recently I was forwarded an email which I excerpt below:

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later: the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes: The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

I found the story fascinating, and checked it at several online sites to verify its truth (eg, Snopes). Not only is the story true, but the WashPost reporter who covered it received a Pulitzer for the article.

What a sobering thing - that we might not perceive beauty in an ordinary, daily context!

My own past experience has taught me to be careful about the company one’s artwork keeps; when a piece I know to be good is hung with average county-fair art in a whitewashed cinder-block building, that piece dims…as though one good work of art cannot entirely overcome the mediocrity around it. Or think of your own perceptions walking into a gallery: if you see only quality work at every turn, you think the more highly of all of it. But as soon as you see something sub-par, suddenly the rest of the work feels more ordinary.

As a cynic I once knew used to say, art is worth only what someone will pay at a garage sale for it. Think of those legendary garage-sale finds we sometimes read about - the Picasso or whatever - sold for a few dollars, now worth millions.

What do you think?