Plein Air Painting and Insects

Gnats, ants, no-see-ums, mosquitoes can be the bane of any plein air artist.  As you get used to heading out to paint you will find yourself armed with an arsenal of sprays to protect yourself from these pesky things.

My first line of defense:  Cactus Juice - this is a completely natural product and is usually very effective against marsh gnats and no-see-ums and to a lesser degree against the ants.

My second line of defense:  Some insect repellent with a modest amount of deet in it,

My third line of defense:  Deep Woods Off

For the ants (fire and other) I usually have to use a product with Deet - and spray it on the ground around where I am painting, on my shoes and the bottom of my easel and the rest of my supplies.

I also have found that having some dryer sheets available can help with the gnats.  I sometimes put them under my hat to keep them out of my hair.

I have also heard some people use lemon thyme and some rosemary but these other products seem to do the trick for me,

Of course, that being said, sometimes I just give up - usually after I have about 300 gnats that have committed mass suicide in my painting.  And so it goes!

Daily Paintworks

So, once again I am giving Daily Paintworks a shot at selling smaller pieces.  My concern is that there are so many artists that use this site, how does one get a following and make sales?  Also, in terms of still life paintings there are ga-zillions of them!  And they are great too!  Some of my thoughts about marketing on this web site are as follows:

.  low prices - this is an option but how can I justify dropping prices below what other customers have paid for other similar pieces?

.  auction - I am currently trying this venue - starting at a low price and waiting to see where it ends.

.  finding a niche - my beach paintings seem to get a great response - maybe as an artist I should just be doing this???

.  I have noticed that my 4 x 16" horizontal pieces don't show well - not sure how to correct this but they are killer paintings and have a great presence.

.  market the paintings for sale on facebook - haven't done this much but should try this.

Any other ideas out there???

The Key to Improving Your Painting Ability

PAINT!!!!

Are you surprised?  If you are uncomfortable spending money on stretched canvas by the inexpensive panels.  If you think you can't spend the money on those, get some heavy paper and gesso it - use that to paint.  The operative thing here is: you won't get better unless you practice!

I have been destroying my early work that I no longer want, don't like, didn't like from the beginning or just think it wouldn't sell and I have no place to hang it.  But in doing that I could see just how far I have come.  I am not saying there isn't room for improvement - there is A LOT of room.  But in the 10 years I have been painting and the last 6 when I have made an effort to paint most days, I have seen a lot of improvement.  These days I am working on small still life arrangements.  I go to consignment/thrift stores (or ebay) or wherever and pick up things to use in still life arrangements.  Then I take my 6 x 6 inch panels (which I have made myself) and paint them.  This is a journey, believe me.  I like what I am doing and am putting them on daily paintworks for sale but I am always working to improve them.  I know, in time, I will do so.  I guess, I want to work toward a less blended, more brush strokey (is that even a word?) piece with a more spontaneous feel.  

I am attaching some images ot the three I have done most recently:

The first one is up for auction on Daily Paintworks, the second two are just for sale.  Seeing them like this on my blog, I actually love them.  That doesn't change the fact that i want them to have a more spontaneous look.  If you are interested you can go to http://www.dailypaintworks.com/artists/barbara-benedict-jones-4356/artwork  and check them out.

So, get out there and PAINT!

Now what do I do?

It has been months since I have written anything here - it was all wedding, wedding, wedding.  It has absolutely dominated my life for 8 months.  My daughter and I have had lists, modified lists, emailed lists, excel spreadsheets, modified and amended over and over and projects - OMG.  Pinterest became the bane of my existence.  My beautiful daughter spent hours looking at pinterest (have to admit that I did too) and kept coming up with countless projects to make her day perfect.  I made pillows to decorate the beach house benches, signs for the ceremony, the receptions and the back of their chairs, pillows for the ring bearers and slipcovers for all the vases that decorated the tables.  Here are some of the images:

I will have a better image of the table decor when I get some images from my daughter.  I had a little help with the lettering on the signs - an artist friend of mine noted that I was pulling my hair out over all that I had to do and did most of the lettering - I did the Mr. and Mrs. and a couple words on the other signs.  

The wedding colors were coral and navy and I will post some other pictures in future blogs.  In the mean time I am trying to focus my attention on getting back to my painting.  

Small works are on the agenda - one of the first ones I did *by accident", I had forgotten to bring a large canvas but had a 4 x 16 canvas with me.  After finishing the first one "plein air" I quickly did a second 6 x 6 which sold 2 weeks later.

You can see that the tide was coming in  - the smaller one was done second.  I find that once I have done a larger one and have thought about, planned out and painted it it is easier to do a second - all my paints are out and the colors have been determined.  

Art Marketing on Daily Paintworks

I have learned my lesson, FINALLY!

You have to crawl before you can walk.  I have quite a market for my larger paintings, in Ohio, the finger lakes (NY) and Hilton Head.  And all those paintings sell for quite a large dollar amount compared to the daily paintworks gallery paintings.  I am justifying my lower price by only pricing small works at the greatly reduced prices.  But today, I lowered the price of all my small (6x6) pieces to $99.00, without the frame.
I hope the DPW audience finds this appealing.

The art work I post that is standard size will be priced as I would price them elsewhere.  The last thing any artist should do is price their work below what the gallery is selling the work for.  No patron would want to see a wonderful painting priced well below what they have paid for their treasured painting of the same size.

If you are interested in seeing my gallery on Daily Paintworks you can visit it here:

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/barbara-benedict-jones-4356

The small work I just posted is "Nothing but a Whisper" painted on the beach yesterday morning.

barbarabenedictart.com

Small Painting Dilemma

I have been a member of Daily Paintworks since October and have been trying to produce small (6 x 6 inch) paintings to sell there.  Normally I paint in larger sizes, the smallest is 8 x 8 or 8 x 10 and they sell for $350 and $375 respectively.  So, when I joined, my dilemma was how to produce paintings at the greatly reduced rate of $99 or $129.

My solution was to do very small paintings.  The problem is that those small paintings take me almost as long to do as my larger plein air paintings.  So, I have decided now to post the larger ones at the correct (unframed) price and limit the smaller ones that I do.  Maybe I should sell all my paintings framed - that is very doable too, because when I sell them in galleries they are always framed.

I have been looking at Rose Schuring's site on the Daily Paintworks site and she is marketing her work at a higher price point.

The one thing I understand is that if a patron/customer of mine has purchased a 12 x 12" painting from me and paid $700.00 they will not understand my selling similar large sizes for a significantly less amount on the DP web site.  So, that is my question for the cosmos.  Will people purchase paintings at that higher price point?  Or do I need to continue with the small ones.

There are other considerations:

.  I need to ramp up my marketing.
.  I need to blog on a regular basis and probably post it to facebook
.  I need to post things to Daily Paintworks almost daily
.  I guess, the most important things is to post regularly and to do that I need to be ready to photograph my work as soon as it is finished.

So, this is my current project, titled The Quiet of Gray.  I have to darken the water toward the front and consider a few other changes but it is coming along.  I went out to the beach at Fish Haul Park and was captivated by the scene at high tide.  The water had come up into the grass and there was a softness to everything.  I guess you might say the grasses don't look to soft but the contrast and the almost continuous color of the beach tidal pool, the sound and the sky just enveloped me.

Plein Air or Not Plein Air that is the Question!

So, I posed this question on the facebook page for plein air painters.  Let me tell you why.  I have a home in Hilton Head which has a beautiful view of the marsh with a creek winding through it and out to the sound.  I paint this frequently from my yard, my deck or, in inclement weather, from my enclosed porch.  So, I just wanted to know what others thought.  I also have heard of people painting from their car or van.  I even heard of someone outfitting a small trailer (large enough to stand in) with a picture window so that they could paint in virtually any weather condition.

So, the first response  was that any painting I did, when looking at the actual scene was "en plein air".  The second responder agreed.  The third thought it was ok to paint from your car but the porch was not "plein air" and the apparent reason was you didn't have to deal with all the possible problems of painting "en plein air".   Personally, I don't get that she thought painting from the car was ok but the enclosed porch was not but, I welcome all opinions.

But, I ask, if painting from my enclosed porch is considered "plein air" painting then what if I set up a bouquet of flowers in natural light and paint it?  What if the bouquet is outside and I am inside?
I think that is going a little far.

I don't think this argument will ever be settled and I venture to say that if any painter has a paintable view from a window in their home they should just go for it.  Call it plein air - the only thing which being in the enclosed porch effects is the comfort of the painter.  I still have all that great light bouncing around and can still see the cloud patterns moving across the marsh and the incredible sky evolution.  So, I guess it is up to the individual.  But I do know that there is nothing quite like standing outside, in a field or by a stream and listening to the birds, beavers or whatever and being in that moment, splashing paint all over the canvas and feeling completely one with nature.

This is a small section of the panoramic view from my house and was taken late in the day on which we had a very high tide.  Small wonder I take advantage of my porch view when the weather is adverse.  Plein air or not plein air - you be the judge.