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.

Getting into the Swing of Things Again

Well, I have done two paintings in the last two days.  The one I did today is the first in a number of flower paintings I intend to do for my upcoming show at the Coastal Discovery Museum, Hilton Head, SC and the other in Gates Mills, Ohio in May and June.  I hope I can assemble a lot of inventory for the shows as well as the gallery up north.  Inventory doesn't really sound like the appropriate word for assembling a large number of paintings but, it works.

This is my piece today - the pitcher was a tired silver pitcher I found in a thrift store and the peonies are silk but they have the feel of the real thing.

Oh, and I got some good news yesterday - I happened to call Chestnut Hill Home (a store that carries my work) and they had sold 5 of my paintings - yay.  With the wedding coming up I could use some extra cash.

Maggie Siner Day 3

We have models now - two of them and Maggie has arranged them with great emphasis on the dark winding up through the picture plane.  Once again we start with our gray grounded canvas and then, in an abstract way, define the line of the dark through the canvas.  Really more like identifying the dark as it travels around the painting's plain.

Then wipe it off until nothing but a pale reference shows and start painting.  Once again we were to start mixing the color of the correct value and placing a mark on the canvas.  This should be done all over the painting - not just filling in one spot but a mark.

I think I forgot to mention in my last post that when trying to identify the color of an object or area one should look at something else.  I can't remember the logic in this other than it had something to do with the peripheral vision and seeing the true color as it relates to the colors around it rather than just the local color.

So below is my painting of the model - Ms. Siner's comments were:

Her face looked like it had been run over by a car but that could be corrected with a couple of strokes.
(I am not a people painter and the strokes she is referring to would be her strokes, not mine)

She loved the way the darks ran up through the painting on from the bottom and up along the scarf and she loved the focal point of the scarf and it's draping.

It is interesting and challenging for me to paint a model.  I would love to try it some more in the future.

The next and last exercise we did was to look at a portion of a still life and paint all the warm areas with a turped down orange and all the cool areas with a turped down blue.  This was very challenging, largely because most of us chose sections of the still life arrangements that were just too large. I don't really have a photo of this because I just tossed it when I left but In know that everyone found this difficult and not a lot of fun.  Plus it was late in the day and we were tired .  

This was followed by a talk on colors and the relationship between colors.  How when you put a color next to another color it will effect the first color.  (the cool/warm factor)  

All in all, the workshop was great - I might even take another from her - I would certainly consider trying to go to Provence to paint with her - speaking of which I know there are two more slots open.  Moi, you say - unfortunately/fortunately all my efforts will be directed toward my daughters wedding. Maybe next year.

Maggie Siner Workshop: Day 1 and 2

I am not sure what I expected but probably not the petite, flurry of energy and life, person that Maggie Siner is.  She started out the workshop with a slide show featuring, not her work, but the work of other artists through the ages.   From early Eastern Chinese (maybe Japanese, not sure) ink drawings, to Rembrandt and then impressionists, her intention was to show how brush stroke and value create great paintings.  The gesture can lead the viewer into and throughout the painting creating a sense of mood, whether it is drama, excitement or calm.  The gesture informs the viewer.

I think in our subconscious we all get that but it doesn't always bubble to the surface of my brain when I need it most.

So, she started us out with a diluted saucer of india ink and a bamboo brush and had us make strokes on a large newsprint pad (without looking) expressing our feelings about various things.  The two here are fear and breath.  Then we were to draw various objects she had set up, both were done with continuous strokes.

Then on to 3 color value studies using the same brush and diluted india ink.

Then we toned our canvas with turp and raw umber and wiped it off until it was dry for a 3 color value study.

She had laboriously arranged a number of still lifes around the room from which we could select our subject matter.  And yes, for anyone who has seen info about other workshops she had the dreaded hand (don't have a picture) among the still life objects.  I didn't opt to paint it.

Then lastly she let us use color.

She did demo in a fashion.  Her initial demonstration was about finding the pattern of dark in the painting.  She would start from the edge of the painting (always) and move through the painting in an abstract way sketching out the dark.  Then she would wipe this down until only a suggestion of it remained.  Down the road she started working on value.  She would put strokes of paint in the correct color and value randomly (meaning in their correct place but working throughout the canvas) on the canvas, identifying the lightest light 

and the darkest dark and all other values.  She was not filling in shapes at this point, just establishing color and values.

The next day we worked with models and did an exercise which completely frustrated me.  I will talk about that tomorrow.  And, I think I should add here, that I am showing you what I did for informational purposes - not that it truly demonstrates her ideas or methods.  I was just a student endeavoring to improve my painting ability.  But, her methods changed me and I think will help further the evolution of my painting ability.