Have a Dream? Make a Plan
I bought a calendar for 2020. I filled it out.
For the last two months I have actually been living by that calendar. Usually a fresh calendar goes by the wayside by February, but here's March and I'm still working my plan in the same calendar. We humans like to make plans, don't we? Even if you're a more "spontaneous person" there are certain things you count on in life, like store open hours, and the sun coming up in the morning.
Making plans for painting events in 2020 was a pleasure. It made me feel hopeful.
Back in January I drove to Austin on a yearly pilgrimage to Barnes & Noble for a Plein Air magazine. The December / January issue, in addition to it's regular articles about artists, demonstrations, photos of paintings, and editorial pieces, has a schedule of all the plein air events for the coming year. Armed with that golden information and my Designated Official Personal 2020 (blank) Calendar, I began perusing the list of events, in alphabetical order by state, to find painting trip opportunities.
I only made it to the C's.
There's a paint out in Colorado I did decide to add to my schedule. Then I stopped the dream journey through the list, realizing I can't be everywhere. I have time and money constraints to obey. And anyway, I'll need something fresh to do in 2021.
Time management is a challenge for me sometimes. As a new artist, I'm learning to balance my time between, travel, administrative and marketing tasks, and actual time at the easel. All of it is enjoyable to me, but without time at the easel to create the product, the rest of the tasks are unnecessary.
To Know the Future
In this same issue, the publisher of Plein Air magazine wrote a letter called "The End of Plein Air Painting." In the piece he asks the question, "What would happen if today's plein air movement suddenly came to an end?"
I'm not sure there's any one answer to this question. I know plein air events do connect artists with collectors, which, in turn, helps artists make a living. If artists lose one income stream, they will have to find other streams. This is true for every single platform, venue, association or gallery with which artists find themselves engaged. Change happens, and artists have to develop new strategies for generating income. As I grow in skill and experience, I will have to do the same.
I believe the plein air artists I know won't stop painting outside. I know I won't. My three favorite outdoor painters, Kevin MacPherson, Walt Gonske and Guido Frick, started painting plein air years before the current "movement" began, and I suspect they will continue to go outside to create art no matter what happens with "the movement."
As for me, in 2020, I am still trying to improve my product. For now, working out the marketing end of the art life is a closely related, but secondary goal. Without a highly skilled product, conversations about selling become a hypothetical exercise.
Here's to 2020
January I spent doing another Strada Easel Challenge. I focused on Watermedia, both water color and gouache, and loved every second! Friends asked me if I was switching to watercolor for plein air, but no, my first love is still oil. I am proud of myself though for trying something new long enough to get better at it.
February I started thinking about spring and the plein air season. I decided I'd work on finishing old partially completed plein air paintings and doing new small works, both plein air and studio, to show at upcoming events. This is a portion of what I've accomplished so far:
March is now upon me, and I'm packing for Fredericksburg for a paint out with the American Impressionist Society. After I get back, I'll have a few days to figure out how to paint live oaks with Spanish moss. ;) Then, I'll pack again for a trip to Savannah, Georgia. (Seriously, I've already been looking for paintings in magazines of trees with Spanish moss to study them and prepare.)
As March turns to April, I'll be participating in Paint-the Town in Marble Falls, Texas. Years ago I knew I wanted to jury into that event, but it took a long time to get my work up to it's current level to be accepted, and I don't take that acceptance for granted. I can't tell the future, and someday I might move on to other events in late March-early April, but for now, I want to continue a solid, positive relationship to that event.
I'll be painting plein air near home in May and June. July is my second experience with Driggs Plein Air in Driggs, Idaho. September is a plein air event in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I may go do the Quickdraw this year at EnPleinAir Texas. And November could be another Brushes-by-the-Beach, because who wouldn't want to paint Galveston in November, y'know?
Thanks so much for reading. You subscribe to this blog to receive future entries in your email inbox. You can follow Judi Beauford Fine Art on Facebook for shorter posts in between blog entries. I am also on Instagram as judi_beauford.
Peace,
Judi
I bought a calendar for 2020. I filled it out.
For the last two months I have actually been living by that calendar. Usually a fresh calendar goes by the wayside by February, but here's March and I'm still working my plan in the same calendar. We humans like to make plans, don't we? Even if you're a more "spontaneous person" there are certain things you count on in life, like store open hours, and the sun coming up in the morning.
Making plans for painting events in 2020 was a pleasure. It made me feel hopeful.
Back in January I drove to Austin on a yearly pilgrimage to Barnes & Noble for a Plein Air magazine. The December / January issue, in addition to it's regular articles about artists, demonstrations, photos of paintings, and editorial pieces, has a schedule of all the plein air events for the coming year. Armed with that golden information and my Designated Official Personal 2020 (blank) Calendar, I began perusing the list of events, in alphabetical order by state, to find painting trip opportunities.
I only made it to the C's.
There's a paint out in Colorado I did decide to add to my schedule. Then I stopped the dream journey through the list, realizing I can't be everywhere. I have time and money constraints to obey. And anyway, I'll need something fresh to do in 2021.
Time management is a challenge for me sometimes. As a new artist, I'm learning to balance my time between, travel, administrative and marketing tasks, and actual time at the easel. All of it is enjoyable to me, but without time at the easel to create the product, the rest of the tasks are unnecessary.
To Know the Future
In this same issue, the publisher of Plein Air magazine wrote a letter called "The End of Plein Air Painting." In the piece he asks the question, "What would happen if today's plein air movement suddenly came to an end?"
I'm not sure there's any one answer to this question. I know plein air events do connect artists with collectors, which, in turn, helps artists make a living. If artists lose one income stream, they will have to find other streams. This is true for every single platform, venue, association or gallery with which artists find themselves engaged. Change happens, and artists have to develop new strategies for generating income. As I grow in skill and experience, I will have to do the same.
I believe the plein air artists I know won't stop painting outside. I know I won't. My three favorite outdoor painters, Kevin MacPherson, Walt Gonske and Guido Frick, started painting plein air years before the current "movement" began, and I suspect they will continue to go outside to create art no matter what happens with "the movement."
As for me, in 2020, I am still trying to improve my product. For now, working out the marketing end of the art life is a closely related, but secondary goal. Without a highly skilled product, conversations about selling become a hypothetical exercise.
Here's to 2020
January I spent doing another Strada Easel Challenge. I focused on Watermedia, both water color and gouache, and loved every second! Friends asked me if I was switching to watercolor for plein air, but no, my first love is still oil. I am proud of myself though for trying something new long enough to get better at it.
February I started thinking about spring and the plein air season. I decided I'd work on finishing old partially completed plein air paintings and doing new small works, both plein air and studio, to show at upcoming events. This is a portion of what I've accomplished so far:
March is now upon me, and I'm packing for Fredericksburg for a paint out with the American Impressionist Society. After I get back, I'll have a few days to figure out how to paint live oaks with Spanish moss. ;) Then, I'll pack again for a trip to Savannah, Georgia. (Seriously, I've already been looking for paintings in magazines of trees with Spanish moss to study them and prepare.)
As March turns to April, I'll be participating in Paint-the Town in Marble Falls, Texas. Years ago I knew I wanted to jury into that event, but it took a long time to get my work up to it's current level to be accepted, and I don't take that acceptance for granted. I can't tell the future, and someday I might move on to other events in late March-early April, but for now, I want to continue a solid, positive relationship to that event.
I'll be painting plein air near home in May and June. July is my second experience with Driggs Plein Air in Driggs, Idaho. September is a plein air event in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I may go do the Quickdraw this year at EnPleinAir Texas. And November could be another Brushes-by-the-Beach, because who wouldn't want to paint Galveston in November, y'know?
Thanks so much for reading. You subscribe to this blog to receive future entries in your email inbox. You can follow Judi Beauford Fine Art on Facebook for shorter posts in between blog entries. I am also on Instagram as judi_beauford.
Peace,
Judi
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