Beyond Bob Ross- Relax with How to Paint Videos
So... I look up more about him, and sure enough, he was an art forger before he hosted his TV how-to show. I should have known. I have a "thing" for British art forgers, artists, and gardeners I guess. The accent, the paints, copying old masters, the flowers... ah... all so peaceful. And there's always Bob Ross:)
How Being a Small Town Artist Can Help Your Career
By Thimgan Hayden
I was talking to an artist currently living on an island in Alaska. A small island. They were struggling with feeling alone artistically and bemoaning the fact that, with so few people, there was little support for building a career there.
If you find yourself in a space like this, let me encourage you. You have a unique opportunity to own your niche! You are “the artist.” If you are one of a few artists, you are still the only one expressing yourself the way you do and you’re poised for a place of confidence.
If you are independently wealthy and an artist, that’s fantastic.
For the rest of us, I’m going to give us some tough love.
Are you blaming yourself for not being a “better” painter? sculptor, singer?
Let’s assume you’ve gotten some honest feedback and you know you’ve got something special. If that’s the case, stop blaming yourself. Your skill is probably not what’s holding you back. Everybody knows of some Grandma Moses or expressionist painter (I’m a painter so I mostly know about other painters) that became famous in spite of their unpolished art. There are lots of them! Breathe deeply! You can do this!
There are two ways that I can think of to stay alive and be an artist starting out:
Be financially supported by someone or something else.
Be willing to have at least part of your income come from some other venture/s other than your art.
Either one of these choices comes with a mindset that may take cultivating.
Your successful creative mindset is going to look like this:
*Relax and let your art be what it is and stand on its own. Don’t force it to bear all of the financial pressure.
*Most art comes from a place of plenty in yourself; physically, spiritually, or emotionally. If you force it to bear financial pressure, it puts unrealistic expectations on your fans and yourself.
*Be willing to understand that being an artist, to the public, is like you being a story, a theme, a collectible, in their life’s narrative! You, and your story, and your art bring them something that resonates with them and helps them tell their story!
Because of this last point, I have come to accept and even love the “B” word- Branding.
In a small town, there is no one better at being you than you.
As long as your work/your story resonates with a group of people, you have the opportunity to take center stage easier than you would anywhere else.
If there is a distinct, unifying character to your town and the people that live there-even better! Try to tap into the subjects, the colors, the interests that pull a town together. If you’re a desert dweller, you’ve got sand, muted greens and bright sunsets. By waterways, you have blues and greens.
Most art consumers don’t go into the market with a check sheet of technical criteria.
Initially, your buyers or fans are drawn by your art combined with what you represent to them, then comes your increasing exposure and more people seeing or hearing your story, then come the credentials, the press, further exposure, etc. At some point, those scorecards may come out, but they tend to be judging your popularity, which may come from how you wield your technique, but a large part of that equation is the authentic you.
I hope you find this helpful in your journey. Peace.
Using Lead White in Oil Painting with Cadmium Colors
Old masters' oil painting techniques fawn over the creamy, textural properties of white paint that contains lead. It dries quickly, has dreamy body (yes, still talking about oil paint), and has a certain warm silver cast to the color that adds an old master's look to your work. I was taught to be afraid of the paint interacting with other, synthetic paints, like cadmiums, but...
Getty Museum Adds to Free Virtual Library
Looking for a View to Paint
More ways to share art you love!
Love Story, Love Art
Love, love, love.
In addition to painting, I love reading and growing plants. I used to read a lot when I was young. My backup career ideas as a teen were Library Science and English Literature. Like some of you may have, I quit reading fiction when I got BUSY. A few years ago, my mom gave me a hardcover copy of “I Capture the Castle” by Dodie Smith (who also wrote the original 101 Dalmatians story and hit plays for the London stage), and I got re-hooked!
I like romantic stories and classics and some poetry, and that overflows into my painting life and always has. One important piece of being an artist is BEING an artist; that is living life as a story. The things I can control-doing my best to make them beautiful- and the things I can’t control- doing my best to make the most good out of them.
I’ve always loved reading artist’s biographies and journals. I’m fascinated by the connections between what they painted with how they lived. The more I know of their lives, the more emotion I pull from the work. If I have a real life encounter with an exhibition of paintings by Manet or Cezanne, for example, I am powerfully moved-even if their work hadn't been of noted interest to me before. There is something about connecting the story of their lives with their original work that I find so moving.
I do a lot of thinking about "why buy art? Why watch art? Why make it?"
There is much I could say about this topic and I’m interested in what you have to say about it, and today I’ll just share this thought: Art and the making of it and the living of it is part of a story, the story of the maker and the story of the person who collects it. At that point our stories meet and mingle. The art expresses something of the buyer’s taste and experience that the painter shares with them. The artist’s accomplishments become part of the collector’s personal story. I LOVE this tapestry. Story is so beautifully human.
Still Life Inspiration from Sir William Nicholson (1872-1949)
I almost have the feeling that he would set about to paint something and honestly not know how he was going to pull it off. I don’t think he had any doubt in his ability to pull it off, it’s more that he was unafraid of different techniques and even rather unconventional points of view- odd angles, even including rather odd items or compositional elements. His unique perspective makes his work feel fresh to me.
On Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic”
This week I’ve been reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book “Big Magic-Creative Living beyond Fear”. I haven't read "Eat, Pray, Love" or "Committed: A Love Story" or "The Signature of All Things" but I may.
When I read, I’m not the sort of person that feels that they have to agree or disagree or come up with some sort of pronouncement. It’s enough for me to get a golden nugget of information or inspiration. I wasn’t always this way, but I am now.
I got really excited by Gilbert’s description of herself as a child. She describes herself as a very fearful child that wished for example, when at the beach, that everyone there would come out of the water and read so she wouldn’t have to worry for their safety. That is familiar to me. My parents would agree that I shared some traits with young Ms. Gilbert.
She goes on to describe her encounters with the creative spirit. She experiences an Idea as an entity that comes knocking, asking for you to help bring it to life, and if you pass on its offer, it’ll visit someone else. She has some examples from her own life that are fascinating enough for you to go read them yourself. Again, after getting over the strangeness of the concept, I had to agree that I have felt that sort of “magic” in my own life. I found that after reading about Gilbert’s experiences, that understanding creativity in this whimsical way, for me, helps me feel less fearful as I step forward in my productivity, whether it be painting, writing, or doing business or making new connections. I feel more aware when an Idea comes knocking, more conscious as I accept a project or turn it down. And I’ve been doing it for years, but without the sort wakefulness that Gilbert has cultivated.
Featured Pieces November 2015
This is a quick blog entry here, to post pics of some recent pieces and
one piece
that is shockingly NOT SOLD that should be! Look below!!
Several of the newbies make good pairings..
September Pastoral l (Trees), 20"x16" oil on panel $2400 framed
September Pastoral ll(Path), 16"x12" oil on panel $1400 framed
Snapdragons, Peaches, Pear, 16"x12" oil on panel $1400 framed
The Grassy Slope, 8"x10" oil on panel, $800 framed
Summer Pastoral with Grazing Cows, 12"x16" oil on panel, $1300 framed
Hill in High Summer, 13"x14" oil on paper, $250 unframed
First Light Over the Lake, 9"x12" oil on paper, $200 unframed
inquire through my website here
if you'd like to ask about any painting above! Already have a Thimgan? Collector's discount honored.
Maybe I shouldn't tell -in case I can get it back- but
IT'S A PAINTED BOX
that I did last year, it's only $300 and it's
AMAZING
for keeping cell phone chargers and other oft used ugly items. The box is available at the Water Street Gallery. Tell them you saw it on my blog if you buy it:).
Art Collecting with Carole Pinto Fine Arts
When I was in Baltimore in August at the Antique Show, I was fortunate to meet
Carole Pinto
, a private dealer in French art and art adviser based in New York and Paris. I was really taken with several of the little gems she had with her, but especially a small nude and a little canal scene painted in Venice around Sargent's time. She spent some time talking with me and kindly sent me this article she had published in 2011 in Fine Art Connoisseur and said I could share it with her blessing.
Assembling a Collection in France by Carole Pinto
My inspiration for this article came after one too many strangers
exclaimed, upon learning that I am an art dealer, “I’d love to
buy art, but I can’t afford it!”
(click this link to read on)
See the bathing woman 2nd from the upper left corner? and a little Venetian canal painting on the far left of the table? Those were my favorites at this booth. I'm a sucker for French art. Most of my favorite painters are dead French artists.
ON MY TRIP TO AN ANTIQUES SHOW IN BALTIMORE AND WYETH COUNTRY
August 2015
I got home a few days ago from a road trip with my husband, Joseph, to visit a big antique, art, and jewelry show in Baltimore. I wanted to see if there were a lot of potential Thimgan collectors there, and I think there were. I may tweak my plans a bit, but I think I got some excellent feedback and met some really interesting art and antique dealers form all over the world.
Inside three days, I whisked through hundreds of booths of amazing art, saw some favorite pieces in the Cleveland Museum of Art, and visited the Brandywine River Museum, as well as an a tour of Andrew Wyeth’s studio which he used until his death in 2009, if I understood correctly. The Brandywine River setting alone was breathtaking…some pastorals will come out of what I saw there.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Andrew Wyeth’s exactly. I’ve read biographies on him and his dad, N.C. (Nowell Convers) and don’t deny the incredible force they possessed. I’m partial to N.C. and Andrew’s son, Jamie Wyeth’s work as I mentioned in a blog entry a few years ago. Again, Andrew’s work is utter genius, some of it is just darker than I…enjoy.. for lack of a better word. I saw the Helga exhibit in Maine when I was about 20 years old and I remember the emotional force of it today.
Cleveland Museum of Art, a stunner by one of may favorite painters, Henri Fantin-Latour
I went to the Cleveland Art Museum to see works by Chardin like this one, and Fantin-Latour.
I can never see too many Corot's!
A booth at the Antique Show in Baltimore
The N.C.Wyeth room at the Wyeth Museum in PA
Taking in last moments outside Andrew Wyeth's studio
The lovely Brandywine River from a window in the Wyeth Museum
High Cliff, Coast of MainebyWinslow Homer/ American Art
High Cliff, Coast of MainebyWinslow Homer/ American Art
(above link to image at the Smithsonian American Art Museum website)
I read a good article in the October 2012 issue of "The Artist's Magazine" written by Jerry N. Weiss, titled, "I cannot Do Better Than That".
The title quote is in reference to the oil painting, High Cliff, Coast of Maine,by Winslow Homer. Apparently, he had showed this painting a lot for 9 years before it found a buyer. It contributed to his frequent questioning of himself in his mid-life sales slump. In his frustration he asked his gallery in Chicago, "Why do you not sell that "High Cliff" picture? I cannot do better than that. Why should I paint?"
The painting is very forceful and naturalistic, but beautiful. Perhaps it wasn't a relaxing living room piece.
At any rate, I found the article interesting and can relate to Homer's struggle to equate sales of pieces that he felt were among his best with his sense of self worth.
Wet Paint June 2014
I think I'm still working on this piece. I want to work in the foreground especially. I'll re post an image when it's truly done. I'd love to sell this one before I invest in the frame. There are so many choices. The one I like the best is a heavy, antique style gold. It looks like a 200 year old painting in it, but that's not everyone's taste!
A plein air piece from last Friday.
Peonies with Green Glass and Apricots, 20x16 in. oil on panel, on hold
Beach Box Pastoral
May Changes
It's a good month for them. For changes.
I decided to simplify my life and forget about a "website" for a while. I have the worst luck building or having one built for me. It seems too personal to have someone else do without having too many of my own opinions about the layout And when I do it? It
looks
like I did with all of the little technical know-how I have within me.
JUNE NOTE: AH, DECIDED TO KEEP THE WEBSITE...IN SPITE OF ITS IMPERFECTIONS. THE GALLERIES ARE PRETTY HANDY.
So more power to the blog and Facebook studio gallery pages!
https://www.facebook.com/ThimganHaydenStudio
The painting below (speaking of changes) is a re-visit of a painting I did a year or two ago. You can see the older one on the wall behind the easel and canvas.
Here's a pic of the original....will be getting a hand finished frame this year, by the way.
And now---with no website to fret over---I'm going to go paint!! or work outside in my fledgling cottage garden I'm attempting!! Changes- hooray!!
Bluebird Trail ll Reloaded
Greetings!
Finally I can say that spring has taken hold here in Michigan. It was a long time in coming this year! I'm adding a new image of Bluebird Trail ll after having repainted a couple of passages of it that seemed to need some more care than the plein air visit afforded.
This 12 x 16 in. landscape is for sale through the Water Street Gallery
if you're local and want to take a look.
More new work on the way!
Life on The Slow Setting
This past month, I was feeling really cheerful and thankful for the time I had to enjoy household tasks.
One morning, I was standing on a dining room chair with one foot on the table cleaning the little chandelier that hangs there. Granted, the sun was shining bright on the snow and in
Michigan
that does wonders for the heart at this time of the year.
Like a lot of other people, I really bond with my house and want to have the time to enjoy taking care of it. Not that it always works out that way.
It’s those times when I’m in the moment that give me an emotional boost.
I consider myself a sensitive person (or a highly sensitive person!). I’m often overwhelmed with the size and number of the world’s problems. I try to live in such a way that I effect positive change and it’s these little tasks, the joy of family, and the beauty of art and nature that keep me from stumbling over the sorrows outside of my sphere of influence.
And did I mention? Bring on the spring!!
Lead (Cremnitz) White in Oil Painting and Substitutes
Plein Air Painting for Moon Bears August 10th, 2013
Greetings!
This year, I decided to donate my earnings from my painting efforts with the Water Street Gallery plein air event to help Moon Bear rescue from the vile bear bile industry. This is a horrible life for a bear---years of pain in a tiny cage. There is at least one rescue organization actively rehabbing and providing sanctuary for bears. It's sad, but turning away doesn't help. There has been growth and good outcomes for bears since I started paying attention to this two years ago. So CHEERS to the people on the frontlines of this-that experience the joys,stress and sorrows first hand. I'd like to help in the best way I can. For now, it's with a brush.
Bluebird Trail ll, 12x16 oil on linen panel 2013
