Some of my close friends and family will be getting home-made gifts this year. This is for a good friend whose farm dog likes nothing better than to sleep in an old armchair in the corner of the lounge. Done in acrylics, the matted size is 25 x 21cm. I love the black and white coat of Border Collies; in this case I have captured it in purples, white and a little blue. I took serious liberties with the wall colour behind her, but I’m sure the owner won’t mind!
A few days ago I wrote the following to a trusted online friend – a successful artist I admire (no name because I have not asked her permission) –
[edited] “I have been in a bit of an art-funk recently; not sure if I should keep going, paint just to be happy, try to market better, what? This morning I went back to the start of your blog posts in ’05 and re-read through to mid 2007, at which point they felt like much more familiar territory. And you know what? It worked! Thank you. Am I cured and on a roll, ready to take on the world? Nope. But I am sure that there is a market out there and that I need to make some decisions, instead of waffling round. Decisions like – pick a series and really go for it, have a sizeable body of work to show a gallery etc. Get out there and meet some people, don’t expect them to come to me…”
I got a lengthy reply back and really appreciate the time she spent in doing so, and the sensible advice and support offered. I dwelt on it for a couple of days, much of it reinforcing what I already knew deep down. From there I have made some decisions … the main driver behind them being that I know it is time to get more serious and business-like.
I have taken my work off most sites, leaving behind a message that basically says “see you on the 1st of Jan with new work”. I want to concentrate on starting a body of work without thinking about what is (isn’t) selling. I will keep on with social networks like Twitter.
Come the 1st of Jan 2010 I will have new work ready to promote . I’ll only load works that fit with whatever body of work I come up with. Which of course leaves the question of what to do with all the random works I have lying around. I think I will go through them and see what ones fit together as small series already. Then with the rest either sell off cheap through a local website or re-use the canvas if that seems a good option.
I’d already bought Alyson Stanfield’s “I’d rather be in the studio” and as part of all this will work my way through it producing a new artists statement, bio etc so the whole package has more cohesion. I’ll also keep better records from day one with the new work so I know where it is listed and so on, so that details are the same from site to site, and I can update things more easily. That should take some stress off!
So, that’s where I’m at. Today I made a start in my visual diary with ideas about what the body of work can be, knowing that I need 20 to 30 works in the same size, style etc. More on that later…
Michelle’s challenge for the Crusade’s this month was to journal on black. Excellent! I painted a couple of pages in my visual diary and then things got busy…weeks later, I finally got back into it this morning. I did two pages; one is about dragonflies, thinking about their wings and playing with iridescent colors. The other is a “proper” journal page, recording some thoughts on my life with Tony, my husband of 17 plus years.
I enjoyed working on a black background, which I suppose should not surprise me, as I often use plain black cardstock as the background in my scrapbooks. I used acrylic paint this time but the surface is a bit too slick – I think next time I’ll use black gesso. 
Here’s another in the series of four which has headed off to Auckland and been hung in the Cross Cut hair salon. The salon owner was apparently delighted, as the works are a bit different to what she’s been hanging lately. Glad to have made her day…
Back here, I showed you work in progress on some snow paintings. The idea of painting the lights, colours and shadows that sit in and under snow came to me after seeing news reports about avalanches in the South Island here in NZ. The finished works are mutli-layered: blue, mauve, purple etc then transparent layers of white, more colour, more white, more colour, more white…
The four are now finished, strung, signed etc and off to a busy Auckland hair salon for a time. It’s all about keeping my work out there, making sure people see it and see my name. You can read what Alyson at ArtBizBlog says about getting your art of of the studio here.
Here’s the first of them, I’ll save the erst for later in the week when my art room is quiet. This one, titled “Glacial”, is 12×16″ on W&N deep edge canvas. 
Cath Sheard Art 
