Time, Again

Looking over my postings for the last few months I notice that they all have a common thread, time, or the lack there of.
I had a conversation yesterday with a dear friend where she asked when do you want to retire?

Want to retire... that's a loaded question, yesterday or even better, last year, would be when I want to retire. The reality is that I don't see retirement in my future at all.
This is an all too common dilemma faced by creatives.
I love working with my 'old sweeties' in Long Term Care, but I am fighting a continual battle with the clock/calendar, and it get's very tiring.  
Retirement sounds like a dream come true, unfortunately having been self employed most of my life, the only CPP for me will be the little bit I get from the part time side jobs I've periodically had.

I'm at a stage in my art career where I need to be spending more time in the studio, but time is an ever more elusive beast. I hate turning down invitations to show that have been coming my way, I hate having no new art to show at the Art Emporium, and being under pressure to produce work for the next show

  STEAG 10th Annual Show & Sale 
November 11 - 13, 2016
Fri. 6-9pm, Sat. 10am - 6pm Sun. 11am - 5pmCASO Station, 750 Talbot St, St Thomas (behind Giant Tiger) 

Please don't think I'm whining, or have any serious regrets, because I'm not, and don't.  I don't have much work because I did some serious experimentation this summer, not all of which was successful and what was sold quickly... 
So, I continue to soldier on, dreaming about windfalls, and winning lotteries with tickets I never buy, and 'one day' when my ship comes in, though I'll probably be a the train station... painting in the moments I'm able to carve out of my day, it's amazing what you can do with 15 minutes here and there.



 

The How's and Whys of Buying Art According to Chatalaine

In my last post I talked about Big Box store art, vs 'real art', who buys what and for what reason.
Interestingly, right after I wrote that I read this article in Chatelaine and it's second part.
The best advise the articles give is very simple.
 Buy art because you love it.

These two paintings are on their way to the Westland Square Foot Show.

Nature's Still Life, glazed acrylic, Robin Baratta, 12x12, $180.00

The Chutes, glazed acrylic, Robin Baratta, 12x12, $180.00

And this one too, assuming it gets done on time!!!

work in progress: the initial sketch, tentatively called Just Down The Road #3

Public Education

There has been a debate raging in an online form I frequent. It started with the familiar lament of an artist deploring big box store 'art 'and the people who buy it.
From there the discussion cycled through how do we producers of real art compete, should we even try, and ended up at how do we educate the public about the value of real art?
All I could think was.... it's apples and oranges folks.
Big box store art, or art by the yard is usually made in a Chinese art factory, and often sold for less then the supplies would cost in an art supply store. Decor hunters love a pretty bargain, and as trend followers usually think of said pretty bargain as being disposable.
Artists, these are not your target market.
Granted with education some of them may be turned into collectors, but not often, for collecting is a different mind set.
Collectors look for value, they want keepers, not disposable trophies.
It behooves us the artistic community then to  focus on the value of what we produce, it's uniqueness, it's local flavour, and it's universality.
We sell emotion made tangible , and their response to it, after all they buy our art because they love the art, and that is the real value of art!

Skyward! 12x12, $160.00, glazed acrylic, contact for info

This piece is currently at The Art Emporium, and has been submitted to the Port Stanley Artists' Guild Show June 5-7 at the Port Stanley Legion.

Sentinel, painting in progress

The working title for this painting is Sentinel.

It's the second painting taken from some of my SC sketches. 

This is at a very early stage, first layers of both texture, and glazes are down, with many more of each to come.

And here it is done.

Beach Sentinal: 8x10, gazed acrylic  Sold

Lessons From The Beach, part 3,

What People Watching Taught Me

At the risk of sounding like another 'stop and smell the roses' post, I'd like to tell you a little story.

One day dog and I were walking the beach, there were herons and egrets fishing the shallows, with a host of other shore birds. Dolphins were playing in the bay, while an eagle soared overhead. Predictably I was rubbernecking, gawking, trying to soak it all in. 

I realized that several people had passed by, not pausing or looking. A gentleman with another dog approached and as our dogs greeted each other we chatted, I asked did you see the dolphins? 

No, he didn't, the eagle?  No. The green heron perched in the tree he'd just passed? No. 

As artists, we see. 

We see, and I believe that in part it is our job, our duty to show the average unseeing persons the beauty and wonder of our world through our art. A friend calls unseeing average persons muggles. Harry Potter fans will recognize muggles as non magical folk. 

Artists, we have a powerful magic, use it.  The unseeing can't learn to hold dear, and wondrous, what they can't see. 

I believe that this applies to everything that we deem worth of brush time.

Deborah Tilley paints wonderful craggy faces that tell stories of lives full of hardship, Candy McManiman paints the ubiquitous Canada Goose clothed in beautiful colour and elegant line,  Kit Cutting, dogs- especially senior dogs with gentle souls, love visible in every stroke of her brush. 

I could go on, these are only a very few of the magical artists opening our eyes to what is around us. 

 Artists keep seeing, keep creating. The world needs us. 

Path to the beach

This is the first completed post South Carolina painting. "Path To The Beach" is literally that, a painting of the path to our beloved beach.  With the continuing snow and cold here at home, I'm really missing walking our beach...

Lessons learned while walking the beach #2:

  How Artists are like sharks teeth.

There are a lot of wanna be sharks teeth on the beach, some of them are really hard to tell from the real thing just by looking, but there is one no fail test, try to break them. 

The shell bits that look so convincing, break as soon as you put pressure on them, real teeth are almost impossible to break.

A lot of wanna be artists break as soon as they run into difficulties. They don't sell the way their family and friends assured them they would, they get an unfavorable critique, or two, they don't get accepted into a show they apply for...and they pack up their paints and move onto a new hobby.

Please don't get me wrong, a lot of hobby or Sunday painters, are the real thing, there is nothing wrong with knowing the limits of your ambition. 

Shark tooth hunters learn fast, that if you want to find a lot of teeth, find the bands of grit and debris. Like sized objects collect in bands that stratify the beach. Since most sharks teeth are fairly small, most of them will be found grouped together in the band of thumb nail sized bits.

The really good ones, the big ones, will be in the bands with the larger pieces of, and complete shells. There aren't many big ones though, so, do you forgo quantity for quality? After all, you might get lucky really good ones do appear in the smaller bands, though rarely. 

Or, do you persist and hang out where the big guys go, for artist, do you try for the better show? Take the chance on a solo exhibit? Or stay where you're comfortable showing in the same group shows year after year, without ever taking a risk...  Risk is hard, and frightening.  Most artists don't have driving ambition, they are happy doing what they are doing. There is nothing wrong with you if you know you really don't have enough ambition to take the risks.

If you do have ambitions though, consider the band you're in, could it be holding you back?

The dream of every sharks tooth hunter is to find a megalodon tooth.  Megalodons were massive prehistoric sharks, and their teeth are also massive.  Their teeth are found on the same beaches, but almost never in the strata bands the other teeth are.  

I've yet to find one, I know a devoted hunter though. This guy wears hip waders, and has an assortment of strainers he uses to sift through the tide pools of the estuary.    As soon as the tide is out far enough to start to expose the estuary sand bars he's out there, in all weather.  He's been doing this ever since he retired 10 years ago, his wife helps him and together in 10 years they have found 2.  One was this year and I was fortunate enough to see it, he wouldn't let me hold it though lol.

For artists, as it is for this hunter, megalodons take total devotion, a lot of time/practice, patience, and a bit of luck.

 

Path To The Beach, Glazed Acrylic, by Robin Baratta. 8x10, $120.00

Beach Thoughts

We've been back from our southern vacation for a few days now.  Just long enough to get back into the swing of things. 

I really miss my studio when I'm away. Every year I come up with a new plan on how I'm going to spend the 6 weeks immersed in paint, and each plan fails. The truth is, I'm a studio artist, I started 4 paintings while we were away this year, but with out the room to work I  end up outside, where the bugs and sand find their way into the paint, mixed media lol. 

So instead I fill my sketch book and walk the beach. 

I've got a good start on turning the first of those sketches into a painting. 

This is the lay out and under painting, with the first bit of texture layering. 

So, what did I learn beach walking, and people watching?

Beach combers are like art patrons.

At the beginning, they're pretty indiscriminate. They pick up any and everything pretty. 

By their second or third snowbird vacation (art show/gallery shopping trip), they start to specialize. They know this trip isn't a one time thing, and they aren't going to pick up any old thing just because it's pretty. 

A popular specialty is sharks teeth. The problem with this is there are lots of shells , but not many teeth. Complicating things farther, lots of shell bits and debris look like teeth until you examine them closely. So the genuine article can be missed if your not willing to bend over and really look. 

It also takes an 'eye' to find them. Most people walk right over top of them with out noticing what's right under their feet, so having a mentor show you what to look for helps a lot.

Also the best ones are often outside of the most searched areas, you need to be willing to search them out and take a few risks. 

Next time: what searching for sharks teeth taught me about artists. 

The Start Of Something Big?

One painting just about finished, but I'm thinking this is the start of a new series.

Coming home from our camping trip in July I enjoyed being a passenger, and I found myself fascinated by unmown ditches. 

Each was a fecund micro environment with a character of its own. By comparison the sterile sameness of the monocultured fields seemed dreary. 

The sky in photo is just a bit purple compared to the original, but the rest of the colours are really close.   24x18,  glazed acrylic, Trueman Line, Ditches #1, $320.00, soon to be at The Art Emporium, in Port Stanley. contact

Sail installation element, done-maybe

I think it's done, except for the top coat, which I have to wait a bit to apply.

Yes the unevenness of the sky is deliberate. My process is dependent on many layers of thin glaze applied over textured layers, I decided right off the bat to use the unstretched  nature of the canvas to my advantage and prep'ed  the sky area with BIN123 to give it a Yupo like tendency. 

I have to thank one of my South Carolina friends, Diane Garry for the use of a photo she took and shared with me. Once the installation is complete I'll post another picture of the whole thing.

The individual sails will be for sale after the event at the Art Emporium 177 Main St Port Stanley. 

Day three: sail installation element

The water especially needs more work, but we're getting there. I have to research out door top coats, anyone have any suggestions?

Day two, sail installation element

This is the start of the second day I've had to work on my contribution to the installation piece for Port Stanley. The finished sail will be one of nine mounted on a frame in The park near the bridge in Port. At lest that's the plan as I've heard it, village council could place it elsewhere.

Because of the size, 63x38x74, I'm working on the dining room table, don't worry, it's an art veteran!

Looking for inspiration

Oh the things we artists get ourselves into.

9 area artists, myself included have been asked to paint 'sails' for an art installation to be ready for Port Stanley's Harbourfest, and the Soiling International Regatta. Three weeks away. 

It seems everyone is doing nautical themes, not as a requirment, but because it's a natural...

I'd rather not, but nothing is coming to me. 

Dear muse help me please!!!

Square Foot Show Opening

I can't beleive I forgot.

 I was supposed to meet my friend (Candy McManiman) and drive into town with her, but at 9:30 I was gabbing on the phone with youngest, and something he said reminded me. 

I'm afraid he thought the house was on fire from the wail of anguish I let out. 

However, it was a great opening and Candy took lots of photos, including this one of Dr Suess's Garden with a red dot :)  (sold)

This one is another one that passed the hubby test. He hated it, the more he dislikes a painting....the faster it sells lol. 

Paintings for Westland's Square Foot Show

I've taken my three paintings in to the Westland. Thanks to my Facebook friends for helping me choose which ones.

The opening is July 18th at 7:30 and the show runs till August 16th. 

The Westland is run by Al and Karen Stewart of the Art Exchange, and is just down the street from the original location in Wortley village, at 156 Wortley Rd in the historic Westland building. 

My entries are: Dr Suess's Garden SOLD

Green on Green

And Road Less Traveled SOLD

I hope to see you there!

Art Emporium Takes the Lambeth Art Association Awards

Congratulations to our Art Emporium Artists who participated in  the Lambeth Art Association's annual show, and especially to those who won awards.
Candy McManiman, Robin Baratta, Debra Kubu, and Shirley Mihlik Thompson.
With over 400 paintings, by some of the area's best artists, competing for awards, that's an accomplishment to be proud of!

Debra Kubu           

Candy McManiman

Robin Baratta         

Parrot Feathers Tulip, painting

Spring has sprung! Finally.

It'll be a while before the tulips are out, I haven't seven seen any 'noses' yet. When they do, my favorites are the little kaufmann species tulips, and the crazy in your face parrot tulips. Unfortunatly the squirrels like them too, which is why I have lots of daffodils, fritillaria, and muscari...

12x12 and destined for the Art Exchange/Westland square foot show. 

Our beach

This painting is too badly flawed to ever be shared beyond this blog, but this is our beach, the one we go to South Carolina to walk on. Oh beach how I miss you here in the midst of the polar vortex.