Time Precious Time

I used to 'play' in my studio, the light heartedness implied by the term play was intentional, I didn't want to get too serious for fear of chasing the muses away.
As children we weren't allow to play until our chores were done, a practice that taught us a deeply engrained work ethic and a very practical bent, the unfortunate consequence was that that word 'play' became a deterrent.
It took me years to figure out why I felt like I had to do everything else first before I could focus on my art, that darn word....
It's amazing what a difference specific language can  make. I've long called my art my work, but the process was different, or was it? After all the process is important to me, that's what I derive joy from.
Each painting is an experiment, a learning opportunity, a chance to push the medium a bit further, and the wielder of the medium too.
Calling the process 'work' gives it the respect that it deserves, and helps me to carve time from an overloaded schedule every day.
It's the all too common lament I hear from artists, there is paper work to do, marketing, networking, schlepping your work hither and yon, applications to fill out classes to prep/teach etc etc etc. Then of course there's family and house hold stuff...ARGH!
My solution? It's a job. I have to show up 5 days a week. I have a calendar hanging on the studio door that I check off every day that I work, even if it's only for a short time.
Some days all I can punch in for is a few minutes, but it's amazing what you can do if you consistently day after day work 15 minutes here and there.
As you have guessed, I don't wait for inspiration. Inspiration comes from the work, a lesson learned from Chuck Close who famously said "inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work"
Do you find it hard to find time for your art? What solutions work for you? Share share, we all need ways to create more time!

The Hill on Mapleton Line, Glazed Acrylic Robin Baratta, 16x20, juried into STEPAC In View Of The Artist Show.

Cue The Creativity

A common complaint when creatives get together is "I just can't get in the mood to paint/sculpt/etc'

Many of us lead a double life, especially when you have a job and family. Frequently the result of the constant stress of juggling is a creativity block.
Sometimes the block comes from inertia, for what ever reason we've taken a break from the creative side of ourselves and can't seem to get back in the groove.
Sometimes we've worked a particular idea, or medium till it no longer inspires us, but we don't know how to move on, or even that we need to.
I don't pretend to know all of the answers, I can only tell you what works for me.
I have a very tight schedule and have to be able to turn on the creative in me more or less on demand. Having a dedicated space for the creation of art helps a lot, and I've developed little rituals that help to set the mood.
First I make sure the space is cleared, note I didn't say cleaned, that would take too long lol, but I find it hard to concentrate when things are a jumbled mess. Since I teach both out of my studio and on site at area long term care facilities, the studio is jammed full of stuff for student projects and lesson plan experiments. Once the visual noise is reduced then I turn to the work in progress or W.I.P..
I usually work on two or three pieces at once because of drying time, having at lest one W.I.P. on hand means you're not starting off staring at a sheet of white paper, that's mocking you and your lack of inspiration.
When I am faced with a fresh sheet one of the first things I do is spatter it with paint, any colour, no pattern, then I spritz on some water to make it run. Usually this spatter almost completely disappears under subsequent layers, but having some initial colour on the sheet seems to help.
I work on terraskin sheets which are inexpensive compared to the mounted wooden panels finished work is affixed to  so I can afford to be playful, and experiment. If the piece doesn't work, I can crop out what does, and discard the rest. I've even cut out sections of otherwise good paintings and repainted the offending area. Having that kind of flexibility is very freeing.
An ever expanding collection of sketch books is an invaluable resource, they're chock full of ideas waiting to be explored. Some sketches are frame worthy works of art, but frankly most are scribbled visual notes to self. Sketch books are very personal, I hate anyone else looking at my sketch books, I think they would look at them and think 'what a no talent poser'. Seeing some pages from Vincent Van Gough's sketch books was a revelation though, they weren't so very different than mine, and no one would call him a poser!
The best advise I can give to get over a block though is to just get to work.
Pick up your brush, sling some paint, just do it!
So what if it's not a master work. Pitch it out and try again. We all have duds.
If you never fail you're not trying hard enough.

Just Down The Road- Mini, 6x6, Robin Baratta, Glazed Acrylic, $55.00 contact for info

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.

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. 

I Love Sumac

I've loved sumac since I was a kid.

 I love their umbrella shape, and how their clumping behavior, creates great hiding spots for small creatures .

Especially, I love their autumn colour. 

This is a favorite clump, growing at Yarmouth Center Line and John Wise. I pass it on my way to the Art Emporium, and admire it every time. 

The painting is 16x16,

But I'm toying with cropping it to a more traditional  16x12, what do you think?

I Love Sumac, glazed acrylic on terraskin mounted on cradled board, 
Update, this is the one I selected.  contact

Thanks For The Peppers, done

A couple of weeks ago one of my students mom gifted me with a bushel of peppers from her garden, they were so beautiful that I decided to paint a mini of them for her as a thank you.

Thanks for the peppers, 6x6, terraskin mounted on cradled board, contact

Square foot entry, needs a name

My entry for the Art Emporium 1-2-3 foot squares show is done, it just needs to be mounted now.

Anyone have a name suggestion?

24x24, glazed acrylic, $375 part of the ditches series. SOLD

Also just finished

Series: the pond, mini #2, 6x6, $55 SOLD

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

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!

Me and My Terraskin Pad

I stopped in Curries Art Supply on my way home tonight to pick up a pad of black heavy weight construction paper, to cut mats from, for my Alzheimer's sweeties class tomorrow, and what did I find.....

They've got the Terraskin Artist Blocks in with my art on the cover. So of course I had to get a picture taken, lol. 

Snow In The South, And My Interview On The Terra Skin Blog

Well we're back, we've been in South Carolina for the last 5 weeks. Did you see the coverage of the ice storms in Georgia? We were also hit by that storm so I have lots of pics of palms in the snow.

 It was too cold to do much work, but we spent a lot of time bundled up walking on the beach, which is one of the big attractions for us.  I'm still the Queen of spotting shark's teeth, even though I wasn't trying very hard I found 237 this year, crazy, I think the ability to spot them is a by product of developing the artist's ability to discern the important details and disregard the unimportant.
The link to the interview I did on the Terra Skin Blog is here check it out. Be warned you'll learn more about me than you ever wanted to know ! lol

The big announcement

Everyone knows I love Terraskin.
It turns out Terraskin loves me back!
A couple of years ago I contacted the Terraskin   people and asked for some samples,  for a demo I did. It would seem they've been following me since then.  A couple of weeks ago they contacted me, at first I thought it was either spam or a joke, but it's not.
Here is a link to the amazon shop that is selling the pads with my art on the cover, and here is the Etsy shop.
When the interview we did goes live I'll post a link to that too!
And yes money exchanged hands :)