A friend of mine does card readings that I have found to be incredibly spot-on. Occasionally she generously offers a free one-card-draw with these Balance cards that she created. The card that haikujaguar drew for me in her one-card draw did come as a bit of a surprise. The Sapling. It's hard to think that business growth may still be very much in its sapling stage, but it very well could be.

This was her interpretation:
Wow, I almost feel sorry for you, because I drew the Sapling and that shows up at the beginning of big and lasting things, indicating that they're about to grow.

I don't know if you can handle much more growth at the rate your growth is growing!

So... um... I will look at this and say, "Please schedule in some rest time for yourself, or you will collapse in the orchard." :)

Being that business and professional pursuits were very much on my mind when I asked for a card, I can't imagine what else it would be, other than business and profession. Though I was hoping for a card that indicated travel and adventure! ;D

The best ways I can think of to be ready for further growth is improving one's workplace and streamlining how things get done.

I think that proper insulation of the studio definitely HAS to be on the must-do list sometime this year. The room is too frigid in winter to work in there, and too expensive to heat. The most I can do in there these days is stain mouldings and join frames. And that's a shame! It's a nice-sized room! Yes, must put some attention to this workspace and make it a better, more comfortable working environment.

With so many eagles and flags being requested, for veterans and for Scouts, I've gotten into the routine of having the mats, glass, and frames all ready to go - several of them - at any given time. Even though each feather is individually painted, no two are identical and each has its own personality in the end, it just makes production so much easier on the framing end of things, because the formula for those never varies. Red and blue mats, with muted blue mat for the background; bullnose moulding, dark walnut stain. Keep it simple and straightforward, and the work-time will improve. Can't do that with everything else though, because the colours, themes, subject matter, and individual tastes are so varied! There's no buttonholing anything else. But at least with the single most popular, it's a set standard.

I haven't done it yet, but I do plan on charting incoming commissions- orientation, subject matter, customer's stats, need-by date, etc. It will be a tactile thing, hand-done on large paper and tacked to the studio wall. This is to hopefully help streamline things, but even more so to make sure that no one is missed. I'm very much a visual thinker, and if it's all drawn out and in front of me, I can more easily follow.

Email. I must apologize if I have not yet responded to your email! The holidays were insanely busy work-wise and I'm still trying to catch up. During all of last year my inbox was admittedly in a constant state of overwhelm- there were so many queries coming in as a result of that wandering painted-feathers email that I just could not get on top of it all and paint too. I'm tackling that problem.

I have divided up business emails in my inbox. I flag any email pertaining to business, from clear queries right on down to a simple friendly "hey, I like your work". All those little red flags greet me and tell me "HEY, you need to get on these!" When I respond to them, I move them to the "answered queries" folder. if I hear back from a person and it turns out that they would like to order, then that email and anything else they sent goes to the "active orders" folder. This way I can follow the conversation and keep up on the little details that they want to include in their commissioned piece.

Admittedly, it's bit cumbersome, but it's a start in organization. :)
Have you come upon any methods and techniques in dealing with business email that you've found extremely useful? If so, I'm all ears! ;D

This bison painting had to come to a screeching halt for over a month.  There was quite a deluge of Christmas orders coming in for painted feathers, and also for a few Eagle Courts-of-Honor. Just ask my family, they didn't see a whole lot of me during the month of December.  So that big canvas with the bison herd just sat on the easel gathering dust.

Now that I've gotten through the Christmas orders, the Eagle Scout orders, and have got things at an easier flow, it was time to crack open some oils and get back on that canvas piece.  The studio's freezing cold this time of year, but I still managed to get all the shadows in - so now at long last this piece is ready for some colour.

You'll notice the "location" has changed since the last upload of this particular piece.  No longer are there distant mountains behind the bison herd, they all got changed into large weather-worn granite rocks.  So now this location is more typical of what you might see in South Dakota.



I think I've got the hang of under-painting with oils now, though still feeling iffy about oils in general.  Once I get the colour glazing part figured out, I hope to do some more canvases. 

I'll post again once I get some colour on this one- cheers!

Adventures in Textile Art
Yeah, I don't even know what category to file this under!

You might have received an odd question or two in messages from me over the past month or so.  Something along the lines of "What tartan is that in your photo, is it Campbell?"  Or "Who made it, and how long did it take her to sew that?" Some of you obligingly answered, some did not.  Granted, they were odd questions indeed.

But these questions definitely had purpose, for I was given an interesting challenge.   Not even sure if I can do it, so I'm learning everything that I can. Or trying to.

A friend of mine had seen the very traditional Pacific Northwest native regalia that I've been hand-sewing... button blankets, dance apron, octopus bags, all painstakingly hand-stitched and much of it with bead work too.  This friend of mine somehow determined that if I were capable of sewing such items, then I must be capable of making a proper kilt.

Yes, I said kilt.  Not one of those silly Seattle-made Utilikilts, either, a proper one, made with tartan, the way they're supposed to be made.

As hard-headed as I am, I'm not going to turn away from a challenge.  A kilt, is it?  Okay then!  So I'd began studying how these things are worn, how they're supposed to hang, the history leading up to the modern design, heck even the various clan and district tartans and trying to identify some of these on sight.  I found a great book on the matter, entitled "The Art Of Kilt Making", written by a lady who began her apprenticeship in Glasgow 50 years ago and is still going strong.  I found that on a website appropriately named Kilts-N-Stuff.com.   Within its pages was a treasure trove of information and detailed diagrams on pleating, measuring, the sorts of threads to use, and best of all photos showing how it looks done right and how it looks done wrong.  To the stripe?  To the sett? Exactly how the waist should taper and where the fall should...well, fall.

I also discovered something else.  Out of the thousands of registered tartans, there are a handful whose patterns are asymmetrical, which pose their own set of challenges.  Guess what?  My friend is a Buchanan! Yep, asymmetrical.  His wife just laughed and said to him, "Well, that suits you just fine, doesn't it!"

I'm still going to take on this challenge, I'm learning lots.  I think, though, that the first one (or 2, or 3, or...) that I attempt will be self-colour kilts. Just one colour, no tartan - and see if I can figure this out.  In my spare time, right!?

So now that you know the reasons for my random off-the-wall questions, have you any advice for a would-be kilt-maker? ;-D

I'm determined to get the hang of it!  Knowing now where I went wrong with the last one, this one's going through a lot of serious under-painting.  Right now it looks rather cluttered, but that'll (hopefully) change.  This is only in raw sienna and titanium white at the moment, next Monday I'll be adding burnt umber for the darkest areas.

YES, I'm taking lessons!  Had to - I don't know what I'm doing!  The lessons are minimal and just as I get "stuck", I really needed guidance in the methods of working in oils.  The image is based on a photo from Flickr.  I wrote to the photographer and gained his permission to paint it.  This has very little resemblance to the original photograph, however- I "thinned" the herd, lowered the light source, moved some animals around, changed the hillside, and substituted the mountains behind with the Grand Tetons.  Here is the original photo.

And below is the painting in its earliest stage.



Wish me luck!  I need all I can get.  I'm hoping to have this one completed and ready for a two-person show at Lucas Art Gallery in Graham next month.  I'll be showing with Paul Langston.

I thought I'd make a list of the art blogs I read fairly regularly, I hope this will prove useful to you.  And if you know of some good ones that are not on this list, or if you have one yourself - please, comment away!

Alyson Stanfield, the "Art Biz Coach"
Robert genn's Twice Weekly Letter (Clickbacks archive of his newsletters)
Robert Genn's "The Painter's Keys" - community
Lori Woodward Simons Blog
Art Print Issues
Starving Artist's Daily Feed, Artrepeneur (Seems to be defunct, but still good articles)
Stuart's "Light's Edge" Photo Weblog (a friend of mine, a great photography journal)
Art News Blog
Prosperous Artists new, still investigating this one

As I told a friend recently, I've learned that you can't wait for more free time to come along in order to learn something new.  That extra time doesn't happen all on its own, there will always be some other thing pressing that will "prevent" you from committing some time to the new endeavour.

A show promoter has encouraged me for a few years to get into oils and canvas.  Customers have, as well.  I always had an excuse.  I've got several shows breathing down my neck, I have a queue of commissioned work, etc. etc, etc.

You can ALWAYS find an excuse for it, that's easy.  The real satisfaction comes from having the commitments, tending to them, and managing to squeeze in the new thing anyway. 

So I'm learning oils.  I'm pretty comfortable with acrylics an a small format, I know how they'll behave and I understand how to get some decent believable form and lighting out of them.  Learning oils is like learning a new language.  What worked before doesn't quite cut it now.  I've got a completed painting, but I'm calling it a learning experience. 

This golden eagle is on a 12"x16" canvas, which is HUGE compared to the feather painting.  A finished image on one of those might cover 6"x2" if I'm lucky.  This was interesting, and I'm eager to learn more.  The next painting will teach me a little more, and hopefully will be a little better for it.  I'm sure it will be a little better for what this first attempt taught me.  I won't stop doing feathers, absolutely not.  This just provides one more format, and one that has considerably more options than the feathers alone.

It's that time of year - and the Western Washington Fair is in full swing down at the Puyallup Fairgrounds.

I returned from the Ocean Shores art festival late Sunday night, then hustled down to Puyallup early Monday morning to hang around 20 pieces of art in the Fred Oldfield Western Heritage Center, just inside the red gate on the fairgrounds.  It was and is a rough schedule, but a very worthwhile one.  Thousands and thousands of folks come to 'do the Puyallup', and many come through Fred's Center, too, to see himself and other artists at work. 

Fred will be at the Center every day of the Fair from noon til 6pm, and I will be at the Center every day (except Tuesdays)of the Fair from ten til.... 6ish, let's see how I hold up! ;-)

Advertising has done well.  Many folks have stopped by asking about me, and I thank you.  The paintings were only hung yesterday, but a few have already found homes.  I'm painting demonstration pieces while at the Fair this week and next, then taking completed paintings home to frame and hang them the following day - so if you're interested in bringing home a painted feather, or even bringing home one that you watched being created, or if you just want to swing in and say hello, come on down to the Puyallup!  The Center is the mustard-coloured building just inside the Red Gate.  If you haven't been there before, it's a neat little western art museum.

I wanted to challenge myself with detail on this one.  After all the little hairs, and trying to show light on something that is brown on brown, in the end I thought my eyes wanted to  bleed.  I worked on it til about midnight last night, then took it afresh this morning.

It's been a while since I did something that's pretty much monochromatic.  The moose was a tough one - his face is such a step away from the more "attractive" animals.  As I worked through the contours of his countenance, I realized one thing... moose are very homely critters!  But still, despite their gangly awkward appearance there's still something that's just irresistable about them.

These mats are far too big for it.  They're 8" x 19", I'm thinking I want to reduce that down to maybe 17".  The idea was to bring the view in really *tight* (imagine opening your kitchen curtain to find a moose peering back at you), and to have the painting swimming in its mats spoils that effect.  But I'm pretty sure these are the colours I'll go with.  Definitely don't want to go with brown! :P


Here's a closer shot.  I have a wonky scanner, so I had to wait for the sun to get photographs to show you.  Even with this, you can't see all the little moose hairs depicted here - I went overboard with detail.


Anyhow, glad it's done!  What's next?  Something with COLOUR! Anything but BROWN!

Recently I was commissioned to paint on this gorgeous lithic specimen from Ohio:


Stone of this nature is something I had never painted ...  Upon completion, I liked the result well enough to persue it further.  So I've begun collecting modern knapped pieces such as those shown at the bottom of this blog.

It's difficult to find spearheads of substantial size for painting on.  The point on the right, however, is just under 8 inches and is nice and broad - a beautiful piece created some time before 1965.  I've got ideas for good presentations with these.  Some may end up in combination with other art, which turned the mental gears some more and I've plans for some African pieces with additions to the framings.  I won't say any more than that, I need to keep some of this as a surprise! ;)

Trying to mix it up a bit.  We'll see what comes of it.




Expect to see these at the Fred Oldfield "Celebration of Western and Wildlife Art" show in October, and very likely at Fusions Gallery in Ocean Shores, too.

http://www.parkreservations.com/rainier/webcam.htm

I do use this thing when planning a hike on Rainier.  It gives me a visual of what sort of weather I might be in for.  With the massive snowfall the Cascades has received throughout the winter, record snowpack, we haven't been up there since last year.  

This morning I thought, "Oh surely it must be bare ground by now at Paradise, it's July!"

Nope.  Not entirely.  Look at the webcam -  though the early morning sunshine is casting long shadows, it sure looks like dirty glazed snowbanks on either side of the road.  Uncanny.  The mountain received over... I believe it was 180 inches of snow last winter - I sure do hope enough of it clears off to allow the wildflowers to bloom this season.  That's always such an oustanding show.

Maybe by the time we return from Canada I 'll venture up there and see what there is - it's been too long. :)