New York, New York

Well, we're off to New York tomorrow to attend a show opening on Thursday - it'll probably be the only time I ever show my work in New York City, so I figured I'd better go!

Back in August I had the opportunity to spend nine days painting the Forbes ranch near Ft. Garland, Colorado with nineteen other extremely talented artists. It was such a good experience - I got to bump elbows with a lot of artists who are far more established in their careers than me, spend nine straight days painting, and soak up some valuable business advice from gallery owners.

Anyhow, we all had a few months to produce paintings inspired by our time on the ranch, and this show is the culmination the experience. Paintings will be on exhibit from each artist, and it should be fun to see how everyone interpreted their time on the ranch differently. I completed a bunch of small plein air studies while I was at the ranch, and did five larger studio paintings when I got back home (shown above). Three of the larger paintings are going to be in the show.

Many of the paintings that will be in the show were printed in the March 2007 issue of American Artist magazine, which is completely devoted to the residency. You can read the article here if you don't have a print copy. I just have to make a disclaimer (as usual) that in the print version of the magazine, my paintings reproduced more dark and dull than they actually are. I'm slowly learning that it's tough to get a magazine to do an accurate reproduction of your work - my last article in Southwest Art made my painting look too bright and saturated, and this article it's the exact opposite!

We're only going to be in the city for three nights, but that should be enough. We'll be flying with Aspen for the first time, so I'm praying that she does well on the plane, and that it's not too cold while we're there so that we can do a lot of walking around the city. Regardless, it should a fun, albeit short, trip!

Nevermind

Well, after all my whining last month about the US Postal Service misrouting one of my show entries, it turns out it made there just in the nick of time. I got my SASE back from the OPA yesterday with good news - my painting "First Light" was accepted into this year's national show.

To be completely honest, I really needed that this week. I've been down on myself about my art lately, and needed some sort of ego boost, as immature as that may be. I've been feeling like I lost all the momentum I had going last year with my painting. It has seemed like nothing is happening, I'm not ticking any goals off my list, and worst of all I haven't been painting nearly enough. So, it's nice to know that I got into this show again this year - I just needed to know that I'm still building my resume somehow.

I missed the opening for the national show last year to attend Nate's MBA graduation, so I'm planning on definitely going this year. The show is in Fredricksburg, Texas, so we're planning to spend the weekend there for the opening, then head down to Houston to visit relatives and friends that we don't get to see much now that we don't live there. Should be fun!

Money Matters

"Cascade"
Oil on Canvas
24x18"
2006








Since tax time is coming up, I sat down this morning and made a spreadsheet of my 2006 earnings and expenses from my art business. 2006 was my first year of selling my paintings, so it was interesting to tabulate all of the numbers and see how things turned out.

As far as earnings go, 85% of dollars spent on my paintings came from gallery sales, while 15% came from commissions. Since the gallery takes 50%, this actually means that 30% of the money I actually saw from my artwork came from commissions - to be exact, from two commissions (three paintings). Considering that the gallery sold 26 paintings, I find it funny that three paintings were responsible for 30% of my profit for the year. This illustrates how significant the gallery cut can be**. It also reminds me that while I may not love to do commissions, they're a good way to financially support my art habit.

As far as expenses go, my biggest expense by far is framing. By the numbers, I spent an average of 10% of the sale price of each painting on framing. A couple of artists I've studied with use 10% as a rule of thumb for frame price, which means that as your work increases in value, you should be able to use higher quality frames. I try to follow this, but in reality I prefer that my framing costs come in lower that 10%. At the start of 2006, I was working with two framing sources that were a bit pricier than those I currently use. Midway through the year, I got my tax license and started using a couple of wholesale framers which allowed me to cut my framing costs significantly. I'm hoping that I can keep the framing costs down to 5-7% in 2007.

Actual painting supplies (paint, brushes, canvas) were on average about 2% of the price of each painting. Other miscellaneous costs (entry fees, shipping, office supplies) ended up being nowhere near as significant as I had predicted, which was a nice surprise.

Overall, I brought home 43% of the sale price of each painting sold in 2006, which isn't too bad considering the gallery cut. One of my general art business goals is to keep this number above 40%, so I'm very happy with that for 2006 - the commissions certainly helped!

** Note that I'm not complaining about the gallery commission. The gallery I worked with in 2006 was responsible for getting my work into many people's homes, and I think they earn every cent of their commission!!

Back to Work?

"Reflections"
Oil on Canvas
16x20"
2006




I don’t talk about my day job here very often, because, well, you never know who is going to stumble upon your blog. But even though this blog is pretty much about art, I do in fact have a job that has been responsible for funding my art habit thus far. Since having Aspen, I’ve been sorting through what to do with my day job so that I could be the mom I want to be and still have time to paint. My maternity leave is up this week, so after pretending I didn’t have a job for twelve weeks, I was forced to make a decision.

I graduated from college in 2000 with a degree in Chemical Engineering. After graduation, Nate and I got married and moved down to Houston since we both had job offers there. I worked for ExxonMobil right out of college, and my job essentially entailed creating computer programs to optimize the amount of money that the chemical plant would make on a given day, depending on the purchase price of different kinds of oil, and the selling price of various chemical byproducts. Exciting, eh? I spent all day every day working to fill the pockets of one of the richest companies in the world – not exactly the most fulfilling job in the world!

I was so miserable that I picked up oil painting to give me something that I could be passionate about outside of work, and after two years I decided that Houston just wasn’t for me. I spent a few months searching for jobs in Denver, Nate got his company to agree to transfer him, and we moved back to Colorado in 2002.

When I interviewed for jobs in Denver, I interviewed with my current boss under the assumption that I would be hired to work in the oil and gas industry. As luck would have it, when I finally hired on, I got put to work in a different division of the company working on air pollution control systems for the power industry.

For the past four years, I’ve spent my time designing emissions control systems for power plants and oil companies, and doing comparative cost estimates for different emerging control technologies. I’m not in love with engineering, but as far as engineering jobs go, it was right up my alley. I’m a bit of a tree-hugger at heart, and I liked being involved in the effort to keep our air clean.

I did well enough at my day job that I had a lead position on my last project, and was moving up the corporate ladder. Problem was, I wanted to to have a family, and moving up the corporate ladder in an engineering job isn’t really conducive to the type of family role that I wanted to have. When I got pregnant, I knew I was going to have to step down in responsibility, or quit my job for things to work. Before I went on leave, I told my boss that I would only be returning part time.

Today I went to lunch with my boss and project manager, and told them honestly that I just can’t see myself putting Aspen in daycare this year, so I won’t be returning to the office. The thing is, I’m hesitant to quit my job completely at this point after building up some expertise in my area, so it was a tough conversation to have. After a bit of discussion, we agreed that I can switch my status as an employee such that I’m still on the payroll, but don’t get benefits or have an office. If there’s any work that comes up on an occasional basis that I can do from home, I’ll do it on an hourly basis. Otherwise, if I don’t do anything for months, no big deal.

I think it’s a good solution, as I’ll be able to keep my foot in the door and keep up to date in my area, but I’ll be able to stay at home with Aspen and work on kicking my art career into gear. When I do work, the paycheck will be a welcome financial bonus, but when I don’t I can focus on my art.

This morning I figured I’d be quitting my job, but now this is where things stand. Guess I’ll just have to see how it goes!

Already Blowing My Resolutions

"First Light"
Oil on Canvas
18x24"
2007




Warning - this is really just a rant!

I am so cranky right now. One of my goals for the New Year was to enter paintings in a select number of shows that I pick specifically because I feel that they provide good exposure for my work, and lines on my resume. The first deadline was for the OPA National Show, due today.

I wanted to do a new painting for the show, so I had my mom watch Aspen while I painted a few afternoons, and managed to rush through finishing the painting above. It's actually a larger version of a painting I did last year, that I wished I had done a bit larger to start with.

Anyhow, I finished the painting two weeks ago, photographed it, had slides overnighted to me, and put together my entry last weekend. Because it was due today and had to be mailed to Illinois, and because Monday was a holiday, I was uneasy about sending it regular mail. Unfortunately, OPA uses a PO box so you can't send your entry by Fedex or UPS, and they require that it be sent in a business size envelope, so I couldn't send it USPS express mail. I settled for the best I could do and paid to send it by priority mail. I figured if I sent it priority mail on Tuesday it would be there by today no problem, right??

WRONG.

I just checked the tracking code they gave me and found out my envelope has been MISROUTED, and that they will try to deliver it as soon as possible. I paid extra to send the thing priority mail, and the freaking USPS managed to misroute it!!

So now it won't get there today, and OPA will return it to me unopened, and I'll be out $50 from paying for slides, paying overnight shipping, and paying for priority mail. Grrr....

So, that's one show I won't be entering this year - guess I'd better find another. I'm so mad at the U.S. postal service right now!

Here We Go Again - 2007...

"Before the Snow Flies"
16x20"
2007





Since I went to the effort at tracking my goals for 2006, and it seemed to do a decent job of keeping me on track, I think it's worth the effort to outline my goals for 2007. I wouldn't necessarily call these New Year's Resolutions, since that brings to mind images of the hundreds of people who inundate the treadmills at the gym for the first few weeks of January every year. They're goals that I intend to track and stick with, even if they don't get completed within the 2007 calendar year.

Art Goals:

1. Expand gallery representation for my landscapes outside of the Denver area. Specifically, obtain representation in at least 3 of the following art markets: Scottsdale, Santa Fe, Jackson, Aspen, Breckenridge.

2. Double my 2006 revenue from painting sales.

3. Enter at least two of the following juried shows: OPA National Exhibition, OPA Central Regional Exhibition, Arts for the Parks, Salon International.

4. Enter and participate in at least one plein air event.

Personal Goals:

1. Get back into shape post-pregnancy - specifically, be fit enough to complete either the Steamboat Springs 1/2 Marathon or 5430 Sprint Triathlon in June.

2. Have fun and enjoy being a mom!

My art goals are mostly focused on expanding the market for my artwork. The first is going to be my biggest focus this year - the bottom line is that I need more than one gallery selling my work. To that end, I need to continue to enter respectable juried shows to build on my resume, and I need to spend consistent time in the studio to be able to support more than one gallery selling my paintings. The second goal is aimed at growing my business from a hobby to a career. I'm focusing on revenue rather than profit this year because growing my revenue means getting my name out there, which might require more resources initially (advertising, etc.). The last goal of participating in a plein air event is just a means of expanding my experience. I'd like to see if the plein air scene is something I'd enjoy participating in, and use it as a means to meet more artists.

As for the personal goals, I'd like to get my fitness back in the first half of the year. In 2005, I was in the best shape of my life and completed a bunch of triathlons and road races. I pretty much lost all that while being pregnant in 2006. I'd like to get it back mainly so that I can be fit enough to enjoy the things I love to do - I want to be able to climb a few 14ers this summer, which wouldn't happen at my current level of fitness. Not to mention that being in shape gives me more energy to tackle everything else. The second is kind of general, but it's just a reminder to enjoy my first year as a mom and spend some time having fun. Not everything that's worth something in life can be measured!

2006 in Review

"Sunset, Mt. Baldy" - Oil on Canvas, 24x36". This is one of two paintings I've managed to complete since Aspen was born. I started the underpainting for it back in July - don't ask me why I waited until now to complete it. Maybe I just wanted to prove to myself that I can still tackle a decent sized painting when I'm taking care of an infant?

I can’t believe it’s New Year’s Eve already! 2006 has gone by in a blur and now it’s just a few hours until 2007. Overall, 2006 was a great year. Looking back, it’s hard to comprehend how much my life has changed in just 12 months. Last year, I posted my goals for the year here – now it’s time to see how well I did here:

1) Obtain gallery representation for my landscape paintings

DONE. A good friend of mine knew the owners of a gallery in Denver that was on my short list of galleries to contact about representation. She stopped by the gallery one day and showed them my website. Apparently they were just being nice when they agreed to look at it, since they have people showing them the work of friends and relatives all the time, and 99% of the time the work sucks. But they looked, and they liked my work, and they told her to have me call them. So I did, and a couple weeks later I took in nine paintings for them to have a look at in person. They took all nine and sold seven within the month, and thus started my art career!

I’m really thankful not only to have obtained representation, but to have started with a gallery that does a great job of selling my work. Being able to have an income from art this year has given me the confidence to take a bigger leap in 2007 and make it my job.

2) Get a painting accepted to the Arts for the Parks competition or an Oil Painters of America show.

DONE. I had a painting accepted to the OPA show, which was a huge deal to me. I wasn’t able to make it to the opening, which was kind of a bummer, but my painting won an award at the show, much to my surprise.

I never bothered to enter the Arts for the Parks show. Over the past few years, the show has leaned more and more toward wildlife art and more photorealistic work, and I didn’t feel that my more painterly style would be very successful in the show. Not to mention the fact that I didn’t have a painting of a national park handy…

3) Find the right piece of property to buy in Steamboat Springs so Nate and I can eventually build the mountain cabin we’ve been dreaming about for years.

Well, we did buy property in Steamboat Springs - three lots, to be exact. But we won’t have that cabin anytime soon.

Our purchase of property morphed from buying a lot for a future cabin to buying three lots and building spec homes on all three (Nate’s big project of the year). At this point, all three lots have houses on them. One is completely finished, two still have some work to do, and all three are officially on the market. Hopefully they’ll all sell early in 2007. Maybe we’ll use the proceeds to build that cabin in the mountains someday – who knows…

4) Think about having kids (yes, think about it – I’m not committing to anything here)

DONE. Amazing how I went from “think about having kids” to having a 6 week old baby in the span of a year! I had a relatively uneventful pregnancy and an easy birth, and now I have a beautiful little girl who has changed my life. Sometimes I think I could just stare at her all day. My days no longer revolve around me, and I’m fine with that - at this point, I can’t think of anything more important than taking care of her.

5) Swim 200,000 yards (swam ~80,000 in 2005, which wasn’t nearly enough considering that I love the water)

Not even close. I swam 35,000 yards this year, which means I only made it to the pool something like 20 times. Oops!! I’ll use pregnancy as my excuse – I was tired and busy and just didn’t feel like taking the time to swim most nights. I know, pathetic. Hopefully I’ll do better on the fitness front in 2007.

Time Flies...

Whew - motherhood is a bit demanding!! Aspen is a little over a month old now (which I can't believe), and I'm working on getting my bearings straight so I can start to get a little bit more done on the art front.

The first few weeks she was home she slept all the time, so I actually got down into the studio and managed to finish a painting between feedings. The past week or so she's become more active and awake, so my time has gotten more limited. It's great because she's a lot more fun now, but tough because I have to juggle my basic activities (showering, eating, laundry) with feeding her and keeping her happy. Nate has been a sweetheart the past two weekends and hung out with her in the afternoons so I could paint, and I managed to finish a 24x36" mountain scene that I had done an underpainting for before Aspen was born. I had hoped to deliver this painting to the gallery before Thanksigiving, because I had a hunch it would sell before Christmas, but no such luck. I'm happy that I've managed to finish it now though - if it would just dry, I could pop it in a frame a deliver it. I'll post pictures of the new paintings once I have a chance to use the camera for something other than taking cute pictures of my baby!

Anyhow, motherhood has been a nice surprise so far. I've always loved kids, but have never been a big baby person, so I wasn't sure how I'd do the first few months. So far, I've been enjoying it, and I have NO desire to return to my engineering job right now. For the last month, I've been totally wrapped up in being a mom, and making the transition to being an artist. The being a mom part hasn't left much time for the being an artist part, but that can wait a few months, and I can make plans for next year in the meantime!

My Latest Work of Art...

We welcomed our little baby into the world a little over a week ago now, just in time for thanksgiving!! Her name is Aspen Elise Peterson, and she was born a 10:54 pm on Saturday, November 18th. She was a couple of weeks early and weighed in at 6 lbs. 2 oz. I happen to think she's the cutest thing ever, but it's quite possible that I'm just being biased.

Anyhow, needless to say, I haven't been getting much done other than adjusting to life with a baby. I was supposed to finish and deliver a bunch of paintings to the gallery the weekend she was born, but my water broke Saturday morning and ruined those plans! Hopefully I'll have some time to get back into the studio sometime this week or next. We'll see!!

Five Principles

"Wildflowers, Rabbit Ears Pass"
Oil on Canvas
8x10"




In Robert Genn’s October 24, 2006 newsletter, he talks about his preview of the book The Starbucks Experience, Five Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary by psychologist Joseph Michelli. In the newsletter, he talks about five principles of success, discussed by Michelli:

1. Make it your own
2. Everything matters
3. Surprise and delight
4. Embrace resistance
5. Leave your mark

When I first read this, I glanced over the principles and decided they were a little bit touchy feely and typical of the “feel good” stuff you find in your average how-to-make-your-business-successful book.

Then I took a second look and thought a little bit more about how these principles apply to my art career. I think it was a good way to bring together some thoughts about how and why I approach my art the way I do, and where I see myself going. I’m usually a bit nebulous about my painting – I hate writing artist statements and defining my work – so every once in a while I think it’s a good exercise to sit down and put some of my thoughts about art into words.

1. Make it your own.

This is one of my top priorities as I develop as an artist. Developing a personal style is something that evolves from spending countless hours alone in the studio. I value the critiques of my peers, and can’t put into words how much I’ve learned from the handful of workshops I’ve taken, but nothing has been more valuable than the hours I’ve spent alone in the studio developing my own voice. When I’m at the easel and something isn’t working, it takes some serious problem solving to figure out how to fix it. Combine my personal responses to every moment of difficulty while painting, and the result is my own personal style.

Nothing bugs me more than to walk into a gallery and to see a painting that was obviously done by someone who studied with a particular artist. I make a conscious decision to take a limited number of workshops and classes, and those that I do take are with artists who have a reputation for teaching principles and basics rather than technique. This allows me to learn within the parameters of my own style, and make sure that my paintings are and will always be my own.

2. Everything Matters

I agree – everything matters. When I drop off my paintings at a gallery, quality and consistency matter. Framing matters. Quantity matters. What a client sees hanging on the wall of the gallery influences their overall impression of me as an artist worth collecting. In working with the gallery, responsiveness and professionalism matter, and dependability above all. If I have a good working relationship with the gallery, it will reinforce their commitment to sell my work.

I could go on and on about the all of the things that matter. I’m only one person and sometimes I’m just going to have to prioritize the bigger things over the smaller things, but it’s still good to remember that everything matters. Because selling art is more than a collector falling in love with a painting - people’s opinions are influenced by more than what they see, and everything matters when it comes to presenting collectors with a package that will inspire them to open their pocketbook and buy.

3. Surprise and Delight

This one is tough for me. I paint because I’ve loved art as long as I can remember, but I’m at a point where I’m transitioning to making art my career, and at this stage I view art as work. Making and selling art is soon going to be my job, and I’m devoted to approaching my art business with the same amount of energy, discipline, and professionalism with which I approach my current day job. I think that this commitment has been responsible for the success I have experienced in this, my first year selling my artwork. But sometimes the stress of producing can suck some of the joy out of the creative process.

This principle serves as a reminder to me that I’m choosing to make art my job because I’m passionate about it. One of my goals should be maintain that passion when I get bogged down with deadlines and requests. My love for art needs to be the heart of this business if I am going to be successful in the long run.

4. Embrace Resistance

This is a tough one for everyone, because it’s human nature to respond to criticism with defensiveness. My husband is my toughest critic, and every time he makes a negative comment about a painting, I immediately respond with all the reasons he’s wrong. But every time I complete a painting, I set it up on a shelf in my family room where I can soak it up for a few days, and I never fail to see his point of view eventually. Often, the specific criticism he makes isn’t the root of the actual problem, but when I take the time to figure out what’s causing his response I can almost always use it to make a better painting.

It’s hard to admit when I’m wrong, especially when it comes to my art. I take it personally when it comes to my paintings, and it’s hard to separate hurt feelings from the truth when I’m evaluating criticism. But it’s important to embrace resistance, at least to the point of setting aside time for evaluation. Sometimes resistance is worthless, but sometimes it’s a valuable means of improvement. If you don’t stop to embrace it, you miss the opportunity that lies within.

5. Leave Your Mark

I’m a representational painter, so I don’t have any deep statement to describe what my work is about, and I’m never asked to explain what it all means. Sometimes I feel like I must not be a “real” artist, since I don’t have to put subtitles below my paintings explaining my vision and concept. But my landscapes are my personal response to the world around me, and it’s very important to me that I use my paintings to share that vision with an audience.

I see a lot of beauty in the natural world that I think the average person misses. When a particular scene takes my breath away, I would venture to say that 90% of people respond with “What?” when I say, “Wow – look at that!” The purpose of my art is to take that scene and put it in the face of someone who otherwise might not notice. It’s amazing how something that might escape a person’s notice when they’re driving down the highway can cause them to pause when they’re walking through an art gallery. I’m a bit of a tree hugger, and I just hope my landscapes can remind people that there are places out there that are worth saving.