applied for four art shows got into one

The life of an artist can be very discouraging if you let it. I wish success to all artists good or bad especially if you love doing it. Every one should be able to do what they love to do, if it were so, I think their would be less violence, hatred, and stress. I love painting, some days I can only paint for a couple of hours, other days I could paint and not eat or sleep. Currently I am reading "The Art Spirit" by Robert Henri. I love the book, great in sites on how to paint and what to paint. I agree with him stating that awards and juried competitions should not exists because then that gives the artist a false view of what the public wants. Competitions are usually juried by older more established artists, along with all their baggage and biasses. I applied for 4 art shows last month from around the country, I received 3 no's and one yes. This tells me that outside the state of Utah (which is really not saying much when it comes to an art market, except that Utah wants cheep art generally speaking) I have a small chance of success. The problem is I don't believe that at all, I know that when I get into other art markets I will be successful..... what ever that means. lol.
Success to me means to provide for my family by creating the best artwork I possibly can. My only question is: Will my paintings provide for my family or will teaching? I am a firm believer in God. I love him and I know he loves me, currently he isn't telling me which direction I should take to provide for my family. He had no problem telling me to apply to the University of Utah's Master program, amazingly enough I got in. But now he is silent which I am ok with, but this is my thought process. If God lets me know that I should paint to provide for my family everything will always end up the way he wants for my family. If he says he wants me to teach at a college, everything will work out. (Faith is awesome, I love trying it and learning from it) But he is silent so I guess I get to choose, the only problem is that I trust God more than myself so I am taking that leap of faith.
In a way I guess you could say I made a deal with God (one sided of coarse because he isn't telling me anything). But I believe he will follow though, sometimes we need to just work like it all counts on us when in reality, it was Gods desire for us to do what we are doing in that moment. Here it is: I will paint and provide for my family to the best of my ability until March of 2009. If we make close to or round about 30000 by that time I will continue to paint and provide for my family. If we do not make that much then I will look for a full time job to provide. My wife is up for it so it is a go. So pray for me if you want me to continue to paint full time.
Some other good news. I got into the Rive Gauche Gallery in Scottsdale Arizona. Fredric is an amazing man, a great head on his shoulders with a great desire to make his gallery and artists successful. The peak season is starting in a couple of months and ends in about March so we will see how well things go for me in this new location. Because of this tidbit of a recession sales should be a little down which kind of helps with the knowing if God is on my side with providing. If it is harder to sell I will need a miracle to get the amount I am asking for, but miracles happen every day so I am looking forward to it. Besides that have a great day and please post your thoughts. Thanks.

mother of two

Finally it is done. I love and hate this painting. I feel like I can do a better job but their is a part of me that has to leave it the way it is. I don't want to overwork it and kill it. I submitted this painting to the National Portrait Competition, so we will see in Nov if I was accepted. Thanks for checking out my site, I have some new fun paintings to put up, my new thing now is Moon Dogs, if you don't know what one is then look it up because I don't want to explain it. Let me know what you think about my painting I would appreciate it.

second week of painting the portrait

This is the second layer of oil paint that I applied during the week. So far this portrait is taking longer than I would like. I am applying for 3 national art competitions this week so time has been diverted else where. I am going for a more tonal painting than I usually do with this portrait. I want a mood presented with the painting not just a portrait. I picked this image because I love the looks from my wife and two kids. Ashton (bottom left) was tired because he didn't get his nap that day and was really attached to Lisa. Chance (screaming kid in my wife's arms) was done with taking pictures and was ready for bed. Lisa, like Chance was done with pictures and holding the 20 pd kid. The best part about this image, it was the last picture I took of the family before we finally gave up and got the boys ready for bed.

The idea with this portrait was initially have a lot of objects in the background that describe Lisa and what she loves to do. After looking at all the images and thinking about what I wanted in this portrait I decided to make the background dark in value so the viewer is focused on the facial expressions given in the painting. I want people to feel it more so than read into a description of who my wife is. Anyways here this the second week of working on this portrait. I am up to about 30 hours now of painting.

beginning painting portrait

This is the beginning of the painted portrait, I usually start with an eye and paint as I go, but it is always good to change things up a bit. So to crit me too hard, it is just the beginning.

portrait drawing

This is the beginning of a portrait that I am working on for a portrait competition (we will see if I will finish it in time). I don't usually draw the figures in first but I thought I would try it out this time.

educated/uneducated artist

Well their are a lot of things to discuss on here. One of them is Motivation. What is my motivation? To tell you the truth..... I would have to say that it is the endless possibilities that painting provides. One could be a color painter, or value painter, possibly Chiaroscuro, photo realistic, impressionistic. Especially in these modern times of art any one and their dog does any type of painting they would like.
Because we are talking about art anything is up in the air. You don't need to know how to paint or draw to become an artist especially in the art world. People in the..... normal... no.... lets say consumer world (everyone else not in the art world) thinks that you have to know how to paint or draw to become an artist. The fact of the matter is that we have artists that have no idea on how to use a pencil or paint. Carolee Schneemann a great performance artist for feminism does a piece with her pulling a scroll out of her vagina in the piece entitled "Interior Scroll" Shock value seemed to be more important than execution of an image. Art has become concept based, who ever can think about a new idea and get it out into the world gets the giant golden coin. Skill has no merit in the world of Academic art, people don't care they want to see an image that sucks, but entertains their intellect.
Speaking of intellect why is it that most academic artists brains shut down when they see a representative painting? If the painting is executed and painted well, the academic artist says, "what you see is what you get!" Then they move on to the next painting. If the artist has a ton of meaning placed in their painting then the academic artist needs to have mystery through shotty painting or badly executed paint. On the other hand their are a lot of artists that are just doing paintings of wall furniture. They might be painted well but they contain no life or mystery. I am sure their is a way to be able to live in both worlds at the same time. Not as if one needs to be loved by both worlds but it would be nice to be accepted to a certain degree. But then again acceptance is only a word, why is it that we as social beings need to be accepted to anything?
I have a few friends that are exceptional artists, but as far as meaning goes...... well their is none. They might be making a great living right now (which makes other artists jealous) but in the end are they going to be like the artists we know of in the history books, or are they going to just fall through the cracks like most artists? Another tangent, Artist.... an over used word. At times I consider myself an artists, other times, I am just a painter of pictures.

friends sites

Here is a list of some close art friends.
Michael Parker www.michaelsparker.com
Justin Hayward www.justinhaywardart.com
Justin Taylor www.justintaylorart.com
Jeremy Lipking www.lipking.com
Tony Pro www.tonypro-fineart.com
Ryan Brown www.ryansbrownart.com
Peter Sakievich www.petersakievich.com
Chad Crane www.chadcrane.com
Jerry Moore www.jeremiahmooreart.com
Zane Lancaster
Matt (aka M@) Allred
Alison Denyer www.adenyer.com
John Erickson
Doug Braithwaite www.dougbraithwaite.com