John Pototschnik Blog Article

"Kissed By The Sun" by John Pototschnik

As I have stated earlier, I love John Pototschnik's landscape paintings.  John has a nice article on his blog with his thought processes for his painting "Kissed by the Sun".  Inside the head of a master so to speak.  Read the article HERE.

My Thoughts on Outdoor Art Shows

before the show started

This is my take on outdoor art shows.  Others may have very different views and experiences.

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  The East Peoria show was my first "fine art fair".  I was hoping to have a better return on my investment than I had received at the three arts and crafts shows I had previously done.  I.e., at a fine art fair there would be fewer cheaper priced items.  What I am seeing is that jewelry and metal crafts do well and people who sell prints of their original work.  It seems that people do not want to pay the price for original art at these shows but are only comfortable spending $20 or $30.  Which is fine.  I just don't want to go to the expense and incredible amount of work to provide a free art show with no rewards for me.  Sorry if that sounds harsh, but I spent A LOT of time and effort and money to go to these shows and they are not paying off for me.  I have sold one painting, and that was to a relative.  ha! 

Also, I don't think showing original oil paintings that are not done in bright colors show well outdoors when they are painted with the intention to be enjoyed in the subtle light of an interior.  I guess my next best step is to start looking for gallery representation for my larger pieces.  I am able to sell small ones on-line.

 Showing my oil paintings at outdoor venues certainly has it's risks.  I have attached the before (at top) and after (below)  pictures of the East Peoria show which I just attended.  The after picture was my booth after the strong winds Saturday night.  My tent was broken in two places and I had to pack it up and go home Sunday morning.   Granted - my tent was not sturdy enough, but again, am I going to fork out the money for a stronger tent when I don't have a successful sales record?

Here is a good thorough article about setting up at art fairs for anyone considering doing this themselves.  There are a lot of things to consider.  The author, Bob Estrin,  is a photographer, but I think the suggestions are helpful for any artist.  Selling Your Art at an Art Show or Festival 

Bob also has a nice article about things to consider when thinking about selling your art in galleries or art shows here. 

I am going to find a way to do the last show on my schedule which is in two weeks and then I will likely end my outdoor art shows - at least as a vender.  I still love to attend them as a patron!

I hope this is helpful to others.  I don't mean to be sour.  It is just the reality for me.

After the strong winds

"Pear on Cork"

5 X 7

Oil on Panel

Please excuse the quality of my picture.  I think my photo program got zapped by lightening so I am forced to use a free program while I decide if I am going to fork out money for a new photo program.

I went to my go-to still life item today.  The first one was extremely tight and I didn't like it so I just let loose with this one.  I like it much better.  I have painted a LOT of pears!  Here is one I painted about 12 years ago.  It hangs in our living room.  Back in those days I didn't have money for art materials so I "stole" a piece of plywood that my husband was using for a ramp up into the shed.  Thankfully I have a little more money now for art supplies!

I think I am starting to feel some stress with everything that has to be done for the art show this week-end.  I dreamed my "stress dream" last night.  I was in college and only had one more test to take to complete a class which would finish my degree, but for every conceivable reason I just could not make myself take the test.  I'll let all of you psychology buffs explain that one to me!  I'm sure it represents something.

The good news is I have heard several of my painting friends enjoying sales lately so I am hopeful I will do well in my upcoming shows.

I hope you have time to do what you love today!

Karla

Artists In Residence

"After Cezanne"

My sister Rene'e and I had our monthly arts and crafts time with the residents of the local nursing home this morning.  We had a great time re-creating a painting by Cezanne.

I started off talking about "The Artist Eye" and how artists have to train themselves to see shapes and colors.    We then copied 6" X 6" squares of a cut up poster of Cezanne's Still Life: Fruit with Pot.  The idea of today's project, was to give each of them an abstract piece of the overall puzzle.  I didn't show them the original poster until we were done.  They used oil pastels on brown toned cardstock for this which worked well because the pastels are very soft and are easy for the residents to apply. The cardstock also had some "tooth" to it which grabbed the oil pastels.

They did a FANTASTIC job!!

I took it home, glued each 6 x 6 square down on foam core board and then dug out a frame and framed their work and took it back in to show them.  Everyone was impressed with what they had created together.   Hopefully the Activity Director will get permission to hang the finished piece.

The Original Cezanne

Really fun day!

On another note:

There is a really good tutorial by Jason Horejs that has been made into a free download for how to hang artwork.  Worth saving!

And one more thing!  Clinton Hobart has a FREE download for how to paint a small still life step by step.  Haven't read it yet myself.

Maggie Rose

Maggie Rose

8 X 10

Oil on Panel

This is my great-niece Maggie Rose.  She is beautiful just like her sisters.  I love doing portraits because of the challenge of getting a likeness.  As usually happens, I am several hours into the painting before it starts to come together - thus relieving my stress.  This photo was taken when she was unaware of my camera.  That is when I usually get the best pictures.  Below is the reference photo for this painting. 

Thanks for looking!

Add caption

Three Times a Charm Pear

"Three Times a Charm Pair"

It took me three tries to find a way to use the new panels that I made.  I had used a different primer that was not working well. (see previous post).  Finally, I found that giving them a thin coat of my painting medium works well. 

I have been reading about marketing this week.  I bought the book

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau.  It was very highly recommended.  It is a good book.  Lots of good ideas.  One of the tips was talking about Ittybiz a company started by Naomi .  She works with small businesses and talks in a no-nonsense way to give feedback.  Her blog articles which are free are very good.  Finally, I bought an ArtByte by Carol Marine over on DPW about marketing art on-line.  It was also very good and worth the $10.00 and led to me making my new header:

I think the thing I have taken away from all of my separate readings is to ask myself what am I really doing.  Am I serious about creating a business that is devoted #1 to making money?  A very good question indeed.

I also wrote my first press release and sent it to the local paper.  She immediately wrote back and asked me to send a picture of me standing by one of my paintings.  I realized that I have never taken a picture of me by one of my paintings.  Ha!  So I did.  You can see it on my About Me page which I also have updated.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Karla

Help For Oklahoma

The Potter  8 X 10 Oil on Panel

Bid Here

I have been so saddened by the devastation in Oklahoma.  The loss of life and an estimated 13,000 homes destroyed.  It is just so over-whelming.  I cannot image what these people are going through.

I have decided to try and do something to try and help - even if just a little.

I am offering the above painting at auction at Daily Paintworks with a starting bid of only $1.00.  All of the money made in the sale of the painting will go to help those in need.  I will also match dollar for dollar (up to $350.00) the highest bid on the painting.  All money will go to the Red Cross.

Blue Bird and Ivy Plant

6 X 6

Oil on Panel

I haven't posted for awhile so I thought an update was in order.

First off, I have painted this little blue bird before.  I just love how chubby he is.

 It still amazes me that when you actually check the colors of shadows, they are rarely as dark as you think they are.

Mother's Day at my house was awesome!  My middle son who lives in St Louis drove up for the day bringing along his bride-to-be and her three boys.  So I was blessed to see all of my kids and grandkids on the same day.  Yea!  The perfect Mother's Day gift.  Of course Tank loved all of the extra attention!

I have been busy getting ready for two summer shows coming up.  One thing I wanted to do was make nice labels for my paintings.  I was wanting ones like the ones I see in the museums.  After much trial and error ( and four types of glue) here is what I came up with.

It is printed vellum, using a large shipping label template, glued to a mat board square.  I still may build up the name tag by gluing on one or maybe two layers of foam core board.  I like the idea of them being more 3 dimensional.  I finally had to go with a spray glue called Loctite to get the vellum to stick to the mat board.  Worked great.  Cutting the mat boards was harder than I thought it would though.  I finally took them down to the shop and cut them with my table saw.  Worked great!!  I will stick them to my "walls" with clear mounting squares by Scotch.

Speaking of the table saw, I was running low on panels so I thought I would skip one step in my panel making process by tinting the primer with a "cardboard" colored tint.   The tinting worked fine, but I used a different brand of primer and I am not happy with the outcome.  The panels are dry and suck the oils immediately out of the paints.  I will have to "oil in" before I start each new painting.  Live and learn!

I broke down and bought some Rosemary brushes.  I have heard so many great comments about them.  Actually, they didn't work that great for me.  I think I will save the money and continue to buy the Monarch brand that I have bought in the past.  To each her own I guess!

Hope everyone is doing well, and able to spend some time doing what you love to do.

Karla