Welcome to the Post-Holiday DASH!
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| At My Window, 11x14 |
There is a lull in art activities around the holiday, and
now in January activity starts to pick up again and we all are feeling
overwhelmed with the artbusy. Suddenly there are multiple shows, in town and
online. Do I have enough work? Do I have enough finished work? Am I ready? What
are the deadlines for show entry, dates of drop off, dates of show?
Planning and organization are important facets of being an
artist. Honestly, I am unsure of how some artists get by, they never remember
deadlines or drop off dates—these need to be on your calendar and set up as
reminders. You should track your art and where it has been displayed too. I keep
seeing the same art over and over in local shows when I know the artist is
working and creating new artwork. Please put some of that new art in the show,
your followers and I have seen the old stuff before.
So today I am planning to mark my calendar with upcoming show
deadlines. I still have a printed calendar, being visual it helps me to write
on it, retain it, and see it daily. I may also add deadlines to an online
calendar or my phone (reminders). Not only do I need to think about art deadlines,
I also start thinking about which artworks will go into the shows, much
planning needs to be done. It helps to know the shows too!
There are two favorite local art shows that I love. One is a
member show, and there I always put in a portrait as the show heavily features
landscapes and I want to stand out. The other is a figure show, and that is
competitive and well respected—that I try to get into with figurative work if I
can –that particular show is juried. Ok, so there are those two shows in
February and March. Then there is a juried show in March for my Detroit
Society of Women Painters. And my art group has a show the month of February.
And another local art association has a show in March. Plus my online national
art group is calling for entries into their Summer show, and I very much want
to apply to that. Well, it is all stacking up as you can tell! WOW! Hello ‘Feb
March Art Extravaganza’, can you hear that frantic fast music as I search my studio
for works to put into all these shows? Oh my, yes, this will take some planning
and strategy.
Dashing through the studio I go!
This show is unique for us in that we typically only show our portraits, as we are a portrait painting group. In this show, we will also showcase our landscapes. I have two portraits and two landscape paintings in the show which is exciting. I am especially excited about my Red and Green painting, a sweet little barn and tractor painting, 8x10. I just framed it last night, it looks so good! I should mention that all works will be for sale!
