Happy New Year and what inspires your art?

Well an entire month slipped by...rushed by...and we're already into the end of Dec. 2013. Not sure how that happened but although I missed shouting out Merry Christmas here-it was definitely on my Facebook pages and newsletters!

The rush is over and now is when I regroup, rethink, plan and relax (as much as I am capable of!)
I gave Steve his Christmas present (and the same to me) to enhance our artist rejuvenation..trekking poles! Yep- hiking poles to get us out of the studio and onto the many trails in our area.

It's been in the 30's but the freezing rains and snows across the midwest missed us and went north.

So what do you do with a new backpack and trekking poles on Christmas evening and the following day? You hike :-)

It's a good place for an artist.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

See our ART STUDIO!

We are asked constantly about the perfect art studio. The post before this showcased a few photos and the addition of a new building adding another 240 square feet to our current 720. That does not included 2 spare bedrooms now used for office space, sewing, storage and library! :-) 
So the perfect studio is the one that will work for you. There is also the old saying (one of my father's favorites) "A place for everything and everything in its place!"
I opted to put a Board on Pinterest to continue to showcase or art studios and surroundings areas hoping it will inspire artists to use what they have. You can see it all and follow it here:
 http://www.pinterest.com/theresabrownart/our-art-studio/

LOTS of photos updated regularly...neat, messy, spring, summer, fall and winter....work with what you have. Don't let the lack of the "perfect studio" stop you from creating. Draw your inspiration from what you feel and see around you. We take regular "random driving" trips around our vicinity to snap photos, inhale the aroma of the seasons and in general-absorb your surroundings.

new studio coming along

See the rest of the story here: http://www.pinterest.com/theresabrownart/our-art-studio/

Adding a new art studio

We're happy with our art studio.  In fact artists are always telling us how much they love where we are.

Late afternoon in front of Art Studio

As our art expands into new and different directions..what was big enough for two artists with full time art careers begins to take on a life of its own!

It's hard not to be emotionally attached to something you built with your own hands. We salvaged much from a 1910 house, Habitat for Humanity, thrift and salvage stores and with the help of friends and family and much sweat and patience, the 24 x 30 art studio with its 10 ft. high ceilings eventually came into shape! 
We started out SO neat! But the reality of loading and unloading vans, equipment, art supplies
paintings and then storage. Oh my. Storage! We have a pull down attic that can accommodate a lot but only those items we are not using regularly.

We were so neat in the beginning!

They say photos are worth a thousand words so maybe it's easier to show you what I mean!

But a solution presented itself ...we actually fought it for awhile...thinking just one more thing to fill up but scroll down to see the newest addition to our art compound :-)

Salvaged cupboards-I wish I had 5 more!

No, it's not moonshine-just Steve's secret oil medium curing on the front porch railings!

Steve's work table

Working on a silk scarf and oil painting at the same time!

Positioning and offloading the new building.

The newest building was brought here from just down the road-a 12 x 20 vinyl covered, insulated and wired building for a great price...I mean, how could we not?  The previous owner had even wired the building for 220 voltage to accommodate her kiln!  Well we won't be doing any kiln work anytime soon and there is some serious cleaning, fixing and painting to do but I am looking forward to moving supplies from the big studio to the shelves in the smaller studio....and will keep you in the loop of my progress :-)   I just hope it makes a dent in the large one!

The Artist's Life and Motivation

June 15, 2013 Artist's Life Blog

An impressive early summer storm rolled across the country with towering, angry thunderheads and gale force winds and left as quickly as it arrived just a few days ago. We had battened down the hatches-the animals, house and art studio were as secure as we could make them and when the storm passed in a matter of less than an hour, the change in the atmosphere was palpable!  Cooler temperatures combined with low humidity felt as though we had walked into a summer morning in the mountains and today, I am enjoying that now from the front porch of my art studio.

Storm front over the Art Studio

I have discovered over the years that Humidity affects my ability to work. Low humidity is invigorating and high humidity is a strength zapper. My "to do"list grows in proportion to the humidity!  I have been rising early (before 6 am) as I like to do and enjoy my coffee on either the front porch of the house or the studio. On humid mornings, I skip it. On these stunning mornings, surrounded by 5 dogs flopped around me on the porch (they have to be fed first or I will have no peace!), I not only have sipped away my coffee but hoed the garden beds, fed the ponies and chickens, raked grass for the chickens, filled the bird feeders, walked the pasture checking on the readiness of the blackberry crop (huge!) and then taken up my post at the railing looking for that elusive indigo bunting.

The Morning Sun

All of this is a prelude to the work that I know I must start today-a large 24 x 36 pastel portrait of a charming little girl whom I photographed a month ago. Time to get cracking. Today is the first Saturday in awhile that we have not been at a show, art classes, delivering artwork or in general having to "be" somewhere.
The beauty of being self employed is that what I just recorded for this morning can be enjoyed on any day. And we do just that. Motivation is not just one illuminating moment. It is a series of steps to get to where the artist begins to work. Procrastination is only a problem when there is no reason to get something done-no urgency. For the self employed artist, whose every bill must be paid with the earnings of art sales, procrastination is a temporary condition. For many of those who have always dreamed of being an artist, it is a lifelong procrastination. But earning a living as an artist is not for every artist and the happiest, I have found, are those who know themselves well enough to make that choice and feel good about it!

A Child's Portrait as a Family Tradition

I love it when clients have a family history of portraiture and they come to me for a portrait to continue that tradition!  I know that a family portrait is valuable to them. They understand the emotional and long term appeal of capturing a moment forever in a way that a camera cannot! 
Often the earlier portraits have something in common-an expression, a pose, medium or a location. In this case, with the 16 x 20 pastel portrait of little Harper that I just completed, her expression and the fact that it was created in pastel, mimic the earlier portraits of her father, uncle and grandfather! How fun!

Recharging the creative side of your brain.

January-what a strange month! A new year, new beginnings and yet for us, it's a wind down from the frantic two months of November and December!
As professional artists, Steve and I tend to work, work, work when the orders and deadlines are there and when January comes, we continue on a roll until about the second week. Then it stops. Obviously the orders slow down and that's good :-) We have our bills handled through February so the pressures slackens a bit. And that is good as it is our "Recharging" time!

So what do we do? Do we attend art functions, concerts, art galleries, art groups in the city? No. We stay away from crowds and traffic and head further into the countryside where we can drive, stop and walk and absorb :-)
We live on the outskirts of Raleigh NC and several small towns in between on a mini farm along with 5 dogs, 2 ponies and a pygmy goat. The 4 kids are on their own now :-). So when in the past our "Adventuring" included them, now it's the two of us and that is fine....although I discovered that driving and exploring with kids makes adults get out of the car more frequently!
We always have a camera of some sort with us on these trips to recharge-our phones, our professional cameras....whatever,  but you never know when the light on a sycamore branch will catch your eye-or the setting of farm animals, the curve in a road or an old building. I decided just to add some of our traveling images from the other day below so you can see what I am chatting about-images for the brain and food for our creativity.From the many types of animals we meet to the surprises we find while walking the woods!

Boer goat mama and baby

cow

Belgian draft horses

Great Pyrenees herd guards

Lady Slipper

abandoned home

Amazing sunrises from our studio porch

The geometric curves of a plowed field

A hidden waterfall and pond off the beaten track

We do indeed take the road less traveled!

Sometimes you really do have to stop and get out of the car and see what small treasures await your discovery of them. Taking the time to really absorb what you are seeing is part of the intuitive nature of an artist. Make sure you make the time to recharge your visual needs!

Seattle and fish and babies......and art

Kennedy Hazel Boone

So here I am in Seattle Washington where my daughter gave birth to her first baby-little Kennedy Hazel Boone on Sept 9 at 7:30 am. 
Mom and baby are doing just fine after one of those dramatic ER c-sections that was not in the initial plans :-)

Actually I have been here since Aug 27, but baby Kennedy slipped on by her due date of Aug 30 and so I extended my stay in this beautiful area just east of Seattle.

Artists at their small stalls

Tempting local vegetables and flower sellers

One area I explored was an historic  place in Seattle long known as a market for fishermen and farmers and now including artists and musicians called Pike's Place.

In business since the turn of the century

The place was packed-seems it was also the location (and still is) of the original Starbucks-a big tourist draw.

me with the Needle behind me.

A visit to Seattle would not have been complete without a visit to the Space Needle.See it behind me? Yes, I did get much closer...we ate dinner there (a bit pricey) and while walking the perimeter of the observation tower later I looked below to see an artist painting a trompe l' oeil version of giant spiders!

So see? There is some art in today's blog :-).
I fly back to NC on Sept 17.
 
The life of an artist...never dull :-)

Etsy Thumbnails!