Mixed Media Artist - daily painter of portraits, flowers, abstracts and birds
Daisies and Roses
Available here
One of my wishes or hopes for 2017 was that time would slow down a little bit, instead of rushing by so fast. I can see by how quickly the days are passing, my wish won’t come true. We’re on day 7 of the challenge already, so soon. This is when things start to get more difficult..when one day runs into the next, and there’s barely time to breathe between blog posts. Or so it seems, anyway.
Red and greenery abstract floral painting
Available here
Day 6 of 30/30
For a slight change of pace, I am happy to use Pantone’s color of the year, greenery, in this painting. I don’t use a lot of green or blue in my work because I tend to gravitate toward warmer colors, but I do like this shade.
Available here
A goal should scare you a little, and excite you a lot. – Joe Vitale
When I first read this quote on Twitter, I thought, there’s really nothing to be scared about when doing this challenge. I didn’t think I could use the quote on my blog, and almost skipped over it. Then I had a sudden flashback to when I didn’t think my work was good enough to join in any group, not just the 30/30 challenge. I remember that not so good feeling in the pit of my stomach that would never go away. Fear was the reason I didn’t want to participate. Once I took a leap of faith, the scary feelings calmed down, and eventually went away. I am good enough, and so is my artwork. Same goes for you, and yours.
30/30 – day 3
Available here
30/30 – Day 2
I’ve been reflecting back over 2016, as we all have been the past couple days. My art biz was put through many trials over the year. Woo. What a roller coast ride it’s been with seemingly more downs than ups, for sure. A couple good things happened, but I had a ton of failures, and some hard lessons were learned.
Some things I intentionally brought on myself, knowing there was a high probability that I’d fall flat on my face, but I knew I had to try anyway. I’d give myself an A for effort, but I walked away with an F for failure in the end. I’m not sorry for the failures tho..you never know unless you try, and try I did. I give myself several gold stars for that. At least I didn’t sit my butt on the couch in front of Netflix all day, doing nothing.
Then, there were the unexpected things that happened, which I had no control over whatsoever. It created a whole lot of chaos for months on end, and extra work for me. It will take me another 6 months (at least) to get it sorted out.
2016 was a year that challenged me, and made me question my love for art on so many levels. I asked myself many times, wouldn’t it be easier to go get a job somewhere? The headache of owning my own business would be gone, and a steady paycheck that actually paid me for all the hours I work never looked so good.
2016 wasn’t the kindest it could have been, but I’m still here, still painting. I didn’t give up, and I kept showing up every day. I remember telling my husband on several occasions that the business wasn’t worth all the time and money I was sinking into it. I was done. And, as soon as I was finished bellyaching, I’d go back upstairs to my office, and get back to work..with tears still streaming down my face. For those times, I give myself a T for being tenacious, which surely trumps being a failure, yeah? 😉
I can’t say I’m sad to see 2016 go, but it makes me wonder what 2017 will bring. hm..I hope it’s gentler, more loving, and kinder to everyone who needs it to be, including me. Stay positive everyone! We’re all in this thing called life together.
The future is completely open and we are writing it moment to moment.
— Pema Chodron
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Today I’m doing the starving artist tag that I’ve seen going around the net. Feel free to answer these questions on your blog, too. I must say, this was fun. 🙂 I’m breaking this up into two posts because it got kinda long with 20 questions to answer, even though I tried to keep some of them short.
1. What’s your favorite experience as an artist?
When buyers write to me after they’ve received their art, and tell me inspiring stories about why they bought my artwork. Mostly this happens with my portraits because when you paint emotion, you often times get emotional responses in return. A few times a year, I receive these raw, intimate, in the moment type emails that I simply cherish. Some of their stories really touch me. It’s nice to have a special bond with people who are housing my heart and soul in their homes. It sets my mind at ease knowing I’ve shipped my artwork to a nice home, and it will be loved and cared for.
2. What’s your least favorite experience as an artist?
I’ve had a few bad experiences with commissioned work, and whole sale orders. I’ve been burned several times, once by a “good” friend. Each time it happened, it left me bitter and angry. I stopped taking commission for a couple years. Now that time has passed, I know I learned a lot from each incident. It certainly gave me a wake up call. It was time to start acting more professional. I knew I had to protect myself, and my business. Now I’m careful and extremely selective about the custom orders I accept. A deposit must be made before I’ll even consider picking up a brush or knife. If the deposit can’t be made, neither can the painting.
My girls always keep me in line.
“C’mon, Mom! Time for werk.”
3. What are your dreams/goals for your art?
I know most people dream of the day they can retire from their job, but my dream is to never retire from mine. Even if for some weird, unknown reason I stop selling my work somewhere down the road, I still want to make art for myself.
My most recent goal, which has nothing to do with my dream, is to use up all my 6×6 panels in the next year or two. Right now I envision each one as an oil portrait, but that might change later on down the road. Either way, it will be challenging because I have a little more than 300 panels sitting on my shelf. I don’t believe in setting goals unless they’re lofty. 😉
A photo posted by Katie Jeanne Wood (@artbykatiejeanne) on
4. Whats your favorite medium and why?
Currently, I’m obsessed with oil paints. It’s a fairly new love of mine. I’ve only been painting in oils for 3 or 4 years, and I haven’t taken it very seriously up to this point. Lately, tho, I feel a rush of excitement when I walk into my studio knowing I’m going to paint with oil. I’m in what I call the experimenting or “scientist stage”, which is always fun. I think I can easily stay at this stage for many years to come. Is it possible to know everything there is to know about oil paint? I don’t think so.
I definitely find it more challenging to paint with oils because of the fat over lean rule, and all the different mediums you can buy to work with the oils. I’ve been studying, and reading a lot of product reviews, and getting advice from other oil painters. I’m a bit overwhelmed. Every medium works differently in the oils, like Galkyd, which I’ll be trying for the first time this week. I’ve been using a similar fast drying medium, but wanted to give Galkyd a try because I’ve read many good things about it.
I’m also trying out a varnish, which you can use when your oil painting is touch dry. You don’t have to wait months to seal your painting or ship it off unsealed, which is what I’ve been doing. It’s called Gamvar. I’m so excited to try these, and will write a post about it soon.
A photo posted by Katie Jeanne Wood (@artbykatiejeanne) on
5. What inspired u to do art/why do u love it?
It began early for me. I remember back when I was 6 years old, I received a handmade bracelet, and necklace from some older twin girls on my school bus. I was so in awe of their talent, my love for handmade only grew from there.
Then a few years later, again on the bus, a girl named Patty asked if she could draw me. She was such a great little artist, so realistic! I still have the drawing on folded up notebook paper. It’s something I’ve treasured since I was probably 9 or 10 years old.
6. What’s the favorite piece you ever made and why its special?
I actually have two favorites, and I can’t choose which one I love more, so I’m posting both. The first one is Be Still, Child. It came from a vivid memory I started having of my Mom after she passed away. It’s a personal piece, which I kept for myself. It’s hanging right here above my desk. The girl in this painting looks like me when I was about 13, I think.
And, Oh Sweet Sunday – Annie and Her Horse. I just love the relation between these two. It’s similar to the love I feel for all my pets, so I really get these two. Annie lives in Germany now, and every time I see a photo of this painting, I miss it.
7. Who/what are your biggest art influences?
I have a few favorite artists..Duane Keiser who works in oils, and started the daily painting movement way back in the day, Karen Margulis who works in pastels, Carol Marine who paints still life and landscapes in oil, Shelby McQuilkin who paints abstract figures, Lisa Daria, who paints daily abstract florals in acrylic, Sarah Sedgwick, who paints still life and portraits in oil, Terry Miura – omgosh..I literally drool over his work. LOVE it! Then there’s Tom Birkner, Alex Kanevsky, France Jodoin, Kathy Jones, Robert Joyner. This list goes on and on..
8. What did you learn from being a full time artist?
I had no idea how much work it is to be an artist or how much time I’d have to spend in the studio and on the computer each week. I actually thought artists lead a pretty chill, lazy life. How hard could it be? You paint and then you sell it. haaaa!! I was a complete and utter fool. Reality is sooo different. My life is literally consumed with my business, and I have little time for anything else. My advice for anyone wanting to be an artist..get ready for some extremely long days of hard work.
a quick oil portrait in my art journal
9. What do your family&friends think about you being an artist?
I hid being an artist for many years from my family and friends. Art was something I held very close to me, and I didn’t want people interfering with my dream. My skin was extremely thin back then, and painting felt so vulnerable. If anyone close to me had criticized my work, I probably would have quit painting. So, outside of my household, my mom was the only person who knew I painted, and she wasn’t all that impressed with my work. haha!
Now, just about everyone knows what I do, I think. I’ve never asked them what they think because I’m at a stage in my career and life where I don’t care what anyone thinks. I gotta do me.
My husband tells me all the time that he doesn’t like this or that about a painting, and I’m completely fine with it. Chances are, I don’t like those things either, and I’ll agree with him. Sometimes, he tells me he flat out he doesn’t like this or that painting. Whatever, dude. I don’t take it personally. I welcome his advice because sometimes my paintings suck, and I’m okay being told that because clearly he’s only stating the obvious. haha!! Besides, if he said he loved every painting, how could I improve? It doesn’t hurt my feelings in the least. I’ve come a long way, baby, and I’m certainly not going to stop painting if someone doesn’t like my work. I detached my self from my work long ago.
pink and blue floral on the easel
10. Was becoming an artist your childhood dream? If not what is?
YES! When I was a small child, I had an epiphany, and actually envisioned myself painting when I was older. I was wearing a white flowing dress, and I was outside painting at an easel. The breeze was blowing my gown, and long hair around. ha! Cheesy, I know!! The weird part is I never pursued art until I was in my thirties, and it was then that I remembered my epiphany.
Okay, I’m stopping here. I’ll have the rest of the questions up later this week. Hope you enjoyed reading my answers so far. 🙂
Two weeks without a blog post, that’s has never happened before, has it? If you’ve been reading very long, I’m sure you can guess that my computer died on me yet AGAIN. Windows 10 updated itself, and left me with a black screen. I worked on it for more than a week, and I’m now patiently waiting for my new iMac to be made, and shipped.
#nomorewindoze I can’t take the unreliability anymore, and I’m tired of buying a new computer every 2 years, and then struggling to make it work the entire time. It’s time to try something new. They say you get what you pay for, so crossing fingers it’s true because woo..Macs are a bit pricey, especially when you start adding things, like more ram and hard drive space.
I’ll get back to posting more often when I get situated. It will probably take me a week or so to get everything set up after I receive it next week. In the meantime, I just realized I have a couple of fun posts already written, which I’ll be posting soon.
Thanks for stopping by!
Revised!
Never Hurts to Laugh
Available here
Small to large prints available here
Some artsy finds..
Neil Gaiman on why we read. If you’re like me, you’ll want to curl up with a book all afternoon after reading it.
This woman is busy painting happy clouds and trees from the Bob Ross show. She’s going through the entire series, and painting along with him. How cool is that?!
The yellow tiger illustrations by Amélie Fontaine remind me of my Harold.
This artist paints the faces of a broken justice system.
18 Smart Ways to Use Your Business Downtime
The truth about overworking your artwork.
What do you think? Can you overwork a painting?
I think you can, but Lisa doesn’t agree.
Here are more revised paintings I’ve been working on..
Troubled Mind
Available here
Small to large prints available here
I liked the mixed media collage, but it seemed a bit too much, so I toned it down. The dark background really makes the portrait pop, imo.
Revised – Floral No 85
Available here
There wasn’t anything wrong with this floral, except it was dark. I’m going for a lighter, brighter (pinker) look with my florals these days, so I changed it.
This one ended up looking nothing like the original, but I like it so much more now. I started out only changing the eyes, and it just escalated from there. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. Pretty much the only thing that stayed the same is the word “lesson” on her shirt. This painting is available for purchase here. Small to large prints are also available here.
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. -Lao Tzu
With all the revisions I’m making, soon I’m going to have a completely new portfolio. I can’t wait!! Not only will that mean I’ll be finished revising paintings, but I’m really happy with the changes I’ve been making.
Be willing to be a beginner every single morning. – Meister Eckhart
