I was once in a little gallery in Avon, Ohio. That beautiful little space in a historic railroad station was the first place to give my work a chance. It was 2004. I had been painting in secret since January 1999 and had just had our first child. My husband was away for two weeks for work and I had almost a solid two weeks in the home alone with our one year old. That was back when people didn’t have cell phones with internet and it was so easy for me to get lost in a canvas.
That week I mustered up the stones to call that little gallery that I’d been admiring from afar and make an appointment to take some recent work in. Don’t you know they hung everything I brought in (thank you, Linda!)? I had three sales in one day shortly after and thought that perhaps there was a future, however humble, in my paint-slinging. Painting was a way to engage my brain but also to let go of things that new moms often struggle with. Namely, who am I without my former sexy job title and salary? And, how the heck does one become a great wife and mother when that was never in the plans for me? I just wasn’t sure that I was going to be any good at either. Luckily, I have a great fella and I figured out the mom thing (eventually) and now we are six. I am a blessed woman.
And so, painting is still where I often find some quiet, even if I’ve got loud music on. Tonight it was The Church, The Cure, Bo Diddley, The Kinks, and some Sia. She’s a little weirdo which is I suppose why I like her music.
Freehand sketching on a very large canvas is daunting in my opinion. There is always a chance that I will thoroughly booger-up a canvas (a nice one) and waste some really high quality paint (read: expensive) yet still end up with with something too awful to post. Honestly, creating something out of nothing is harder than it sounds.
Why did I bring up that little gallery in Avon, Ohio, you ask? Well, because one afternoon I was in there dropping off new work and there were two gals there critiquing my painting, not realizing that I was standing nearby, listening, huffing, puffing, and rather irritated.
“I could do that”, one of the gals said to the other, who wholly agreed.
“But you didn’t”, I thought to myself, smiling. A few weeks later, that piece sold for $850. It may has well have been a million dollars. I was over the moon.
The hardest part about art is not necessarily the execution. Anyone can copy someone else’s work. The hard part is the concept, the idea, the composition, the palette. There are so many components to a painting. Simple or complex, each work is an original idea that no one has ever thought of before that moment when the pencil or brush begins to form shapes and then fills them in with color. Just think of how long humans have been painting. An original idea is really hard to come up with. I think that is why original art is more expensive than a copy or mass produced art. Original art is something that no one else in the world has or will have.
So- here’s what I got down today. I started the fellow in my painting, the oysterman, harvesting by hand, before planing (not good for oyster environments) and tongs (used in deeper waters) were frequently used. You can see my sketch from 2014 in the left lower portion of the photo. The other set of legs on the wall are from our 17 year old. She and her sister (15) have already had paintings juried into national shows. I can’t believe how freely they create or how beautiful their work is! I’m a proud mama for sure.
Thank you for stopping by today and spending some time here with me. Peace and blessings to you and stay tuned for more progress on my Oysterman.