Switching Gears

A couple posts ago I spoke about my friend Brenda Behr and I both working in different mediums.

I am very busy doing paintings for my upcoming show, An Artist paints New Bern - 20 Years.

For the show there will be watercolors, oils, acrylics and clay.

I'm really excited that I've done more paintings this year than I have in many years - why I haven't been painting is

- I run a very successful business that has 6 employees
- I do all the ads (I did this for a living for many years so can't give it up even though I would love to)
- I do the bookkeeping (I think one reason we've - Carolina Creations - managed to survive and thrive in this economy is that I keep very close track of what we spend
- we have developed a very successful clay business - Celebration Pottery - and I decorate the pieces which I love doing but it takes a lot of time
- I am in the gallery 3 days a week - because I also do most of the buying it's important to know what people are looking for and respond to
- I do most of the buying - because I know what good design is and watch what we spend (refer to #3) and I seem to be able to buy for our customers not just what I like - plus it's very exciting to search out and find new work and meet the artists.

Many of our artist friends that have galleries no longer create their own work. Michael and I are determined not to let that happen but it is a struggle every day - paint or do business.

In the past, as I've been trying to learn how to do oil or acrylic paintings I would go paint with an accomplished artist and come home and do one great painting with what I learned. Then I wouldn't do another for months and by that time I forgot everything I learned. This year I've scheduled 2 shows for myself, one is hanging at Carolina Creations right now and the next one I spoke about above opens the 2nd Friday of September during ArtWalk.

Anyway, what switching gears refers to is that I've got to do a lot of paintings before September!  Everything does not always go as planned. I started this painting as a watercolor and while I really liked the composition (which is what I am best at) the colors were boring from the start.

So this morning, with my deadline looming, I covered the drawing/watercolor with acrylic medium so I could still see the drawing, and I'm going to finish it as an acrylic!  If it turns out I'll post the finished piece here.

Wish me luck   -  Jan Francoeur