31 Days of Thanks Day 3 my years at Siena Heights

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us, our art, and our business throughout the years.

I started school at Siena Heights College in 1969.

Many professors at Siena influenced me. David Savage, Sr Jeannine Klemm, Father David VanHorn, Teng Beng Chew,  Sr Barbara Cervenka are the first to come to mind.

Before I start talking about each of them I have to say I had no idea that one day I would be married and be related to the president of the college, and have the same last name! Of course that happened more than 10 years after I started at Siena Heights. My husbands Aunt, Sr. Petronilla Francoeur, was the President of Siena when I started there and the Francoeur Theatre at Siena Heights is named in her honor.

Thinking about how the teachers I listed above influenced me -
 

David Savage

The things I remember most about David Savage are that he was very young, cute and cocky. He was doing wonderful graphic work and still does. The biggest influence from him was that yes you could make a living doing art. As I remember he didn't teach too long, he went on to a successful career in commercial art. 

Many teachers don't put that part into the equation. Yes you can be a fabulous artist but will you be able to support yourself from it if you don't teach? I knew early on that I am not a teacher - as I heard once - I am more a sponge than a fountain! So being able to sell my work was always something I kept in mind.


Sr Jeannine was probably the most influential of this group of teachers. She was the head of the art department and taught me drafting and calligraphy and gave me a lot of encouragement. At the time she was considered one of the finest calligraphers in the country.

I didn't mention that it took me almost 10 years to get my degree because I worked full time and went to school part time after the first year. The good thing about that is, as I went along I knew more where I was going with my work so chose classes accordingly, and I didn't owe anyone any money when I was finished. I paid my student loans as I went. I see it costs $30,000 a year to go there now.

I wasn't going to go to the graduation ceremony - my education had been so drawn out - but Sr Jeannine convinced me to go and she gave me a standing ovation as I walked down the isle. It meant a lot.

The drafting became so important because  I learned to draw and fell in love with architecture. And if you come into Carolina Creations you'll see that I sell a lot of my calligraphy which I have combined with my paintings. Sr Jeannine did many of the examples for the early speed ball calligraphy books.


Teng Beng Chew taught painting and printmaking. I'll have to say I was not good at painting at all and he didn't mince any words telling me so. But printmaking was another story. I loved that and ended up doing a lot of silk screen printing, wood block, linoleum block and other forms. These are the pieces I first started taking to art shows with my friend Frances. Those along with pencil drawings.

Teng Beng Chew

Sr Barbara Cervenka taught drawing. 
Again I wasn't that great at it but learned under her tutelage. 

 

Father VanHorn had a different kind of influence. He was brilliant. He taught art history but I learned more about being a kind and caring human being from him. He was a potter but was allergic to clay so you always knew when he had been doing his own work, he would loose his voice!

All in all I got a good education there - I wasn't the most talented artist by any means but I went on to do much more with my work than most of my class mates.

Thank you Siena Heights! BTW there is another artist here in town that went there too at the same time! Funny because my graduating class was only 100, small world.

- Jan Francoeur
Day 4 of 31 Days of Thanks will publish at 11 am est on November 17 and I'll write about doing art shows throughout Michigan and what I learned from the crowds that came through.

31 Days of Thanks Day 31 Michael

31 Days of Thanks Day 31

And last but not least  the support of my husband Michael has allowed me to concentrate on my art and growing our business. We have collaborated on a lot of things. He throws bowls that I decorate. He frames pictures that I paint.  He is the one that keeps everything running, he's always behind the scenes, while I get all the accolades.

The thing is, I could never do what I do without him.

Both of us grew up with mid-western values, working hard and supporting each other.

It's been a fun ride, we balance each other, bouncing ideas back and forth until we come up with a plan.

Looking forward to many more years and adventures together!

Thanks to all who have followed my 31 Days of Thanks! Our posts will continue with news about what we're doing, our artists, new work at Carolina Creations, view from the porch and so on.

- Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 2 Another teacher and artists inspired and shaped my future

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us, our art, and our business throughout the years.

My last post was about taking an art class at another school.

Right away after starting to take classes at the other High School I heard about an art teacher in yet another school who had an evening adult art class which I started attending. There I met a woman who would become my great friend and mentor for the next 20+ years.

First, that teacher was Tom Thiery.

Tom has taught at Lenawee Christian School since 2009. He currently teaches various art and multimedia classes. Prior to LCS, Tom taught at Adrian High School and Onsted High School for a total of 44 years.

He is a member and exhibitor at numerous state and national painting exhibits. Tom graduated from Moody Bible Institute, has a B.A. from Western Michigan University, and a M.A. in Fine Arts Education from Eastern Michigan University.

Tom is an excellent watercolorist. I didn't really go back to doing watercolors until we moved to North Carolina and my style is nothing like his or what he was trying to teach me, but he introduced me to the materials and most importantly to Frances who got me started taking my work to art shows early on.

He is also a great inspiration to his school students. Back in 1967 he decided that "there must be a better way to teach kids than just standing in a classroom." Along with a fellow teacher he took a group of students on a tour of Civil War battlegrounds. Other educational, historical and cultural trips followed and in 1968 Overlanders Association was founded with Thomas Theiry as president. Through the years they have taken trips all over the country, in a bus with Tom at the wheel. The costs were minimal to the students, Tom pays the rest with the money he makes from his paintings.

They do mission trips and trips to help after national disasters, he has touched so many lives, artists, collectors, children and their parents, and those they have helped, he touched mine too.

Frances and I went to dozens, of art shows together, maybe even a hundred, more about that in another post. Oh yes, the other lady in the class was the mother of the guy who eventually introduced me to my husband!

Thank you Tom Theiry for inspiring me to pursue art, to Frances for your great company, and Evelyn for Michael!

- Jan Francoeur      Day 3 of 31 Days of Thanks will publish at 11 am est on November 10 and I'll write about my years at Siena Heights and the professors and their works that gave me a foundation.

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us and our business throughout the years

I saw a blog post by one of our artists saying that every day for 31 days she would post about those who have contributed to her success. What a great idea - I'm going to do the same thing, reflecting upon what has contributed to our art  and our business. I was going to do it all in one month then decided that people would start thinking I was spamming them if I posted every day. So I've decided to intersperse my Days of Thanks in between my regular posts and do one each week for 35 weeks. And with Thanksgiving just around the corner I think this is a good time to start it.

My Days of Thanks posts will be published every Sunday for the next 31 Sundays.

It is really all about our journey and how we got to where we are with our lives and business!

Some of the people and things we'll be blogging about are

other artists who have influenced us
organizations
experiences
travel
words

and so on.

I'm kind of excited thinking about writing it!

It will also get me back on track on my blogging. We've have some issues that have been a distraction this year - some of the issues have been good - but they have kept me from writing as much as I had been. Sometimes I run out of things to talk about, other times I have a hundred ideas! So right now I'm working on 31 things and people I'm grateful for and how they influenced our work.

Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 18 The girls light houses running a gallery Bruce and customer inspired art

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us, our art, and our business throughout the years.

Going back to Carolina Creations on Middle Street, Jake eventually moved on and others moved in. We each had our own business but helped each other in the sales department so we could each have time off.

I remember that tiny space I worked out of and the amount of art I sold out of  it!  Michael was working for himself fixing boats but I was getting so busy I was either going to have to hire someone or  he needed to come work with me. We chose the latter. I thought "he'll never be fussy enough to cut a mat", not so, within a week he could cut a mat better than I and I had been doing it for years. He took over all the matting and framing and a variety of other jobs.

I really had no idea how to run a gallery - I had no experience in it - but learned fast - and learned I had a good head for business, both selling, buying, forecasting and advertising. I really had found my niche. Who would have guessed I would eventually have 6 employees?

Some of the art I've created through the years have come from ideas from my customers. I spoke about this in my last post, but here it is again.

Like my lighthouse series. People kept asking for them and I thought to myself "there are a million lighthouse pictures out there". But eventually drew all of the 7 NC lighthouses, did prints of them, and hand colored the prints. We still sell them. And we've sold a lot of them!

Just the other day a customer was buying one and said they are the best she had seen. Well I don't believe that but it was nice to hear. I told her there were so many I was reluctant to do them and she said no, they WERE really good and she was a collector. Nice. I always tell people when someone gives you a compliment on your blouse don't say "this old thing?" you should say "thank you very much." So thank you very much for the compliment on my lighthouses!

I did a series of small prints of birds, flowers, fruits and vegetables which I would hand color. People kept saying, "do you do tiles of these?"  No, at the time I did not, but more about that later.

I always had an inkling that I needed to be self employed but I never REALLY  proved I could be until our days on Middle Street. I really didn't like high school, other than my art class, I didn't like someone telling me what to do or at least how to do it. When I worked for the printer they would bring me one job at a time. Finally one day I said bring me a bunch at a time and they will all get done much faster. I always liked figuring out a faster or better way to do things.

I started getting some recognition around town and getting lots of commissions. Mostly house portraits.


One person who gave me some work was my friend Bruce, he's still my friend today,  Bruce had, and still has, a Ad Agency. He really gave me a lot of encouragement and still does.

So thank you Jake, Marilyn, Karen, Lou, Becky, Bruce and customers!

- Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 9 MJF and Aspen

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us, our art, and our business throughout the years.

I met and married my husband Michael. We were both hard workers and we both were ready to have an adventure. He accepted a job in Colorado and off we went. Right away I started getting involved with the arts in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Other than the Art Train I never really had my work in a gallery. I was in lots of shows but I was never really represented by a Gallery before the Prince of Peace Chapel. I was involved shortly after the gallery opened. They are still going almost 30 years later.

Tom Ward was and still is Co Chair of the Gallery there. He is also a very talented set designer. He was very encouraging to me about my work. At the gallery I always pitched in and helped with whatever needed to be done. I remember him saying "I wish the others were like you!" In other words I was no prima donna.

I was also represented by The Redstone Art Center, which was at that time owned by sculptor Eric Johnson and his wife Sherry. Eric is famous for his marble sculptures.

Shortly after we moved there I went to work for the Aspen Council for the Arts. This gave us access to many opportunities we never would have had. After leaving the Arts Council I joined the team at the Aspen Times and at first worked doing pasteup, then moved into typesetting. This was the beginning of pc's being used instead of typesetting machines. Working for a newspaper was so much different than working for a commercial printer. With the newspaper its here today and gone tomorrow. At Hamblin Co we might work on a job for several months.

Mary Eshbaugh Hayes was, and still is, writing for the Aspen Times, she was a mentor during my time there.


It was in Aspen that I started doing this more "flattened" style of drawing for certain things. This is a drawing I did for a wedding invitation. The wedding was held at the Wheeler Opera House, the large building in the background, the other buildings all had significance to the the couple, like the Historical Society, the Sardy House B and B, K's House and I don't remember what the other house was.

How I describe it is as if you are walking and stop in front of each building and look at it, rather than looking at the scene as a whole where you would see the buildings in 3 d.

This is a style I continued to use a lot once we moved to New Bern, which was also a precursor to the buildings I do on clay.

M and I were early on pc users. We got our first one with money we got for our wedding - it was a Kaypro and used CPM and 5 1/4" floppy discs! I just mention this is passing because like so many people computers and the internet play such a role in our lives today.

During the last year we were in Aspen I started drawing birds and adding color to just the bird - it was exciting to be doing something different.

We met a lot of interesting and influential people during our time in Aspen, most of whom I am not mentioning here. We learned a lot.

Thanks Aspen it was fun!

- Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 8 Drawing for Michigan and Lenswee County Historical Societies

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us, our art, and our business throughout the years.

Once I started using a Rapidograph I REALLY got into doing very detailed drawings. They lay down dense, even-flowing lines of controlled widths.

I became enthralled with anything that was complex to draw, including steam locomotives. I guess all the gears and intricate detail of them. Then I started riding them too and loved the sound and the history.

As I started visiting historic sites that had them in their collections I began noticing that the railroad depots that they were parked in front of had a particular "look" that I liked. That was the beginning of my love of drawing architecture.

I was contacted by the Lenawee County Historical Society, where my mother was a geneologist, and was asked if I would be interested in doing drawings for a calendar. So I did 12 drawings each year for many years, maybe 8 or 10, of historical buildings around the county. I got a lot of publicity, made some money and got a lot of exposure (in this case exposure was worth it - that's another story!). That was the start of doing commissions of peoples homes, which I still do to this day.

My railroad drawings caught the attention of the Michigan Historical Society and I did numerous drawings of railroad depots around the State for them, which are in their collection. And were featured in their magazine.

So thank you Lenawee County Historical Society and the Michigan Historical Society for supporting my work!

- Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 29 Always Learning

31 Days of Thanks Day 29

People often think that an artist does what they do and just learn on their own as they go along. Once in a while I'll take a class or buy a new "how to" art book. I've heard Michael say "I don't know why she's taking a class, she could teach it." You always learn something, and just like in the rest of our lives we need to keep improving, changing and learning.

I've talked about Mike Rooney and Ken Auster. Then there is Dan Nelson and Sally Sutton.

Dan is amazing and we've had him teach a couple workshops through Carolina Creations. Painting with two hands, never make an ugly mark, do your darks in transparents, your lights in opaque. Make 75% of your painting dark, 25% light.

I never take everything any one says and incorporate it 100%. Maybe just one thing adds to how I do something.

Last fall I decided I really wanted to get into oils, I've messed around with them, I've done some nice paintings but I don't do it enough to really come up with a style. That being said people say they can tell its my painting even though it's done in a different medium. Maybe style isn't the word, Maybe way of doing one is a better thing to say. Every time I start one its like starting from scratch, I need a road map, do this first, do this second, etc.

So my friend Sally Sutton (who has also done a couple workshops for us in my studio) was teaching an oil painting class at Craven CC last fall. I thought because it would go for several months it might really help me, and it did. A couple things I've incorporated into my way of doing things is to do the underpainting in the opposite of the local color, and use her painting medium.

The class gave me enough confidence to take on a big commission.

I'm doing 1 huge 48 x 60", and 2 smaller 24 x 48" oil paintings for a public building here in our downtown. I'll post photos of it in phases when I'm finished with it.

I'm about 1/2 way done with the giant one and 1/3 done with each of the smaller ones.  One thing I've learned already on these is how to paint a huge sky. Rather than just start on the canvas I prepared it by using my medium (or should I say Sally's!), adding a little bit of white and cover the sky area. Then go in with my sky color, wow, what a difference, so much faster and looser. I had a LOT of canvas to cover so this really helped a lot. Plus it helped it dry faster.

So from each artist you learn, from each painting you learn, you learn from hearing people talk about your paintings.

Same with running a gallery. Whenever we go to a show if educational seminars are offered we always go to them, even though we've been in business 24 years we always learn. We always say if we get just one thing out of it it's worth the time and money.

I'm not really much of a teacher, I don't really have the gift for it so this post is a huge thank you to all of the talented people who have been generous with their knowledge, contributing to making my art and Carolina Creations what it is today.

-Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 10 Shows and Western History Collection of the Denver Public Library

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us, our art, and our business throughout the years.

As I said in a previous post I loved drawing locomotives and railroad architecture. Living in Colorado I was in hog heaven.

We spent our summers exploring the railroads and depots of the state.

I came to love the vistas and the lack of "green" was ok too.

Through Michael working at Windstar I ended up meeting some folks working on sustainable agriculture, illustrated several books for them.

We lived up the valley from Glenwood Springs. This beautiful hotel is adjacent from the hot springs, we would go soak there. Our favorite time was Christmas Day. The ground would be covered with snow and we'd be soaking. The pools were huge.

Redstone Castle, about 50 miles from Aspen. Originally called Cleveholm Manor. In 1900,John Osgood became the 6th wealthiest man in America, making his fortune as a coal and steel pioneer in the West. Osgood developed the village of Redstone as a model company town, part of his sociological experiment implemented throughout his Colorado Fuel and Iron empire.

Monastery of St. Benedict, we lived just down the road for a while. It was a wonderful place to visit. The Maroon Bells are shown in the back ground.

The Hotel Jerome was a cowboy bar and flop house when we moved there in 1983. It was renovated and turned into a 5 star hotel while we were there.

Redstone Inn, near the Redstone Castle was our favorite place to go for Sunday Brunch even though it was 50 miles away!

Long story but this carousel was built for a park in Denver but now resides in eastern Colorado

Another view of the Hotel in Glenwood Springs

One of my favorite customers home.

My brochure, I called my studio Roaring Fork Renderings

One of the ski lodges in Aspen

Another Aspen House Portrait

I did shows in Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Beuna Vista, Grand Junction, Crested Butte, St. George, Denver, Black Hawk, Central City, Georgetown, Evergreen, Durango and more.

At one of the shows I met the director of the Western History Collection of the Denver Public library and he arranged to have six of my railroad drawing purchased for the permanent collection. I was thrilled,

This is a brief description of the collection -

The Library collects works of original art and other illustrative materials of historical and aesthetic interest. This comprehensive art collection includes work by master artists who have made important contributions to the study of the West. Rare and important works by Frederic Remington, Charles Russell, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran and Alfred Jacob Miller figure prominently in the collection. Prints include fine examples of George Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio, as well as engravings and lithographs by Karl Bodmer, James Otto Lewis and Charles Bird King.

I was doing more and more "house portraits" for people from across the country.

I had some hair rising experiences while going to shows in the mountains. Like wandering in the desert then ending up in St George at 5 pm on Easter Friday only to have my car stop. Fortunately the AAA guy said there was a shop that worked on Volkswagens and he was still there, $25 and new fuel pump and I was on my way in 15 minutes. These experiences were all in a 69 Volkswagen bus that could often be fixed with a bobby pin and a piece of gun, unlike of 2003 bus that when you open the hood you can't even SEE the engine.

Another time coming home from a show and having to cross Independence Pass (12,000 + feet) It started to snow. Now this is a skinny road with major drop offs, so is really scary. In fact this was early in our marriage and I insisted on driving if we went over the pass so I could be on the inside and not have to look down the steep drop off. It was the beginning of me doing most of the driving during our married life.   Well I came around one of those sharp blind turns and came to a car that was sidewise totally blocking the road. I got out and helped them get unstuck. I thought it was odd that the guy never answered me if I spoke to him. As we were getting back into our cars I heard the lady yelling at him, "you can't drive you can't see!"   -    great, I followed someone  who was deaf and blind driving down the rest of the dangerous pass. We were the last people over then they closed the pass. the drive around is at least 100 miles if you can't take the pass.

Another time coming home from Grand Junction the engine threw a piston. This was before cell phones and I was 50 miles from the next town. I had no choice but to sit wait. A guy stopped and picked me up, dangerous but what could I do?  It turned out ok but......


And another time going to a show in Crested Butte over Independence then Cottonwood pass I lost the clutch and had to make sure I stopped on a hill so I could keep going again.

Loved living there once we got used to it but once you got a couple miles out of town you were literally in the wilderness, alone, for miles and miles, no gas stations, even if we would have had cell phones I'm sure there would have been no service. It was quite an experience living there, I'll never forget it.

Thank you Denver Public Library and Aspen for welcoming me!

- Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 11 Journey

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us, our art, and our business throughout the years.

We loved our time in Aspen, had a great time, met a lot of people and were exposed to a lot of new things. But at that altitude you have 8 months of winter, 2 months of mud, and 2 months of summer. So one day we decided we'd had enough of winter so started looking for a new home.

We had the opportunity to take a little time off so spent a month driving from Aspen, to Scottsdale, San Antonio, Galveston, New Orleans, Florida Panhandle, then the Keys. We decided to spend the winter on Big Pine Key, just a few miles from where Michael proposed to me!

We were fortunate to fall in a with a group of folks that had been going to the keys every winter for years. They adopted us as family and became great supporters of my work. There is only one couple left from that group and we still keep in touch with them.

I now wish I was painting more when we were there, the flora and fauna are amazing as are the birds! It wasn't until we got to New Bern that I really started painting.

After talking to a lot of people we had decided that we would look for a new home in the Carolinas. It had to be on the water, have something for me to paint, be big enough we could make a living, but not too big, and it needed to be "on its way but hadn't gotten there yet."

A gentleman from Currituck,  said "You need to look at New Bern, it's just the kind of place you are looking for."

So we did.

We have been here in New Bern for 25 years now!

Thank you Fred from Currituck!

- Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 12 Our Arrival

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us, our art, and our business throughout the years.

So following the advice of Fred from Currituck we came to New Bern and it wasn't too long before we fell in love.

The people were so nice and it is such a beautiful city!

Within a few days Michael found a job. The the wife of the guy Michael went to work for took me under her wing and gave me an opportunity to show my work in her interior design shop.

After a few months of living in our motor home we purchased a boat and moved onto it.

The first drawing I did of New Bern was out the window of our boat at the Ramada (now Bridgepointe). The marina was new and we were the 2nd boat there!

I showed my work at the New Bern Craven County Library.

The pieces in that show were mostly ink drawings of birds with just the bird being in color. What happened is I had worked so long in black and white I didn't really know how to mix color. So this was a way I could start painting again.

Why paint now?

I remember driving to Colorado and thinking, everything is so brown. After a few years there I grew to love it but being in the Keys with all the beautiful flowers and water, I just wanted to paint. Just didn't remember how.

The other thing is we arrived in New Bern at the end of May, after the spring blooms were gone. The following spring I was totally blown away when the wisteria, azaelas, dogwood, etc started blooming. I had never seen anything like it - now I REALLY needed to start working in color again!!

Thank you Jeff and Jenny and New Bern-Craven County Library!

- Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 17 Art Shows throughout the area

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us, our art, and our business throughout the years.

Doing art shows throughout the area gave me a lot of recognition and exposure.

Some of the shows I did and pieces I sold through those shows are below.

Craven Arts Council and Gallery (several!)

North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort - that was a 2 person show I did with Ruth Heppler where I showed my ink and watercolor pieces.  I never intended to do the NC Lighthouses, there are SO MANY pieces of art and prints of them, but people kept coming into Carolina Creations asking for them. I finally gave in and am glad I did! I've sold quite a few prints of them. But the best part is that more than once I've told this story to people and they said, yes but there aren't any others like this, and so on. I am always thrilled when someone says something like that.

The Council for the Arts in Jacksonville

The Beaufort County Arts Council in Washington (several!)
At one of these I won best watercolor for this piece.

North Carolina Crafts Gallery in Carrboro (several!)

North Carolina Watercolor Society Show in Washington

Once Carolina Creations really took off I didn't have as much time to be running all over to shows so the past ten years I've done very few. It is also nice to have your own gallery where you can show your work since most galleries aren't interested in EVERYthing you do, just some parts of it, if you're an artist like me and work in many different mediums. Of course having your own gallery comes with a price, a mortgage or rent, employees, insurance, advertising, etc, not complaining "just sayin"!

In 2013 I did do the Home Coming Show at the Craven Arts Council with this piece.

One day when we retire from Carolina Creations, I'll probably go back to entering these shows. But that isn't going to happen (retiring) for a while!

Retirement for an artist is different than retirement for most people, we'll still do our artwork, we just won't be going to the office (gallery) every day!

It's been a fun ride.

- Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 15 Awards Chamber Downtown Business Council

31 Days of Thanks Insight into who has influenced us, our art, and our business throughout the years.

I was truly honored and surprised when I was nominated for and won the "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Betsy Bliss. These awards are given by the New Bern Area Chamber of Commerce and Craven Community College. Wow, this was a big deal for me. I had won awards before for my art work but not for business.


As I stated in a previous post I didn't realize I was born to be self employed until I was and I've excelled at it!! I don't really know where it came from, I guess most of it from my folks and their work ethic. Work hard, do what you say you will do, stay focused and keep moving forward.

About the same time I was awarded an Emerging Artists Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council.

The criteria for the grant

• Overall excellence of the applicant’s art work and demonstration of exceptional talent
• The applicant’s serious professional commitment to her/his art form
• Contribution of the proposed project to the artist’s professional development
• Feasibility of the proposed project

Not to complain but I have always thought that artists should make their own way. I feel if their work is unique and good enough they should be able to make money by selling it, not by being given money. That being said it was an honor to receive this award. I don't remember how much it was for, maybe $500, but it did give me a boost in my self confidence and made me think I was moving in the right direction with my work.

I got involved in the Chamber of Commerce, specifically the Downtown Business Council. That gave me the opportunity to interact with other businesses in town. And through the years this has been proven to be invaluable.

- Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 28 Working in Series

31 Days of Thanks Day 28 Working in Series

When we lived in Colorado I met Darlene Wilson, who painted dogs. She's the one that really got me started working in a series. It is wonderful for many reasons. You get an idea and one leads to the next. Also because I do prints of many of my paintings our customers will keep adding to their series!

Once we arrived in New Bern the logical thing to start a series of was our beautiful waterfront since architecture is my favorite thing to paint.

East Front Street

East Front Street and Gull Harbour

Union Point

 

Around New Bern was the first in my "Around" series.

 

And Around New Bern Too was the second

Which lead the Jones County Historical Society to ask me to do an Around Jones County.

I have done a lot of work for Camp Sea Gull and Camp Seafarer through the years so though I'd do Around Camp. This one took me about a year to figure out. I kept looking at the buildings, then one day it dawned on me that Camp isn't about the buildings its about the people and activities. Once I got that in my mind I was able to do it.

Other series I've done are my train series, herb tiles, New Bern ornaments and door paintings.

We've already talked about the lighthouse series, that one was a natural since we have 7 working lighthouses - so it consists of 7 pieces.


I talk about one piece leading to the next, the thing is I NEVER run out of ideas of things to paint, I only run out of time.

- Jan Francoeur

31 Days of Thanks Day 22 How we developed our pottery business

31 Days of Thanks Day 22  Always getting ideas from our customers

I started making hand made tiles, after so many requests from our customers. I started working with spacers and a rolling pin so they would be the right thickness.

I rolled hundreds of tiles.

Here is one of the drawings I did that prompted people to start asking for tiles.

 

I would cut these apart, hand color and frame them individually.

And here of some of the tiles I have done from the drawing inspirations.

I designed this throw for the Arts Council that they sold as a fund raiser, I used those drawings to start doing tiles of buildings in our town.

 

You can see how one thing just leads to another!

I do a lot of commissioned tiles of peoples homes and each year I do tiles of all the homes on the home tour.

I LOVE working with clay!  There is so much you can do with it, sculpture, tiles, dinnerware, vases, on and on.

Now all I need it more time.

It all started with a few comments from friends and customers. Thank you for your ideas and encouragement.

- Jan Francoeur