My Arty Crafty Life RSS

Making a living as an artist is no mean feat. There is plenty of demand for people wanting pictures created of their beloved pets. A smaller fraction of people willing to pay the price you want to be paid for the use of your skills and your precious time spent creating their original and unique portrait created just for them and there is no denying that the pet portrait business can keep you in fairly decent paying work for most of the year. The problem I have is that all the time I am creating portraits of the paying customers...

The New Year brings us 12 new chapters and 365 new chances, just got to decide what to do with them!!! Last year I tried an idea from another artist to organise and make my artistic life more productive and hopefully achieve more and grow my business. This came in the form of a ‘Productivity Journal’. The artist I took the idea from just did a black and white pen drawn pages of lists, boxes, charts and info gathering pages to help organise her art business and make her more organised and encourage her to be more productive with her...

 So this week I have had a student from the local sixth form doing her work experience with me in the shop and studio in the name of doing my bit for the potential artists of the future. These kids are full of excitement and wonder and it is always a pleasure to take them through the ins and outs of being a self-employed artist and showing them just how diverse and open to challenges you have to be to make it in this game, as well as how much work you have to put in - long hours and...

 So here goes my first painting of 2022 and starting once more with a blank canvas. I have been doing lots of sketches and planning my artwork for the coming 12 months and lots of other creative things, but then once you have done all that and find yourself at the point where you really need to put pencil to paper, paintbrush to canvas or cutting tool to lino.  For me at this point there is period of what I call ‘Blank Canvas Syndrome’. I have a moment where I stare in complete bewilderment at the canvas I have placed...