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Trying to see if my "Tweet This" works. Doesn't seem to

I've got the Blues or My Failure

Well, this painting isn't a failure yet but I'm putting it aside for awhile. Maybe for a long while.

I don't use a lot of blue in my paintings yet I seem to have about 20 tubes of blue paint, various brands and colors. But I just can't get the midtone blues right in this painting. When I try to lighten it up it's either too purple, too green or too gray. Don't know if it's me or if I need to buy yet another tube of blue paint. 

Frustrations in painting and Greeley Stampede Art

High Noon, 24 x 18, oil on canvas, at Greeley Stampede Western Art Show

The past week has been frustrating for me. If I don't get a full day of painting in I get cranky!

First, we've had to have work on the truck. Since a round trip into town is about 2 1/2 hours it took a big chunk out of the day when we had to drop off the truck. And since we drove all that way, we took advantage of the trip and did grocery shopping. The next day we showed up when the truck was suppose to be finished. Of course, it wasn't so we had to wait an additional hour.

Then the next evening, June 9th, I was going through my folder of upcoming shows and found a copy of the invitation to the Greeley Stampede Western Art Show. I had accepted their invitation in December but hadn't heard any more from them. I thought the opening was July 4th weekend. But on a closer look I found that the show started on June 24th and ended July 4th. PANIC!!! Emails were sent, phone calls were made. They hadn't received my acceptance letter! To make a long story short, I spent Thursday, boxing up 5 paintings (fortunately, I had set these paintings aside for the show) made arrangements for the FEDEX to meet me the next day(they don't come to my house) the paintings got shipped and hurray! the paintings arrived by the June 15th deadline!

Whew! I'm sequestered in my studio this week hoping to get some work done. And to top it off, I'm working on 4 (!) complicated paintings so I don't get the satisfaction of finishing a painting anytime soon. Ah, well. It sure beats having a "real" job!

Split Personality

Apples and Stripes, Oil on board, 9 x 12, currently at Atlanta Art Gallery

I've been painting American Indians forever. Maybe longer. I still enjoy painting them but lets face it, painting the same subject matter in the same style day after day can get tedious. And when that happens the paintings start looking tedious.

A few years ago I started painting still lifes which I have always loved. There is a myth in the art world that your customers will abandon you if you venture out beyond your (or their) comfort zone. To that end, I started a new website that just had my still lifes. I even considered painting under a different name. Here is what I learned.

1) I felt schizophrenic painting under two names so that was abandoned pretty quickly.

2) Painting still lifes got me into juried shows that I'd not been able to get into with my American Indians. I won awards.

3) The galleries I'm in only want my American Indians. That makes sense. They took me into the galleries because of my American Indian paintings.

4)Although my second website (http://www.fineartoils.com) has just still lifes, my original site (http://www.khenderson.com) has both subject matters. I also post both subject matters on Facebook and several other websites. It's just easier for me to do.

I have gotten into 2 galleries with my still life. They both know that I also paint western/American Indian. BUT while the western folks don't care that I paint contemporary still lifes I think that the Contemporary folks have a prejudice against western artists.

I'm now in the process of separating my 2 styles: A second  face book identity, new pages on websites where I post etc. I'm still painting under the name K. Henderson, but my New Self in some cases is KHenderson Fine Art.

My goal in doing this is to find Back East galleries for my still lifes, galleries that turn their noses up at western art.

I'd like to hear from those of you that paint in different styles. What has your experience been?

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