Cowboy and Indians, oil on canvas, 18 x 24
I have been so busy painting! I'm hoping I can get a few hours at the easel this morning before I have to pack my paintings for the Bosque Art Classic in Clifton, TX. I entered 4 paintings in the show and had all four accepted.
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?
5)
Cowboys and Indians, 20 x 24, oil on canvas
The next few posts will be about juried art shows. They can be expensive to enter and ship the work. Are they worth it?
Yes and No. It really depends are what you are expecting to get out of the show.
1) When you are first starting out it's a great way to get a resume. It's good to start with smaller shows and local shows to get your feet wet.
2) It gives you something to talk about. If you get into a show you can email your list of folks and tell them about it. You can email them again when the show opens. You can email them again to remind them the show is about to close. And of course you email them when you've won that award. NEVER tell folks in email, facebook, twitter, your blog etc that you've been rejected from a show. We all get rejected from time to time. But that's our little secret. We want folks to know about our success not out failures.
3)Think of the show as advertising. You may pay a $30 entry fee, and then another $50 to get the painting to the show and back again. $80 total.(more if it's a large painting and the show tacks on a "repacking" fee) But how much would you spend if you advertised in a magazine? A Lot more! If you get in the show it will be seen by folks that normally wouldn't see your work, in a part of the countrywhere you work isn't often seen. True, a magazine ad reaches more people but the folks that go to art shows are more likely to buy art now or in the future (that's my opinion)
4) You may win an award or sell the painting. I left this for last because I rarely sell at juried shows. I am more likely to win an award than to sell a painting. I think the reason is because the work accepted into shows is based on artist merit. The paintings people BUY are based on emotion.
What do you think?
