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A quick view of how I use watercolor and acrylic ink to create vibrant underpaintings for my pastel portraits.

After this dries I start applying the pastels.

This is the finished painting:

Getting ready for the annual holiday event at our studios I had a problem: how do I display my latest and largest pastel painting, Trust, without having to shell out hundreds of dollars in framing costs but keep it protected from the many visitors that will be strolling through? One swipe with a shoulder or purse (or a curious person actually touching it...yes, it has happened a couple of times and NOT by kids!) could be detrimental! My wonderful framer Jim at Museum Quality Framing in Camarillo, CA, came up with a great TEMPORARY solution: a clip frame! Since I usually place the glass directly on my finished work when framing, doing this was not a big issue for me. We did not use museum glass for this, though, but regular glass. While it did have some glare it looks worse in this photo than it does in person. I loved the contemporary frameless look and the piece drew lots of attention on the main wall of the display area of my studio. This painting is 36"x24" so framing it in my usual way with museum glass and a wood frame would have cost me hundreds of dollars. This cost me about $40! Yes, a client would have to replace this frame with a permanent one but this way they get to choose the perfect one for their environment. Caution would need to be taken when lifting the glass off the pastel to replace it, but as long as there is no sideways movement it should be just fine.  I paint on sanded paper and use a very light coating of fixative at the end so the pigment sticks to the paper very well and really does not adhere to the glass much. Now if I can only find a permanent way to frame pastels in such a sleek style! Anybody have any ideas, please leave a comment below!

Close up of the clips. There are two on each side.

The back of the frame. I used two nails in the wall to hold the string and balance the weight.

Recently, I started working with an art coach again. A few years ago I had enlisted the services of Renee Phillips,  the "Artrepreneur Coach" and founder of Manhattan Arts International as well as regular contributor to Professional Artist Magazine. She helped me focus and clarify my goals, gave advice about  my artist statement and website, made introductions and generally helped me step it up a notch. We are still in touch and I look forward to reading her columns, newsletters and online posts.

This time I wanted to work with someone familiar with the LA art market. Several of my studio mates have been working with Yoram Gil and highly recommended him. Yoram has been an artist, framer, gallery owner (in Beverly Hills, no less) and now a private art dealer with an international artist roster.

Art coaching services are not cheap but I consider them an investment in myself and making my work a priority. One of my goals is to find a market and exhibition venues for my non-commissioned work as I create series of paintings that are very personal  and meaningful to me. I wanted an honest un-biased opinion and Yoram does not hold back! He affirmed my assessment of what constitutes good work among my pieces and what needs to be put aside:) His personal studio visits also include advice on my display area, framing and hanging.

AND it includes homework! I had to pick several not-so-great paintings that I was ready to let go off...meaning that I was ready to destroy! Not an easy task but actually quite liberating as I have been wanting to clear out "old stuff" (which should always be referred to as “earlier work”) anyway. My assignment was to tear up a painting and collage it over another one in order to create a new piece. You can read more about this scary yet freeing exercise and see the result here.

I just had my second session with him and to say I'm excited about the future is an understatement. While he liked the abstract piece created from the exercise he LOVED my new series exploring the theme of walls (those imposed upon us by others and those we erect ourselves). As a native Berliner, this theme has always been running through my life but is also a universal one to which most people can relate. Going forward this is what I will be spending my time on in between paid commissions.

When I told him what my goal was for the series he said it was not large enough! I won’t go into details here yet , but I thought it was quite a lofty goal already!  He said I should aim much higher and he’ll help me do just that. I can’t tell you how wonderful it felt to have someone with his expertise tell me I was selling myself short! He has some amazing ideas and I will follow his advice even when it scares the hell out of me, because his vision is ultimately where I wanted to go all along but thought I was not yet ready. 

Part of his advice includes not showing any pieces of the new body of work until the whole series is ready to be unveiled in an exhibition and certainly not have any up for sale! So….I have taken the Berlin Wall paintings off my website for now and won’t be posting any new ones online anywhere until at least late next year. This made me want to hyperventilate! In part because I just entered them into a show (but have not heard yet if they’ll be accepted) but also because I worked so hard to create a presence on social media regularly posting new work. My postings will be restricted to portrait commissions and work not intended for the series and it will be very hard to keep the others a secret! I won’t even show them during Open Studios!  But I’m excited beyond words about the goals Yoram has for me and will trust his guidance. If all goes as planned 2015 could be a most terrific year!

So, are you thinking about hiring an art coach to propel you forward? Here are some things to consider.

Tips for working with an art coach:

• Do your research! There are a lot of people out there trying to make a buck off artists, knowing how desperate we are trying to make a living at what we love.
• Get references
• Google the coach (type in the name + feedback or +reviews)
• Interview him/her to be sure it's a good fit
• Know beforehand exactly what all of the fees are and what you will get for your money (is coaching done over the phone or in person? One on one or in groups? Does it include help with writing an artist statement or bio? Will he recommend suitable galleries? Does she have connections to gallerists, art consultants, designers and is willing to introduce you?)
• Once you have the right person, be sure to trust their guidance and follow their advice. You can always change course again later if you don't think it's right for you, but remember that you hired this coach for a reason. It reminds me of the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. If what you have done up to this point has not brought you the desired results , then try to let go of the reins for a while and let someone else show you another way.
• Do whatever homework, tasks or exercises the coach prescribes even if it is far removed from your usual work. Read about my homework of tearing up one painting and washing off another here.
• Have a list of questions and topics you want to address ready before each  meeting so you can use your time wisely.
• Make lots of notes during your sessions! Often we think we will no problem remembering something, but believe me you’ll be surprised how much you forgot when you re-read your notes later. I keep a separate sketchbook just for the coaching and my personal art goals and ideas. I browse through it regularly to keep me on track or make changes.
• Have thick skin! Artists have to be able to handle rejection and harsh criticism. DON’T take it personally, LEARN from it! This does not mean  their word is the final one, but a chance to consider what they’re saying.

Benefits of working with an art coach:

• A good art coach will help you define your goals and aspirations and the steps to achieve them.
• Honest feedback and constructive criticism. If your coach thinks you are reaching too high at your current ability level he will tell you and help you define more achievable intermediate goals  in the process of making progress towards your ultimate dreams.
• They don’t have to personally like the art you create! While it’s helpful if they are enthusiastic about your work they really just have to see the potential in it to realize your dreams.
• He will help you see yourself in a new light! We know what our family, friends  and clients think of our work, and we may even have artist peers who have given us critiques and pats on the back but the chance to have an outsider with extensive knowledge of the art business take a look with fresh eyes is invaluable. They may see something in you or your art that you never thought of.
• Feedback on your website, portfolio, marketing material, business cards, artists statement, etc.
• Branding. Since an art coach should be an outsider (not a friend of yours!) who is new to your art they will be able to give you their first impression of you and your work. Are you projecting the image you want? Does your art relay the intended message? Who is your target audience and are you reaching them?

If you have any personal experiences you’d like to share with us, please leave a comment below.

Working with a new art coach has been an amazing experience that is helping me to see myself and my work in a new light. You can read my tips about hiring an art coach and how it might benefit your art career in another blog post, but today I'd like to share with you one of the homework assignments from my coach:

I had to pick several not-so-great paintings that I was ready to let go off..meaning that I was ready to destroy! Not an easy task but actually quite liberating as I have been wanting to clear out "old stuff" (ahem..."early work") anyway. My assignment was to tear up a painting and collage it over another one in order to create a new one out of two old ones. BUT...the new one had to essentially have the same message or theme as the old one, except it had to be in a completely abstract style since my regular work is very representational.

Well, if you work in pastel you know what a mess this would create! I took the first painting, called Out of the Blue, outside and washed it off with a garden hose. Since it was painted on Wallis paper this was not a problem. The second painting New Mexico Fire was torn into shreds (yep, it got QUITE dusty!) and collaged on top of the first painting after that had dried.

The original Out of the Blue painting was hosed off

New Mexico Fire was torn to shreds

I actually quite liked this already but as I tried to add pastel on top of it the white edges of the torn paper did not accept any pastel, so I decided to cover the whole thing in acrylic ground for pastels:

I used a foam brush in a criss cross pattern to add the ground but I wish I had sprayed some fixative first in order to try to keep the colors from being diluted and blended so much. O, well, this was a chance to just play and experiment and I was having a blast not worrying about the outcome! I also at this point had to stretch the paper onto a board because it had buckled quite a bit. I wet the back of it after the front had dried and stapled it to a board, then let it dry completely which smoothed it out just fine.

Next step was adding new strokes of pastel. I let my intuition guide me, but knew that I wanted bright colors and a high "horizon" coming out of the dark blue mass toward the bottom:

Time to start adding some of those oranges and reds:

Further developing the painting:

I found myself a little stuck about how to proceed so I turned the piece sideways to check the composition, since a good composition has to work from all directions.

This is the finished piece. I wasn't quite sure if it was done but everybody who saw it (including my coach) said it was and in the end I agreed. I was worried that there was too much bright color and wanted to add some greys but I think the dark blue also dials it down a notch.

Out of the Blue II, 16x14" pastel collage

While this was a lot of fun to do with very little pressure (after all, what could I possibly mess up? The paintings were torn up already!) and I might do some more in the future, for now it's time to focus on the new body of work I'm creating and portrait commissions for the holidays. After the initial shock of destroying two paintings wore off it was a blast to just play and let go of the old! And to let go of any expectations of what would result:)

I'd love to hear if you've ever destroyed old paintings to make room for new ones!

As anyone who knows me will tell you, patience is definitely NOT one of my virtues! So when I found myself eager to get started on a painting but did not have paper in the size I needed I resorted to creating my own surface. I didn't want to compromise on the size I had in mind, so painting smaller with the paper I did have available was not an option. I had actually thought of making this image huge, but since this was a challenging subject already and made more difficult by the lack of my familiar sanded paper, I decided to not push the envelope too much and go with a size that was still comfortable. I had some 1/2" black gatorboard on hand, which I knew was thick enough to avoid buckling or warping when a wet underpainting was applied.

This is the gatorboard I used, size 28"x13"

I applied a layer of gesso on both sides using a cheap foam brush (adding it to the back of the board in addition to the front further ensures no buckling or warping).

You can see the texture of my brush strokes here. Two more layers were added to the front, letting each application dry and sanding it down to smooth out any ridges before applying the next layer.

I know it's hard to tell but this is what it looked like after 3 layers of gesso.

I then applied 3 layers of Golden acrylic ground for pastels, again using a foam brush and laying down the strokes in the general direction the water would eventually go. I let each layer dry before the next, sometimes using a hair dryer to speed it along (again, I am just not a patient person!) but did not sand it down because I needed the texture to hold the pastel pigments later.

Here the drawing is transferred and the underpainting is done. I used acrylic inks and watercolor for this step. You can also see the photo reference that had me so excited to get started even though I didn't have my regular materials on hand!

The first strokes of pastel are applied to the hair and face.

Here you can see very well the rough texture of the ground. While the watercolor in the background looks smooth, once you stroke the pastel on the board it becomes apparent just how much texture there is. Sometimes, I do like a lot of texture but didn't really want it for this piece, so I knew I would have to apply lots of pigment in order to cover it more.

A close-up of the foreground water with its initial layers of color. I later smoothed those out a bit by blending and added more highlights and darks as well.

The finished painting. Despite the challenges of unfamiliar ground (in the truest sense of the word!) I'm pretty happy with the result. It was much more difficult because the sanded paper I usually use (Wallis or UArt) holds many more layers of pastel than I was able to do here.

If you have experimented with substituting materials in a pinch, please share it with us in the comments below, thank you!

 I recently taught a pastel class as part of an "art sampler" class at the art center where I have my studio. The group of students took a different three hour class each Monday night for four weeks, rotating between teachers and mediums. The idea was to give them an introductory class while still allowing them to leave with a finished piece of art each evening. For me, this proved to be quite a challenge. To prepare I asked other artists who teach how they would approach this. One of the suggestions that I used was to have the drawing all done for each student so there would be no precious time spent on getting the drawing down correctly, but we could move right into applying pastel. The students were delighted and felt less nervous when they saw they didn't have to draw! After all, this was a class about how to paint with pastel, not a class on perspective or drawing skills. I also decided to have everyone work from the same photo reference, which is not what I usually do in my classes, but for this purpose it worked very well. All students except one had never used pastels before and had little to no experience in any other medium. It helped them to see how the others tackled the same exact subject.

In preparation, I photographed a very simple still life of two pears, one yellow green and one red (it was not practical to set up individual still lifes in the classroom). I chose this subject after seeing the colors of the starter set of pastels I had purchased (we had to supply all of the materials, so in order to save money I bought four sets of 12 pastels and cut them in half giving each student half sticks). I also liked pears because they are not symmetrical which would further calm students' fears of getting it perfect. Each student had a color and black and white photo attached to their easel as you can see in the photos. In my classes I spend a great deal of time teaching about values and edges using red and green value finders and black and white photos to make it easier to recognize correct values.

For this short class I also finished a painting of the pears beforehand and printed out the step by step instructions so the students could see exactly where we were headed. During the live demo I showed each step and had the students do it immediately after me before moving on to the next step. They told me this was extremely helpful because it broke things down into manageable steps they could easily follow.

Instead of finishing my demo piece completely I spent time at each person's easel helping them with theirs, either by lending an actual hand if desired or by gently guiding theirs.

We managed to finish on time and everybody was pleased with their creation and what is possible to do with pastels in such a short time.

I loved seeing the different styles and approaches even though we all worked on the same subject with the same medium. It was fun passing along my passion for pastels and taking the mystery and fear out of it. I believe at least a couple of the students will be taking other classes to continue exploring this beautiful and very forgiving medium.

Here are some photos from the class:

I set up each easel with a color and black and white photo of the still life, and some scrap pieces of Canson and sanded papers for the students to try strokes of pastel and test the different surfaces. The actual painting was done on Wallis sanded paper, my favorite surface. I also prepared a very simple contour drawing for each student to speed up the process with such a short time. I provided a handout of all the steps we would be completing so they knew exactly what was ahead and could repeat the steps at home with other paintings.

Step 1: Simple drawing in dark red pastel pencil

Step 2: Finding the values. I had the students do this step themselves, using the side of the pastel sticks to apply the value patterns in broad strokes

Step 3-4: Underpainting. Next we applied a layer of pastels in the local colors but exaggerating what we saw, then wetting it all with odorless turpenoid using old watercolor brushes (the sanded paper is hard on the brushes, so you would not want to use new ones). Unfortunately, I forgot to get a photo before the turpenoid was washed over it all.

Step 5: My finished painting, Pears I, 8 x 10"

These were the only colors we used: a 12 piece starter set plus I added the dark red and very light lemon yellow Nupastels . We never touched the brown and only used the black VERY sparingly in the darkest shadow areas making sure we overlayed it with color to give it some life.

Below are some photos of works in progress:

Judi working on her painting.                              I love all the colors Lori added to the background!

Diane was the only one who had used pastels before, but it had been eight years since she did!

Anita's painting on the left, and Nicole's piece on the right.

Rachel, like most of the others, had NEVER picked up a pastel stick before! I was amazed how well each student did. It was a great evening sharing what I love about this medium and the challenge of the class format was a great lesson to me as well.

If you teach art classes and have some other ideas on how to conduct a short class for beginners, please share it in the comments below:)

This was the second time I had the privilege to watch William Schneider at work on one of his gorgeous portraits, but the last one was many years ago back in Texas. He was very good then but has only gotten better and added a bunch more awards to his name since then, including the Prix de Pastel, the top honor of the 22nd IAPS Juried Exhibition with his portrait "Queen of Hearts". It's almost impossible to sum up all that he covered in his 3 hour demo in one blog post, but I'll give it a shot. Here are a few points and interesting tips in random order:

• Bill breaks everything down into only two values: light and  dark and treats midtones as light.
• Put detail ONLY in either the shadow or the light areas, never in both (if a subject is backlit the details would be in the shadow aresa, but otherwise they're usually in the light because that's where the viewer is drawn to).
• Make ACCURATE shadow shapes, but not PRECISE ones.
• Be painterly! One of his favorite quotes is: "Perfect is the enemy of good" (I can't remember who said it originally) and "Don't insult the viewer by spelling everything out", advice from C.W.Mundy. 
• He likes "broken tone" to keep it loose like seen in work by Nicolai Fechin and Carolyn Anderson.
• Bill advises to paint "across structures", not follow their lines, i.e.when painting an eyelid, don't make a sweeping sideways stroke but use vertical strokes instead.
• He studied under Harley Brown (this is evident especially in how he begins his work).
• The most important elements he looks for: shape, value, edges, color temperature and design.
• Create flat "poster like" shadow areas but soften their edges.
• Use color and temperature to turn form, especially on the sides of the nose (not lines!). You'll see this in the photos below.
• Make interesting shapes and strokes in the background, too, keeping good design and composition in mind.
• He wears a hat while painting even when indoors (he says it keeps him from hyperfocusing since SQUINTING is the usual mantra and also helps him to see color).
• Bill uses a 5000 Calvin lightbulb to light his models and often likes to use two light sources (if there is North light from a window for example he will use a warmer light to emphasize the cool and warm light patterns even more).
• Instead of the usual mirror that most of us use to check our work in progress from a different angle, he uses a piece of black plexi glass with the backing left on. He holds it up horizontally against his forhead just above his eyes and glances up into it (sorry, I tried to get a photo of this but he was always quicker than my camera!). This lets him see his painting not only in mirror image but also upside down and with the colors muted so seeing the correct values and shapes is much easier.
• To determine whether your light source is cool or warm (not always as easy as its sounds) he holds a piece of white paper into the light and it becomes much easier to see the temperature of the light (I had learned this trick long ago but forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder, Bill!).
• He never blows excess pastel dust off his paper but "thumps" the surface instead.
• To catch the falling pastel dust he folds newspaper under his paintings and secures it with tape (you can see this well in the first photo).
• He twists papertowel into a point to scrape off any unwanted pastel.

I had to write all these little pointers out first, before moving on to the actual painting demo, because Bill would sprinkle them throughout and I had tons of notes!

Ok, let's take a look at how he started the portrait using Wallis sanded paper in Belgian Mist:

Now, please be aware that the strokes of color were put down FIRST before any of the drawing marks were on the paper. Nothing was on the paper when he laid large strokes of the orange down first (warm tones since that was what he observed in the subject's face due to the warm light source), with greenish (cooler) tones in the shadow area of the neck and a bit of blue indicating the shirt and hat. This was ground into the paper pretty well using his hands, covered with a glove to prevent bleeding from the sanded paper:) Unlike some pastel artists, Bill does blend with his fingers especially for skin tones because the smooth look is more true to life. BUT he only does so in the beginning and rarely anywhere except the skin. 

Only after he laid down these colors did he start the drawing using charcoal. This was a very long process with extremely accurate measurements taken at all times. For a portrait Bill positions his easel only about three feet from the model and uses the sight size method (for those of you who don't know what that is click here to get a short tutorial, but basically it's where you see the artist holding out his brush or pencil at arm's length and measuring the distances between certain points on the model with his thumb then transferring that same measurement to the paper).

He started by finding the correct angle and center line of the face using a clock face as reference (i.e. the line starts at about 11:50). He first measured all vertical points: for example from the chin to the corner of the eyes, then top of the eybrows to the base of the nose as compared to the measurement of the base of the nose to the chin and base of nose to bottom of lower lip as compared to bottom of lower lip to chin, etc, etc.

Then he moves onto measuring the horizontal points compared to the vertical ones: how does the distance between the corner of the eyes compare to the distance between the chin to the base of the lip? What is the width of the eyes? Check the angle from the outer to the inner corners of the eye ( they are never straight across from each other!). He draws a plumbline from the inner corner of the eye down to determine the width of the nose. Interestingly, Bill squares up the lines of the face as much as possible at this stage, even using a brush edge to help him draw the jawline in a perfectly straight line, but at the correct angle. I knew this about painting apples or rocks for example, but had not really paid enough attention to it in portraiture.

Looking at Bill's finished paintings I was quite surprised how much time he took to take all the measurements and lay down their markings. His work has such a loose, painterly look to it, but it only shows how important good drawing is to make a great painting!

Once he was satisfied with the accuracy of his drawing (which was really only dots and suggestions of lines, not real features), he looked for the darkest dark, the lightest light and the sharpest edge and laid those in.

This allows him to compare all other values and edges to these extremes. Note that in the background Bill used blue as a complement to the orange skin tones and, using the Munsell Color Theory, added yellow/green and red/purple in equal amounts  on top. 

After almost being done and taking a break he promised he would add two little strokes that would make it all come alive and this was the result:

Could you tell what strokes they were? Yep, the highlight in the eyes (which by the way are not white, but light blue in this case. Always pay attention to the color and value of those highlights especially when eyes are shaded and may not even have any) and on the nose! You can also see in this picture how loose and suggestive Bill's strokes are and how he used a cooler color (two actually, purple and green) to turn the edge of Mike's nose on his right side and a warmer one on his left. There are no discernible lines for the eye lids, just strokes of color. Notice, too, where he softened the edges and left others sharper.

Here is the finished portrait of Mike:

I love that wonderful stroke of blue under the shirt collar, such strong mark making all around. The smudged edge on the underside of the right side of the hat (our left), the sharp line of the top edge of the brim leading us straight to the model's eyes, the patch of bright blue on the black hat. A seemingly simple portrait with so much to look at. A feast for the eyes!

If you'd like to take one of Bill's workshops yourself, check out his schedule on his website. I guarantee you will learn a lot!

One last note: I loved the fact that Bill took the pressure off that most of us feel (even he?) to produce a great painting every time we hit the studio or, God forbid, start thinking about doing demos ourselves by letting us know that not all of his attempts turn out well, either. In fact, he mentioned that the great and wonderful Richard Schmid, guru to many of us, has had unsuccessful demos! Who knew? If even HE can mess up, we can certainly allow ourselves to do just that. The only regret we should have is not painting enough to begin with. That said, enough long blog posts for a while. I have some painting to do!

I have loved the freshness of Margaret Dyer's work for years and was so excited to see her demo at the recent IAPS convention in Albuquerque! The topic was "Painting the Figure from Photos", so first off I'd like to talk about that controversial subject of painting from photos. I was very glad to hear Margaret echo some of my own sentiments. After many years of her working from life she switched to using photo references to add more life into her paintings of figures. So often when you see portraits or figures done from life they tend to look similar due to the constraints this method puts upon the model (having to hold a pose for a long time). Personally, I LOVE painting lots of emotion, laughter, joy, exuberance, even goofy faces, especially in my children's portraits. Those emotions cannot be sustained over long  hours of sitting! So often artists are made to feel guilty if we work from photos, but we need to be true to our own vision of what we want to create. That being said, please, notice that I said that Margaret has years of working from the live model under her belt and that makes all the difference. If you start out only working from photos it will always be a hinderance and a crutch. Even as a young child I started drawing my siblings from life as they watched TV and I have continued life drawing classes over the years or just practiced it at home using my daughters as models (when they were little I waited until they were sleeping) or drawing myself in the mirror during my many, many hotel stays. Most of those sketches do not end up framed and that's ok. It's a practice that must be kept up no matter the end result.

Experience drawing from life will help you correct the mistakes the photos inevitably hold. Values, colors, edges, all tend to be wrong in photos and only regular obersavtion from life will let you fix those in your painting.

But photos do let you capture poses and spontaneous moments that live sittings do not and like Margaret I thoroughly enjoy taking advantage of that. And like me she is not a great photographer but knows that she can work from slightly blurred, imperfect photos. It is NOT about perfectly copying a photo but using it as a reference to create a dynamic painting which she pulls off successfully time after time.

One more event that helped Margaret make the switch to photos without guilt was seeing a Degas exhibit in NYC which showed his paintings next to the black and white photo references! Who knew that even Degas' famous bathers were done using a photo reference?

We started the demo by following Margaret and her model Norah around the hotel lobby where the convention was held and out into the gardens. Margaret had Norah move continoulsy instead of holding a pose, but at a very slow pace. She asked her to move in a full circle and had her doing things like fix her hair, set a table with water glasses, carry a tray or fold large swaths of fabric. I loved this last idea especially because by doing those motions of holding up the fabric, simply folding it and laying it on the table beside her the model was giving us many different poses with her body, hands, arms, head and neck postures. She would stand or sit to fold, the fabric would flow, the light would be caught shining through the fabric and highlighting different parts of the model. Neither the model nor the artist had to think about what pose to assume next, she simply performed her task in a very slow, circular fashion. Already having had a photo shoot on my mind with a particular model I am very excited to have learned these seemingly simple tricks of the trade! I don't have to have all of the poses in mind before getting started, but I can let it develop organically as the model moves around comfortably. That may seem like a "duh" moment to many of you but was an "aha" moment for me. It must be the control freak in me that thought I had to have all the answers beforehand:)

Margaret shot about 230 photos in about 20 minutes (by the way, we were all allowed to take our own photos of the model as long as we tipped her, so I expect to see many of these as finished paintings posted on Facebook!) and then explained her process of choosing ones to paint from. Typically she might pick about 10-15 out of the lot. The selection process was not about finding the perfect ones with everything in focus, but rather the artist looks for the light and dark patterns (light, middle and dark values) throughout the picture including the background, under a chair, etc. To help you see it she reiterated the same mantra we have all heard for years, but still always need a reminder to do: SQUINT, SQUINT, SQUINT! It blocks out all the unneccassry details and shows you only what's truly important. So, as you choose a photo ask yourself: Do the patterns make a compelling composition? Does it give you that immediate emotional response? When the whole class went :"OOOOHHHH!" at one such picture Margaret had her reference to work from!

She projected the photo onto the wall next to her easel and began the drawing with compressed charcoal, very, very loosely, with large gestural strokes all across the paper which was of a middle value. She emphasized drawing the figure UNDERNEATH the clothing, not just the outlines of the clothes! The first lines are done with a light touch, the refinement of the drawing with heavier strokes.

She has a 7 step process she always adheres to:

1. Drawing

2. Find the lighting

3. Black

4. Darks

5. Lights

6. Middle Tones

7. Punctuation

To find the lighting she looks for the shadows all over, not just the figure, but the background as well, outlines them and then fills them in using a value just a little darker than the middle tone paper. Any color can be used, only value matters!

I apologize for the bad color and light in my photos, but I hope you get the idea.

Next is black, yes, true black! She uses that as her darkest dark and lays it in which then allows her to compare all of the other darks to this one and therefore get the correct values. Then she finds her other dark values:

She starts each with any color she likes and as she works will overlay that with the oppsoing temperature so that each value area sings with a variety of color. She maintains that you cannot make the dreaded mud by overlaying warms and cools and vice versa as long as they are of the same value. In the picture below you can see where she added browns to her first layers of blue greens and it works because they are of the same value (if you squint they disappear into each other).

She dances back and forth building her darks until they are saturated and vibrate with color. Margaret actually prefers using a landscape set of pastels in her figures rather than a portrait set to get more vibrant blues and greens. These unusual color combinations is what set her work apart from more traditional figure paintings. This woman is NOT afraid of color which is why I wanted to learn from her!

Next up were the lights for which she used a lovely grey/green overlaid later with a warm lavender, then yellow, back to blue and warm it up again with a pink. All of those colors end up being of the perfect value and "reading" like flesh tones. They mix visually on the paper since Margaret never blends with her fingers.

On to the middle values, where she started with bright orange, toned down with green. She advises to use the middle tones to transition from darks to lights (for instance on the arm from light to shadow) and used such colors as lavender, lime green and orange. She also uses middle tones to turn edges. The only time she mixes values is where there is reflected light (for example on the underside of the arms).

Here is the finished painting with a close up showing her dynamic mark making:

Again, please forgive the awful lighting and incorrect colors. A better idea of the colors are at the top of this post. I have a lot to learn about my camera and taking photos in dim lighting!

There is so much more I learned from Margaret but wanted to whet your appetite here. I highly recommend taking a workshop from her, which I intend to do in the future. She is funny, easy going and entertaining. Check out her workshop schedule here.

I was too worn out each evening of the convention of the International Association of Pastel Societies to write a blog post about my impressions and the many things I learned, but I do want to share them with you. Since it would be too long to include everything into one post, I will break it up into smaller more easily digestible bits.

 First of all, I'd like to make a comment about the juror of awards for the 22nd Juried Exhibition Fred Somers (Terri Ford juried the Master Circle Show). This genuinely nice man and incredibly talented artist was the best juror I have ever seen! The awards ceremony took quite a bit of time because he made personal comments about each and every winning painting. And not just a few words, either. He explained why he chose to give an award to a piece, teaching all of us something in the process, and even told personal stories behind his decisions. The winning artists were beaming and rightly so. Every artist I know would have loved to hear the juror rave about their work the way Fred did! And he did it in person, live at the event. What a gentleman and inspiration.

The second day artist Duane Wakeham conducted a tour through both exhibits pointing out even more things to look for in great art and what artists should strive for in ceating it. Here are a few pointers I learned from Duane:

• Definition of a landscape: an arrangement of colors and shapes that represent a scene in a landscape (so always keep design and composition in mind).
• Make every square inch of the painting interesting by variations of color and strokes but without distracting from the focal area.
• Color has to keep its place in space. Pay attention to where you place a color. Does it make sense to be intense if it's in the background? Should it be warm or cool?
• The painting has to make sense to the viewer who may not be familiar with the scene or sees your reference photo. The piece has to have its own reality. Just because something was in the scene when you saw it, leave it out if it does not make sense to a viewer who has never been there.
• Don't just paint a picture, CREATE A PAINTING, make it YOUR interpretation, change things around, don't just copy nature.

With those points in mind Duane pointed out a few of his favorite pieces in the shows, sometimes contrasting two paintings of similar scenes but handled completely differently. For instance, comparing Marsha Savage's "Water Oak" (left) with Jane McGraw-Teubner's "The Mystical Tree" (right): they are both essentially paintings of a tree with a green/red color dominance, yet were interpreted completely differently by each artist.

Duane especially loved paintings with strong color (like Jennifer Evenhus' "Summer Pasture"):

and a confident hand, meaning paintings where the strokes were laid down and left alone, not overworked, where the artist added spots of color in just the right places.

He pointed out strong composition and emotional content, like Diane Rappisi's award-winning self-portrait "Time" (to which I related on a very personal level because Diane tackled the subject of making major life changes as we age and our children leave the nest):

Duane's talk lasted over an hour so there is no way I can show all of the wonderful art he selected for special attention here, so please forgive me for not doing so.

I will also not list all of the award winners here because you can look them up yourself on the IAPS website as soon as it is updated.

However, I would like to share one more thing I learned from the Gold Medal Winner Christine Swann. Her painting "Cold" of her son blew me away the first time I ever saw it on Facebook and was even better viewed in person (as mentioned in my previous post).

I could not figure out how she got such intensely bright highlights in his hair and shoulders, let alone those backlit red orange ears! On the second day I had the chance to chat with her and  Christine was kind enough to share her tip with me and others: she underpaints with concentrated watercolor dyes! My efforts at producing such intense brights always fell a little short using regular watercolor or even leaving the white of the paper and laying pastel on top hoping it would glow. I didn't know anything about such dyes and immediately went out and bought some when I got home. I cannot wait to try them out!

All in all, those two exhibitions at the convention left me humbled but oh, so inspired to get back to my studio and keep practicing my craft, because practice is what artists actually do, because we always consider ourselves to still be students, eager to learn more, to stretch beyond what we already know, to reach new heights and keep improving our skills. Conventions like the IAPS 2013 inspire us to do just that.

In my next post, I'll share with you what I learned in Margaret Dyer's demo about painting the figure in a much looser way than I'm used to.

I'm learning so much from this 30 Marketing Ideas in 30 Days by Leslie Saeta! Today's task was to create a collage of our images. I have always loved seeing these by other artists but not being the most computer savvy those cool poster type designs scared the heck out of me  (I have been known to burst into tears after hours of working on my laptop only to lose it all with a click of the wrong button, have used more curse words any mother ever should within earshot of her children, and sent pleading prayers up into the heavens just to get things uploaded and printed the way I imagine them!). Thank you, Leslie, for pointing me in the direction of ipiccy.com!! Even though this challenge took more than the 30 minutes she promised and was accompanied by my usual re-starts, it WAS pretty easy to do and I'm very happy with the results. I now have an image to upload to vistaprint.com and can print this collage onto posters to hang in my studio windows, make notebooks or any of the other million things you can use for marketing. I will also make collages of other series of paintings, such as my surfers, which I will be exhibiting in a solo show soon. I hope this inspires some of you to give it a shot, too!

Since moving out to California this past summer, I have been spending a lot more time painting "en plein air", a French term for painting outside on location. Tomorrow I have the great luxury of spending an entire weekend at a paint out/retreat sponsored by the California Art Club at the San Antonio de Padua Mission in Monterey County, CA. There will be about 50 other artists there and all meals are provided. All we have to do is wake up, show up at breakfast, take the packed lunch with us, go paint all day, head back for dinner and relax. Now that's heaven on earth!

So, why is painting en plein air such a big deal? No matter what an artist's subject matter or style, painting from life is vitally important to one's artistic growth because it hones our observational skills like nothing else will. It also adds a few more challenges to the painting process such as weather, bugs, time constraints (the light will change drastically in an hour or two depending on the time of day) and the distraction of curious onlookers not to mention the overwhelming smorgasbord of subject matter! I will address those difficulties of plein air painting in another post but wanted to share with you today some tips on the practical issues, especially for pastellists.

After several different set-ups and lots of trial and error I have come up with a pretty compact set up which all fits into one backpack so I can hike a bit to my chosen location. Having said that, the weight of the pack does make it a little more difficult to hike too far in, but until someone comes up with a great plastic painting box, I don't see it getting any better any time soon.

My current set up was purchased second hand from another artist for a great price. You can see all of my items laid out in this photo:

Top Row:

- Wallis sanded paper in a two ring binder from Dakota Art. Each page is separated by glassine, so you can leave the finished pieces right where they are. LOVE this!

- small scraps of Wallis paper that I tape next to my painting to test out colors before applying them to the painting surface

- view- and value finder (notice the view holes have convenient different dimensions)

- homemade viewfinder consisting of two separate L-shaped pieces of matboard (adjustable to any format you want)

I also forgot to add my camera to this picture which is my most used viewfinder. I find my composition with it and then look at the image on the screen. The small size tells me immediately if I like the composition and design of values and where I might want to make adjustments. If it looks interesting on that tiny screen it will make an interesting painting, no matter what the finished size will be.

- an old compact mirror. No, not for vanity reasons! I always check my work in a mirror whether in a big one in the studio or this one outdoors (I use both mirrors in the studio and ALWAYS catch inaccuracies)

Middle Row:

- sketchbook (two mechanical pencils are hooked into the rings on the side)

-paper towels (once a full roll in the kitchen or studio gets about two thirds finished, it goes into my backpack, so there is never a full roll taking up a bunch of space)

- trash bag (always leave a place the way you found it!)

- Wet wipes

- "Gloves in a bottle", a barrier cream to keep the pigments from being absorbed into the skin and making clean up later much easier

- Sunscreen

You might also want to add bug spray, but out here I've been fortunate enough not to need it, unlike in Texas!

- this is a little plastic tray that holds the pastels I pick out from the whole assortment and use for a particular painting

- scissors

- bungee cord (in case I need to fasten things down in a wind, hook my water bottle onto something, etc.)

- butterfly clips (to hold loose papers together, especially finished paintings)

- masking tape (to tape down the paper)

- tiny container which I fill with water from my drinking bottle to use for the watercolor underpainting I usually do

- small watercolor set

- pencil box with pencils, two brushes, kneaded eraser, conte crayons for sketching

Bottom Row:

- A variety of papers. Some are already taped to foamcore backings and can be put straight onto the easel box like a canvas, others are loose and I will tape them to the back of the Open Box M instead of holding them in place with the holders that are part of the box. Most are very small and square (I love that format), but I also have panoramic and rectangle formats. I choose the paper depending on the scene and know that I can always change it by taping off an area to create a different size. I'm trying my darndest to use standard sizes to make it easier for framing and selling, but sometimes I just don't plan well enough in advance. This bundle also has glassine or wax paper that I put in between finished paintings. Clipped together like this with the butterfly clips there is no movement and the pastels are just fine put back into the backpack.

- Open Box M. I have tried several other boxes and set ups for pastels but LOVE this one! It attaches easily onto a camera tripod and sets up in minutes. One side of the box holds the pastels (which I secure with a thin sheet of foam on top before closing it up), the other folds up and becomes the backing to which I secure the paper.

- bag that holds my camera tripod and umbrella

Not pictured:

- Camera

- water bottle (a trick I learned from my tri athlete boyfriend: tape a foot or two of duct tape around the middle of the water bottle. Not only does it make it easier to grip but in an emergency duct tape can come in handy for just about anything!)

- snack or lunch (I can't focus and am not much fun to be around when my blood sugar gets low so I always carry along some Mojo Energy bars)

Here is how it all looks nice and tidy in the backpack:

I do have trouble closing the very top of the pack because the painting box is square and backpacks narrow at the top. I keep looking everywhere but have yet to find a backpack that stays the same width on top as on the bottom without being huge! If you come across one, PLEASE let me know! I also need to buy some extenders to the fasteners that hold the tripod bag so I don't have to strain quite as much to get it closed. A trip to REI should solve that.

On the photo at top you can see what it looks like when I'm all set up. Notice the bag between the tripod legs. I will put my water bottle or some rocks into it to weigh it down and make it more stable and secure. Or if it's not windy at all, I'll rest my camera in it. You can also see my paper towels (I wipe each pastel on it as I use them), the little tray that holds my chosen colors (this happens to be a different one from the other picture) and the scrap paper taped to the side of my painting with the pastel test marks.

In case you're curious, I was painting at McWay Falls, in Big Sur, CA, in this photo.

I hope these tips might help someone else get going on plein air painting. Even with pastels, it does NOT require lugging around a whole bunch of paraphernalia to paint outdoors. The magic word of course is: simplify! Figure out in the studio what you actually REALLY need to create a painting, whittle it down to the essentials, pack smaller versions of those and head to the hills! Or mountains or beaches or city centers...

Now, that that's out of the way, I'll tackle the MUCH tougher subject of actually painting on location next time! I'm still working on figuring that out myself...Plus, I'll tell you all about the retreat, so stay tuned!

Sometimes you have to think beyond the obvious and try something new, especially when it comes to getting your art out into the world. Exposure is everything and you never know where it may lead one day. All you can do as an artist, is keep creating the work and keep putting it out there for as many people to see it as possible. That in itself takes some people a long time to get comfortable with, I know it did me.

But if you're past the point of hiding in your studio, stashing your work in a closet and have built up a thick skin to handle rejection, start thinking of every and all opportunities where you can exhibit your paintings. While it's great to be represented by the top gallery of your choice, that is now even harder to achieve than ever as galleries are struggling like everyone else in this economy. And stay away from opportunities that cost YOU a bunch of money upfront! No serious collectors respect vanity galleries (different from co-ops) and it will hurt your career in the long run.

Instead, start brainstorming! And that means you write down EVERYTHING that comes to mind, no censoring at all, no matter how silly it may seem. You will weed out the bad ideas later. Think of who your market is and where to find those clients. 

Here are just some ideas:

• Negotiate with owners of empty stores to display art in their windows 
• Put on an exhibit at your local animal shelter or pet store (you can earmark part of the proceeds to the shelter)
• Libraries
• Coffeeshops and restaurants (Be careful, though. Ask them to display a bio and price list and make your contact info readily available to their customers. Too many of these places use art to get free decoration and do nothing to promote it. One way to get them onboard is to offer a small commission to the wait staff if a client referral results in a sale)
• Doctor's offices and hospitals
• Your child's dance academy or karate school
• Your accountant's office and other local businesses (many appreciate the rotating exhibits and often will let you host a reception)
• local TV stations

 I recently had the good fortune to be referred to the local government TV station in my new town. They support the artists at my art center by displaying their work on the set where they film their interviews (see picture). I jumped on the chance to make this local connection without any expectations. They came and chose the pieces and returned them within a day. It cost me nothing, some people saw my work who may not otherwise ever see it and that's it. Could something more come out of it? You never know. It could be that someone sees the work and contacts me months from now. It has happened before and I've learned to just do my part of showing up at the easel and being creative not only with my pastels by also with the venues where I show them. If you do that I promise you good things will come your way, new opportunities will present themselves. Be discriminating but not snobbish in accepting them. Let me know what you come up with and the results!

Most artists, especially the introverted ones, hate marketing their work, including me. We'd rather just hang out in our quiet corner of the world and create our art. It is hard enough to actually bring those creations out of the studio and into the world by showing them to the public at galleries, art competitions, art fairs or any other venue. It can feel like standing naked on a stage under floodlights in front of thousands having to give a public speech with no notes (trying to conjure up the most uncomfortable scenario imaginable here) and then asking for feedback, critiques, opinions. But we also have to add the even more uncomfortable activity of actually seeking out these venues in the first place! That is if we would like to make a living being artists and most of us do so we can spend our hours on what we love doing, creating, not having to work a day job to pay the bills. I think it's just about every artist's dream to be paid for what we do, so that means we have to master the art of marketing as well. To me, this feels overwhelming at times. The good news is there are many ways artists can market themselves nowadays, but the bad news is it can take a lot of time away from the studio precisely because there are so many avenues to pursue! 

Yesterday, I attendend a panel discussion about art marketing in Pasadena hosted by the California Art Club, one of the oldest art organizations in the country. The speakers were William Bush, publisher of Artweek LA magazine, Beverly Chang, Director of Public Relations at the BRC Group and marketing consultant to several art organizations and Rebecca Kimmel, owner of the Korpus School of Art and Senior Lecturer of Otis School of Art and Design. 

I thought it would be helpful if I share some of their tips with you, in no particular order, with some of my own thrown in:

-First and foremost is FOCUS. Create the best work you can, always strive to learn and improve so your art can be of the highest quality possible, but also start thinking about what your art is all about. Focus on who you are as an artist and what you want to communicate through your work. It's ok to want to try a new media, style or subject matter, but don't necessarily include it on your website or gallery submission. Like it or not, you have to think of branding, even if that sounds too "commercial" to you. You want to become the "go to" artist when a certain subject or style comes up. Become the expert in your field.

If you're not sure what "your thing" is, take a look at your body of work (if you have a website or board on Pinterest it's easy to see all of your work in one place as thumbnails and you will quickly see a pattern!). What is it that sticks out to you, to others? What have others said about your work? Do the colors pop? Is there a romantic mood to your paintings? Do you make people smile with your images of children playing or do you make them wish they could travel to the place you just captured on canvas? Try to narrow it down as much as possible. In my own case, I realized that my paintings, especially my portraits resulted in very strong emotional responses from my viewers. Repeated comments I would hear were that they could see the emotions of the person depicted, could hear their laughter, feel their joy or pain. The people looking AT my paintings were connecting with the people IN my paintings, which is something I was trying to achieve but had not been able to put into words. I became clearer about what I saw as the purpose of my creating in the first place and am now able to more clearly focus on that. It has made decisions easier when it comes to chosing what to paint next.

If you do paint several different subject matter, at least be sure to have a commonality between them. This can be the same style, but different media, same subjects but different treatment, or even the same feelings your work evokes (moody, joyful, bright, melancholic).

- Elevator Speech: Once you have narrowed the focus of your work, you can write and talk about it more easily. Write about your work in private first, free-flow style, then edit, edit and edit some more, narrowing it down to the essentials. There are many resources available on writing an artist statement, or you can hire an art writer to help you, so there is no excuse. But you need to be able to write and talk about your work at a moment's notice. As I learned yesterday, an art club may ask you to give a little talk at the next show or a blogger may want to interview you. Be ready! Work hard and be prepared when opportunities present themselves, THAT is the definition of luck!

- Be consistent in all of your communication regarding your art. Relay the same message on your website, newsletter, speeches and presentations. Remember your focus and stick with it in all of your communication.

- Get coverage through bloggers: look for blogs on art and topics related to your subject matter (if you paint florals look for gardening blogs, wildlife=animal rights and rescue blogs, landscapes=conservation and hiking blogs, if your art deals with social issues find blogs about those issues. Think outside of the box. Be creative about where you might find your audience, aka your new collectors!) 

Don't only "like" those blog posts but comment on them, join the conversation, wait for appropriate times to introduce your art to the blog.

You want to create conversations about your art and have others relate to it.

Suggest an article to bloggers, share each other's posts on your blogs. 

Keep in mind if you submit a photo for online purpose they need to be about 600 pixels!

- Get to know the art writers in your area, find ones whose writing style and opinions you like and respect, follow their posts, start and nurture relationships with them (easy to do on facebook or twitter).

- Learn how to write and send press releases! You want to make it as easy as possible for the writer to share your information. They are bombarded with submissions from artists, so do as much of the work for them as you can. That means writing all pertinent info about an upcoming event (the what, who, where, when, why) in the body of the email. It makes it easy for them to copy and paste as needed. You can always attach an image of the postcard invitation or a link if you like, but do take the time to include those details in the email body.

- Join art groups on facebook and LinkedIn and add something of value to the conversations, don't just post about your achievements, latest works and shows. What can you offer that might be helpful to someone else? A tip about technique or process? A call for art you just heard about? An essay or review about your last museum visit?

- an IPad is one of the best investment for an artist (it will be on my Christmas wish list this year for sure, until then I will be sure to upload my images onto my IPhone). You are ready to show your "portfolio" anytime to anyone anywhere!

- Create more traffic to your website by offering free content. This could be a free online workshop, mentoring offer, link to a demo on youtube, free cards with your iamges to anyone signing up for your newsletter, a raffle of a print to new followers of your blog, etc.

Of course, you post all of this on facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and whatever other social media you use.

-Events: consider charging a small fee for an event (such as an Open Studio or Home Art Show) but waiving that fee for anyone who shares the event on their social media.

To sum it all up: Marketing and selling art is all about offering something of value to others. It's about starting and nurturing relationships with people. This takes time, but you never know where it might lead in the future. Make those connections, offer something of value to others, be interested IN others and you will become interesting TO others.

The keywords for marketing:

FOCUS
OFFER VALUE
NURTURE RELATIONSHIPS 

Entering the studio from the hallway    This pic is taken from the outside of the house     View from the closet

I am finally settled into the studio at the new house in California! This is my third studio and each time I had to get very creative about how to make the available space work. Being a pastellist I need a lot of table space to hold the hundreds of pastel sticks I use. Since I am right-handed I like to have them on my right. I usually pick out a couple of dozen colors for each painting which I then keep separate from the rest on a type of taboret. Since I also like natural light on my easel, this room made it quite the challenge on how to set it all up just the way I like it.

The room was used as a den by the previous homeowner and is quite dark due to the roofline overhanging the window. It was also made even darker by navy blue striped wallpaper. Other challenges were that each wall had either a door, closet, window or window seat. The window with the shutters in the last photo actually goes out to the living room! Since this is the first studio I have had where I can actually get some privacy by closing the door, I might not open this too often, but it is nice that I could if I wanted to let a little more light in or interact with my family. 

So, where did I start? First, ripping off the old wallpaper! I have to admit I paid someone to do that, as well as install hardwood flooring, but after that I was on my own. I painted the ceiling white, the walls a very light grey and installed daylight lights overhanging my easel. I'm thinking of replacing the closet door with mirrored doors, which would not only reflect more light from the outside but also would allow me to check my work in the mirror (ALWAYS a must!) or even do another self portrait (maybe even my whole face this time, not just half). For now, I use a smaller mirror propped sideways on the table (middle photo under the paintings).

I then installed white Elfa shelving from the Container Store which hold my art books, some supplies and all of my pastels (the bottom shelf is much wider, like a desk). Don't even ask how many times I had to remove screws and start over! The language coming out of my mouth was NOT pretty! The challenge was lining up the bottom desk shelf with my existing desktop (which has a rounded out area on one side) so I could overflow my pastels onto both tables.

The dark ledge type shelves from IKEA went on the wall next (2 long ones over the desk and 4 small ones over the flat files). Since this room is only 10x11 feet I have to use all the available wall space that I can. This worked great in my last studio which was even a tiny bit smaller, but it had higher ceilings. One thing that occurred to me is that California has earthquakes and even small tremors could send all those glass covered paintings come crashing down....oh, well, I'll have to take my chances.

The flat files hold unframed paintings, sketches, lots of paper and sketchbooks, plus double as another worktable (my papercutter and Cherry Art Products Pastel Cleaner sit on top), while the closet holds my plein-air backpack, rolls of Wallis pastel paper, frames, extra light stand (for models) and various other supplies.

One thing I do love about this space is the window seat! I love hanging out there either reading an art book or magazine or working out some ideas in my skecthbook. I also plan on using it for models to sit during life drawing sessions.

Now, if I can just get the rest of the house more in order so I can actually get some painting done in there....

I hope this gave you some ideas on how to make small rooms work as studios. I'd love to hear your own suggestions or answer any specific questions. Don't let not having a gorgeous, huge studio with north facing lights hold you back from creating your best work!

This is a follow up to a topic I briefly touched on in my last post. I mentioned the difficulties of being a parent and an artist at the same time. How do you not feel like you’re neglecting your children while also not putting your own creative needs on the backburner (something that especially women tend to do)? If you are looking for a way to make art a priority in your life and to find a manageable balance between parenthood and making art, I have some suggestions for you.

The idea is to involve your kids in your art activities, let them be an active part of your life as an artist while honing your skills and feeling somewhat productive.

Here are some ideas:



In your studio, have a separate area for kid’s art table, easel and plenty of supplies (paints, crayons, lots of craft paper, stickers, glue, string). Sometimes they can work from their own ideas, other times you can suggest a project. They can also do homework right there while you paint.



Take kids to museums, so you can both soak up great art. You can get children’s books on famous artists from the library beforehand and then discuss the paintings together (which one do they like best? Why? What do they see in that abstract painting? Does that bright red piece make them feel happy or excited? How about the blue one?) Maybe they could "copy" a piece from the exhibit next time they "work" in the studio with you or set up a similar still life as the masters.



Take older kids along on photo shoots. They could be your helper carrying some equipment, helping to set it up.



Take them plein air painting (painting outdoors on location). Give them some suggestions and let them pick the location. They could paint along with you or pick a different subject. Younger children could collect rocks or bugs, pick berries or wildflowers (which could all be used in a future still life for them or you) or build sand castles and make mud pies. It helps if you have another artist along so you could take turns keeping an eye on each other’s kids. Alternatively, set up your easel in the backyard where they are safe.



Older kids can also participate in life drawing classes with you (you could find one with a clothed model or hire your own and share the cost with other artists who can bring along their children)



If they like to be the models themselves, host a life drawing session for a small group of artist friends and pay the kids for their time. Be sure to teach them how to hold a pose and resume it after breaks. Take more breaks than you would with an adult model, of course. Turn on a movie for them or let them read a book.



Your children’s friends might also be willing models for you. Be sure to get the parents’ permission first. The kids could earn some pocket money, hang out with their friends, and you might just sell the piece to their parents!



If you are not too tired paint or draw your precious little ones when they are finally asleep. Don’t we all love that angelic look on their faces and the peace and quiet in the house!



On the playground practice sketching by doing quick figure studies (quite a challenge with all of those fast moving subjects!) or slow down and sketch the trees, flowers, architecture.



At soccer games or recitals, swim lessons or dance practice sketch or take reference photos (again, you might just pick up a few new clients). Always have a small portfolio and business cards with you!



If working in sculpture or mixed media give kids small tasks that could also be part of the finished piece (string beads, prepare surfaces, hammer on metal, glue a piece of collage).



Ask them to write a story or poem about your work. Consider displaying it next to the piece if it fits your style.



Make a book with photos of your work on one side and their writing on the opposite page. Give it to family and friends as gifts or to the child as a thank you for her patience while you work.



Volunteer at their school to do a presentation and talk about what it means to be an artist. Organize an after school art club for the kids.



Write art related articles for the PTA newsletter or the school’s web site. They could be about local exhibits, art and craft ideas or age appropriate art history. It will also get the word out about your work to the teachers and other parents.



When including kids on art related errands be sure there is something in it for them: buy them some new pencils or markers at the art supply store, get ice cream after delivering paintings to your gallery, pick a plein air painting spot with a playground nearby or take them to the pool afterwards to cool off.



Share sales profits with them so they can see the connection between mom or dad working in the studio and direct benefits for them, especially if they were involved in the creation of the piece either by being a helper or a model (buy them a new book, DVD or CD after a sale, celebrate with dinner at their favorite restaurant). It’s also great for them to see that you can earn money from doing something you love.



Share awards as well. Let them see you get the award at the reception and give them a ribbon, too, for their good behavior while you worked on the winning painting.

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While it will still be frustrating at times when you can’t devote as much time to art making as you’d like, these suggestions might quench your thirst a little without feeling as if you are neglecting your duties as a parent. You can use the time to teach about art techniques (tailored to the children’s ages and interests), but also about the creative process of choosing a subject, learning to really look at and think about things, and the practical side of art like showing and selling your work.

Yes, there may be moaning and groaning when they have to attend yet another art opening (I can hear my daughter’s voices now!), but overall you and your kids can create some wonderful memories together while learning that you don’t have to put your dreams on hold for anyone else’s sake. You may just have to adjust them a bit!