New Painting(s)!

A few recent paintings that will be on display at my upcoming solo show at the Robert C. Byrd Federal Building in Charleston, WV:

January 16th. 18 x14" oil on canvas.

January 18th - Mon River. 16 x13" oil on canvas.

January 23rd. 24 x20" oil on canvas.

New Exhibition on Display at James Brooks Gallery, FSU

Artist Melissa May has a solo exhibition at the Brooks Gallery in Wallman Hall from January 21 to 29, 2010. An opening reception and talk will take place tomorrow evening - January 21, from 7 to 9 pm. For more info have a look at the Fine Arts Tatler blog: http://fineartsfsu.wordpress.com/

Goals 2010

Here goes:

Art-Related
Create:

5 new 7 x 6" paintings
20 new 16 x 13" paintings
20 new 18 x 14" paintings
15 new 24 x 20" paintings

That would bring me to a grand total of 60 paintings for 2010, which averages out to a bit more than 1 painting per week. C'mon I can do that!

Business-Related

Send out a large (researched) mailing of brochure/cover letter packets
Send out 3 larger packets each season
Update mailing list quarterly

Receive representation at one gallery
Schedule 2 solo shows for 2010

Have 30 brochures printed quarterly
Have 100 business cards printed
Update website at least once a week with new paintings and current events
Update blog at least once a week
Enter at least 3 juried shows within the year
Improve upon my record-keeping system for inventory



Okay, so many of the goals for 2009 carry over to 2010. But the most important goals for the year are, as always, getting gallery representation, booking solo shows, and creating 60 paintings. One of the biggies is already taken care of - since I already have a winter/spring exhibit in Charleston and a late summer/fall show at Ligonier Valley. Technically, the later show isn't a "solo" show, but it requires a lot of work, so I am counting it as one!

Right now I am getting ready to go paint, but next Monday I will have a New Painting post. One that hopefully will also include today's work!

2009 in Review...

Like I said, 2009 was very good to me. Lots of great things, both professional and personal, came my way. I have much to be thankful for...Derek and I bought our first home together and are now engaged and I have two solo shows on the horizon!



So, I will go through each goal that I set out early last year and sort of grade myself on each task. First, I put forth a very ambitious painting schedule:

Art-Related

-Create:
25 new 7" x 6" paintings
25 new 15" x 13" paintings
25 new 24" x 21" paintings


I would say that I created about 40 paintings overall this year (including the really bad ones that never saw the light of day after I made them). I suppose that's not too bad, considering we were house-hunting and moving, which is a real time zapper. This year though...it better be a different story.

Business-Related

-Mail out 3 small packets per month to possible galleries (only ones that I have researched)

This one makes me laugh - I didn't come close to meeting this goal. Which creates - Problems. I need to be on this one.

-Try to update my mailing list seasonally

Did pretty well on this one. After every event I added my new contacts into my excel spreadsheet. I include all the pertinent info (name address email) and also how I met each person to jog my crap memory.

-Make sure all work is wired and ready to hang after completion

Eh, this isn't too critical, and I find that as long as I have an early deadline for prepping work for a show, everything works out just fine.

-Receive representation at one gallery (not holding my breath on this one!)


This goal creates a bit of a grey area. I am very fortunate to have been juried into the David L. Dickirson gallery at Tamarack, but I'm not sure I would mark that as full "gallery representation".


-Schedule 1 solo show for 2009

I had not one but three(!) solo shows in 2009. That makes it the one area where I exceeded my goal, but I guess that's a good one to go over and above on....

Have 200 brochures printed


I did have brochures printed, but not 200. Printing in bulk certainly makes it less expensive, but the extra cost associated with printing in smaller batches is worth it to keep the brochures up-to-date.

Have 100 business cards printed


Ditto for the business cards.

Update website at least once a week with new paintings and current events


I would give myself an A+ on this goal, I was hardly ever behind on updates.

Update blog at least once a week


The blog is doing okay, there are only a few times that I fell behind. Not too bad. I look forward to expanding the blog in 2010!

Enter at least 4 juried shows within the year


Check!

Implement a better record-keeping system for inventory


Still not there yet, but I am developing a plan and have kept good records of sales.


So there you have it, my year in review...Up next, Goals 2010!

Happy (belated) New Year!

So I'm really behind on my blog, among other things. Not the way I wanted to start the new year - but I'm okay with it. I want to begin the year with a positive feeling, not one of stressfulness and all the negativity that comes with that. 2009 was a great year for me and I hope that 2010 will be even better. For today's post, I will stick with the New Year's greetings and also post up my newest painting. Next post I will tackle my year in review (which will include revisiting the 2009 goal list...yikes) and see where I went right and where I went...well, not-so-right.

December 30th. oil on canvas. 16 1/2" x 13"