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"

Brrr....

Saturday we had our first real snow of the year! It was a fairly big storm - we received about 3 inches of snow. Here are some pictures of the view from outside of our house, about mid-storm.

We still had wildflowers growing out in the front yard and I couldn't help but take some pictures of the gorgeous flowers surrounded by orbs of snow. The next day I went out and painted at Prickett's Creek. Couldn't find my boots, so I had to wear my chuck taylors out in the snow, which is never a good idea. So I had some very cold feet. I completed a small 15 x13" and called it a day. I will post that painting up soon...

Here are the pics of the poor, snowy flowers:

SAMA at Ligonier Valley & New Painting

First off, here is one of my newest paintings, November 28th, completed out at Prickett's Creek. It's a smaller, 15 x 13" piece. I had a difficult time getting a decent shot of it, so hopefully I will be able to post a better picture later.

Last week I mentioned that I have some news about an exhibit. I'm very excited to be showing at Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley from August 14th - November 6th, 2010. It will be a two person exhibition with furniture designer Brian Ferrell. His work is fantastic, check out his website here : http://www.brianferrelldesigns.com/. For more information about SAMA, see here: http://www.sama-art.org/.

New Paintings

November 1st oil on canvas.

Here are a bunch of new paintings - the better ones of the recent batch, anyway. I'm pleased with the results and have switched up my process just a teeny tiny bit. I've begun to paint a thin, basic underpainting before I go out, which has really been great. I'm not sure why I hadn't done this all along! Also, along with painting, I traveled to Pennsylvania on Saturday to discuss an exhibition. More on that next week!

November 15th. oil on canvas.



November 22nd. oil on canvas.



October 4th oil on canvas.

Get-Away

Canaan Valley Resort, 10-17-09

This weekend I am going to be at Canaan Valley, WV. Two nights at the resort - it was a Christmas gift from Derek's sister and brother-in-law. (Thanks, guys - we can really use it after FINALLY settling into the new home!) I will be taking my easel, paints and a few smaller canvases with me, so I may get some painting done if we don't get rained out. Last weekend Canaan received its first snowfall of the season with 3.6 inches. I certainly don't ski, but I would love to paint some snow! Too bad it's probably all melted by now...and I'm not sure what the rain and snow have done to the beautiful fall leaves. I'll be posting some pictures along with any decent painting I get from the trip, plus I have a new painting from the beginning of October (before all the moving started) still to put up here!

Columbus

Had a great time visiting friends (and gallery hopping, etc.) this past weekend! The Short North was a lot of fun and the food in the area was fantastic. We also visited the Wexner Center (which I was a bit too excited about, being kind of nerdy about architecture) and viewed the Luc Tuymans exhibit that was up. For more info on that see here: http://wexarts.org/ex/index.php?eventid=4043 I went overboard on taking pictures of the building, so here is a limited selection:

A work by Maya Lin

I know I'm not supposed to take pictures inside the Center, but I couldn't help myself.

Some fantastic wood-fired pieces on exhibit in a gallery in the Short North:

Also, I had some interest from another gallery, so I'm excited about a few different prospects - hope one of them works out. Keeping my fingers crossed!