Updates from Terri on Her Art Journey
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Since getting back to Connecticut, I’ve been painting up a storm. Indeed, in the week since I’ve been back in my loft studio, I’ve spent more hours painting than I did the entire month of June!
One reason may be that I haven’t been distracted by the heat and my backyard pool in Las Vegas. But the primary reason is I’m feeling inspired by the Holy Spirit, as well as the beautiful nature of my Lakeridge community, where I’ll be spending most of the rest of this summer. Lakeridge is a residential resort community located in the Litchfield Hills of Northwestern Connecticut, nestled on 235 acres of protected forest preserve, and not far from the Berkshire Mountains. I’ve had a condo here for more than 20 years and have taken countless photographs of the wooded hills, lakes and ponds. So I’ve got lots of reference material. I’ve been gearing up to participate in an Artists Showcase to be held here this coming weekend. If you happen to be anywhere near Burr Mountain in Torrington, CT this weekend, I hope you’ll stop by Lakeridge’s East Lodge on Saturday, August 5, between noon and 4 p.m. to see my paintings on exhibit. By the way, I’ve been so inspired by the forest here in Lakeridge that I’ve decided to do my third series of paintings. The topic: TREES. Starting tomorrow, August 1, I will be posting daily on Facebook one of my paintings of a tree (or trees) for the entire month of August. Called 31TREES, it will be a variety of styles and media, but the subject will be the same: TREES, of course. I hope you’ll follow my art journey through the forest.
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Vacations are always a good time to relax and refresh, and for us artists it’s also a good time to collect reference photos. And so I’ll be heading off on vacation, traveling this summer to places like Greece, God willing.
But what if home is paradise? Quite literally, I live in a part of Las Vegas called Paradise, and it feels very much like paradise to me. So, somewhat reluctantly, I’ve been packing up my studio here. I’ll miss it for sure. Next week, I hope my blog post will be coming to you from my sweet little loft studio in the woods of western Connecticut. My mentor Rod Moore, founder of the Artists Business Academy (ABA), claims there’s never been a better time in history for artists. In particular, he says, it’s never been easier to SELL art!
Easy? Really? About two years ago, I became a member of the ABA to learn Rod’s secrets to art-selling success. His basic strategy is pretty straightforward; to make it happen, you have to do the RIGHT THINGS, specifically:
In theory that does sound simple, doesn’t it? In practice, I’ve found it isn’t always easy. In the last few months, Rod has been pitching an income model called “1000 True Fans.” The concept and term, invented by Kevin Kelly in a 2008 blog post, posits that if you could get 1000 TRUE FANS to support you by buying $100 worth of what you create every year, you would earn an income of $100,000 a year. That’s a respectable income, to be sure. A true fan is defined as a fan who will buy anything you produce. So, how do you attract true fans? Just hold on . . . Later this summer, when Rod returns from his tour of Europe, he’s going to put together a week-long workshop that will explore this concept. I can’t wait! In the meantime, I shall pursue step one of this strategy: PRODUCE ART AND BUILD AN INVENTORY. The problem with making plans and setting goals is that it can be disappointing when you miss your target. For me, the second quarter of this year was a bit of disappointment but not a total loss.
Between April and June, I’d planned to make 60 paintings and work an average of 10 hours a week in my studio. Unfortunately, I ended up making only 21 paintings and averaged painting only 4 hours each week. That’s a disappointment, to be sure. In retrospect, those goals may have been unrealistic because what I hadn’t factored in were the nearly two weeks of travel. And I did make good use of those travel days by taking plenty of reference photos for future paintings. So, I count myself blessed that I had some unanticipated good results during the second quarter. With regard to the other goals I had set for myself, I was able to take one in-person workshop and two online courses, which I’d promised to do; I did my 30SKIES series posted daily on Facebook during the month of April; participated in an art fair (the Mothers Day Art Festival in Henderson) PLUS a garage sale (sales from these covered my art supplies for the quarter); wrote 14 blog posts; and entered a juried photo competition. And in another unplanned event, I exhibited in the City Lights Art Gallery’s “May Flowers” exhibit. So the quarter wasn’t a complete disaster. Now on to making plans and setting goals for the third quarter: Because I plan to travel quite a bit during the summer and fall, I shall be a bit more realistic about how much actual painting I’ll be able to do. Factoring in about four weeks of travel, I’ll shoot for a total of 60 hours of studio work and 30 completed paintings, PLUS I’ll take plenty of reference photos and do another series (subject to be determined). Of course, I’ll definitely do my weekly blog post (typically on Monday mornings) and I’ll try to squeeze in a class or two. Okay. That should keep me busy for the next three months! |
AuthorTerri Thompson is a journalist-turned-visual artist, who is on an "art journey" and exploring how to tell her stories through her watercolor and acrylic paintings and photographs. Categories |