I just wanted to take a moment and thank the Artist of Bristol for acknowledging as a member and an artist this month. You can read more about me and my path to art here on their Featured Artist Page.
Until next time
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oils
We were thrilled with the entries we had into our Fine Art Print Giveaway celebrating our 300 likes on our Facebook page. We now have three winners! They are:
1. Nigel Carruthers (Facebook entry)
2. Eric A Jacobsen (Facebook entry)
3. Ali Munay Holland (Twitter entry)
Thank you all for participating, spreading the word about my artwork and supporting my art.
If the winners would please email me at tom@tom-furey.com in order to select their print of choice and provide a delivery address. You may choose from any of the Modern Floral Collection, the Port Issac Collection, the Bucks County Barns and Farm Collection and select winter scenes. You can look through my paintings here in the gallery. These lovely fine art prints are a $50 value each. Congratulations again and I look forward to delivering your fine art print!
Until next time
Tom
Part of being an artist is reading, listening, and watching what is happening in the Art community. That is not to say you cannot do your own thing, but you should be aware of what is going on in the world. For lots of people, including artists, this is a difficult thing to do. Many of us get wrapped up in our own worlds. I came across the letter in an article, Going Aggressively Passive written by traditional artist Lori Woodward in which she suggested to read what plein aire landscape painter Joe Paquet wrote.
Open letter for all artists
Almost every artist I speak to these days has a profound tale of woe to spin. The common complaint: bad economy=lack of sales= “Whaa happened?” For those of us who make our living and put food on our family table, it doesn’t really matter what happened so much as what we can do to adjust. In our moments of panic, rash and destructive choices are made to turn a buck… we diminish ourselves and often do untold damage to careers which have taken a long time to build.
For so very long galleries were the way: the omniscient ones, and for a very long time most of them did a fine job of it. But in the end they were only merchants. No one knows better than you when you are on the right path.
Rainer Maria Rilke says, “A work of art is good if it has sprung from necessity.” The need to say something is a far cry from the need to be heard. There is art and there is product and they are rarely the same thing.
Walking out of the final Harry Potter movie last week I was struck by something larger than the film. It was the fact that Ms. Rowling built this thing, this idea from thin air, moved words around in a personal way, created a world which had not existed and turned it into a very real thing.
That is what we get to do everyday - create. We can construct what has never existed, bring something to the world and shape it with our own hearts and hands. It’s a gift we have which is east to lose sight of.
What to do about it?
Innovation, Resilience, Perseverance, and Faith
Innovation
- Change your plan; create your own opportunities to teach or sell your own work.
- More is not better; better is better. Make an effort to improve on both vision and craft.
- A good website which represents you elegantly and truthfully with new content on a monthly basis.
- If you want to be remarked about - be remarkable.
- Quality is a habit.
Resilience
If you haven’t already, learn to take a hit and get back up. Nothing works like it used to, and when it does change it will be different than before. Get used to the idea and turn to yourself. It’s your life, make better choices - don’t be a victim.
Perseverance
Like Karma, the artist’s life has it’s own organic path if you let it unfold naturally. Work ethic, love of the job, proximity and opportunity all play a role in developing a life in art. Be clear about these and adjust your life to maximize your gifts.
Faith
Now for the most important and, ironically, counter-intuitive part of it all: Belief in yourself. Read your art history - every artist has wrestled with this one. I have always believed that humility and hubris must walk hand-in-hand; you must have humility to receive the world, yet have the ego to face a blank canvas and believe that you can add something to it.
Make a conscious choice to surround yourself with authentic words, music and art to remind you of what is possible. Above all surround yourself with those who love and believe in you and are willing to hold up a mirror. In every weak moment of my life my wife Natalie has been there to hand my words back to me.
Growth is always on the edge of uncomfortably.
Be grateful, be humble, be open and create without fear.
- Joe Paquet
Joe Paquet has many messages above and personally I agree with all of them. In fact, I have said some of the comments myself or heard my artist friends say the same. We don't enter into the art world thinking we are going to be rich. We create our art out of love and emotion. It's what we feel. It's what we do. It's what we wish to express. We do have something to say in our own way. We want people to listen, and to see and hear what we are saying without using words that can be misconstrued and twisted. We are trying to make the world a better place to live by opening the minds of our fellow man to new ideas through vision and their soul. We are leaving some piece of ourselves for the future generations to find in our ART.
Lastly I'll close in reminding every one that my fine art print giveaway ends tomorrow, April 14, 2015 at midnight EST so you still have some time to enter the competition. To find out more information on the four ways you can enter to win read last week's blog post.
Until next time!
Tom
I found this interesting video explaining basically how the art community works through the eyes of galleries and others. It highlights just how crazy things can be. It also tries to convey the reason for types of art popularity at any given time. It attempts to answer the question "Is there Democracy in the Art World?".
So what's your opinion? Please feel free to leave a comment below.
Until next time!
Tom
Cold weather this week. Monday morning about 4:30 AM I awoke to find my furnace stopped running. It was one degree Fahrenheit outside. I worked on the furnace until about 6 AM when I called my son-in-law and asked him to get me kerosene. My incoming water line was frozen. To make a long story short we got the furnace running about 4 PM. I laid in my bed exhausted at 11:30 PM after all the stress and heard a dripping in the bedroom. Yes, you guessed it twelve hours with no heat equals frozen burst pipe. At midnight, my son-in-law went in the loft space and put some putty on the burst pipe I couldn't reach. Temporary fix. I hope it holds until we can replace the pipe. That was the bad news.
The good news. Thanks to my daughter, Theresa being so insistent that I paint some flowers, my work was accepted into the Philadelphia Sketch Clubs "Art of the Flower" exhibit. Since I am kick-starting my career as an artist again, one thing I needed to do is get my name and work out in the public eye. This is a great start for me as far as exhibitions. For me, just being accepted is winning. There were 315 submissions and 124 works were accepted. There was a limit of two accepted works per artist. I entered two pieces and both were accepted. They are Modern Floral I and Modern Floral III. Prize winners will be determined by the jurors visiting PSC in person on Sunday March 1, 2015. The Reception will be on Sunday March 8, 2015 from 2-4 PM where cash awards and PSC medals will be presented to the award winners. All works submitted by an accepted artist will be on view on our online gallery. Please visit the gallery at www.sketchclub.org/exhibitions.
Until next time!
Tom
I'm fortunate to have a nice front porch to sit on in the good weather and enjoy the day. One morning I was frustrated with a painting I was working on because I couldn't get the right green mixed. I was also having problems between the colors I mixed. Nothing was going right. I know I have at least three tubes of various green oil paint in my drawer I could use at any time instead of mixing a green. But one of the things that drives me as an artist is the challenge.
I decided to limit my pallet last year to four colors and a white. The colors are Alizarin Chrimson, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber and Titanium White. I didn't stay with that very long because I needed to add Cerulean Blue for certain greens and other mixtures. That seemed to work just fine. I learned to mix color fairly quickly. I could make small adjustments easily. The reason behind this was to learn how to do it and color harmony. I used to think limiting the colors I use out of the tube would lead to mixing mud, but the opposite occurred. I was able to mix and change values fairly quickly and got a better handle of the old color wheel.
Okay, getting back to the green problem. While I was sitting on the porch gazing at the hostas and pondering life, I saw an amazing challenge right before my eyes. I walked into the studio and grabbed my camera. I started snapping pictures of all the foliage in front of me. It was a perfect challenge to my current problem. I entered the studio and choose the largest canvas available. I began to sketch out the plant and later referred to the photos for the color matching. The painting I ended up visualizing in my mind started out as a very abstract concept. The movement of the shapes and the variegated variations really interested me. All the negative and positive shapes that made up this painting of GREEN leaves was further complicated by a layer of morning dew. I knew this wasn't going to be easy. I was right!
Until next time!