The gallery that took my work but never actually showed itOkay I need to know if this is a universal experience or if I just got unlucky. I signed with a small gallery last year, they were lovely, took my pieces on consignment, paid on time when things sold... and then just. never put anything of mine in an actual show. My work sat in their back room for months. I'd ask about upcoming exhibitions and get "we're working on it!" until I finally just pulled everything out. Turns out they were basically running a storage unit with a storefront and living off artists who were too nervous to ask where their paintings were. Anyone else had a gallery that took the work but never hung it? Is that a red flag I should've caught earlier or is it just... how some places operate? What's the longest your stuff ever sat unseen somewhere?
consignmentgallery-experiencesred-flags
The gallery walk-in that went nowhere vs. the reply that came 6 months laterOkay question for anyone who's done the gallery hunt: what's the most bizarre timeline you've had with one? I'll go first. I walked into a small gallery in my city two years ago with a portfolio, got a very polite "we'll keep you in mind" and figured that was that. Then SIX MONTHS later the owner emails me out of nowhere saying they remembered my work and wanted to see new pieces. I was so confused I almost didn't reply because I thought it was spam haha. It didn't end up going anywhere big but it taught me that "no" or silence isn't always a no, it's just... not a yes yet? But also I've had the reverse where someone seemed super keen, we had two meetings, and then they ghosted me so hard I wondered if I imagined the whole thing. Have you ever had a gallery come back around way later? Or is the initial silence pretty much always the actual answer and I'm just reading too much into one lucky email 😅
gallery-outreachrejectionstimeline
The gallery email I sent that actually worked, anyone else have a "this was the one" template?ok so I spent months emailing galleries with these long, polished, cover-letter-style pitches and got crickets. then one day I was so burnt out I just sent this short casual one like "hi, I paint watercolor windows and light, here's 4 images, would love to show you in person" and THAT one got a reply. a real reply!! I genuinely think the formal stuff was reading as scared or stiff. my partner was like "you sound like you're applying for a law firm" lmao. so now I just write like a person. was there a version of your outreach email that finally landed? what was different about it? I'm trying to figure out if it's the length, the tone, or honestly just luck and timing and I should stop overthinking. tell me I'm wrong or right
adviceemailsgallery-outreach
I painted the same window 11 times and the 9th one is still the only one I actually likeStarted a thing back in January where I decided to paint the window in my studio apartment every single week until I got it right. The one good window, faces this ugly courtyard with a fire escape and one tree that's half dead but tries anyway in spring. 11 paintings in now and honestly? The 9th one is the winner and I didn't even know it when I made it. I painted it on a day I was furious about a commission going sideways and I did the whole thing in like 40 minutes without thinking, and it's got this looseness the other ten are choking for. The careful ones all look like I was holding my breath. The angry one breathes. Makes me want to throw out everything I've learned about patience honestly. Or at least stop treating every wash like it's a final exam. Anyway the window has now become a whole series and I don't know what to do with the other ten. They're fine. They're just... fine. Stiff. Like me at a party. Does anyone else have that piece where the version you made in a bad mood or a hurry is better than the one you actually tried on? I need to know I'm not alone here because I'm about to start 12 and I'm scared she's gonna be a stiff one too haha
overthinkingprocesswatercolor
The gallery that said "we'll take 60%" and smiled like it was doing me a favorEarly days I almost signed with a gallery that wanted 60% commission and a 6-month exclusivity clause for my city. I was so desperate to be "in a gallery" I nearly said yes. My mom talked me out of it over the phone lol, she was like "honey that's not a partnership, that's a landlord." What's the worst gallery deal you were ever offered or saw someone else take? I feel like nobody talks enough about the predatory end of this, everyone's so focused on getting in that we forget some doors aren't worth walking through. What was your red-flag contract moment?
contractsgalleryred-flags
Charged my mom's friend $180 for a portrait and it took me 14 hours. She told everyone I was "sweet" for doing it.So my mom's friend asked me to paint her late dog from a photo. I said yes because of course I did, and I quoted $180 which I thought was reasonable for a friends-and-family thing. It took me 14 hours. That's like $12.85 an hour before materials, and I used good paper and maybe $30 of paint so really I paid for the privilege. Worst part is she keeps telling people I was "so sweet" to do it for her. Sweet. Like I did them a favor instead of doing my actual job. And now two of her friends have asked about portraits of their dogs and I have no idea what to charge because I set the bar at "sweet girl who paints dogs cheap." I know people here do the full "everyone deserves art" thing and I genuinely believe art should be accessible, but I'm one month into full time and I did the math on my real hourly rate across all my work this month and it's depressing. I don't know how to tell this woman I love that the next dog portrait is $350 minimum without sounding like I got greedy. Anyone else stuck in the friends-and-family trap? How did you get out without burning the relationship?
commissionsfriends-and-familypricing
Spent all morning fighting a wash and only realized at noon the paper was the problemOkay so I've been blaming myself all week for these muddy skies. Like genuinely sitting here going "what is wrong with you Dani, you know how to do a wet on wet by now." Changing my water, my brush angle, my breathing (??) trying to fix it. Then this morning I switched brands of paper because the art store was out of my usual and it was flawless on the first try. The paper. It was the paper the whole time. I almost laughed out loud alone in my studio. I think the humbling part is how quick I am to assume the failure is in me and not in the materials. Which honestly tracks with a lot of other things about me haha. But also. It means I wasted an entire week of good painting time being mad at my own hands. Anyone else ever fought a problem for days and it turned out to be something dumb like the tooth of the paper or the humidity or whatever?
materialsprocesswatercolor
Walked in cold once and it's the only in-person pitch I've ever done. Anyone else dread the walk-in?I'm a chronic email-er, which honestly took me forever to even get comfortable with. But last fall I was in a town with one gallery I'd been chasing online for like a year, and I figured why not just... walk in. I brought three small pieces in a tote bag and asked the woman at the desk if she had two minutes. She was so nice about it, looked at everything, kept one for their submissions pile, and I basically floated out of there. And then I never did it again because the idea of doing it a second time makes me want to crawl out of my skin haha. So genuine question for the people who DO the walk-in thing regularly: how?? Do you book it ahead or just show up? Do you bring work or just talk? And has it ever actually turned into something, or is it more of a warm-up for the email later? I need to know if I'm missing out by hiding behind my keyboard forever.
first-contactgallery-outreachwalk-in
The post that flopped was the one I spent the most time onSpent two and a half days on a piece, photographed it perfectly, wrote a caption I actually thought about for once, posted it at a "good" time. Crickets. Like 40-something likes, mostly my mom and my partner's aunt. Then yesterday I was mid-wash, my brush slipped and I stabbed the paper, and I just took a photo of my palette with paint all over my hand and the mess everywhere with a caption like "we don't talk about this one" and it's already doing better than that whole careful post did. I don't even know what to do with that. I keep telling myself the algorithm is just random and I shouldn't optimize for it, but also... I need groceries. There's a version of me that's about to start faking messy palettes for content and I really hope I don't become her. Anyone else feel like the effort is actively hurting them out here?
algorithmartist-lifecontent-strategy
The commission I was scared to take because I've never painted a person who wasn't my momOkay so I took a commission to paint a memorial portrait and the whole week leading up to it I was like... this is a real person's actual loved one, what if I ruin the one thing they wanted to keep. I've done a million washes and landscapes and that same stupid window, but a face has to actually look like someone. That's a different kind of pressure. But I got the photos and it was this older man who apparently kept every bird feeder in his neighborhood full, and his daughter wrote me the sweetest email about him and I just... cried in my studio for a minute and then got to work. I did the underdrawing three times before the proportions felt right. Started the wash at like 10pm on a Tuesday and didn't look up until 3am. His eyes took me four attempts. The daughter wanted him mid-laugh and I must have painted and scraped that mouth area so many times the paper started to complain. It dried last night and I stood there just staring at it for a really long time. It's him. It's actually him, I got the laugh right. I sent her the photo and she said her mom cried, and then I cried again, and honestly I think this is the most scared I've ever been while working and also the most right it's ever felt. I've been so worried that going full-time meant I'd end up just grinding out work I don't care about. But this one mattered. That's the whole point right??
commissionportraitwatercolor
The reel I filmed because everyone said I had to got 4,000 views. My paintings get 40.Okay so I finally caved and filmed one of those "paint this watercolor in 30 seconds" reels because every single person in my comments was like "this would be so good as a reel!!!" and the algorithm had basically stopped showing my work to anyone. 4.2k views. My actual finished paintings get like 30-40 likes on a good day. And I just feel weird about it. Like, great, that many people watched paint dry in fast motion. But did a single one of them buy anything? Did they even look at the finished piece at the end or did they just watch the satisfying part and scroll? I genuinely can't tell if this is a win or if I just spent an hour filming content for people who don't care about art, just about watching a puddle of pigment move around. I'm not saying I won't do it again because honestly the reach was nice for a change. But I can't shake the feeling that I'm optimizing for the wrong audience. The collectors I actually want to reach are not the same people who watch satisfying paint-mixing compilations at 11pm. Or maybe they are?? I have no idea. Someone tell me it's not just me feeling this.
algorithmreelswatercolor
My watercolor originals sell. The prints are a different story.Okay so I'm eight months into full-time art and I finally have enough data to be genuinely confused. My original watercolors sell consistently, like every time I post a finished piece it's gone within a day or two. But I got a professional scan done of one of my favorites, ordered a small run of prints to test the waters, and they've just been sitting there. Like barely any movement in three weeks. And I don't get it because everyone always asks "do you have prints?" when they see the originals. I made them available. Crickets. My partner says it's because people who buy watercolors want THE thing, the actual one with the paper texture and the wonky edge where my tape was, not a reproduction. And maybe that's true and I should just lean into originals only. But also maybe I priced them wrong or my thumbnails are bad or I'm just not promoting them right. Mostly I'm annoyed I spent real money on the scan and the test run haha. But it's also kind of nice to know the originals aren't a fluke. Any other artists out there where prints flop but originals move?? Or am I the weird one who should've known better.
prints vs originalsselling artwatercolor
I spent 3 hours on a wash this morning and it's wrong but I can't tell if it's the paper or meOkay so I've been trying to get this one soft grey-blue sky wash right for like three mornings now. Kept wetting the paper, laying it down, lifting a little, and every single time it dries with this hard edge right in the middle where I didn't mean one to be. I finally looked at the block and realized the paper I grabbed is the cheap cotton I bought in a panic when I first went full time, not the stuff I usually use. And now I'm sitting here wondering how much of this week's frustration was actually me being rusty versus me fighting paper that just doesn't want to behave. Which I think is kind of the trap, right? You get used to blaming yourself when a piece fights back and sometimes the material really is the problem. But I also can't tell if I'm making an excuse for myself because the wash is genuinely not good. Anyone else ever hit a wall and then realized it was the paper/brush/pigment all along, and did it make you feel better or worse?
frustrationmaterialwatercolor
Charged €120 for a 6-hour commission and after materials and the 3-hour "quick" sketch I redid, I made less than minimum wageSo I did this commission last month, a little wedding gift thing, couple's pet portrait in watercolor, their dog who passed away. They had a reference photo and I got so attached to the story I underpriced it on purpose, like €120 for what I told myself was "a quick 6 hours." It was not quick. I did a full sketch, hated it, redrew the dog's face three times because watercolor doesn't let you fix a bad eye, you just start over. Real time ended up around 14 hours, plus paper, plus I ruined two sheets. When I did the math afterward I made like €6 an hour. My old café job paid better and I didn't have to cry over a dog's nose shape at 1am. The worst part is they were so happy and the painting came out genuinely good, one of my favorites I've ever done. So now I'm sitting here like, do I charge the next person with a sad story €400 and feel like a monster, or do I keep doing this and slowly fund my own studio out of my own pocket?? I know the answer obviously but I keep needing strangers on the internet to tell me I'm allowed to charge for the hours that actually happened, not the hours I hoped would happen.
commissionspricingunderpricing
Raised my commission price to €180 and lost a warm lead, and I'm still not sure I regret itOkay so I finally did it. Bumped my base commission price from €140 to €180 for an 8x10 watercolor, which honestly still feels low when I look at the hours, but for me it was a big leap. And the very next inquiry I got, this woman who'd been following me for months and was SO sweet in her message, she replied "oh that's more than I expected" and just... went quiet. Never heard from her again. And the thing is, I keep going back and forth. €180 for something that takes me like 6-8 hours including the sketch and the back-and-forth? That's still under €30 an hour. But also, I did the actual math on it and with materials (I use good paper, homemade honey watercolor, proper sable brushes that cost an arm and a leg) it's like €15-20 just in supplies. So I'm basically charging for my time at a rate that's less than I made scooping croissants at the bakery. The part nobody warns you about is how much the silence hurts. Like the polite rejection email I could handle. But the ghosting? My brain has been replaying that message for two weeks wondering if I should've said "well, I can do €150 if it helps." And my partner keeps telling me the right clients will come, and logically I know that, but also rent is due on the first. Hoping the next one who says yes makes up for it. Anyone else had the "I'll wait and see" regret thing happen after raising a price? How long did it take before it started paying off?
commission pricingraising priceswatercolor
The window I keep painting has a crack I never noticed until this weekOkay so I have this one window in my apartment I've painted probably forty times now, it's like my whole thing, my comfort subject. And this week I was doing a gouache study and I looked up to check the light and I finally noticed there's this hairline crack running diagonally across the top left pane. It's been there the whole time. Forty paintings, not one of them has the crack because I just never once actually saw it. It made me think about how much we paint what we expect to see instead of what's there. Like I've been so locked into this idea of "the window in my apartment" that I've been blind to the actual window in front of me for years. Which is kind of humbling because I like to think of myself as someone who really looks at things, that's the whole job right. And then this crack just sitting there waiting for me to finally see it. So now I'm doing a whole little series of just the crack. Close up, different light, different times of day. It's funny how a tiny thing I overlooked for years is suddenly the most interesting part of the room to me. I honestly keep catching myself staring at it like a weirdo. Anyway if you're stuck in a rut with a subject you've done a million times, look harder at it. There's probably a crack you haven't seen either. Or a shadow, or a color you swore was one thing but is actually another. I'm a little embarrassed it took me this long but also kind of thrilled about it, you know?
observationpaintingstudio-notes
I keep a mug of my wash water on the radiator and I don't know whyokay so I have this weird thing. half the time when I'm painting I'll set my rinse mug down on the radiator instead of the table and it stays there all afternoon, getting warm, and then I dip my brush in it and the water's basically tea temperature and it does something to the wash I actually kind of like?? like the pigment moves slower or something. I know that's not a real thing. but I painted a whole sky today with lukewarm rinse water and it was the best flat wash I've done in weeks. I'm not saying it's science. I'm saying it's MY science. my mom tells me to move the mug and I'm like no. the radiator stays. the warm water stays. this is how we live now. anyone else got a habit that makes zero sense but your work secretly depends on it. don't leave me alone in this.
habitsstudiowatercolor
I keep painting the same window in my apartment and I think it's actually my whole practice nowOkay so I've been painting the sash window in my bedroom basically every week since like March. Same view of the brick wall and the neighbor's fire escape, same frame, same corner of my desk in the foreground. And at first it was a warm-up thing, you know, something easy to do before I got to the real work. But now I have like 40 of them and I think it might be the most honest thing I make. The light is never the same twice and every time I think I've nailed the way it bounces off that peeling paint, the angle's off by noon and I have to start over. I had a critique last week where someone was like, "why the same window, don't you get bored" and I didn't have the words for it in the moment. But it's not about the window. It's the pressure to always be producing something NEW and different and maybe I'm just stubborn but there's something about committing to one stupid subject until you actually understand it. My professor in school used to say restrictions are a gift and I rolled my eyes so hard but here I am, 40 paintings of one window, more confused and more in love than ever. Is anyone else doing this? One subject you keep returning to that you can't explain to people? I feel a little crazy about it and I'd like to know I'm not alone haha.
practicerepetitionwatercolor
the gallery that said yes but then made you question everythingokay so this is a bit of a vent but also I genuinely want to know who else has been here. I had a gallery take my work last year, was so excited, and then... the show happened and I basically heard nothing from them after. no photos, no follow-up, no "hey we sold this one" until I asked weeks later. and I remember sitting there thinking wait, am I crazy? is this just how it goes? because you hear all the horror stories about bad galleries but nobody talks about the ones that are just... fine. like not malicious, not scamming you, just completely indifferent. and somehow that's almost worse?? at least a red flag gives you a reason to leave. what's the closest you've come to walking away from a gallery that was technically fine but made you feel like a pain in the ass for existing? did you stay? did you go? tell me I'm not the only one who stayed way longer than I should've because I didn't want to seem difficult 😭
first-showgallery-experiencered-flags
Priced a wedding commission at €220 and spent three weeks crying over it so I did the mathok so I finally did the thing where you actually track your hours on a commission and I want to scream. Wedding gift commission, a watercolor of their venue. Charged €220. Three weeks of work but I kept telling myself "oh it's fine I'm just doing the sketch today" and then "the sketch took all day but the painting will be quicker now" and then the painting took five separate days because I repainted the sky three times, once because the bride's mom asked if I could "make it look more golden hour" and I sat there doing it for free. Did the math last night. €220 divided by 46 hours because I ACTUALLY counted. That's €4.78 an hour. My local coffee shop pays €13. The thing is I loved painting it. The venue had this insane wisteria over the arch and I got the light right on the third try and the bride cried when she picked it up, actual tears, and her mom hugged me. And I still feel insane for pricing it at €220 when I know exactly what it cost me. Like I'm running a business where I pay myself less than minimum wage to make people cry in a good way. I'm raising my next one to €380 and I'm terrified nobody will say yes. The fear of pricing myself out is worse than the math, somehow. Is everyone just... faking it until the numbers stop feeling embarrassing??
commissionpricingwedding
the gallery that ghosted you, what did you do?okay so i sent a really solid application to a small gallery i've admired for ages, like actually tailored the email, referenced specific artists they show, the whole thing. and then... nothing. not even an automated response. it's been three weeks and i keep checking my sent folder like maybe i imagined sending it lol. i know galleries get flooded and i know i'm being impatient but honestly the not-knowing is worse than a no. i'd genuinely rather get a "not for us, but thanks" than just radio silence. so what do you do when a gallery ghosts you? do you follow up once? twice? do you just write it off and move on? or have you ever had a ghost come back weeks later with a yes and felt insane about it??
follow-upgallery-outreachrejection
My favorite brush has a splitting handle and I refuse to get a new oneOkay so I have this round sable brush, size 6, I've had it since like second year of uni and the handle is literally cracked all the way down the middle and held together with washi tape. The ferrule is loose. It wobbles. Anyone else would have tossed it years ago but it holds a point sharper than anything I've bought since and I'm convinced it absorbed some kind of magic from all the paintings it's been through. I tried to replace it twice, bought two very expensive "upgrades," both are sitting in the cup collecting dust because they just don't behave the same. My partner thinks I'm insane. They offered to buy me a matching new set for my birthday and I had to gently explain that would be like replacing a childhood dog with a similar-looking dog and expecting no one to notice. Anyway I spent the morning painting a pear and the brush is fine, the pear is fine, the washi tape is doing its job. Just needed to say it out loud to people who might understand instead of my mother who asked if I could just "use a different one" like it's that simple. 😭 Do you have a brush (or pencil, or palette knife, anything) that you'd defend to the death?
brushespaintingstudio-tools
what's the gallery red flag you ignored because you wanted it so bad?okay this one's on me because I look back and cringe. my first group show invite came from a gallery that couldn't remember my name in the email, wanted me to pay for my own framing AND shipping AND the opening wine, and the contract was three pages of stuff I didn't understand. and I said yes anyway because I was so desperate to have "galleried artist" on my résumé. obviously nothing came of it, I never even got photos of my work from the night. wasted like $400. anyone else got a red flag they walked straight past because the opportunity felt too good to pass up? or did someone catch one in time and dodge a bullet? need to know I'm not the only one who learned this the expensive way 😭
gallery-outreachgroup-showsred-flags
the man who asked if he could "commission me something small" and then described my entire next monthGuy messaged me yesterday, real polite, "could I commission something small?" and I was like sure! love that. Then he sent me a paragraph. A full paragraph. He wants a 60x80cm painting (small?? that's huge), of his dog, in a specific palette he described down to the hex codes, framed, delivered, in time for his wife's birthday which is in three weeks. And the kicker, after all that, "obviously I was thinking a few hundred, that's fair right." I did the math on the hours alone and I almost laughed out loud. That's about minimum wage before materials. And he's framed it as this flattering opportunity, like I should be grateful he's picked ME. I told him my rate for that size and timeline and he went quiet. Haven't heard back. Cool. Cool cool cool. I think the thing that gets me is people genuinely don't see the labor. They see watercolor, they think it's quick, it's just water, right? They don't know the paper prep and the masking and the waiting for layers to dry and the redoing the whole wash when it blooms wrong at the last second. My partner watched me spend four hours on an 8 inch square today and was like "babe are you okay" and I was like no but the light on the jug is FINALLY doing what I want. Anyway. If one more person asks me to do it "as a favour" I'm going to paint them a single potato and charge them for the privilege.
being-an-artistcommissioningpeople-dont-get-it
I can't stop buying paint with names that make me feel thingsokay so I went in for one tube of something neutral today and came out with a tube of "decayed rose," "moody willow," and "antique brass" and I have no defense for it. the colors are gorgeous and I'll use them all but I know exactly why I bought them, it's the NAMES. I want to feel like a poet while I'm mixing my palette. I want to say "I started this piece with a wash of decayed rose" and sound devastating. I'm not even ashamed honestly except slightly because I do this every single time and my partner just looks at the receipt and goes "which one is for the window painting" and it's never the one I bought. the worst part is yesterday I painted with a technically perfect color called "indian yellow" (which I hate the name of btw, colonial vibes, we should rename it) and it was fine but I didn't feel anything. meanwhile "decayed rose" is just a muted pink I could have mixed in five seconds. the marketing got me good. I'm a trained professional and I fell for color name poetry. does anyone else buy paints for the names or am I the only one paying $14 for a fantasy
art suppliespaint colorswatercolor
painted my own hand three times this week because I couldn't afford a modelso the full-time artist life is going great except for the part where I have no money for models, which is the part where I decided to paint my own hand three times this week instead. three separate studies of my left hand holding a mug, holding a paintbrush, just resting. hands are SO hard. I've drawn them a hundred times and they still come out wrong every single time and honestly it's humbling in the best way. but here's the thing. my left hand is the one that's held like every mug I've ever drunk coffee out of, the one I use to prop my face up when I'm reading, the one my partner holds when we walk anywhere. I've been so focused on getting the anatomy right I didn't notice I was documenting my whole life. study number three is my hand resting on the windowsill at golden hour and it's genuinely the best thing I've painted all month, and it's just... my hand. my boring left hand that does nothing special. anyway I'm framing it. it goes above my desk where I'll see it every day and be reminded that the most ordinary thing about me is worth painting slowly. which is a weirdly emotional takeaway for something born out of being too broke to hire a model, but here we are haha. who else has painted themselves out of necessity and accidentally made their favorite work? I can't be the only one
self-portraitstudieswatercolor
My studio is a folding table and a box fan and I've never been more productiveEveryone keeps posting these gorgeous studio photos and mine is literally a fold-out table wedged between the radiator and the window in the bedroom I share with my partner. The window I keep painting is the one right above the table. I have a box fan that sounds like a small plane taking off and honestly I've learned to hear it as white noise now, there's no going back. But here's the thing, I just finished the biggest commission I've ever had on that janky table and it went out today and I'm so proud of it I could cry a little. Eight months ago I was doing this on my lunch breaks at the café. Now I have a folding table that's mine all day. I keep catching myself staring at it like it's a whole room. I know someday I'll have a real studio with good light and a sink and I'll look back and miss this cramped little corner. It's got the paint flecks on the wall from when I flick my brush too hard and a cup of dirty water that's been sitting there for three days that I keep meaning to change. It's gross. It's perfect. What's your setup right now? Do I need to know there are studio sinks in my future or is the box fan just my life now
commission workstudio spaceworking small
my first commission from a stranger paid for my groceries this weekI keep almost not posting this because it feels small, but my mom pointed out it's the whole point so here I am. Someone found my work on instagram (which still feels fake to say, like who is out there FINDING my work) and commissioned a little painting of their dog. Not a friend, not a friend of a friend, a total stranger. And the money from it covered my groceries this week, which I know sounds like nothing but it's the first time I've paid for food with art money and I cried in the checkout line at Aldi. Like actually cried. Over frozen vegetables. The dog was a corgi named Mabel and she had this ridiculous grumpy face that I fell in love with. I spent three days on a 8x10 and I keep thinking about how her person is going to hang it in their house somewhere and think of her. Meanwhile my landlord just emailed about rent. Life is so funny like that. One door opening while another one is standing there with its hand out. Eight months into this full-time thing and I'm still mostly terrified but days like today I think it might actually work? Anyway if you've ever wondered whether the small wins count, they do, they're the only ones that have kept me going some weeks.
commissionfull-time-artistsmall-wins
I just realized I've painted the same window 47 times and I'm not done yetI counted today while I was cleaning out my flat files and it's 47. Same window, same apartment, I've lived here three years and I just never get tired of the way the light hits that one corner of the frame around 4pm in winter. Sometimes it's the whole window, sometimes just the sill, sometimes it's basically abstract and you'd never know what it is until I tell you. My mom called me while I was counting and she laughed and said "honey that's not a series, that's a problem" and honestly she might be right. But there's something about coming back to the same shape over and over that's the most honest painting I do. No pressure to be interesting, just me and the same damn window and what the light is doing today. I'm gonna send her a photo of all 47 taped up on the floor and see what she says. Part of me wants to keep going until it's 100. Part of me thinks that's insane. Anyone else have the one subject they just never quit?
paintingstudio-noteswatercolor
My palette is permanently stained in exactly the shape of last year's breakdown and honestly I've stopped trying to clean itok so I have this little porcelain palette that I've had since my first year of uni and the stains on it are basically a fossil record of every bad decision I've ever made with paint. There's this one spot where I mixed a truly foul muddy green during a very bad week and no amount of scrubbing has ever lifted it. I used to be so careful with it, like a ritual. Now I just look at it and go "ah yes, there's the week my scholarship almost fell through" and keep painting. also my partner gifted me a proper glass palette for christmas and it's sitting in the drawer untouched because I cannot bring myself to retire the stained one. is that weird?? like I know it's just an object but it's been through the whole thing with me you know. the good paintings AND the ones I had to turn face-down in the drying rack. am I the only one who forms attachments to tools like this. I still use the same brush for my greens specifically. that one brush. for five years. I think if it snapped I'd genuinely mourn.
palettestudio-habitstools