Wednesday, August 25, 2010

This Year's Goals

My goal for this year was to enter some major art competitions, experiment with new techniques and to try my hand at some portraiture. So not a great deal of finished artwork has happened but I have leant a lot both at the easel and away from it. I also have entered quite a few major art competitions but as yet I haven't got into any of' them. I am getting used to the rejection hehehe. There are always so many entries and only 30 or so places. Its really like winning the lottery.

The SALA Festival is well and truly over. Its been great seeing so much art. Some inspiring and some not so hehehe. The thing that takes most of my time is the whole promotion thing *add groan here*. I know art is meant to be made for art's sake but in order to move forward I need to continue to get my art further and further afield. Searching for the right galleries, the ones that suit your style of work, is many hours of research. Trying to get the galleries to respond to your enquiries is hard enough let alone accept your work. A simple "thank you for your enquiries but we are not accepting any new work" does not take that long to email people!!! The energy it takes to stay positive and retain confidence is really hard going. Most of the time I am ok but sometimes I slip and feel sorry for myself hehehe.

The other day I thought I'd better pull my finger out and actually finish a whole painting. I still have a passion for still life painting so more mundane everyday objects will become my models I'm sure.

Mushrooms
mixed media on canvas
50.8x60.9cm (20"x24")

8 comments:

Crowing Moon said...

Your mushrooms look great...and YUMMY I love mushies :)
Maybe you should try some other areas to get your art known besides galleries. I follow and am friends with a few well known artists on facebook...you may have heard of some of them. Two in particular are Jasmine Beckett-Griffith and Selina Fenech. Both are fantasy artists..Selina more fairies and neither of them are in galleries. They both promote their works themselves.
I know Jasmine lists hers on ebay and Zazzle. Zazzle is free to join and if and when anything sells they take a small commission but your art can be printed on mugs, t-shirts, and different sized poster prints,cards etc..they do all the work :) Selina has listings on Etsy too I'm pretty sure.
DeviantArt and Elfwood you can post your art for free. You'll get more people viewing and enquiring about your art that way than trying to get galleries to take you on. They both said getting into galleries was near impossible and promoted them selves ...took a while to get recognised but they are huge now..you can do it too :)
best of luck :D

april said...

I agree! Good enough to take a bite. Beautiful, firm and fresh color! Yum!

Uta said...

Thanks ladies.

Shelley, I'm on RedBubble and have a fan page on FaceBook. Reason I want galleries is that I don't like doing the selling myself but I will certainly look up the sites you have suggested, thank you.

Laura said...

what ever is going on in your life I was look forward to coming to your blog to see the new works..I have to say I've missed them for sometime and it's great to see the return...they are your voice my dear...

Doris said...

Beautiful! Maybe you need to approach some restaurants with this! Keep the chin up, all will fall into place when the time is right!

Anonymous said...

mmm! Those mushrooms do look cool and creamy! Imagining the painting at full size, makes me think of monuments like syonehenge too. I love the way your larger than life images make me see things anew! Keep on truckin' Uta, BIG hug!xxx

Anonymous said...

erm, that's "sTonehenge".. *blush!*

butterfly woman said...

Nothing mundane about these mushrooms. Love the composition and the various shapes you have used here. I want to touch them and feel their texture! They seem full of life for an inanimate object.
Never get tired of seeing your work, your creations always inspire and rejuvenate me!