New painting finished!

Composure by Jennifer Broschinsky

Composure. 10″x20″ acrylic on canvas.

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This Week in Art

A week ago today, I submitted “Composure” and “Blue and Gold” to the Springville Art Museum’s Spring Salon. This is a HUGE show around here, very prestigious (and competitive!) and in its 89th year. My two paintings were the 491st and 492nd entries, and there was still a day and a half left for submissions.

I don’t expect mine to be accepted. This is kind of a pie-in-the-sky effort. But hey, if you never aim for the Moon…!  Plus, it’s good practice. And in the beginning, it’s worth the effort to enter as many juried shows as you can.

(A show I missed out on, though, is the 35 x 35 show at the Finch Lane Gallery… it’s for the “young generation of artists”, and only open to artists 35 and under. If only I’d started two years ago…! But enough regretting!)

On the easel now is “Ghost”, my giant canvas, and it’s going well so far, but we’re only in the underpainting stages. It has a long way to go.

Art Panel

Tuesday night I went to a panel where an art professor, commercial gallerist, non-profit gallery director, artist and online art magazine director answered questions on a variety of topics, like the efficacy of graduate school, how to build a career, submitting to galleries and participating in art festivals.

I learned a ton! Especially from the artist, Erin Berrett (go check out her amazing still-lifes, by the way!) — because, amazingly enough, she did the same thing I’m doing. She graduated the same year I did. She went directly to a 9-5 job instead of an art career. Six years ago, she quit and started painting full time.

She packs a lunch and goes to her basement studio for eight hours and then comes back up. She puts in as much time with art as she did with her job. She works hard. And it took her 4-5 years to get her art career to the place it is now.

It was a little discouraging to me. She can work hard; she doesn’t have kids. I have to get a sitter, or have someone field the kids while I sneak away. I have to eke every 15 minutes I can get, and it does not make for great productivity.

But! At least I’m doing it! And every little bit is helping me grow.  Every little show I enter. Every effort I make, every painting I finish, is something. I look at the unfinished painting on my easel and I’m proud of every brush stroke, because of the effort it took to put it there.

I chatted with her a little, after the panel dismissed; she was very kind, gave me some supportive words, and had good suggestions about places to submit exhibit proposals. I’m already making more plans based on her advice.

Already, though, anytime I sit down to read a book or work on my crocheting (or even now, writing this blog post), I start thinking I could and should be using that time to paint. If I had more good working hours, that might be different.