An Artist’s Ramblings

Acrylic on watercolor paper, 20 x 16 inches

 I just made a mistake, one I have made before, but not often.  I read a book about how to be an artist and sell art.  I do love reading a books about art; the process, methods, and biographies about artist.  But, books on selling art tend to leave be just plain pissed off.   Two things are most always mentioned, age and connections.  The first book I read, the main theory said; if you are over twenty five and have not devoted your life to being an artist you have already failed.  I read that first book when I was in my thirties, raising my son, working full time at a hospital and painting when I could.  Needless to say I spending twenty dollars just to be pissed off.  The second book I just read, had the main theory wrapped around having rich connections to market your art.  I have no rich friends or connections.  So, here I sit typing about how pissed I am, that I spent money (this time bought second hand for less than ten dollars) on a book like that again.
    What does it take to be an artist?  Being an artist takes time, skill, and determination.  What does it take to be a rich and famous artist?  It takes time, skill, determination, ambition, location, and connections.  I do not look down on the rich and famous artist out there, envy them a bit, yes.  I live between two main cities; Detroit and Flint Michigan, and in this economic environment, not exactly hot spots for the arts, so thank God for the internet.  A little about me; I am an artist, I am not young or rolling in money.   I will say though I am rich in the fact I have a skill that I truly enjoy.
     To wrap up my little rant, what did I learn fro this latest reading?  I learned that being an artist has more than one definition.  My definition is my own, love what you do, continue to grow and learn more, and most important share your joy of art, and just be thankful when you make an income from your skill.  So in short, I may not be rich, or famous, but I am still an artist and plan to be one as long as I live, and will not be looking for another definition of being an artist any time soon.  
    Noticed that latest paintings I did in-between  reading,have portraits, think there may have been some introspective thought processes going one, maybe.

Mary
Schiros_Art

Save your sketches

I know I have said this before, but it is worth saying again....Save you sketches!   Even those 1 and 2 minute drawing, sometimes those have the most expression.   When cleaning my studio this Winter,  I was tempted to pitch a bunch of old drawing.  But as I sat an looked at those old 1 and 2 minutes drawings, ideas started popping into my head.
   Instead of dumping the sketches I grabbed one and started redrawing it, focusing on what I liked about it.   The following ink and color paintings are some of the places I went with one rough sketch.

14 x 11 inches, Solitude" Acrylic on canvas

                                                     AVAILABLE AT DPWS

A Gift to Paint

I have been having a blast the last week or so.  A friend gave me a the coolest gift;  a bleached deer skull!  Yep he is a hunter, and gave me this to paint.  Thought I would share some of the work I have done so far....
Today I did a study in ink and acrylic, plan to work this one up later in oil:

Ink and acrylic on paper,
AVAILABLE AT DPWS 

Here are a few more..........Can you tell I am aging FUN :)

   The following are available on my Fine Art America website as prints.

This one is on Zazzle;

Anyways just wanted to share, hope you enjoyed seeing what I have been up to, now back to my brushes :)

Mary

Only Color

Thought I would do one of Daily Paint Works challenges today as part of the 30 paintings in 30 days.
This was really suppose to be painted in black and white but, when I do watercolors I do not use black.  I have always mixed my own black, do not even own a tube of black watercolor paint.
The only time I use black with watercolor is if it is mixed media, ink and watercolor because the ink is black.  But the mixes I came up with still worked pretty well ......

Watercolor, 14 x 11 inches, "A Window View"
Available at DPWs

    

Capturing a Moment

Sometimes the perfect picture just suddenly appears.  Or in this case it was the "purrfect" picture.
It has been really cold here in Michigan, below zero last night.   So we had a nice fire going in our wood burning stove, the cats playing in the living room, just a nice evening.  Well my old cat, Hanna wore herself out and stretched out by the stove.  Lucky foe me, I had my Arches watercolor pad and pen handy.  And Hanna stayed still long enough for me to get an ink drawing done.....

This morning I finished the work with a watercolor wash and posted the original on Etsy for sale, and on Zazzle for prints.

Here is the finished work.........

9 x 12 ink and watercolor onArches hot press paper, Matted to 11 by 14 inches, "The Yarn Wins"

make custom gifts at Zazzle

Three of a Kind

When I am at a loss for what to paint, all I have to do is look around.  I have several (once stray) house cats, and at least one is always watching me.  So as these guys watched me I painted them:)
One more for the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge.

8 x 10 inches, acrylic, "Three of a Kind"

AVAILABLE AT DPWS

MARY
SCHIROS_ART