Is it really 2015 already?

So blogging on a regular basis is not my thing. Who says you have to do it? Well, I guess if you want to get a lot of followers, and be a real artist, and gain momentum, and drive traffic to your website...then you blog. More than once every month or two. I ain't no regular blogger.

I have a day job; I'm a sr project manager at a software company. I work 45-50 hours every week slugging it out on left brain crap like trying to get shitty software implemented for customers all over the country.

This is the art I create for real money- my day job as a BA/PM

And then there's my art. It's been a slow start to 2015. I have "artists block". I can't seem to get motivated. I did paint live at a corporate Christmas party in December. Painted in acrylic over 3 hours I managed to grab a couple of in progress shots. Other than forgetting most of my paints and grateful my wife fought downtown Milwaukee traffic to bring them to the rescue, it was more fun than painting success.

I'll rehash this one from last spring. Sitting on the beach in Huatulco, MX, the water was crashing over these rocks as I banged out a quick pastel en plein air. Water changes so fast...the rocks were pretty much covered by the time I was finishing this piece. Kinda like it.

So, off we go to 2015. I've actually just finished a 30x40 abstract, I just have to get the photos up and visible. I forced myself to paint. Is that good? I don't know. I just felt I had to do something, one thing per month. At a minimum. Real artists paint every day. Real bloggers blog every day. So where does that leave me?

Vernazza Italy- SOLD

Created this little one in the studio after a visit to Vernazza, Italy in the Cinque Terra area. Was fortunate enough to have someone love this painting and collect it. Enjoy.

Oil painting abstract- captured on video

Once in awhile you have to do what needs to be done. I've looked at this canvas for a couple years and was never totally happy with the painting. So, in one bold move, I strung it back up on the easel and had at it. Destroy one and bring another to life.

Plein Air Mexico Style

A went on a late winter vacation to Huatulco, Mexico. Located on the Pacific coast as far south as you can get before you reach Guatamala, this area is full of great surf and sites. I took my newly made cigar paint box and a bunch of pastels, with a goal of painting while relaxing at the resort. Lucky me, there was great coastline, super surf, rocky shores and just awesome light. I managed to paint 5 pieces, selling one right on the beach as I was finishing it! Here is a sample.

Art lover quick tour of The Louvre, Paris France

As the year ends

I realized making blog posts is not a habit of mine. Go ahead, click on "Next Blog" and see when the last day a post was made. I'm not alone. We all have good intentions. Most of us fail. This blog was supposed to be a recap of my artistic ventures. I just don't think about posting every time I paint or have a creative thought. More than likely I'll videotape my antics and post to my YouTube Channel. Hey, I enjoy writing, it's just with work and things, this is not my default method to communicate online. Part of me thinks "who cares anyway?" Most don't.

I did recently complete a pastel painting. Of course, Blogger doesn't allow uploads from your local drive, and I didn't take a picture with my Android phone and it resides nowhere else online, so at this exact moment I can't post it. Ugh.

I do have some goals set for next year. No it's not buying Eric Rhodes Artist Boot Camp DVD, but it does sound interesting. And I do have the money. But I have to ask myself, how serious do I take myself with respect to art? Shit, I just started a new full time job. This is my focus. Three years to retirement...I hope. Then I can paint all I want...I hope. If I'm lucky, I'll double my blog posts from this year. And that's good enough for me.

The first painting of 2013 ends with a sale

As the year comes to a close I was wondering how many pieces of art I created this year. I don't keep very good records by month/year but I do have a pretty good idea. Sure, I can go through the dozens....185 to be exact...paintings that pile up in my studio and I'll remember what I did this year.

I had goals for my art, many were hit, some not. Art is not my sole source of income. Thank God, because I would epitomize the starving artist label. Again, I don't create art solely for making money. It's nice, believe me, when someone purchases one of my pieces. Two galleries I exhibited in closed, so I lost local exposure. I've done nothing to get new gallery representation. But, that's okay.

So what about the art? Let's start with a piece, two to be exact, that just sold to a buyer in New Jersey. He happens to be an artist too, and saw my bit on YouTube. First the plein air video. I did it during Christmas break 2012, about a year ago.


I liked the scene enough that I decided to make a bigger version back in the studio. That video is here.

24x36" Oil "December Chill" sits framed on my dining room wall. The cool thing about this one is the scene is literally less than a mile from my house. Sometimes I drive around for hours looking for a place to paint plein air. This was the painting that started out my 2013.