Make art that sells: week four

The 4th week of MATS was all about wall art, and it was both a really fun week for me and a really frustrating week for me. It was all good though, I'll explain.

Lilla encouraged everyone to really push out of their comfort zones and give painting a try since it was wall art week. (Of course we weren't required to.) I jumped in and had the most fun painting away for most of the week. I used to paint for a living when I was a scenic artist, so I am no stranger to it, but hadn't picked up a brush in over 10 years. (Yikes!) Playing with the paint woke up a part of my brain that felt good to reconnect with. But then the frustrating part came in. The week was winding down and I had lots of good starts, but nothing I was loving, so I jumped on the computer. The subject matter needed to be both abstract and floral, and we were assigned specific colors to work with. While I liked mine (red and orange), for some reason I felt like I was having an argument with them. Again there were lots of starts, but nothing I was loving. Remembering what I learned from the week before about art being a conversation with yourself, I decided to change the conversation. Once I did that, everything shifted. Suddenly there was no more arguing. 

Picking up a brush and painting again was one of the fun parts of the week for sure. But the frustrating part taught me that I really do prefer to work digitally, even if it's my hand drawings I'm using as the main imagery. I even prefer to layer the texture in digitally. I like the control it gives me. The limitless possibilities and combinations. To work just by painting made me feel pinned in. But, the fun I had painting told me that I need to be spending more time making marks and textures with my old fashioned tools so I have a library of them to use with my new fashioned tool. (AKA my beloved MacBook pro.)

Will I be kicking out lots of full size painting any time soon? No. I will be incorporating painting into my regular routine though. I've realized it's a great way to flex a creative muscle in a way you just can't do on the computer. There's no command Z (that's undo for you non computer designers) so of course the approach- or conversation- is inherently different. I will definitely be adding lots of wall art pieces to my portfolio though. (and etsy shop). Stay tuned!