Saturday, April 23, 2011

Arty Stuff and Back Pain

The last couple of weeks has been a blurry haze of pain, painkillers and muscle relaxers. My doctor thinks I have a new bulging disc in my lower back. I am trying to be patient, but it's hard.
I've had a lot of time to sit here, wishing I could paint. I'm about ready to do it anyway.

Here's some things I have been thinking about:
Have you seen this?:
DANIEL SMITH Watercolor Ground, Pint
For a couple of years I have used plain white gesso for the ground in a lot of my paintings, esp. faces, as you can use watercolor, either pencils or tube watercolors on it pretty well. Anyway, I'm going to get some of this and try it.
My favorite surface to paint on is gessoed masonite. Delightful. No rough holey canvas to worry about, just smooth, buttery, gesso. I love it.

Reading Salley Mavor's blog reminded me that I have wanted to incorporate my love of all things stitchy into my work somehow. So when my head clears from drugginess, I've been thinking how to do that. The most frustrating thing about being an artist is trying new things that don't work. Hours spent making ugly art. But you have to pay the piper. From all that work and frustration comes something original and worth it.

Some thoughts on listing on etsy or ebay or whatever:
Try hard to take a picture of your painting on a wall. Either use a gallery wrapped canvas or frame it. It's worth the trouble. Try to place something in your photo that gives an idea of the size of an item. Making a cool still life out of your painting and other things is also good, it makes the buyer see how they could hang your painting in their house. Be sure and state the size and any other pertinent info. Even your motivation and thoughts while painting the piece are interesting to buyers.

Gotta go, hope this helps!

2 comments:

Janine said...

Oh Julie my sympathy on the back pain! I know what that is like and to me it is worse than child birth! I hope you feel better soon and at the risk of sounding loonie I am sending Reiki to you if you don't mind...for you backpain. Get well soon!

As far as the DS product I had that on my blog a few months ago. I tried it it works the only set back for me was you have to wait a day or more for it to thouroughly dry. Also, it bleeds through, that is to say that when you paint over it you can't use gesso or the product to cover what you don't like it stays. Kind of like a fresco. The paint seeps in and no matter what you do you scrap it paint it over you will still see what's beneath it so make sure you paint what you want to keep. Otherwise I like it!

Campbell Jane said...

Oh I'm so sorry your back is bum. I suffer with mine sometimes but can't imagine what you are going through. Will pray for you to get better soon. Take this time to recharge your creative batteries! You have intrigued me. I have gesso but have just used it on collages I don't really prepare my canvas or canvas paper with it. Will try it now. Butter sounds good.
Get Well Soon!
Blessings & Happy Easter!