Raffle

Ironically, I wrote more blog posts last month and got less post hits. This either means my posts were very boring or people were otherwise occupied looking at other websites and doing Christmas shopping. Lets go with the second option.

I am worn out today, but there are new paintings to put online, presents to organise and wrap, art Christmas cards to write, and send, and work to do. Needless to say all this means getting art website update time is pretty thin on the ground at the moment. I think on my wishlist this year might be a sabbatical; But it is OK, busy is good and I am not too stressed currently, money is coming in, socialising is happening, most of my present shopping is done except the awkward last few people, (who I really should consider just falling out with because it would probably be easier!). So I am on top of it all, well almost. I have just put in a print order with my printers as I have some orders to fulfil, but as yet I have had no response from them which is a bit worrying! They are normally pretty reliable though so fingers crossed.

In other news....

I donated a super posh print of 'Goodnight Tower Bridge' to a charity auction over the weekend and got quite a lot of positive feedback from it. The best bit being that you could choose your raffle prize and my print went first! I was impressed as there were free lunches on offer (apparently they do exist), alcohol, Windsor Racecourse tickets, theatre vouchers and everything in between. Everyone was also very complimentary about my work, and the lady that won the print, ecstatic.

A welcome boost, that was very much needed, and we raised over £450 for the extremely worthwhile Daisy's Dream Charity. Good job everyone.

Sunday

I thought I would be super efficient today and log in and write a blog post. I am not sure where to start though, mostly because I haven't done any art stuff this weekend as I had a Christmas Market weekend away to Bournemouth with a few friends. The resulting tone of the afternoon, is definitely one that involves cups of tea, a blanket and a film and not much else.

That said, last week was quite exciting. My advert finished with 122 likes on my painting and 25 new page followers. More importantly though, and slightly out of nowhere I finally got so on top of my uploading and the photography side of things that I could finally start updating my art website!!!!!!!

Needless to say I got totally carried away with this, helped by not much work at the beginning of the week and a few late nights. I have made a good start and can re-use the base of some of the pages I have created previously which helps as it means I don't have to totally start again. Most of my images are also almost formatted ready to be placed into my print shop. Or my general shop. I am toying at the moment whether to add in the option to buy cups, puzzles, bags and cushions into my shop as well; These are a few of the decisions that I still have outstanding in order to finalise some of my page options. At the moment I decided to focus on the pages that I could reformat easily and I will mull over the other options as I go along, and hopefully at some point come to a decision.

Either way I am excited to finally have started updating the art website, partly because I have been wanting to tackle it for over a year and partly because it really is a sign that I am catching up with my to-do list. Soon, all that will be left will be getting on top of my social media, which really will be the start of pushing everything a little bit harder! 

Tioga Pass

So it is fair to say that Facebook advertising does work. My advert has been running for almost a week now and has one day left to go. As standard, a 'popular' painting post gets me between 20 and 30 likes, and I had 208 page followers. 6 days later and I now have 229 followers and Tioga Pass has 113 likes and there is still time to pick up a few extras. Whilst in Facebook terms these numbers are not particularly impressive, I am pretty impressed. I could, after all, have used the advert and not got anything from it. It seems like it might be worth periodically boosting the odd post, whilst making sure I don't go crazy - I can imagine it is something you could easily use up a lot of money on! Food for thought. Incidentally, here is the painting that is currently trying to earn me some brownie points!

It is a view of Half Dome in Yosemite from the Tioga Pass - a road that cuts right across Yosemite National Park from one side to the other. It is a pretty beautiful drive. It  is a place where the air is so clear and crisp it makes you feel as though your eyesight has improved. It is definitely a view that is lodged firmly in my memory banks...

Black Star

Today has been rather frustrating. I feel like I have spent half of the day trying to sort out my annual Christmas card order. Firstly because the offer wasn't working and then secondly because the template wasn't working either. The company solved the offer issue, and my computer eventually solved the other issue by letting me use Internet Explorer rather than Safari, Chrome or Microsoft Edge - none of which were loading the website properly. But anyway, all ordered now and just my to-do list to update so I can remove some more items from my memory.

Today seems like a slightly less positive day than yesterday, but still, lots of stuff sorted out so that is all good. I have also prepped some items for my usual new year give away, as well as sorting out some raffle prizes for the Maidenhead Ladies Circle Christmas party. I am certainly getting out and about a bit more if nothing else! I also managed to order a couple of 100 piece puzzles of my work to give to a local charity which are running out of small puzzles for their members to do!

Just call me Florence.

Also, for some reason I wanted to share the following photo and soundtrack with you. Shortly after David Bowie died, I listened to some of his final work - most notably the title track 'Black Star'. I find the song quite haunting When I was sorting through my US photos I converted one of them to black and white and subsequently was compelled to call it 'Black Star'. These now seem to have developed such a strong connection in my mind that I can't seem to separate them, or stop thinking about them. As with all blocks, I work on the principle that a problem shared is a problem halved. So here it is - my tribute to David Bowie....

And if you are interested, you can listen to the song and watch the video here

A Boost.

I have had quite a bit of art time this week, which has been quite therapeutic. A new painting has been created, all my photos are online, EVERYWHERE, and I have chosen my Christmas cards, which are now ready for creation once I get confirmation from my printer that they can accommodate my designs.  I like this organised feeling, or at least this feeling of progression. Every extra to-do list item out of my head, gives my brain a little bit more space to think about painting, and that can only be a good thing.

This week has also been interesting as Facebook offered me a free £30 advert boost for one of my posts. I have set one up to run for a week and it has been exciting following the results. The painting already has 60 likes, and I have gained 7 extra page followers. I kind of wish these numbers where all much higher but at least it is a start. It also shows that Facebook advertising does make a difference, so it is something to bear in mind in the future. Especially, for instance, when I run competitions, as that might dramatically increase my interactions.

Putting all my photos online has also been rewarding as I now have 169 notifications on Deviant Art to respond to. It seems like there are boosts all round this week. It is always good to get a little bit of feedback / appreciation. With behind the scenes work, I quite often end up slogging away for ages with not much gain. Well, lots of gain, but not until a later date, so sometimes it seems like you do a lot of work for little immediate satisfaction / reaction. Not so this week it seems as I have also gained about 15 extra fans on Artfinder too! I guess this is showing that whilst things were ticking away slowly without me, if I can put some effort in, they will tick much faster.

For the first time in a while, I am excited!

 

Art Bible

I am trying to be efficient today. I have about a thousand art things, half done, so I am trying to complete one section of items today.

I have recently managed to find the time to go through my last few sets of holiday photos, comprising of Singapore, Thailand, Slovenia and California. My art shots have been chosen, tidied and cropped as required so all that is left to do is to sort them ready for upload onto my Fine Art America site and onto my website.

Unfortunately I updated all my photos onto my website so long ago that I can't remember how I formatted them. I think it goes something like: compress them on tiny png, add the watermark and reduce the max pixel size to 1200 and save an 'actual pixel' shot and a 'framed' version. I think anyway.

I need to make a note of these processes as they will come in rather handy when I am updating my art website. Just as well I made myself an 'Art Bible' the other day with everything I could possibly need noted within it. Well everything but this bit, but I'll make a note of that now!

And, yes, this is my art bible, not a laptop! I couldn't have anything standard after all! :-)

Fall

I keep thinking I only posted a couple of days ago, but no, somehow it was two weeks ago. Seriously time - SLOW DOWN!

It seems that 'Hawaii' has arrived safely in Portland, and I had a really good review from the new owners of 'Carcassonne' so all good news.

I have even managed to pull out a couple of new paintings in the last couple of weeks too. Neither of them are super exciting but both therapeutic in their own right.

The latest one seems to be getting a marmite reaction. I am intrigued that it seems to be controversial as that was not my intention. It started as a too strong background that I was struggling to finish, so the fact that I have finished it, and more successfully than I was expecting means that I am quite pleased with it; So say hello to 'Fall'

It looks OK to me!? It will be interesting to see it's reception across the board. Quite often, for instance, if it doesn't get many 'likes' on Facebook, it will get more than usual on Artfinder. I remember one painting that suddenly exploded on DeviantArt and I woke up to lots of favourite notifications. Either way, the outcome is always unpredictable and fun to guess. Still, it is safe to say, if I like it, then I automatically curse it with unpopularity, if I don't like it, then I am on to a winner. I must be looking at it for something else - or at least that is my excuse....

Hawaii to Oregon

I am having one of those weeks where everything happens at once (again!). It is strange that I haven't had any sales through Artfinder for a while and then I have two on the same day. It is like that day last year where I hadn't sold anything for a while and then I sold 4 in one go! These, needless to say, are my favourite days! :-D

One of the sales this time is going to be interesting as I need to ship the work to the big old US of A. I am a bit apprehensive as that is a long way for my painting to travel on its own. All other paintings to the US have been hand delivered so I, or whoever was taking them, could look after them. I have posted things abroad before - to France, Norway and Northern Ireland but still, sending a painting to the US seems like the next big step. I shall have to wrap it in triplicate.

This will be the third time the courier has visited my house this week. The first time was to pick up Las Fran Paris Beach to take to Wales, the second time will be this morning to pick up Carcassonne to take to Stoke on Trent, and lastly, picking up Hawaii to take to Portland, Oregon. An exciting week!

I have had Hawaii, for quite a long time, since 2013 in fact when it was created. I have managed to sell both Laguna and Hawaii this year, two of my longest standing sale items. I always miss them the most when they go as I never realise how used I am to seeing them.

So Good luck Hawaii! You are going on an adventure!

Laura Hologram

Look at me! I have just spent the last couple of hours making a few changes to my photography website. The website has been up and running for quite a while but I haven't been entirely satisfied with a couple of pages and so, have consequently kept its creation a bit of a secret. However, at some point over the last couple of months I figured out what I needed to change and half an hour ago I completed the changes.

BOOM!

I feel quite pleased with myself now. I can't keep making excuses that I am not getting art time, if, when I have art time I don't do anything. There are still a million things to do but it is a start. I sorted through my backlog of photos the other day and I have some pretty good ones lined up from Singapore and a few from Thailand all ready to go, and impatiently waiting to be shared across various platforms. I have also just returned from a road-trip across California, so there will be new photos to add from there as well as from Slovenia, as I still haven't managed to sift through that pile for gems yet.

All sounding good!

Hopefully soon I will also get onto Hootsuite and start posting more regularly on Twitter and Instagram, and then I can tackle the rest of my to-do list.

We can do this!

In the meantime please feel free to have a browse of my photography site, you can find it here or by searching for Laura Hologram!

Las Fran Paris Beach....

I have recently returned from inspiration collecting after road tripping across some of the national parks in California. It is safe to say I have seen some spectacular scenery, and hopefully have some photos to prove it. I have just managed to clear the painting decks after painting a commission this weekend that has been in the pipeline for a while, so this should mean good things for painting time to come, at least I hope so. I am feeling a bit burnt out still. Feeling burnt out is strange, I feel like nothing would help more than sitting down and doing a painting, but I need to be in the right frame of mind, and it is always surprising how much painting takes out of me, so I need to have some mental energy too. I think I need to give my brain some time to file first, but I definitely have some good paintings to come, that is assuming I can choose between my inspiration photos. That is one problem about seeing too much, I hope I am not going to have a Grand Canyon explosion again!

In the meantime my recently completed commission was certainly a challenge. I was requested to put The Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, Lombard Street, Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach all in one picture. A bit of a tall order but somehow I managed!

Behold: Las Fran Paris Beach....

 

Prince of Prints

Having said, I seem to be able to manage one post a month, I have completely failed even that in August. This is becoming slightly disgraceful. I am failing the test of art v work v exercise v socialising all the time! Art, unfortunately, always seems to come out last.

That said, I have still been busy, with one commission recently completed, one in design phase and an order for an absolutely massive print.

And when I say massive...

I mean massive!!! It was a huge 2 metres x 1 metre, and as this photo shows looked rather surreal!

It is also on its way to Hungary and will become my first piece of artwork to grace that country. I am enjoying the range of countries my work has made it to so far. I think it is my 11th country I have shipped work to as yet, assuming my memory is behaving itself (which is always debatable!).

Popped up, popped in and popped out.

So it seems like I can only manage to blog once a month currently. I was, very briefly on top of everything - for a day, and by on top of everything, I just mean that I knew what was going on. But somehow now, I have two commissions in discussion, 4 print orders, and messages coming in as I have put my left over pop up shop items up for sale on facebook. I am on top of my architecture work though, just, and on top of my admin, kind of, and I think 'real life' is in check at the moment. So I think that means I am vaguely organised.

Busy, busy! It all makes rather a contrast with when I first started out.

Incidentally, I meant to share on here more information about my London pop up shop. Unfortunately it was only up for a week and has already been and gone. In between working, manning the shop and getting my stock ready I seemed to have slightly failed the marketing test! Nonetheless it wasn't a complete flop, but nor was it a soaring success. I shared the shop with 3 other friends - a photographer and two jewellers, so we had a pretty good variety of stock, the shop, in fact, looked pretty good. the downside was the lack of footfall, although what footfall we had had a good rate of purchase.

I think I learnt some valuable lessons though:

1. Choose where you locate carefully, I don't think the area we were in was particularly suited to my style of work.
2. Price is important. I was told too many times that I was selling everything too cheaply. 
3. Marketing is everything.
4. Be gregarious - I need to be more willing to talk about my work and sell my ideas. 
5. Local is better. It would have been much easier for me to get people in my local area to visit my shop and it would also have been considerably easier not to have taken my stock (by foot!) into London.
6. Music! Have music on in the background to avoid 'rushing in and rushing out shop syndrome'! 
7. Do some fake browsing. People are always more likely to come in if it looks like there are already people in the shop. 

So the jury is out currently on whether I will do another one of these or not. There is a shop in Maidenhead that might sell some of my stock so that seems like a good avenue to explore to start with. It also seems, art wise, that a personal exhibition may be more successful than a shop, at least whilst I am trying to become a 'known' entity.

Marketing is tough.

Exhibition Review.

It has been one month since I last blogged, and so much has happened within that month that I literally don't know where to start. I seem to have been busy on all fronts and have work, and art and commitments coming in from all sides. I am at that point where I am juggling 20 balls and I have thrown them all up too high. I am currently looking up at the sky wondering a) where all the balls have gone and b) where and when they will fall and if I will have enough time to catch them.

All answers are currently debatable.

But lets start with a review of my exhibition on the Isle of Wight. Take down day was on Tuesday the 5th of June. The results are as follows. 1 painting sold before the exhibition opens. 2 sold, including my largest sale to date, during the exhibition, various business cards taken, 1 commission enquiry in progress. Then somewhat impressively, 8 paintings sold after take down. 20 paintings went to the Island and only 9 returned. That seems pretty good and has afforded me some extra room in my house, which is just as well as I have been ordering lots of stock in for my London pop up shop, but more about that later.

So all in all, as well as the comments and the interest generated by my work whilst it was up, things seem pretty positive and successful. I was, in fact, far more successful than I would either have imagined or dreamed. I am hoping for a similar response to my pop up shop, but this is a different entity and only up for one week, so it will be difficult to generate as much interest or sales I would presume. I have a much greater variety of items on show though - cups, cards, cushions, prints, paintings, bags.....

That is another good thing that has happened over the last month - I have found a good place to source my mounted prints. It requires some assembly on my part but not to any great degree. It seems like everything is coming together. I just need to find some more places to exhibit and/or sell my art.

I guess I had better put that on my to do list.

Watch this space.

Manchester

I am not sure where the last few weeks have gone. Time flies far too fast sometimes.

I was going to do an art post of some description today but I am distracted. Distracted by Manchester and the atrocities that happened last night. The world descends into madness when it becomes acceptable to target children. Destabilising society by attacking the vulnerable, on what must have been, for many of them, the highlight of the year, if not their young lives, to be so close to Ariana Grande and experience big music in a big arena for the first time, second time, whatever time.

Humanity is a strange thing, one where some people think cows are sacred, where some people hunt, some people are vegetarians, some people prefer animals over humans, some prefer ideals over life, some think they are better than others, some murder for martyrdom. Footballers are paid millions, nurses paid very little, cuts here, cuts there, greed, greed, greed.

Everything is all wrong, and everything is all right. People being heroes in catastrophes, doing good, remembering where their hearts are and letting them shout. Shout louder than the people with skewed perspectives and strange, painful and destructive ideas. And that is more important to remember than the people that are ticking, or driving, or killing, or hating.

  

Salt & Pepper Pot

It seems like I may have another painting that I won't be able to say goodbye to, as according to my Dad, "Salt and Pepper Pot" now has a red dot on it, which means it has been sold. I hope so!

I have had a love hate relationship with this painting as I was really disappointed with it when I first painted it. I have subsequently come to like it quite a lot though. Normally, if I initially don't like something it is only because it is unexpected. I will  have had a vision in my head of the final painting, and the actual painting will have turned out differently which I will  have found frustrating. Quite often these paintings then turn out to be my favourites as they have something different about them, went where they needed to go, regardless of my brain or hand. So I am happy with "Salt and Pepper Pot" in the end, and happy someone else loves it enough to buy it. Thank you!

Laguna

I am back from holiday and thinking about what I need to do. Trips to the Isle of Wight, Canterbury and beautiful Slovenia have all definitely given me some inspiration. I need to dedicate some time to going through all my photographs, but with a holiday comes a backlog. Work from all angles, domestic duties and everything else that goes with living. I am seriously thinking that I need to dedicate some art time each week - be it an afternoon or a full day, otherwise nothing is ever going to get done.

But first, exciting exhibition news as I have made my first sale!!! More excitingly it is my biggest sale to date! I like the feeling that the money my paintings are worth is slowly creeping up. I feel like I need to grab onto this exhibition horse and get dragged along with it. I need to do some marketing. On the plus side the exhibition is getting good feedback, people seem to be taking note and having a good peruse of everything that is up, so much so I have had to order 200 more business cards. I also have another exhibition coming up in the not too distant future in London, only for a week but still. I actually quite like showing my work, which is something that I never thought I would say. Maybe it is time to start being more proactive and going to a few more art fairs.

The strange thing about selling something that is being exhibited is that I don't get to say bye to it. You may think I am crazy but normally I am in charge of packaging my work off and sending it to its new owner. 'Laguna' has gone off on its own though, to pastures new, I don't even know where it is going. It is at least going somewhere where it is wanted as the purchasers were so keen to have it that they have taken it before the exhibition is even over, I had to send over a replacement to fill the space.

So, this is it, goodbye 'Laguna' and good luck! I will miss not being able to look at you for one last time....

Graffiti

As a special post exhibition treat, one of my friends invited me to join a graffiti workshop class she was attending with the Maidenhead Ladies Circle. I can't resist trying out a new artistic method so I eagerly agreed. I have no experience of spray painting at all and was interested to see what the 'class' involved. It was a bit of a cheat experience really as they provided us with about a thousand stencils to help make our 'works of art' but that was fine by me. We still had to chose the pieces, compose, pick colours and spray intensely or otherwise, so there was still a lot of creativity involved. I actually loved it. Loved picking the colours, loved picking different stencils and effects and the fact that the spray colours go over everything, white over colour, anything over black. It didn't matter.

I think I might be addicted.

I can't help thinking about creating a piece using spray paint as the background and the trees, plants etc and acrylics as the building, or foreground. Metallic leaf thrown in as well, maybe on one of my massive canvasses. I can already feel the urge to buy some spray paints, a face mask and a boiler suit and clearing the garage in anticipation. Then I can take this first try out to a new dimension.

I definitely think this is going to happen. But first, a holiday (another one).

Exhibition

So, as promised, here are a couple of photos from my exhibition. The space is rather difficult to photograph, and was in fact, slightly difficult to hang. Thank goodness I had vaguely planned out my painting sizes and positions, as in the end, it meant I could display 18 paintings, which amounts to a pretty big show!

I am still at amazed at how well the paintings worked against this somewhat intimidating orange wall.

As you can see, not a conventional space.... it is also surprisingly difficult to stand out against brick walls....

Regardless of the success of the exhibition, so far one painting has sold and 2 are partially under offer, it has been interesting to see them all together and witness how they transformed the space. They definitely add a buzz and a vibrancy to the cafe that was previously lacking with their blank walls. I have also been assured that the footfall at the Quay Arts Centre, is pretty big, so even if the paintings aren't re-homed they will be seen. It is after-all, difficult to ignore them!

They are also up during the Easter Holidays and whilst Richard Long - a Turner Prize winner has an exhibition on upstairs. I don't really think that could have been timed much better!

Islanders

My exhibition is opening today which seems both surreal and exciting! I am glad everything is done and looking good, better than expected in fact. Now all that needs to happen is for you to go and see it!

It starts today and runs for just under two months, ending on June the 5th. It is being housed in the Quay Arts Centre in Newport on the Isle of Wight in the Gallery's rather lovely cafe - the perfect excuse to admire some art with a cup of tea and a piece of cake.

You can check out more details on my facebook page or on Eventbrite.

I really hope you can make it! I will also be sharing some photos of the display on here. But first, a holiday!

(Also a big shout out to my Mum and Dad for helping me set up and coming to collect my paintings from Maidenhead, and to Amy Mackelden for giving me a big kick up the backside to actually have a show).

Isle of Wight

I have been a bit absent recently, but with good cause as I have been painting some location specific works for my exhibition on the Isle of Wight. After my prints debacle, I gave up on the idea of buying in some stock and I am settling for showing originals at my upcoming exhibition only. I don't think this will be a problem - I am leaving behind lots of postcards and business cards, so hopefully people will contact me if they want a print, and then I can bypass the gallery commission fees and not have to fork out so much money upfront on the off chance that someone will buy something. As this is my first exhibition it doesn't really matter how successful it is. It has cost me no money to set up so I can't really lose. It would be good if I can manage to sell something though, and I am interested to see the kind of reception I receive! It is going to be an informative couple of months!  

I am currently in the process of having a late art night - I can't remember the last time I managed to have one - it has been rather an urgent state of affairs though as I realised my mobile website was rather out of date and not working properly. This is obviously totally unacceptable with a gallery showing coming up and lots of potential new customers and website hits. Ideally I wanted to have my new website up and running by now, but with the exhibition opening this coming Saturday there is no chance of this happening. I can at least stay up and make my mobile site work properly, if not look very attractive. So that is what I have done. Last thing left to do is to sign all the works that are being transported to the Island tomorrow and stick their respective authentication stickers on the back of each work. I also need to wrap up one work that has already been sold, before it has even been displayed (!!) as I shared it on Facebook.

All seems like good things are happening, even if they are happening a bit quickly and I feel a little unprepared!

I managed to finish off the last painting I needed to do yesterday, and it seems like a good one to finish of the set as it came out quite well. Say hello to Osborne House....

My exhibition is also on at the same time as Richard Long's - a Turner Prize winner (!!!) Seems like rather good company to have!

Prince of Prints

I feel a bit like I have wasted my life this afternoon. I have been doing some research into prints that I can sell at my upcoming exhibition. The trouble is I don't really know what I am doing. After a lot of searching, I found various companies that will print and mount your work, and deliver the product in a cellophane bag which is exactly what I need. They all seem to be exorbitantly expensive though. Ok, not that expensive, but once I add on a cut for me, it seems like they would be rather expensive for my potential customers. So I need to rethink.

*rethinking*

I have possibly come up with a much more affordable solution - I have in fact, just ordered a sample to see if it will be suitable. The more suitable version comes via toadprint which offers you the opportunity to not only print your work but to custom make a mount too, whilst buying a sized backing board and a cellophane bag at the same time. There are also quite respectable discounts if you bulk buy. I have high hopes that this will solve my dilemma and prove to be a place for me to order all my mounted art prints in the future. Let's hope so.

So  it sounds like I have been very productive!? Kind of, but it took me hours to work out the sized prints and mounts I needed to fit UK available standard frames, and I have nothing to show for it. I am also impatient, so I want to have already ordered everything, chosen the paintings for display, put it all together and sat back and admired my work. As I still need to paint a couple of pieces to show, this is most definitely an unrealistic expectation for my afternoon. I should just be pleased with the amount of decisions I have just made instead.  Unfortunately I feel more like I have just filled my head with lots of 'to do' and 'to order' things instead.

Let's hope zumba clears my head.

I need some cake.

I need to do a blog post about Paul Nash as I went to see his exhibition at Tate Britain a week or so ago. I did think I could do it now, but I literally just felt my brain leave the building and now I am good for nothing except getting easily distracted.

OooooOooooh butterfly......!

On the plus side, this evening I am going to do a bit more work to my photography website. I have somehow managed to get myself roped into having an exhibition on the Isle of Wight at the beginning of April (!!) so it seems like it would be sensible to get everything up together for then. I am not sure whether this is actually possible but I will try!

Whilst I was being distracted I also looked at the stats for this blog. Apparently I have had 23,947 page views. That seems like rather a lot!

Distracting.

So before April the 8th I would like to have my photography website complete, my art website update complete and Twitter and Instagram up and running. I basically have 50 days in which to do that. That doesn't sound like very many!

But it might be enough.

I need to get some milk.

My foot is also swollen as I zumba'd too hard yesterday.

What am I meant to be doing?

Oh yes, 50 days. Hmmm

I need some cake.

Tree

I am having a sense of humour failure today. Maybe I need some more cocktails? I am sure that would cure/create/do something......

On the plus side, I have answered all my dA correspondence, for boosting purposes, let's call it fan mail and I have entered the RA's Summer Exhibition. I have gone for a different tactic this time, entering something less literal, older and not for sale. I wanted to offer prints, but I couldn't seem to fathom how they worked that out on the entry form. Possibly an epic fail, but then entering competitions is usually a bit like that anyway, so no loss really.

The 'lucky' painting trying it's best for me this time is 'Tree' - a weeny picture by my standards and painted one tormented afternoon in 2011.

If they are looking for something a bit different, it might do the trick? Who knows....

It started life as a painting of something else, got painted over a few thousand times, smudged, rubbed out, covered up, scratched and then ended up like this. I am sure all of that should mean something....

Cocktail o'clock

Apparently, for today at least, all my deadlines have been met, and although I have a little bit of work outstanding, it isn't urgent so it will keep until tomorrow. That means, today, I have had an art day! A what I hear you say?

Exactly.

My treat for meeting my final 'January' deadline on Friday (yes, I know it was the 3rd of February) was to go to see an art exhibition and a play in London at the weekend, followed by a painting, and then an art catch up day today. This all seems like a pretty good way to celebrate, that and I may also have had 5 cocktails on Saturday night. (Sorry Mum, I meant 2 cocktails).

It seems like normality has been restored. Well, almost, I did have slight trouble remembering how to paint yesterday and then trouble today remembering how to put everything online but never mind. The rust will wear off.

I am excited to get back on the horse - I still have my photography website to finish and my art one to update which are the two big things, and then I can get started with Instagram. Oh, and work on that big long list of things to do....

First things first though, I need to enter the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition for my annual dose of rejection......

Ice Tracks.

I have art on the brain today and ice in my mind. It was a beautiful start this morning, cold and frosty, sunny and clear. The ideal day for a walk with camera in hand. Unfortunately too many deadlines meant this couldn't happen, and I had to console myself with taking a picture of the frost that had formed on my bedroom window overnight.

Still, it was a good photo and has got my art cogs whirring in the back of my head with an idea for a painting. This is a good sign as I have been a bit overloaded recently with time pressures from all angles. There is always a slight worry that my art brain will turn itself off one day if I don't use it often enough. I am not intentionally ignoring it, but January really is a write off in terms of anything other than 'real' work. In order to save myself the frustration, it is safer to switch off for a month and focus on an art filled February.

There will be an art filled February. But in the meantime, this photograph will have to be satisfying enough.

On your marks, get set..... GO!

So, 2017 week one complete! I don't really have any art news to impart as yet, but I felt I should still blog about something to keep everything alive.

So far, I have sold a print of Big Sur, received a painting enquiry to create a mural in a newly opening, local Indian Restaurant, and entered a competition to get a painting displayed in a high profile shop for a month. I am pretty sure nothing is going to come of the commission request, but it was nice to be asked. I also managed to complete my annual Limited Edition calendar give away which is being posted to the winner tomorrow. Other than that my art list is as follows:

Completed my website updates - No
Started Instagramming - No
Booked a Summer Exhibtion slot - No
Painted - No
Thought about art at all? - No

Oh dear. I did know January was going to be a crazy start to the year though - I am so busy and I already have computer eye. (Where you have stared at a computer for so long that your eyes keep twitching and you are permanently tired). But it is OK. This is till going to be a good year, and hopefully I can earn enough money this month that I can relax and catch up with some art stuff later. There is no rush after all. Art is here to stay :-)