Coffee Thoughts ~ Saturday

Yesterday ended up being a major "artist crisis" day for me....phew! I was trying to figure out how to do the triptych of the cheetah for the living room. And the plan just wasn't working. I was still fretting over it when I went to bed last night!

But this morning my head cleared. See, I was having major issues with the thought of "cutting up the cheetah" - i.e. separating the one animal onto different canvases. It was REALLY bugging me - I guess that's my animal lover instinct coming out. :)

So what I ended up deciding was to do a landscape scene with the cheetah appearing in the middle panel. As I went along designing this art, I decided to add another cheetah in each of the side panels as well. After 3 hours of design time already this morning, I finally have it all planned out. The overall scene has some architecture - stone columns and a wall. Behind/over the wall in the background you can see the ocean and mountain landscape. In front of the wall on each panel are cheetahs in various positions/poses. The sun is coming from behind, hitting the ocean water and splashing up onto the stone wall/columns, and cheetah fur. Also decorating the wall area are various other elements, such as a stone venus sculpture and some pots with flowers. Down in front, near the cheetahs, are some more flowers - and the flowers span from canvas to canvas, connecting the three images. So hanging together, it's one large scene. Yet, because of the way I've designed each panel, each can be hung separately and stand on it's own.

Overall this has been a very interesting challenge so far. It's not as easy as I thought it would be, but that's probably because I'm so particular about the animals, the room this is going to hang in, the size it needs to be overall, and what colors need to be in the piece. Of course, like all of my art, it will be up for sale. I can assure you this though....this piece will be a prime price and won't be going on Ebay. LOL

And speaking of pricing, I was doing some research the past few days and ended up on the site of another artist who does watercolor on canvas. I'm not sure if the artist is using the special watercolor canvas I am, or if she is using a regular canvas which has been primed for watercolor somehow. Anyway, I was looking over her art and prices. I didn't like the art at all, but that's a matter of personal taste on my part due to the subject matter and color choices, which didn't really appeal to me. I noticed, however, her prices mostly were in the $8,000-$20,000+ range, and she had several pieces marked sold. She has a 16x20 up (same size as most of my watercolors on canvas) and has a price on it of over $20,000. Methinks I should raise my prices!

Maybe she is a well known artist - maybe her subject matter is being collected by people who will pay those prices. I don't know. All I know is seeing that gives me hope that someday, I'll actually be making a decent living from my work.

Yesterday I got a bunch of canvases in - this time I ordered different sizes and also some canvas boards which can be easily popped in a frame for display. Now I just have to order the canvases for my cheetah trilogy and I'll be all set. Unfortunately after paying bills this morning, I'm kind of stuck before I can order those...I need to sell some paintings first! I have 2 paintings on Ebay currently and I have another I'll be finishing today of a blue and gold macaw. He's turning out wonderful!

Rachel called last night and told me she sold my elephant pendant. It's about time he sold! I thought he was really quite cool and I can't believe it took him this long to sell! He's from my "Portrayals" series in this album on my old gallery site.

I still have quite a bit of jewelry there for sale. I was going to have a big summer sale and mark pieces down, but Rachel has a jewelry show scheduled for the end of November. Since I'm not making any new pieces currently, I figure I'll save my inventory to take for the show then. Our jewelry show last year was quite successful and many pieces sold. I want to make sure I have inventory available for it again this year.

Well I hear the blue and gold macaw calling my name....guess I'd better get down there and finish him up so I can get him online later today! :)

Jai