Commissions: To Do or Not To Do

18"x24" charcoal "Meredith's Lovely Children"

??? I've been pondering the question lately whether to continue to do commissions or just to call it quits on that part of my business.



~As the solstice approaches and the New Year right on its tail my mind turns to re-evaluating my life and work. And just don’t see commissions as part of the picture.



$$$ I know many artists don’t like to do them but as a young artist and mom it proved necessary for me to have a semi steady source of income. I just never was employment material. Pastel and charcoal portraits have been a mainstay.



( ) My first commission was at the tender age of just 14. Heck I didn't even have boobs then. And that was a long, long, long freakin time ago.



(..) Then I grew up and grew boobs, had kids and kept doing commissioned art….and a lot of it. In the last five years or so I’ve all but quit promoting them. In my Etsy shop you can find a charcoal and pastels. I do but a fraction of the portraits I have in the past.



:0 Pastel and charcoal portraits have brought so much joy to families over the years and that is the part I will miss...But I am so bored with them and the only ones financially dependent on me are my horses. Commissions have become a huge source of procrastination for me. So I think it’s time to hang up my pastels and charcoals and pull the portraits out of my shop.



 Now don’t you freak out if you are one of my portrait clients and need more of your grand kids done. I of course will continue to help you get a matching set and accept commissions from past customers. But that is pretty much it.



I know all you artists out there have some interesting opinions on this subject. I sure would like to hear them.



And I am even more interested  in opinions from non artists.

The Design Style Guide fabulous Holiday Giveaway Event

   The Design Style Guide fabulous Holiday Giveaway Event

There are 12 very talented sponsors and 12 awesome, beautiful prizes. Talk about the 12 days of Christmas!
To enter this fantastic giveaway – all you need to do is go to the Design Style Guide website and post a link to one item you liked in your comment here. One post about the listing you chose and you are entered into the drawing!!!
  The first prize is one of Kenna Fosters's wonderful photograghs and that will be in just a few days. Each day until Dec. 24 a brand new winner will be chosen.
   Now this is the spirit of giving and showcases some of the many talented artists and designers of Design Style Guide.

Christmas Portraits

Been busy getting ready for the Holidays for my family and other families. I did a pastel portrait of a lovely child Hudson. This will be a much treasured gift for his daddy. I know he will be thrilled.

I have started the charcoal portrait of theses two adorable children for one of my favorite collectors Meredith.This portrait will be fabulous, I can already tell. I love the effect of using the black and white charcoal on grey paper. It gives it so much more depth than just black on white paper.

I have time to do one more and get it out in time for Christmas and yes I do dogs.

They make such wonderful heartfelt gifts.
You can find the order info here for the pastels and here for the charcoal portraits. And they are life-size.

My sale is still going on until the 18th at Lancaster Art. Take advantage of these low prices on sale items and free shipping on everything else.

Tuesdays With Tonka

The Dog Catcher

    Mom and the other humans have some rent houses in a town close to here. One of the people that rented is the dog catcher in that town. He always mailed his rent until he found out mom had horses. He wanted to come over and see the horses so he did.

   We have a lot of people come to our house all the time. We have nurses and aides almost everyday. Paula and her mom come to feed the horses every day. Then we have the renters. The Fed Ex guy really likes me and lets me get in the back of his truck.

    Mom was at the barn as usual and I was with her as usual. The man drove up so I ran to the house and barked for mom like I am supposed to do. Mom headed down but she was walking. The dog catcher got out of his car and I ran up . Then he backs up to the car and was afraid of me.

   Now I have never seen anyone afraid of me before. The first thing I did was bristle up turn around and see if there was an angry horse or snake behind me. I didn't see anything. So I turn back around to the dog catcher bristled up this time and he about climbs on his car. Mom gets there about this time and says "Tonka sit." And I do. Mom goes on to tell the dog catcher I was just a pup and he was scaring me. He was. We walked back to the barn and he looked at the horses.

  The dog catcher came back a few weeks later cause he was moving. Mom and I were at the barn again. I run to see him and bark just like I supposed to. He gets out of the car and tried to act like he was not afraid. But he holds his arms straight out. He calls to mom as she crosses the fence,"He's trying to get my hands." Mom smiles and answers "He thinks you have a stick." She threw me one and I leap after it.

   I think dog catcher must mean someone that is afraid or doesn't like dogs, but I'm not sure.

   The dog catcher is not coming back anymore. I am glad. I don't think I like dog catchers much.

 

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Sundance Journey

SOLD

I could blame this action of mine on a senior moment but the truth be told I have always had these lapses in reason especially when it came to numbers, zeros and decimal points.
The artist in me? Maybe, maybe not.
I needed a different snaffle bit for my young horse Miami. Looked around some and went to ebay. I found just what I wanted and the bid was very low so I placed a bid. $3.25 All good so far. I looked at the sellers other items as they were cleaning out their tack room. There was a nice bridle and I needed another one of those so I bid on it. Then I saw the reins. I had just purchased a new set and didn't really need them but thought what the heck I'll place a small bid and if I get them for seven bucks, yeah. So I placed my bid. Later I went back to see if anyone had out bid me.
And there it was, my high bid: Bit-$3.25 Bridle- $8.50 Reins $701.00
What? Seven hundred freakin dollars! And then the bidding started. Bids and bids and more bids. Needless to say no one bid over seven freakin hundred but it did go over thirty which is very high. I just bought a new pair for $28. Well crap.
I put my big girls panties on, quit whining and paid for it.
The new set of reins has never been out of the bag so I'll  take them back. And the moral of the story is....

Water Horse

Water Horse is the latest painting in the Spirit Horse series. After languishing in the closet of shame for a long, long time it has seen the light of day once again.

I had painted a small study and really loved the feel of it.This one is a 4"x5" and has sold.

The iconic horse image was inspired by the Tibetan wind horses, which were simply put a good luck or prosperity symbol.

I started the larger one in a different format. The canvas is 28"x 42" so a much more rectangular format than the study. Cruising along on it I suddenly realized that the composition was not working at all, the horse was too large the legs too short and the ground chopped everything at the wrong place. So into the closet of shame it went.

The closet of shame is a magical place where paintings can live and sometimes drastically improve not under the direct glare of an overcritical artist who keeps visions of sugar plums in her head so much she can't see a good painting when it bites her.

Anyway back to Water Horse.

 I pulled it out of my special closet but alas no improvement. I did however have an epiphany and knew in an instant what I could do. The phthalo blue paint comes out. I change the ground to all water, fade in the too short legs and it looks fabulous. Now wasn't that easy?

Tuesdays with Tonka

To Bark or Not to Bark, That is the Question.

   Since Smokey crossed the rainbow bridge I am head dog around here. It's not because I'm ready or old enough. It's I guess just my size. The other dogs here are all very small yorkies and such. Mean but not big enough to chase a coyote or fox away from the chickens. Mom still calls me little tiny Tonka even though I'm almost 90 pounds. She's crazy like that.

   I've been trying to guard the whole place by myself so after dark I just look down the driveway and bark. I know there are deer and other things out there. Sometimes I bristle all up and run a ways down there to scare the boogies away.

  When a car comes down the driveway at night I stop barking and wait to see who it is. Mom says I have it all backwards and need to be silent unless something is going on. I'm trying.

  Mom taught me to speak if I want a cookie. It's not really a bark more like a word. We were at the bank the other day and there was a line. I've never seen a line there but sat like Mom told me to behind the man in front of us. After a few minutes I thought I would go ahead and ask for my cookie. The man turned around and accused me of growling at him and thought I was mean. The nice ladies at the bank just laughed and got me my cookies.

Who knew it was all so complicated.