Artist for June is Cathy Nichols

The painter Cathy Nichols is the artist for June. Click on the title to go to my other blog. To learn more about her go to her website: cathynichols.com

5 Useful Things to Know if You Want to Be an Artist(5 more coming later)

Here's a new video I uploaded on Youtube today. As I go along I'll smooth out the rough edges. Why is it so grainy, and my hair so dark? It didn't look that way on my camera???

5 Thing to know if you want to be an artist

Lately I've been thinking about all of the misconceptions there are about being an aritst, so I wrote down 10 things that I learned the hard way. Well I was naive about the whole thing in the beginning, but learned as I went along. Some people have a negative opinion and others a more romantic one about being an artist. With all of that in mind I've been working on a video to talk about these things, but have taken a time out from my camera, not doing what I want it to do for me,ugh! For now I'm writing these 5 down. There will be 5 later, cause that's how I planned it on the video.

1.Rejection, get used to it. Unless you are well connected, really lucky or a
marketing wiz, you'll get a lot of rejection.

2.Persistence, you must be persistent. This bussiness is more about hard work
less about talent. Like anything you must keep at it.

3.Bussiness and marketing, learn as much as you can. Read books, take classes,
talk to people, ask questions...

4.Write down your plans, what are your goals? How will you get what you want?
This can always change along the way, be flexible.

5. Have a website, start small, have pictures and a short bio. If you don't have
your own computer get one today.




Enough words, let's look at a pretty picture. It's another curious cow, they are the same everywhere.
Click here to view more of gardawind's pic's.

Lost e-mails

Last week, sometime before Thursday all of my e-mails were lost because of a power outage, ugh! If anyone sent an e-mail last week, please send it again.

Krazy Kat

Lately I've been looking at the drawings/paintings of an artist I love George Herriman. From 1913-1944 his Krazy Kat comics were published in newspapers throughout the US. These amazing comics about unrequited love are funny and sad at the same time. In his drawings unrequited romantic love happens between species, hmm? I love the rich colors he uses too and landscapes. For more about him click here.

negative artist stereotypes

This week on a sitcom one of the character's was convinced to be an artist, (this deep thought occurred while getting stoned,ha) instead of doing some real work. Over the years I have seen many of these negative stereotypes about artists on TV and in films. So I looked on the web for information, but didn't find much on the topic. There was a website with the artFBI, which ended last century sometime. If anyone has any info about this please e-mail me.

New prints

These 2 prints are from my recent original paintings. Today I added them to my Etsy shop. They are based on childhood memories and fantasies I had about having a tree house.

matted giclee prints and sale

Today a couple of gilclee prints I had matted were added to my shop. A handful of giclee prints are on sale through July 1st. Click here to view my shop. Soon original paintings will be added.

This sexy cow is on sale as a print. The original was given to my Dad as a joke for Father's Day. He loves it.

Festival of Spring

On Saturday I was a vendor at The Festival of Spring at The Paine in Oshkosh Wisconsin. The weather was great, neighbors friendly, I had good help, plenty of exercise and it was fun overall. The Paine is a mansion/castle tuned into an art museum. For more on The Paine click here. This was my first outdoor festival. My next one will be in July.

Sara Smile

Ooh, a love song for me, love the thought!
Except that's not how I spell my name, ha.

Artist of the month, Annette Ellis

The artist of the month is Annette, who has many cool photos to view on flick.
View her pic's on my other blog. Here is one of her many skull images,
reminding me of The Grateful Dead.

Learning to Fly

Here is a new painting that I listed as a print on my Etsy shop
Lately I have not been on the computer much getting ready for art fairs, rummage sales, decorating the house... May 17th, this Saturday I will be in a plant/craft art fair at The Paine Museum in Oshkosh called Festival of Spring.

Garda Lake

Recently I have been painting birds for some upcoming shows. More on that later this month. While looking at images of birds I found these amazing swans by gardawind. His images are so rich, I love em! He loves nature, me too. To view more images he took click here.

My paintings at St. Claire's Hospital.

A couple of years ago I sold these 3 huge
(huge for me, 32x42 and 32x26) paintings
to St. Claire's Hospital in Weston Wisconsin.
This week while in the area I took this video.

Walls of Wittenberg

This week I went to Wittenberg Wisconsin to view the murals. Here are some pictures I took. On the road trip I swung by Weston and made a video of my paintings at the hospital there. It's on Youtube and under a minute long.