Increasing My Daily Art Ideals

Over a vast amount of years I have wanted to give up full time work to focus on my art. I show in several galleries in the New England region and I have a large body of work. I facilitate a small local open studio class though I still had not taken the plunge in this pursuit. My regular full time work had suddenly come to an end. Decisions had to be made and I flipped flopped like a fish. I was in such indecision that I decided to call an intuitive healer named Catherine Carrigan. I have known in my heart what I’d really love to happen in life, however, I seemed to find myself in my mammilian brain and unable to think clearly or to make choices. I had become addicted to my job and the ease in bringing home a regular pay check. Though is was an income that came at the cost of not being entirely happy. I kept going back despite the growing dis-ease of the situation. I left and applied for more jobs and whole heartedly too! But, in the back of my mind I knew my talent lies in my art, not only with paints and canvas, but, with my horses too! I’ve had a couple months to really consider this and suddenly I really am (and I mean REALLY) considering making this career path work for me. Catherine said a business has three parts, production, administration and marketing (which leads to sales). However, I am missing the third part of the equation which happens to be crucial. My gallery sales are seasonal so I’ve had to seek out other options to generate and establish my name and reputation. I’ve listened to webinars by Brainard Corey and bought his book too. I went to one webinar on social media marketing and then another and another. I bought Corey Huffs book too, I’ve watched youtube videos too. I’ve built a blog, a website, I’m sharing on fb and I’ve opened a shop on Etsy. I’ve done all this in a short period of time and there is still a huge learning curve …it’s consuming my time and I’ve not had time to paint. Today, I recognized I can’t simply focus on studying social media I need to paint. So, this evening I’ve started a project…I am painting an animal portrait a day for well…let’s see. At least 30 days…if I was really diligent a year! Tonight I focused on a quick and simple dog portrait in watercolor on regular sketch paper to get the ball rolling.