Recent Accomplishments, or, The Struggle of Naming Artwork

Here are a few of the paintings I've done so far. The first is acrylic, the other two are watercolor. They shall remain unnamed for now because I can't think of anything that doesn't sound like the title of a Hallmark movie. An important thing I've learned this week is how to photograph artwork, which is something I've had trouble with for quite some time. Anyway, I think I've got the hang of it now.

Over the past couple weeks, I've realized that being an artist, especially working free-lance, requires a lot of organization and monotonous record-keeping to keep track of artwork that is sold or sent to a gallery. You also have to worry about having a good price index for selling your work, framing your work, shipping it, finding galleries to show it, and so on.  Many artists have an art related job such as teaching or graphic design and do art on the side to fulfill their creative urges. However, when you're painting as a full-time job, you need to keep in mind what kind of art will sell (subject matter and such) so you don't waste your time making art that won't earn you any profit. That doesn't mean you need to ignore your desires for the sake of making money, but you need to find a niche in the art world. As a person who's not very enthusiastic about money or appealing to other people's tastes, I find this concept a bit difficult to accept. Still, I've made it my business to learn about the business.

In The Studio

This is what the studio looks like. Fun Fact, a long time ago it used to have an indoor pool until it was transformed into this.

After watching my grandpa paint for a couple hours (or should I say correcting details that I didn't even notice until he pointed them out), i finally decided to get started on a painting of my own. The hard decision to make was what kind of paint I wanted to use. Obviously I would be using all of them (oil, acrylic, and watercolor) over the course of my internship, but I wanted to make the right choice for my first (practice) painting to ease myself back into doing landscapes, which I actually hadn't done for a while. I ended up choosing acrylic, which is what my grandpa usually works in. I'm still not completely comfortable with acrylic paints, even though I have used them before. I started the painting and made progress with it very quickly until I realized that it wasn't really looking the way I wanted it to. Then I spent the next three days endlessly fixing and redoing parts of the painting, with the advice given by my grandpa (or should I call him "on-site advisor", "Brent", or "The Master"? I don't really know what would be the most appropriate). I ended up with a finished product, "finished" basically meaning "I'm sick of this painting and I don't want to do anything with it anymore." I'm not disappointed with the painting, but I'm not entirely pleased with it either. Luckily, there are such things as learning and improvement.

"Most of my life is watching paint dry." -Brent Laycock

My humble workspace

What I learned while doing this painting (from Grandpa and from experience):

• Acrylic paint dries quickly, sometimes frustratingly quickly, sometimes helpfully quickly.
• White makes paint opaque, medium makes it transparent. Don't use both at the same time. That's defeats the purpose.
• It's okay to redo something you don't like, but don't overwork things.
• Artistic license is a thing. Your painting can look different from the photo.
•  I need to practice my signature more.

Also, if you want to check out some of my grandpa's work, here's his website: http://www.brentlaycock.com/ 

First Week in Canada

It's been almost a week since I arrived in Calgary, Alberta. It took a lot of adjusting, especially since I come from the desert and now I'm surrounded by snow. However, the snow makes for some beautiful photos. Speaking of which, my grandpa and I went out taking pictures to use as reference photos for painting. When you're a landscape painter, as my grandfather is, you need a LOT of reference photos. We were out for about five hours driving around rural Calgary, where there is a lot of farmland and long, stretching mountains in the distance.

Jumping back in time a little, on Monday we went to the art store to pick up some supplies (turpenoid and linseed oil, in case you're curious) and then we stopped by Wallace Galleries, where we talked for a few minutes with Colette, the director. I didn't have enough time to ask her all the questions I had in mind, but I told her my overall research question and listened to what she had to say about it. She definitely believes that traditional art still has a place in modern society, and while it might not appeal to everyone, it certainly has a wide range of admirers. As I had begun to suspect, my question should be adjusted to ask not if there is a place for traditional art, but what is the place of traditional art? What kind of people are interested in this kind of art? What do artists have to do to appeal to these interests or the interests of the public? I'll be sure to explore these questions further.

About My Project

Hello! I'm Sarah Allen, a senior at BASIS Peoria. Welcome to my senior project blog! This is where all the magical, wonderful, artistic stuff gets posted as well as the dry and not as exciting research that goes with it. For my internship, I will be spending about two months in Alberta, Canada learning about- you guessed it- art. My on-site advisor is none other than the greatest Albertan landscape painter of all time: Brent Laycock, a.k.a. my grandpa. He will teach me painting techniques, business skills, and help me develop my artistic abilities. When not in the studio working, I will be exploring nature for inspiration, gathering information from galleries, reading texts related to my research, and interacting with other artists.

All of this will help me answer the overall question that makes up my project: Does *traditional art still have a place in modern society? Or in other words, are pieces made with conventional materials and techniques still bought and appreciated in a society where almost everything has become unconventional or digital? Due to increased popularity in digital paintings and graphic design, many
artists have abandoned the traditional mediums and techniques in favor of drawing tablets and software. Other artists have continued to use the "old-fashioned" mediums of paint, pencil, and other physical materials.

My goal is to see whether or not traditional art is "dead," as so many people believe. In addition, I want to prove to people (and perhaps even to myself) that becoming a free-lance artist is not an unrealistic goal if you have the passion to pursue it. I hope to show through my project how traditional art skills are important for any kind of artist, and that painting is not a dying art. I hope you enjoy my blog!

*For the purpose of my project, I am defining traditional art to be any kind of fine art that is created using conventional mediums such as paint, graphite, charcoal, or typical sculptural material (clay, wood, etc.). However, I will mostly be focusing on painting for my personal art studies. In addition to mediums, I am also going to observe how prevalent classical and representational styles are (as opposed to abstract).