Tuesday, January 30, 2007

This Time I Mean It

Big Pink Hill, 2006, Oil on Panel, 8x10

And so all of a sudden, I HAVE to get back to work. I have painted next to nothing during the entire month of January. There's no real block or anything, I just needed time off. In the last week or so I have been making noises about getting back to it-priming panels, gathering images, even doing a few underpaintings, plus a painting and a half.

But now I really must actually paint. Over the weekend, two of my galleries asked me for new work. It's very encouraging to have this kind of request of course, even if it will end my month long vacation. Heh. I was SO enjoying sitting around while the checks from the holiday sales were coming in, reminding me of the old days when I was actually productive and which feels like a dreamworld now. Anyway, Salt Meadow Gallery in Cape Cod needs some fresh work AND I have just been given another show there, which will be in July. The Harrison Gallery also needs new work because, and this is really exciting! of the approximately 21 pieces they had for my show, 14 of them have sold. Instead of having to bring home a batch of pieces from an exhibition, I will be delivering some more! That sure is a first for me. Also Multiple Impressions in NYC would like to see some larger pieces so I will have to get started on those.

I am looking forward to getting back to a nice relaxed painting pace. However, I suspect that when I get a busy spell I will look back at how little I did in January and curse myself for wasting all of that time!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Hurray to you for the sales - that's wonderful! You deserve it after all the hard work you put in.

And what's the point of being a self employed artists if you can't take a month off to relax? You might as well be an office drone like me :)

Lisa Call said...

That's nice - blogger is now making up accounts for me. The fav is really me...

Nice feature!

Tracy Helgeson said...

And here I thought one of my lurkers was finally coming out:) Thanks and you're right, taking a month off is a great perk of being self-employed, which makes up for the months of craziness (and no health insurance).

Marina Broere said...

Tracy,
I came to your blog through that of Karen Jacobs. I love your paintings and will be checking back!

Marina

Anonymous said...

Don't beat yourself up for taking time off, you needed it! I think after a while we get a bit stale and need to rest after working so hard. Congrats on all the sales, that's awesome.

Tracy Helgeson said...

Thanks for visiting Marina! I checked out your site and think your work is wonderful. I like the abstracts quite a bit.

Don't worry Lauren, I am not beating myself up at all! I am going to miss all of this free time, even though I didn't take advantage of it at all. But I am still sane and so that's good;)

Anonymous said...

I love the Big Pink Hill painting -- it's absolutely beautiful.

Rebecca Crowell said...

Tracy, this painting is really nice, I love the color relationships. Somehow it conveys both intensity and peacefulness at the same time. Intensely peaceful I guess.

Congrats on sales--

meno said...

Don't think of it as wasted time, think of it as recharging.

The news of all those sales is wonderful. You'll be famous in no time.

Tracy Helgeson said...

Crumpet, glad you like the painting and thanks for commenting. I like your blog and look forward to reading through it.

Rebecca, somehow this piece turned out to be one of the more quiet pieces in my recent show. It didn't sell but I suspect someone will see it in a different setting and understand it better.

Meno, Right now I definitely view it as recharging. But in six months when I am freaking out because I need 10 more paintings, yesterday, I will be wishing for January back and all of the free time that I had. I know this, because I did exactly the same thing last year when I was busy:)