Quiet Folk Art Sales. Perhaps Naive is redundant? What about Trompe L'oeil?

In fact, sales have completely dried up at all of my sites. Modern, colorful and wild abstracts seem to be popular, but I can only paint what I love...my naive figures, land, city and seascapes. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I had promised to post my trompe l'oeil food painting, "Light Lunch", but I forgot. A bit late, by four months, but here it is:

Naturally, this made me hungry. It didn't help that I try to live without dairy. Guess this was my response.



In thinking about the lack of sales, I remind myself that I don't paint with a view to selling. It's never been a livelihood for me, and I don't think I could handle that kind of pressure if it was. Daily Paint Works suggested I should paint more regularly - be more visible on, say, a weekly basis. But I can only paint when the urge is greatest. My work isn't a product that I can simply whip up, following a tried and true template. I surprise myself with the paintings I create. I need that little touch of wonder when new places or people present themselves. Where did they come from? Magic.

I have a lot of followers, people who like what I do, and I am always grateful for that, but the occasional buyer is very rewarding, all the same. I remember every single one of them, even decades after I sold to them. They are like my family, almost, sometimes sending a photograph of my art on their wall, in their living room or kitchen.

I love that.

See you soon. Getting some art rumblings again. It's been a while. I imagine a lot of my paints have dried out.

Latest Painting (I'm on a Roll) - "The Usual Stragglers". Because I Love Sheep.

The last couple of years had a strange effect on me - as it undoubtedly had on many of us. The world changed dramatically. It became far more stressful, more worrying than anything I could recall. I reached the point where I just didn't need to hear the latest farcical news reports even as I was always a news addict. Finally I developed the ability to look at the headlines and move on. I've become a bit of an ostrich. Most shocking of all? CNN no longer holds my attention. Why add to the day-to day challenges we face in our lives? There were some personal difficulties during this time, too - illness in the family, the usual life upsets, and my own self-made, pointless pressures. These were enough  to leave me without much energy to create anything new, and then Global Affairs threw in its two-cents' worth.

I was unable to write or paint. I felt I had nothing to say. What could I offer when things seemed out of control?  I retreated to knitting, watching movies, and gardening, rather obsessively. Oh, and napping a lot. All things little old ladies do, right? Not this little old lady. I was always a bit of a rebel, a little eccentric (ask my kids). I decided this bit of history we are going through was not going to dictate the way I live my life.  I've come back to my first loves. Not so much the writing, although I've been doing a lot of mental composition - sometimes jotting things down, but mostly believing I will remember the ideas, the lines of dialogue, whatever, when I'm ready. But the painting is back. Thank you, Gaia.

It's a relief to know that the pure absurdity of what's happening in politics hasn't changed me. It just numbed me for a while. I actually laugh a lot these days, even if it's sometimes a touch cynical. It's  ridiculous to be ruled by forces I cannot influence (so much for voting). So I reject the hype, the babble. And I am back, ostrich-like though I may seem.  I needed to say all of this today, even as I appreciate that we all have much shorter attention spans than we once had. We ordinary people have so few outlets for venting. Luckily I have my blog. Thank you for reading. I will bore you no further on the subject.

My new painting, "The Usual Stragglers" is lighthearted, peaceful, and calming. I hope you like it. Perhaps you'll smile.

"The Usual Stragglers"
Acrylic on 16 x 20 inch canvas

I told you about my new sales site in my last post, but I've now found one I like even more. Check out my gallery at Daily Paint Works.  Not only is there NO commission for direct sales, but it also offers an auction service (for a tiny commission), separate "store" pages for sales links to prints of sold work, and a page where I have linked my novels for sale. I've had such fun setting this up, and there is so much at the site in terms of reports, tracking, feedback, etc. I highly recommend it.

I've sixteen paintings listed there at present, including "The Usual Stragglers" above, but I'm gradually adding more. Perhaps nothing will sell - the art market is a mysterious one, after all. But it is pure pleasure to know that my work is out there, available. And I've become a bit more entrepreneurial - I now regularly plug myself on Facebook and Twitter. Why not? If I don't do it, no one else will.

Until next time...