A Day in the Life of Windy Hill Studio

Posting a Painting Each Day.

Each day on my Facebook page I post a "Good Morning from Windy Hill Studio!" painting. Often people comment that I must be painting continually. I answer them truthfully; some paintings are new and some are old. Some of them I still have with me and some were sold long ago. But the jpeg of the image is something I will always have and I'm grateful for the technology that allows me to do this.

Posting a "Good Morning" painting is the way I start my day in Windy Hill Studio. It is the first item on the daily list, which sometimes includes painting, but also includes paperwork, marketing, lesson plans, photographing artwork and correspondence. So although the "Good Morning" painting might not be a new painting, the act of posting an image each day gets me into the right frame of mind for the daily tasks for Windy Hill Studio.

Daily Tasks

This morning's tasks included ordering frames in time for upcoming shows (and taking advantage of framing supply coupons before they expire), sending out jpegs for Cazenovia Counterpoint in July, and deciding on a couple of paintings for Associated Artists "Of Light and Shadow" show going up this weekend. In this list of tasks I should also include getting a start on this blog post which I will probably have to leave unfinished while I attend a meeting.  And now I've gotta go----------

Roundtable Discussion

And now I'm back after attending a Roundtable discussion at the Wise Women's Business Center. Today's topic: 5 Ways to Get Unstuck in the Face of Creative Burnout--always a timely topic for artists balancing the creative and business life. Sometimes after doing the business of art it is hard to jump back into the creative mode. At this time of year I am gearing up for the Spring/Summer/Fall tourist season along the St. Lawrence River/Thousand Islands as well as participating in a number of shows in Central New York. So creative energy is sometimes sapped by the business part of maintaining a successful studio. Taking advantage of things like the roundtable discussions definitely helps to put me back on track.

So What Am I Working on Now?

Currently in my studio I have four paintings in progress and one finished. Three of the in-progress paintings are pictured here along with Amy the Studio Assistant Cat. After last week's purple paint incident Amy has been surprisingly docile in the studio.

Two of the paintings (lighthouses) are earmarked for shops in the Thousand Islands area. Reproductions of the paintings will become prints and cards sold in the shops. Another painting needs to be finished by tomorrow to go in to a show this weekend. A few color adjustments need to be made and the wrap around canvas sides need to be painted. And the very soft watercolor was a demo piece for my Watercolor: the Basics class at the Eye Studio. It is quietly beckoning me to finish the piece.

There is one more in-progress painting, not pictured here, just lightly sketched on watercolor paper. Another by-product of teaching--always need to have a demo ready to go.

So it looks like I will be pleasantly busy for a while. Stay tuned. There should be some new paintings posted soon!