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The glamorous life of an artist

Itā€™s easy to forget Iā€™m a painter when Iā€™m up to my elbows in minutiae, but it has to be done. Still, so does painting or Iā€™ve lost my raison d’etre.

Clary Hill Blueberry Barrens, Carol L. Douglas. This is one of the pieces I’ve decided (provisionally) should go to New York. Until I change my mind again, that is.

Iā€™ve taken to carrying my to-do list around on my phone. This is probably good organizationally, but it burns a hole in my pocket. As is the way with to-do lists, it never gets any shorter. The advantage of lists on paper is that theyā€™re easier to lose.

I had a visitor in my studio at the first of the year. ā€œIā€™m drowning in admin,ā€ I told her, as an explanation for the disorder. Sheā€™s a successful businesswoman and was, frankly, incredulous. ā€œAdmin what?ā€ she asked. After all, Iā€™m an artist. Everyone knows art isnā€™t about business.

At least they’re neat. That’s not always true.

In fact, itā€™s totally about business. Thatā€™s something you need to know if youā€™re contemplating crossing from amateur and professional status. Itā€™s about taxes and inventory and planning shows a year or more in advance. Itā€™s very easy to fall into a trap where your painting occupies less and less of your time, while you become more of an entrepreneur. If you want to make a living as an artist, the business of art has to be front-and-center in your consciousness.

I talked to Ken DeWaardon Wednesday. He was booting around Port Clyde looking at stuff (an important part of the plein air painterā€™s job, and best done with a cup of gas-station coffee in hand). I was torn. It was heavily overcast and pissing snow. On the other hand, talking to him was the closest Iā€™d gotten to a brush all week.

There’s a queen-sized bed under all that stuff. By the time I was done, I had paintings stacked in all three bedrooms and the bathroom.

I was pulling every single painting out of my storage closets, choosing inventory for an upcoming show at the Rye Art Center in New York. It doesnā€™t open until March, but a good solo or duo show requires a lot of advance preparation. The paintingsā€”which are hugeā€”have come down to my studio, where their frames will get a beady-eyed examination before theyā€™re wrapped for shipping.

Tom and Peggy Root have a show at Ringling College, called Parallel Visions: The Paintings of Tom + Peggy Root. ā€œI told the art handlers that if somewhere in Georgia they are overtaken by a car with flashing lights, it just means I’ve changed my mind again about another painting,ā€ said Tom. That indecision is a powerful impulse.

Once art gets to a certain point, ā€˜goodā€™ or ā€˜badā€™ or ā€˜brilliantā€™ is irrelevant. The real question is whether they support the narrative. Then there is the question of how the work will hang together. Paintings have to get along with their neighbors.

Meanwhile, the fiscal year has ended. People ask me why I do my own taxes. I counter that the tax preparation is the easy part (and I have Laura Turner to answer all my esoteric questions). Itā€™s the record keeping that kills me. Today my 2019 records go up in the attic, to be replaced by pristine 2022 folders. Itā€™s easy, but it takes time.

Sometimes all you have time for is a quick watercolor doodle, but that’s better than nothing.

Itā€™s easy to forget Iā€™m a painter when Iā€™m up to my elbows in minutiae, but it has to be done. Still, so does painting or Iā€™ve lost my raison d’etre.

After I talked to Ken, I gave myself a good shake and went into my studio, where I spent 15 minutes with my watercolors, doing a quick-and dirty-sketch for 45 Day Triple Watercolor Challenge. Thatā€™s a Facebook group my students started last year to get us out of the doldrums. If I donā€™t need it right now, who does?

Tank half empty, week half full

A show and sale at Ocean Park tonight, and we are then off running to Castine.

Beach time, by Carol L. Douglas
ā€œIā€™m not doing a preparatory sketch, a value study, nothing!ā€ I announced to Ed Buonvecchioas I flopped down on a bench next to him and pulled out my tripod. Itā€™s terrible practice, and I would never recommend it to my students.
Still, I canā€™t help smiling at the resulting painting. A passer-by smiled and said, ā€œNow, thatā€™s Ocean Park!ā€ I believe in process, but I also hope to communicate some of the joy of the beach, the fog, and the sun. Thatā€™s why I paint in the first place.
It was the last of my six paintings for Ocean Park Art in the Park. I have no idea if theyā€™re better or worse than last yearā€™s. Nor am I overly worried. Iā€™m not judgmental about othersā€™ work; why would I do that to myself?
Cupholders are for cleaning brushes, right?
Iā€™m going to spend the morning framing and digging out my car. Then Iā€™ll deliver my work. If thereā€™s time, Iā€™ll paint one more painting, just for fun. Then Iā€™ll shower, put on my party clothes, and head over to the show and sale.
Thatā€™s from 5-7 PM at the Ocean Park Temple. This 1881 octagonal frame structure is worth seeing. It’s beautiful and redolent of 19th century values and tradition. Tonight, it will have the bonus of a very good wet paint show. (You can find it by programming 46-62 Temple Ave, Old Orchard Beach, ME in your phone.) Iā€™ll be on the stage with Mary Byrom. No, we are not singing or dancing.
Beach toys, by Carol L. Douglas
Yesterday I was in front of the Ocean Park Soda Fountain at 8 AM. This building has exercised a mesmerizing charm on me this year. I set up to paint the beach toys on the gift shop side.
Iā€™d like to tell you how many hours I painted ā€œin earnest.ā€ However, there was never any seriousness about it. Iā€™ve painted in Manhattan many times, but never spoken with as many people as I did yesterday. Since they were at the beach, they were all happy. I think it comes through in my painting.
Talking with passers-by is part of what itinerant plein air painters do. If we didnā€™t like people, weā€™d be home in our studios, harrumphing along quietly.
The roof of the historic Temple at Ocean Park
Many people told me they saw a story about us in the Journal Tribune, and felt welcomed to talk to an artist. Itā€™s rare that I see an immediate response to a news story like that.
A number of people also mentioned seeing my painting of Fort Point Historic Site in the Bangor Daily News, as part of the publicity for Wet Paint on the Weskeag. The preview and sale will be at the Kelpie Gallery in South Thomaston on August 13 from 4-8 PM.

But before that happens, Iā€™ve got many miles to go. Tonight, after the last paintings are packed up and the Temple lights dim, Mary Byrom, Anthony Watkins and I leave for Castine Plein Air. We will roll into that quiet village a few minutes before midnight. Tomorrow we line up bright and early on the Village Green to have our canvases stamped, and we are off and running again.

Rejection

Queensboro Bridge construction, 10X8, Carol L. Douglas

A friend got a rejection letter from an agent on whom she had pinned hopes. This is where her life as an artist begins, where she begins to look inside herself for approval and develops a strong sense of the value of her own voice.

Rejection either makes you or breaks you. Some of us walk away from the encounter so badly bruised that we stop putting our work in the public marketplace. Others get up and paint again.

The Dugs in Autumn, 12X9, Carol L. Douglas
Rejection is part of the artistic process. Last year, I encouraged my pal Tarryl to apply for a show that I thought was a slam-dunk. She was rejected. This year she encouraged me to apply for a show that she thought I would get in. I was rejected. This has nothing to do with either of our abilities or worth as people or inherent talent. Itā€™s about the taste and style of the judges.
Itā€™s paradoxically true that we can be rejected for being either too good or too bad; itā€™s easiest for critics to see and understand what has already been done, what is in the safe middle ground.
ā€œWhen they organized their first exhibition [the Impressionists] all already mature artists who had been working for fifteen years or more… Dissatisfied they may have been, but they did not consider that they were as yet beyond the pale. Manet, in fact, still endeavored to show in the Salon, and was bitterly disappointed when he was rejected.ā€ (Richard J. Boyle, American Impressionism)

Indiana sketchbook #1, 12X6, Carol L. Douglas
Let me know if youā€™re interested in painting with me on the Schoodic Peninsula in beautiful Acadia National Park in 2015 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops! Download a brochure here.

But enough about me…

Photographer IvĆ”n Ramos was at the opening of my show, ā€œGod+Manā€ at Roberts Wesleyanā€™s Davison Gallery in April. Yesterday he sent me a slew of photos from the event. Sit back and enjoy.
Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Courtesy of IvĆ”n Ramos.

Sorry, folks. My workshop in Belfast, ME is sold out. Message me if you want a spot on my waitlist, or information about next yearā€™s programs. Information is available here.

Doublebooked!

I have two great shows opening next weekend. I hope you can make one or both of them.
Dead Wood, by Carol L. Douglas, 48X36, oil on canvas
God+Man: paintings by Carol L. Douglas
The relationship between God and Man as seen in the built environment.
Aviv Gallery, Bethel Community Church, 321 East Avenue, Rochester NY 14604
Opening June 6, 2014, 6-9 PM
Recurring Night-Deer, Something from a Night-Mare, by Sandy Quang, 18X24
Studio of Carol L Douglas student show
A bakerā€™s dozen of students demonstrating a wide variety of styles and subjects.
The VB Brewery, , 6606 New York 96, Victor, NY 14564.

Opening June 8, 1-4 PM
And on that note, I’m heading downstate to spend the week with my Lower Hudson Valley Plein Air Painter friends! See you next weekend!
There are still a few openings in my 2014 workshop in Belfast, ME. Information is available here.

All about me, all the time

The Davison Gallery is lovely and contemporary, and conducive to spare design. Sue moved the show graphic to the floor, which allows the paintings room to breathe. It looks fantastic.
Tonight is the opening of my show, God + Man at the Davison Gallery at Roberts Wesleyan. As you know, Iā€™ve been painting like a dervish to get ready for it, and it was awfully satisfying to watch it come together under the highly-skilled hands of gallery director Sue Bailey Leo.
Sue and her assistant Allysa installing the floor graphic.
This is the second show of my work that Sue has managed, and Iā€™m humbled by how good she makes me look.
A woman and a hammer… invincible! Here Sandy Quang learns how to use a plumb line to level paintings.
I frequently tell people that ā€œitā€™s all about me.ā€ This weekend, it actually is. I have three solo shows up across the Rochester metro area. When does that ever happen?
Mary Brzustowicz offered to help me move canvases. Little did she know she’d be pressed into service popping air bubbles.
You are welcome to tonightā€™s opening, from 6-10. Ignore your mapping software; it will take you to the center of the campus. Instead, take US 490 to Buffalo Road west. Pass Westside Drive and the athletic fields at Roberts Wesleyan. You will see the Howard Stowe Roberts Cultural Life Center on your right; there is ample free parking, including parking lots on the west and northeast sides of the building.
Sandy temporarily interned as a lighting assistant, and did a great job of it, too.
The gallery is also open Monday-Friday, 11-5, and Saturday, 1-4. The show is up until April 11.
If youā€™d like to see my secular landscapes, this is the last weekend they are up at VB Brewery at 6606 State Road 96 in Victor. (Yesterday I stopped there with my friend Mary, who pointed out that the brewing smelled like warm feed for horses. It was delectable.)
Be there, or be square.
And my Stations of the Cross are up at St. Thomasā€™ Episcopal Church at 2000 Highland Avenue. Since theyā€™re part of the Lenten worship experience, youā€™ll need to call the church at 585-442-3544 to make an appointment.


Let me know if youā€™re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!