It took me a while but last night I finally picked up my favourite book called I'd Rather be in the Studio by Alyson B Stanfield which is full of brilliant advice for artists. I started reading it last year but life took over and this book was replaced for a while by self help books galore! I'm now in a much better frame of mind to take on board and implement her advice plus I now have a larger work space in which to organise myself, my administration and my art. First things first is to organise my time and I have decided to produce a weekly planner and actually write down when I will do certain things instead of my usual get up in the morning, catch up on emails and paper work and then muddle through the day. I gave myself this morning to go for a long walk whilst the sun was out and there was still snow on the ground. It's a common mistake of artists to not give themselves any 'me' time and spend all day every day painting and dealing with the business and this can end up making them resent what they used to love doing plus not getting out of the house regularly is very unhealthy for both body and mind. I'll be the first to admit that if the weather is grey and miserable, such as yesterday, that implementing these ideas and getting moving is the last thing I want to do, the first thing I want to do being sit on the sofa and eat my weight in chocolate, but I will try to keep to my routines and hopefully this will make my motivation easier to come by on the cold wet grey days.
I also realise that this year I need to focus on marketing and selling myself as an artist and the first thing I will be starting on is creating a good Artist's Statement. If I can write down how I view my work, how it's created and how I want others to view my work, it will make it easier for me to speak about it. This is all in preparation for the big Equestrienne Exhibition I'm going to be part of in March as normally exhibitions are held by galleries and the artist's have very little to do with them but this exhibition will be run by us 6 artists and I need to learn how to be more confident with the people viewing my art. Fingers crossed!!
I also realise that this year I need to focus on marketing and selling myself as an artist and the first thing I will be starting on is creating a good Artist's Statement. If I can write down how I view my work, how it's created and how I want others to view my work, it will make it easier for me to speak about it. This is all in preparation for the big Equestrienne Exhibition I'm going to be part of in March as normally exhibitions are held by galleries and the artist's have very little to do with them but this exhibition will be run by us 6 artists and I need to learn how to be more confident with the people viewing my art. Fingers crossed!!
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