Yes, art is not all glamour. Actually most of it is not glamorous. Where's that evening drinking champagne while discussing your work and inspiration with potential buyers? I want to drink champagne and eat little pickles! Well that's the fruit of long hours slogging it out in the trenches doing the "work". There's the actual painting and that can have many challenges including the price of materials. Sometimes you have to do without a color you want and improvise. Then of course there's the search for inspiration, the scratching at the canvas like a mad man, the painting over the mess and starting again, the second defeat, the crying like a child, the reattempt, more sobbing, more repainting, then,., glorious victory... possibly. Yes, 'possibly' because there is that ever-present voice of self doubt telling you, "maybe you should paint over that and start again.". But artists are brave souls, we trudge on despite ourselves. Then there's a lot of work to do after the painting has been done. These days, you have to photograph your work well enough that it is properly representative of your physical piece because it will be seen mostly online... and that is not easy. You need a proper setup to get a photograph looking as closely as possible to how the painting looks in real life. Let's just say it has been the biggest hurdle for me so far. Light, reflection, tint's from reflections, temperature of the light, the software and hardware needed to take the picture, camera settings, the technical science you have to dip your toe in to eliminate hotspots and shine. Then there's post photographic touching up with more software to tweak the colors and vibrancy and saturation and so on. All to make sure it looks as close as possible to the way it does if you were standing in front of it in real life. And don't get me started on monitors! Really! I must say does that sound like a bunch of complaining? Well guess what? I am having the time of my life! Yeah, it's pretty cool being an artist and I'm loving it. Maybe one day, I'll get to drink champagne while having great conversations about art with collectors and gallerists and other art lovers. In the mean-time, you'll see me in the trenches, possibly crying (manly-like ahem), but having the time of my life.
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