In February, 2019 I returned to oil painting as
a daily painter and plein air enthusiast after retiring from a career in
graphic design at advertising agencies in Chicago and Arkansas, and the Donald
W. Reynolds Library in Baxter County.
I had stockpiled a quantity of stretched canvases and canvas panels and happily
began filling them drawing on my latest instruction received online in 2017
from Nancy Medina, and in 2018 and 2019 from Bill Inman. I painted local
scenery, images from a visit to Garvan Gardens in Hot Springs, and scenery of a
hike to Hawksbill Crag, all in my studio. I became increasingly interested in
plein air painting enjoying the work of artists who excelled at it. I purchased
a Coulter Easel, Art Box & Panel plein air travel system and was very happy
moving my studio outdoors to do some more local painting and in Myrtle Beach while
vacationing in June.
I so enjoyed painting outdoors that I enthusiastically accepted a challenge
from Strada Easel, maker of a more lightweight plein air setup to possibly win
one of five easels. They would be raffled to participants who painted one
painting from life each day in September and posted them daily which I did on
my Kathe Altazan Art Facebook page. While I didn't win a
new easel, daily painting had its own benefits, including speeding up my
process, more confidently, more enjoyably, and potentially more
skillfully.
Daily Painting is encouraged by Carol Marine in her book of the same name in
hopes of becoming a more creative, productive and successful artist.
I'm inspired creatively when listening to the
Savvy Painter podcasts produced by Antrese Wood as she talks to top fine art
painters about the business of art and how it gets created. I'm motivated
listening to Eric Rhoades podcasts which focus on painting outdoors. And I'm
motivated to succeed at art marketing by reading his book "Make More Money
Selling Your Art".
In my upcoming work, I hope to paint more plein
air paintings of our beautiful Ozarks and at plein air events. Studio work will
include recalling some of previous adventures painting from photos and perhaps
revisiting the sites. I look forward to becoming more active in art events
locally.
People joke about annual Christmas missives
(which this resembles!). So my goals include short, frequent updates to my blog.
And I'm considering beginning a newsletter
which I'll send out to subscribers who've supplied their emails for my
MailChimp list. Supply yours and you'll be one of the first to receive a
newsletter.
