Kathe Altazan

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.