Give yourself an artistic make-over...

[Plein Eire Administrator]

      Here are 12 suggestions for the artist at New Year 

 

1. Clear the Clutter! - Tidy up the mess and make the studio an inviting place to just go in and paint.
2. Running Repairs – Replace that lost wing-nut on your easel, oil your palette, rub your easel down with a wax candle, stitch that backpack strap, mend that dodgy shelf or fix that wonky caster.
3. Treat Yourself - Perhaps to a new storage rack for paintings, a coffee machine, a pair of speakers for your MP3, pick up a small locker or a trolley to use as a taboret. 
4. Hitting the Wall - Pin up a year-planner.  Rig up a mirror to view your work in progress and hang a new favourite painting of your own to inspire yourself to do even better.
5. Look Back to go Forwards - Pull out some of that 2011 work and look at it critically – what is it telling you? What aspects do you like and what dissatisfies you? What areas of your work need to be stronger? Perhaps an experienced art friend can interpret it with you. And decide which ones are ‘keepers’ and which may be recycled
6. Going for the Record - Did you have sales and expenses in 2011 to tally in your account notebook? Start or update your record-keeping now. Photograph your work and give your paintings a reference number with materials, size, title and where and when painted and is it sold, on consignment or in storage? Have you work on display in a gallery - perhaps it is time to move consigned work elsewhere and freshen things up?
7. A Window to the World - Are you on the internet? Can people find you? If not, perhaps you can set this up and if you are, freshen it up with a new painting or a new blog entry. What about your personal page on Plein Eire - can a buyer contact you from it?
8. Press to Impress - Do you have a simple business card to hand out to enquirers or to leave with galleries? Print your own Gallery Labels showing your name and contact details and a space for title, medium, size to fill in by hand. Add a little logo or a detail from a painting and staple these to the back of your canvas stretchers or frames. 
9. Get Switched On - Check your studio lighting. You can improve the quality of your lighting and save electricity and with LED retrofit lamps available now for most light fittings.
10. Get Ready for Action - Prime a bundle of MDF panels with acrylic primer and give them an imprimatura in a choice of colours suitable for the sort of subject you like. Often a complementary ground works best - try green under skin tones, reddish-brown under green landscapes etc. Experiment and challenge yourself. Or stretch some watercolour paper on plywood or MDF boards. Paint over your rejected canvases - this is great therapy.
11. Take Aim – How would you like to develop in 2012? Perhaps to improve your drawing, to master a new medium or loosen up your approach to painting? Maybe to paint on a larger scale or to try printmaking. Be specific and try to figure out how you can begin to realise your goals.
12. Plan for 2012 - Book a place on a painting holiday, register for an art course, find your nearest life-drawing class, or decide to copy some works by a favourite artist to learn from them. Make a list of suitable galleries to approach or of places locally you would like to paint. Ring a couple of friends and arrange some dates for paint-outs so you are committed.