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Wait,

have you ever vacationed with your brushes and a group of equally excited painters? Well, since 1993, Howard and I have been taking artists all over the world painting and studying the fine art of capturing memories in oil, watercolors, and sketches. Each trip has been life changing for the artists!

Join us for this Painting Holiday Workshop!

If you tired of painting the same old, same old subject matter, this workshop is geared to shake up your creative inspiration. Painting in this beautiful new environment, with new food and new light, stirs up your senses and stimulates you in ways you have never explored before. Let's make your brushes happy!

Put on your seat belt and click on this link! 

http://p0.vresp.com/VC01ky

September 18 - 27, 2018 

Call us if you have any questions! Don't miss this experience!

Susan and Howard

According to my mother, when I was an infant in arms, she would hold me up to the kitchen cabinets where there were colorful decals of flower baskets, Bowls of fruit, and butterflies. She told me that I would point to them and laugh and giggle. I, of course, didn’t remember that but it made me wonder what it was about those little pictures that I found so interesting and amusing.

When I was older, but still pretty young, my parents took me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (we lived in New York). I vividly recall looking at the large Velasquez and Raeburn full figure portraits and marveling at them. They seemed superhuman! How could a human person do that with paint, I wondered.

It was mind-boggling to me. Those paintings and others left an indelible impression.

Velasquez

Raeburn

In Junior High School another student and I would take the subway from the Bronx to the Museum of Natural History to draw the taxidermy animals in the dioramas of the African Veldt.  Museum visitors would peek over our shoulders to watch us draw. Later, I attended a special art high school and then went to college for graphic art and became an art director on Madison Avenue in New York.

Like many other commercial artists, the fine art career flame kept burning in my heart. At that time, the thought of actually making a sustainable living in fine art seemed pretty daunting but I was determined to make it work.

My dream had two parts though. The first was to create a career that would allow me to paint what I wanted, the way I wanted. The other goal was to paint in a way that would gain the respect of my peers.

This week I was notified that Oil Painters of America conferred on me their highest honor, making me a Master Signature Member.

Morning in Giverny 24 x 30 oil by Howard Friedland OPAM

 So… one might think, “well then, now I’ve “made it”!

There is only one problem with that. In art, there is no “IT” to “MAKE”!

A painter is only as good as his or her last painting so I know I must get back to work and not rest on my laurels!

In the end, we are all just trying our best to produce work that makes sense to us and communicates our vision to others as best we can.

As Wayne in Wayne’s World would say: “ Party On”! In this case “PAINT ON”!

“Oh, you are an artist! That must be so nice!” Throughout my 45-year career as a professional fine artist, I have had this quote said to me many times in many different ways. And they are right! It is nice. It is wonderful and it is challenging.

Not only are artists pushing themselves to grow and do better and better paintings, but we are scrambling to keep up with the changing times.  Now the professional artists have to wear a lot more “hats”. Besides Shipper, Framer and Bookkeeper, artists are now wearing the hats of web designer, advertiser, marketer and for some like me…video producer.

Don’t get me wrong, all of it is very exciting and challenging and creative (all the stuff that artists love). However, when does the artist find time to paint?

I am asking this question because that is my question, too, right now, as we open this new chapter, new page and new sentence for 2018.  I have thought a lot about this in the past few weeks and it is time to make a decision.

Years ago I heard a great lecture by Motivational Speaker Dr. Bragg. He said two things that I distinctly remember:

1. Anyone can aim for the roof of the barn. When making your dreams and goals aim instead, for the moon, you may not actually reach the moon but you will go way beyond the roof of the barn. What does this mean? Well, when you plan your goals, reach farther and farther into the realm of “impossible”.  Then in the future whatever you do reach will be far beyond the norm. Who knows, you might even reach the moon. But you would never do that if you had aimed for the roof of the barn.

2. All of us have a huge number of responsibilities. We want to do it all! But HOW???

Dr. Bragg also gave me a great illustration of his advice for this problem of how to do it all!

Imagine a jar that represents my time each day, week and/or year. Next to the jar are large rocks representing my big responsibilities and dreams, small pebbles representing my less important responsibilities and goals and finally sand that represents the small stuff in my life that wastes my energy and my time.

If I fill up the jar with sand first (insignificant stuff)  I will not have room for the large important rocks.

Instead, first I need to put the large rocks in the jar. Then add the smaller pebbles. Wow! A lot can be put into my life that way. Then, finally pour the sand in around the rocks and pebbles. Think I am out of room? Nope, I still have room for water.

Lesson for this week:

If we fill our lives wasting our time with little stuff, there will never be time for the big important dreams and goals in our lives. Start with those big rocks each day. Get something done on those goals, even if it is just 15 minutes, before you add the pebbles of importance. There will always be time between the big rocks and pebbles for the fun stuff (sand).

As your life fills, so will your dreams and goals.

How does this translate to me on this part of January?

1. Okay, Susan, get back into the habit of painting ( Big Rock) first thing in the morning. Use my best energy for my paintings. If my schedule for that day is light, I can paint longer. If I have a heavy schedule, I can at least get 30 minutes or an hour of painting in before the smaller pebbles are beckoning me.

2. Those smaller pebbles are important, too, so I will try to set aside specific afternoons to work on the marketing, the bookkeeping, the shipping, making videos, editing, framing, etc.

Artists don’t like to be pinned down to schedules, but this is one way to have it all and get it all done. Keep it loose but stick to it.

I used to do this. It is so easy to get out of the habit. Life changes and so do responsibilities. Life is fluid. But it can be a cocoon that wraps around me and prevents me from moving forward with my dreams and goals. Every so often, I have to pull my head up, look around, and get back to this schedule again.

Okay, next step is to make a weekly, monthly schedule for me to follow. How about you? Are you going to take up the challenge with me? Let’s do those big dreams first, a little at a time. Let’s aim for the moon!

Susan