Moving On

 
I've decided to move my blog to my own website. I hope my followers here will follow me there. I am not going to set up a feedburner thingee or other such way to broadcast my blog. I assume you all have some method currently to read blog posts from me.... the new rss feed is http://www.robincheers.com/2/feed

New Blog => 

http://www.robincheers.com/blog.html

I will be leaving this here as my archive - and am trying to work on putting all the posts (since 2006!) into a book form at least for my own personal reference. Also - there is still the monthly newsletter via Constant Contact through which I can communicate.

I assume some of my readers will fall away - so before you go, let me say thank you very much for caring to follow in the first place. Warmest regards!

You Tube for Arts Programs

You Tube is such a great resource for artists! Its great to do a search and see where things lead you. One favorite is Lucy Worsley's historical documentaries. Ah, what a job she has... Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces.

But back to art and artists... there are countless videos to watch contemporary artists demonstrate or talk about their work. Its always interesting to see behind the scenes and learn from others - so long as you don't spend more time on there than at your easel! Even better are the historical ART documentaries I've been finding.

Tonight, while sitting for an hour and a half at my daughter's gymnastics class, I found this video that aired on the BBC "David Hockney's Secret Knowledge" and found it very fascinating. I thought I'd share with you and I'm curious what you all think of his ideas. It made me look with new respect at works by Jan Van Eyck and other Renaissance artists. The amount of work in all that detail is mind blowing. I would sooner eat my paintbrush.

Old New Orleans

24x12 oil on panel

Ask Tidewater Gallery about this painting.

Sunday Brunch II

10x10 oil on linen panel
$350 (sale price!)
PURCHASE

Last fall, someone from the Academy of Food and Wine Service contacted me from the UK and wanted to use an old image of mine for their membership brochure. Very cool.

I didn't have the original so I thought I'd paint a new one slightly larger and be able to get a hi res image of it for them. Well, they prefered the original so we made do. Perhaps the image is now in use for their organization.

What is next? Well... this is the last of my 2013 paintings and I've been mulling over some new ideas. I have some larger canvases and bigger ideas. Perhaps more "posed" and planned and less serendipitous references materials (models at home and posed family scenes) -- but narrative and inviting. I hope. I'm enjoying the larger canvases too. A LOT. Now a 12x16 seems tight to me.

I am debating the daily painters websites.... shouldn't mention that here I suppose, but I just don't think my work fits the genre. I get some inquiries, but my larger paintings are too much for most buyers on there. And now that I am going bigger still...
I have this constant debate with myself over how much self promotion and marketing to do. Should I bother with direct sales at all? Should I go entirely to direct sales? Should I enter more shows? Join more groups? Be all over ETSY and FineArtAmerica and DPG and DPW and advertise? Should I move my blog to my website? Open a "store" on my site? Keep everything on my own domain? Will I lose all my followers? Sheesh -- 717!?!?! When did that happen? (WOW!)
OR... should I enjoy painting and hope my galleries will do the work for me?

Its a real conundrum. The economy is still lagging, art sales continue to be slow and there are sooo many quality artists producing so much wonderful work that its hard to know how to compete and make my voice heard. Hence my desire to experiment more and move in new directions. Perhaps its just time for growth and I am ready for it. I started blogging in 2006. I started painting larger "gallery" work and dropped the small daily paintings somewhere in 2011. And now I'm ready for a new chapter.

Was this what I hoped this post would be about? No. It took on a life of its own. Its good to meander those unplanned paths once in awhile.
I'm hoping you all will come along with me as I wander.

Melancholy Days

Our friend Major passed on Monday and is running free in heaven now. I firmly believe one of God's greatest gifts is the dog.

Their lives are just not long enough - or perhaps ours are too long. It seems the dog embodies so much of what we wish we could be. Ever faithful, affectionate, loving, patient, obedient, happy,  living each moment, and above all, forgiving.

When the Man waked up he said, "What is Wild Dog doing here?" And the Woman said, "His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always." — Rudyard Kipling

Art Lovers

20x16 oil on cradled panel
Ask Castle Gallery about this painting

 This was fun to paint. And pretty fitting for the upcoming holiday. Happy Friday!

ps - the frame and the molding lines are not warped... camera does that.

Corridor of Art

20x16 oil on linen
Ask Castle Gallery about this painting

This was painted a couple of years ago, but hasn't been seen publicly in awhile so I thought I'd share it again. Hopefully it will find a good home in Indiana.

At Court

16x20 oil on panel
Ask Castle Gallery about this painting

Sorry for my long silence. Life just moves at too fast a pace - no matter how I try to slow it down. Dogs (both ailing now), school, Girl Scout cookies, weather, life in general... you know the story!

The above is a scene from the Court of The Two Sisters restaurant in New Orleans. The photo doesn't do it justice - nor did I really. There are parts of it I like but sort of sent it out before I fixed a couple of things I'd like to adjust. Ah well... deadlines will do that to you.

I wanted to get it to Castle Gallery before their big Valentine's show "Amour de l'Art" which opens Friday night. Here's hoping another Arctic blast won't ruin their party.

I have been working on other things and stretching my wings a little which is exciting for me. I'm not ready to show the work yet tho. So for now, enjoy seeing what will be available at my galleries in the coming weeks.