Fall is here...Yeay!
 	 
   

   

 
 

 	 
For many of us, fall is a favorite time of year, myself included. The
cooler temps are great for getting outdoors to paint and bike. Even
little Koya seems to have more energy in the crisp autumn air.
Of course as an artist, the fall colors are irresistible to paint, and
the top image is my latest attempt - 'Autumn Riot' 12"x 16" ($750 +
shipping, framed).
Below right, is my latest Sedona painting - 'Out of the Shadows' 9"x
12" ($600 + shipping, framed).
And below left is one of a series of new Still Life paintings I've been
working on lately, 'Appreciating the Classics' 12"x 16" ($750 +
shipping, framed). As always, I'm willing to sell any of these unframed
and would reduce the price accordingly. Contact me if any of these
interest [email protected] or 928-300-4576.
I recently purchased a new book - 'Masters of American Illustration -
41 Illustrators and How They Worked'. I'm only part way through it, but
it's fascinating.

 

One thing that has long struck me about the golden age of illustration
is how much time and preparatory work most of them spent on each
assignment. 

 

I’ve always shared this thought (or desire) about taking the time to
let your best ideas bubble up to the surface. Allowing your initial
ideas time to evolve is a mark of a mature artist. Art, at least
representational art, really is a very cerebral activity, requiring
full engagement of both hemispheres of the mind. 

 

Inspiration and creativity are balanced with evaluation, planning and
work ethic. Creative design executed with skillful intent. This is
precisely why creating good art is so difficult. Most humans have a
dominant hemisphere, left or right brain. As artists we are forced to
develop both sides if we want to be the best we can, even though we may
not really want to. This is indeed a big part of the struggle for an
artist, and why so many fall short of their potential.

 

Add to that a modern day necessity to post our lives as open books on
the public stage of social media, spend valuable time learning about
keywords and hashtags, and you have yet another hurdle for a lot of us
who are natural born introverts. This too must be overcome in order to
accomplish anything in this business. It is perhaps one of the main
reasons so many highly skilled artists fail to make it.

 

If you also want to have a relationship, there simply aren’t enough
hours in the day.

 

In the days or yore, artists could be mysterious, spend the vast
majority of their time creating (in relative peace), and were often
revered for their elusiveness. The public was capable of holding a deep
thought for more than a nanosecond. Everyone was not glued to their
phone, you could capture the imagination without video, and hold it
long enough for a person to fall in love with your painting.

 

The markets are bigger, more numerous and more accessible today, but
there is so much noise that it’s difficult to get noticed, especially
when doing something contemplative.  

 

Still I love the freedoms we enjoy today, and I’m thankful to make a
living by my art. So I give a hearty thanks to all of you who have
supported my journey. You make this most challenging and interesting
life possible.

 

I just rebuilt my website  . "Didn't he just do
that earlier this year," you ask? Yes I did. I left FASO and went with
another company, which turned out to be an expensive experiment in
frustration. Due to virtually no customer service, I pulled up stakes
and am now happily back with FASO. Any of you artists out there who
need a website, learn from my mistake. Go with FASO, they are awesome!

 

A note about the new site. Please have a look, I've revised almost
every page. And for those of you who might be thinking about prints for
the upcoming holiday season, my new prints page
  is simpler to use than ever
before.

Koya Klips

 

Koya says - get out and do some hiking, and play in the leaves too.
   

 
 

 	 
CodyDeLong.com