Summer is officially over and done, now on to autumn.  Fall this year comes with a flurry of Art Exhibitions including my own annual Featured Artist show at Carmel’s Art on Main Gallery & Gifts. In August just as the gallery was getting back open, I asked about the schedule and if I was still on for October’s Featured Artist? If there is any one thing we should have all learned this year, it’s to take nothing for granted. I was happy to be told that I was still on for October which actually frightened me a bit because several of my best & newest pieces are tied up in other juried exhibitions like the Hoosier Salon, Watercolor Society of Indiana, Indiana Heritage Arts, Richmond Art Museum’s 122^nd Annual Exhibition and the 1^st Annual Juried Exhibition in Fishers, Indiana.

One of the Art on Main’s owners, Kim Greene @artkimgreene, suggested that if I knew an outside artist that would be a good fit, to ask them if they would like to be a guest and share the space for the month. Well, Stephanie Hunter Spay @stephaniespayfineart had asked me about the gallery a few months before wanting to find a gallery close to home. Long story made short: Stephanie and I are doing a show called, Outside Inside. I will be showing 15 or more pieces, mostly watercolors and several graphite drawings. My work is primarily landscapes with some wildlife and still-life pieces thrown in. Stephanie Spay’s work is figurative and still-life in oil. I think it will be a very nice complimentary mix of contemporary work. The show will be up all month and we are hosting an Open House with individually wrapped treats and bottled water (the pandemic has killed the wine & cheese for the foreseeable future unfortunately) on Saturday, Oct. 3^rd from 5-9PM. If you are reading this then please consider yourself personally invited.

August, September and October are the prime months here in Indiana for En Plein Air Events.  This year is no exception, I have won awards in Zionsville, Danville and in Ft. Wayne at the Kekionga Plein Air Event, which keeps on paying dividends in commissions. I also did the Villagescape Paint Out put on by the Brown County Art Guild @browncoartguild in Nashville, Indiana. Late in the day I had the opportunity to have drinks with several artists all with more experience than me. In particular Beverly Bruntz @beverlybruntzfineart was discussing how she had 3 revenue streams: Studio work, Plein Air and some abstract/home décor/commissions. This got me to thinking that I had a very similar streams although I had never really thought of them individually before: I do my larger studio pieces for Juried Exhibitions & Sales because I am still in the building a reputation faze of my career; I do well in Plein Air Events, both sales & awards; and, I do smaller pieces I refer to as my Bread-n-Butter work. I really need to think about commission work because I think this is the “stream” I can focus on to build my art business.

This is where I could use your help: would you be willing to repost or share info about me doing commissions? Are you willing to share with your family and friends about what I’ve created for you? Nothing beats Word-of-Mouth referrals in my experience. As we get closer (under 90 days) to Christmas, when you hear someone struggling to find a perfect gift for someone who is hard to buy for; or, someone who has everything?  Will you suggest a commission? As shameful as it sounds, in every crisis there is opportunity to be found and this pandemic is no exception for artists. I think we’ve all reflected on how short our time is and that we need to live life like there’s no tomorrow, right? So, if there was ever a good time to commission a work of art for a loved one, now is that time. I do Portraits, Architectural Renderings, Pets Portraits, and just about anything else you’d care to challenge me to create.

Which brings me to closing; I will be in a couple of the End of Year Exhibitions and of course the Holi-Daze Gifting that happens. I hope you and yours are safe, well and happy until the next time we meet. Please feel free to comment and/or reach out to me via email any time: [email protected].