Art Jury Competition

One Step Up From Third was accepted into the Fall/Winter 2008 show.

Today is the beginning of my New Year. I'm a bit early, but I have to get started. I've decided to create boundaries this year. I'm setting aside 4 hours a day for art. No phone calls or interruptions will be allowed except emergencies which will come through on my cell phone. That's an easy one since only four family members have that number and I have told them of my plans so they know not to use it unless it is a dire emergency. That will be up for interpretation I'm sure.

This sounds harsh to those around me, but it's more of an exercise for me. I need the discipline of not answering the phone. I need to concentrate on building my business of art. Whether it involves reading other art blogs, working on my website, studying the business of promotion or painting, I will be doing it between 11am and 3pm, Monday through Friday every week this year. I will leave open the days I clean my parents house and I'm sure there will be some days I will need to go there to fit things. But I will try to make it before 11am or after 3pm.

It has occurred to me that I've been full of excuses to insure my failure. I tell myself that I must be there for my parents. Both of them have health issues. Then there are my grandchildren that I love and am happily responsible for 4 out of the 5 school days and nights each week. They need me to collect them from school and give them my attention. I can't leave out my husband who has a tendency to call me 4 or 5 times a day and I do have friends that need to tell me all their problems, too. Boundaries. That's the ticket. If I can do it so can they. There's going to be a bit of an adjustment period, but I'll let you know how it goes. I'm optimistic that all of us can make it through.

Negative interaction brings my creativity to a screeching halt. If I can discipline myself to not allow negativity or any interference into my life for 4 itty bitty hours a day I can only imagine how much I will be able to accomplish toward my goals.

Happy beginning of 2009 to all of you. Let me know what your goals are and we can all help each other sit up straight and get on with it.

Figures in my painting

I've been struggling with this idea for months now. It has been on my mind so strongly that what was to be a draped cloth ended up looking like a business suit with an invisible person inside. I'm an abstract painter. I absolutely love looking at your landscapes. I've tried to do a peaceful, serene, warm landscape, but it's not in me. I end up with odd shapes and lots of color. Even with what I do, I still wonder if I should place a person inside my fantasy. Perhaps someone struggling to climb that purple-striped mountaintop. I promised myself this week I would walk past my fear. I would venture into the 'what if I ruin my painting' fear and climb over that peak into the unknown. You have given me a challenge now. The painting I'm working on has a place for a figure to assist in telling my story. I hope I make you proud.

In Response to "Finding the right Gallery"

Your points are well stated. I've tried my best to paint to sell, but I find that the passion just isn't there if you are laying out paint with the vision of dollar bills blocking your creativity. Don't get me wrong, I'm in it for the money just like the rest of us. How else can we justify and finance what we love to do. But, I've known artists that stay or in my perception become stagnet because they have found what sells. Being true to your own style or signature isn't the same as staying with one look. That's the pinch. Doing art for the love of it and loving yourself enough to lose the fear of never selling it.

AJAS Juried Art Show

Jurists and staff of the American Juried Art Salon congratulate you. Your art that has been accepted into our 2008 Spring/Summer national juried show is 'Mist in the Horizon'.

New work

Check out my new paintings

Mist in the Horizon www.peggyguichu.com/works/186905
Ladder www.peggyguichu.com/works/186902

Paintings sold

I'm happy to announce that I sold 6 oils last week. Red Mountain, Graffiti I & II, Living Earth, Catamaran and Heat. Thank you Gina, owner of Kay-Lochausen Fine Art Gallery in El Paso, TX.

What My Art Means To Me

Creating my paintings is like composing music. I start with a chorus of colors, a stroke of the brush, and let the images tune in as the composition begins. Always trying new color combinations, wanting more than I’m capable of producing visually. Chasing that color spectrum from another world or place I went to, but couldn’t bring back. I want to break the rules and prove I’m right. And when it gets really terrifying to go any further I stop. Now is the time to listen with my eyes. I start turning it from one side to the other. One of the angles will reveal itself. I know there’s a message in there somewhere. I just have to keep turning it, working it and eventually I’ll find it. And when I do find it I fall in love. The love makes me work even more delicately, more meticulously. I’m fearful that I’ll blemish it. When the last brush stroke has been played I will hang it in the most visible place in my house and let it sing to me. I know that selling my work is what I’m supposed to be working towards, but the emotion of letting it go is sometimes overwhelming. I still feel sad when I think of my ‘Egret’ I sold 15 years ago. I miss him. I just sold ‘Red Mountain’ and I seriously feel as if I’ve lost something so precious to me. I cried when I left my watercolors at Jezebel’s Gallery knowing that I would never see them again. Some tell me to just paint another one, but they don’t understand. I will never be able to recreate ‘Red Mountain’ or ‘Searching for the Source’. They hold my secrets and their colors resonate a feeling of love to me. It must have something to do with the exchange of energies. My wish is that those that buy my paintings will have the same connection as I do. See the magic, hear the symphony , allow the light to reveal the secrets of my soul.