Full Time Artist? Week 3 in paint by Dr. Elizabeth R. Matthews

Last week I had to confess that I did not make my goal to make 5 paintings per week, but this week, I actually really and truly did it. A shift took place, in part because I now have a studio a lovely 15 minutes walk through a park, rather than the one hour commute by train. But also because its finally happening, I am a full time working artist. I have spent 8 of the last 10 years pursuing higher education in Fine Art spending 30 hours a week on academic research, with my head in the books. I was blessed with that opportunity. But now finally I am full time working on my art, putting all that I have learned into practice without my head always in the books. Its wonderful and I love it! I still love to read and think and write of course, but the time ratio has shifted toward the studio, making the art, with academic stuff on the side.

This week we had snow in Paris, and it inspired some of the work. The tree branches caught my eye at the height of the storm, as the soft snow piled up higher and higher, and later the melting snow caught my fancy. I found myself experimenting between thin layers and thick globby paint. On one of my sessions I did a tiny portrait as an exercise in color mixing. I pulled out an old cow I did a few years back as a guid. And finally, I finished my Dame of the Hour clock. Its set to go in an official International Women’s Day event in Bath, I will give out that information the second I get it shipped out.

So, its been exhausting but productive. A full-time artist, I am. Have you or someone you know made the transition from art student to artist? How is it going?

Thank you for reading!

Sincerely,

Dr. Elizabeth R. Matthews

White on White,  7×5 inches, oil on canvas board

 

Clockwise from top left: 1. Dame of the Hour, 12×9 inch, oil on board, clock 2. Cow, 5×7 oil on board 3. Tiny Portrait, 3×3 inches, oil on canvas board 4. Bargue Plate Foot, 18×24 inch, charcoal on paper 5. Piled High and Deep, 7×5 inch, oil on canvas board 6. Melt, 12×12 inch, oil on canvas board

 

The Week in Paint by Dr. Matthews

 

 

 

This week again, I did not make the 5 paintings per my weekly goal, but its still good to have the goal, I think. Instead I spent a lot of time resolving problems with a piece due to go into an exhibition in the UK for an International Women’s Day Arts Festival (I will post that here after its done). I am thrilled to be participating in that, and see that piece as crucial to my studio work – organically morphing into a new exciting series – so I won’t complain that it took time away from my weekly painting goals. The latter is meant to serve the former!

This week I did complete two small paintings. The first was simply a hand, where I focussed on choosing the precise details needed to convey this particular hand, while avoiding anything too precise. I love the play between representation and abstraction in this regard, and was recently reminded of it by a very talented rising MFA student, Sarah Shchmidt, you can see her work at Sarah Schmidt Art on Instagram. The second was a painting of the view from the Louvre window. I wanted to capture the vast planes of sky, courtyard and the lit-up pyramids. The courtyard was wet with rain and the people below made captivating little flecks sprinkled about.

I have also been revisiting my “elevator speech,” a short blurb that artist’s are told to always have at the ready, to tell people what their art is about in brief: “I work with the themes of utopian dreaming and the art object. With assemblage, I combine ordinary household objects with Old Master materials and techniques. My daily painting practice produces works that stand alone and simultaneously feed into the assemblage pieces.” For example the piece going into the UK  at the Dame of the Hour Exhibition, which I will post here next week, combines a clock with oil painting and a sound piece. Do you think I could get all that verbalization out in an elevator? Your thoughts dear readers would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Dr. Elizabeth R. Matthews