art shows

Art of Schmidt: October 2017 Newsletter

Hello Friends, Family, and Fans, I am posting my new and improved newsletter for Art of Schmidt. Several years ago, I took a graphic design class at Frederick Community College, which taught me some basic skills in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Indesign. Although I did not finish the graphic design program at Frederick Community College and decided to focus more on fine art instead, the skills I learned as a student in the graphic design class proved helpful in reminding me of how to do a double page spread layout for this newsletter. I also looked up some free newsletter templates online to get ideas about color and composition. Hope you enjoy this issue! Happy Halloween! If you would like to receive this newsletter by email subscription, please send an email to jsjschmidt2@gmail.com, and I will add you to my email list!

Hello Family, Friends, and Followers,

I’m writing to tell you about my upcoming art shows. I’m excited that I’ve been able to secure these new opportunities to show my art work at two great venues and I hope you can stop by to one or both of these art shows! This month my painting, Magenta Rose , will be featured along with the art work of several of my fellow Artist Angle Member friends at Frederick Community College from September 9-October 4th at the Mary Condon Hodgson Art Gallery. For more information about the Artist Angle Member’s art show, follow this link: http://calendar.frederick.edu/site/arts/event/artistangle-gallery—members-exhibition/.

Next month, my art will be featured at the Frederick Coffee Company in Frederick, MD, as an artist of the month from October 1-31. The cafe graciously features local artists every month of the year, free of charge. Stop by for coffee, tea, a sandwich, or live music on the weekends. My exhibit will feature landscapes and still life which was inspired by the art work of the Impressionist artist, Claude Monet. Here is the web site for the Frederick Coffee Company if you would like more information about the art show location, or cafe hours of operation, http://fredcoffeeco.com/. I’m working on an art show post card to advertise the Frederick Coffee Company art show since the cafe does not make marketing materials for the artists, like an art gallery usually does. I will add a blog post with the completed post card soon!

In Search of “White Space”

I’ve been working at a hectic pace these last two weeks preparing for a one-day art event called Art Pops! At Everedy Square and Shab Row in Frederick, MD. Last Saturday was the big day to kick off this event and hopefully make some new connections and sales of my art work. The weeks leading up to this event were jam packed with activity and tasks such as weekly social media marketing campaigns, packaging and pricing my art works for sale, creating an inventory list in Excel, researching how to create an art booth display on Pinterest, etc. And I learned a lot from this show, such as the importance of making in person connections with people to sell my art, how to read people, etc. In fact, I sold more art work in one day at the art show, then I did from months of posting about my art on Instagram, Facebook, and Etsy, and I am thankful for that. However, all of this activity really took a toll on my energy and motivation to create art.

In all the business of preparing for the art show, I have really struggled to make time to create new art work. I feel that I have reached the end of my creative resources and knowledge, tapped out, so to speak. It’s been several years since I took an art class, and I haven’t read any new art technique books in several months. And this state of affairs is not like me. I am usually restless when I am not making art or coming up with some new ideas for a series of paintings or drawings. The last few days since the show ended, I have made a concerted effort to at least draw one portrait a day for my drawing challenge which I started back in June called, 100 faces in 100 days. Some days I have made some decent portraits, other days I have really struggled or been disappointed with

The Artist at Art Pops! event

Frank Sinatra singing, As Times Goes By

Cary Grant

Grace Kelly

Sean Connery

Creative Block: Waiting ( with Gesso added). The composition was getting too cluttered so I decided to cover up the distracting elements with acrylic gesso.

the results. If you would like to follow my progress with this project, you can view my 100 faces in 100 days drawing challenge on Instagram. I am listed as jsjschmidt2 on Instagram, and I post almost every day. Pictured are some sketches from this week including Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Grace Kelly and Sean Connery.

The paintings I wanted to work on, however, are not coming together. Instead of posting the finished product as I had hoped to do this week, I have to take several steps back and ask myself what isn’t working with the composition, values, colors and the drawings in my art work. For example, in my Creative Block: Waiting, watercolor painting, I feel there are too many elements battling for precedence and not enough quiet spaces to allow the viewer to contemplate the scene. The composition feels cluttered and overwhelming and the message of creative block feels “lost” in the muddle. So yesterday, I painted over several spots in the painting with acrylic gesso. And the Civil War soldiers fared no better. So out with the gesso again. I am struggling with the drawing and the tonal values in these acrylic paintings. I have discovered that the acrylic paint dries much darker than it looks when I mix it up and put it on the brush, which is really throwing off the values. So I may re-do the painting in oils after the gesso has “cured.”

The paintings seem to be a type of metaphor for where my life is these days. Overstuffed and empty all at the same time. I feel I have lost the wonder I used to have about making art that keeps me motivated to get into the art studio ever week to see what new ideas I might “cook up.” Meanwhile, I am realizing that my workaholic tendencies are not conducive to making art work. I must create and seek “white space” to re-fill my creative tank, so that I have something to draw from when I go to make art work. Meanwhile, I will be be seeking out this “white space” in its various forms, whether it is taking a walk, journaling, going to an art gallery, reading an art technique book, etc., to try and regain my sense of wonder for life, and for making art.