End of May Check-In
This week’s check-in will be a quick one. I’m on the east coast visiting family and attending a wedding this week, so there will be no painting for a little while, but I’ve been working on a couple of other things during this visit.
What I’ve been working on
I’m starting a new set of commissioned paintings of flowers and have been making mock-ups for them to review before I start painting. I create these mock-ups on Procreate, so I didn’t need to pack too many materials for this. When I work on commissions, I work hard in the beginning stages to make sure I understand what the client wants for their painting or paintings. This really helps with the painting process because I have the client’s vision in mind while also staying true to my artistic style.
I’ve decided to apply to the California National Parks: Stories of Water exhibit at the Wildling Museum. I’ve started the painting I’ll submit for the call for art. The call for art closes on July 10th, and I’m a little stressed about the timeline because I’ll be away from the studio for a little over two weeks until the deadline. Meanwhile, the application requires some written materials, so I’m planning on working on those while I’m unable to paint. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish the painting and the other application materials on time!
Before I left for my trip, I took down my Plein Air paper paintings from my living room wall and set up a little gallery wall of my collection of ocean paintings. I liked having artwork up on my living room wall and wanted to fill up the wall space with a bunch of my finished paintings (BTW these are for sale on my website!).
Something that I’m working on that is more business related is working on getting sales tax exemption status at the retailers that I buy my art supplies from. I recently learned that if I sell the materials that I purchase, like canvases, frames, paint, etc., I shouldn’t be paying sales tax on the materials because I’ll be collecting sales tax on my sales. It’s not the most exciting topic, but I’ve been working with sales tax laws a lot recently, and things like this do take up a portion of my time to figure out and make sure I’m compliant.
These are the main things I’m working on. I’m still working through the jet lag from the time difference and red eye I took coming over to the east coast, so I feel a bit disorganized. I’m hoping to spend quality time with family and friends this week while also getting some work done!
