Middle of December Check-in
I’m writing this week’s update from my gallery sitting shift in Half Moon Bay, which has been a refreshing change of location. Despite how cold it has been in the Bay Area, the coastside is sunnier and warmer, reaching up to 60 degrees in the middle of the day.
Even though the year is coming to an end, I feel quite busy in the studio and haven’t set much time aside to reflect on the year as a whole. I hope to share one more update before the end of the year that includes some sort of retrospective. But today, updates!
What I’ve been working on:
I’ve been working on my paintings inspired by China again. I spent maybe too much time adjusting the faces of the figures in the paintings given how small the actual faces are in the paintings. It was actually starting to stress me out a bit, and after talking to a few artist friends about my issue, they told me that I needed to move on. They shared that the overall compositions of the paintings are strong and the faces are not going to make or break the painting. So I’m trying to internalize that feedback and officially decide that I’m finished with five of those paintings.
I have also been working on the painting inspired by a hike in Olympic National Park. I’ve been having a bit of hard time switching between the small scale of the 8”x10” paintings inspired by China to this 36”x48” painting. I’m not sure how detailed I should go into the Olympic National Park painting vs how much I should leave to Impressionistic paint brushes. Now writing this out, I may be falling into a trap of perfectionism across all of my paintings.
I’m in the early stages of trying to curate a group show with another artist friend that will feature my paintings inspired by China. I’ve been working on finding different ways to show my artwork, and some local galleries create opportunities for artists to propose exhibitions. In fact, I was able to show at The New Museum Los Gatos this year because of a group exhibition proposal I had submitted. Relatedly, I wrote a blog post about my experience creating my painting for that show here if you want to read more of my writing. So we’ll see if something comes out of this new proposal.
I’m also back to attending figure drawing sessions on Thursdays and attended an additional portraiture session this past Friday. I can see my technical drawing skills improve; I’m able to more accurately draw the proportions of the human figure a little more quickly. So I’ll keep practicing.
Outings
I haven’t been great about getting out and visiting art shows and events this past month. Whenever it gets dark early, all I want to do is stay in. But I held my last two events of the year: an artist talk/tour at NUMU and Second Saturdays at my studio. I always enjoy talking to people about my artwork, and those were two great events to close out the year.
Overall, I’ve been feeling a bit stressed recently. I’ve been applying to opportunities in the background and there are quite a few deadlines right before the holidays. I’m also traveling to Pennsylvania and New Jersey for the holidays, so the awareness that I’ll be taking a break from work for a week is causing me to put a bit of pressure on myself to wrap up as much as I can before then. I do know that once I am with my family for the holidays, I will be properly resting. But I’m not at the stange where I am looking forward to it yet. But I guess it’s normal for the week before the winter holidays to be quite stressful for everyone. So I hope everyone is hanging in there and staying warm!
