Beginning of July Check-In
Hi everyone! I hope you all are staying cool during the summer! It’s been really hot in California recently with multiple sequential days of over 95°F weather, so I’ve been spending a lot of time indoors keeping cool. A couple of new things are upcoming that I’m excited to share with you in my update.
What I’m working on:
I’m working studiously on the fifth seashell painting in the ‘Ocean Arrangements’ series of paintings. This one has a lot more details than the fourth painting in the series, so it’s taking a bit more time, but I’m really happy with how it’s coming together. Since I’ve been focusing on this painting in the studio, I’ve taken a break from the large detailed ocean wave painting I started last month to help me stay focused.
Since it’s been quite warm these last few weeks, and my studio building doesn’t have central air (we have an AC unit in our studio unit), I’ve spent more time at home. This has given me a lot of time to work on my abstract watercolor series and I’m working on the third painting in this series. This series is both quite different from the oil paintings I’ve created, but thematically similar and visually flows from what I’ve been working on.
Outings
I spent the majority of my day yesterday at the New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) figuring out the layout for the exhibition I’ve been the volunteer curator for. As a volunteer with genARTS, I’ve had the opportunity to work on this exhibition that will be on view at NUMU from July 19th to October 6th. This is the first exhibition that I’ve curated and I’ve learned a lot about the process and work that goes into putting together a juried exhibition.
I also have a few new opportunities that I wanted to share!
I’ve been commissioned by my undergraduate institution, Swarthmore College, to create a painting of a location on campus for their 2025 calendar. Every year, Swarthmore sends out a physical calendar to alums, students, and parents of students. In the past, the calendar has featured photographs of locations and buildings around the campus, but next year they’re going to use artworks from alums, faculty, and staff in the next year’s calendar, including mine! I’ll be sharing more updates as I work on this commission.
I’ve been accepted into my first artist residency at the Cuttyhunk Island Artist Residency! It’s a week-long residency from September 3-10th on Cuttyhunk Island, MA. I’ll be spending the week with 11 other artists and learning from a guest artist and guest scientist. I’m really excited to be attending this residency to have the opportunity to paint the ocean and coastal landscapes as well as learn from the other artists.
This month, I’ll be giving a live painting demonstration at the Filoli Historic Garden’s annual Art Walk. I’ll be one of the many artists scheduled to provide live art demonstrations during the weekend-long event; I’ll be painting from 4-7pm on Saturday, July 20th. This will be my first live painting demonstration in oil painting, but it’s not a class where I’m teaching oil painting techniques. I’ll be sharing my painting process and inspiration with art admirers who come to the Art Walk. I’ve visited Filoli previously, and I’m really looking forward to painting in the gardens. I’m not quite sure what painting I’ll be working on yet, but I’m considering starting a 6th painting in the Ocean Arrangements series to demonstrate. I do have to prepare a painting that is in different stages of progress to help highlight the different parts of my painting process, so I’ll have to get working on that soon.
That’s all for my update this week. A lot of exciting things are happening. My focus for this month is to spend more time in the studio painting. I have quite a bit of traveling coming up in September and October, so I want to paint as much as I can. I’m also traveling to Seattle this weekend for a 5 day trip, so let me know if you have any recommendations for my time there. Thanks so much for following along!
End of June Check-in
Happy summer! It’s been almost three weeks since my last update and a lot has happened. I went on a trip to Lake Tahoe last week, and it was a great time to take a proper vacation from work. Before my trip, I painted my first mural during Viva Calle San Jose; it was a great time painting live and talking to the other muralists and artists who were painting during the event. And then when I came back from Lake Tahoe, I painted my first Utility Box mural on the corner of 11th and Reed Street in San Jose. With the help of some friends, we finished painting the utility box in one day, and I’m really happy with how it came out! I’ll be posting YouTube videos of the process of both murals soon. With these murals complete, I’m back in the studio working on a couple of projects
What I’m working on:
I’m still working on the fifth seashell painting in the ‘Ocean Arrangements’ series of paintings. I’m working on the detailed parts of the coral and seashells, so it’s all really coming together nicely. I probably won’t finish this painting by the end of the month, like I had thought, and I’m working towards finishing it by the end of July.
I’ve started my largest oil painting to date with a detailed ocean wave painting on a 36”x48” canvas. I ordered some larger paint brushes to help me work on this painting because I realized that the brushes I currently have are too small to effectively paint on this canvas. It’ll be a change for me to work with 1 inch to 3 inch paint brushes, but I’m looking forward to learning some new painting techniques.
I’ve started a new abstract watercolor series on a few medium-sized WaterMedia boards. This idea came out of the 100 day project watercolor sketches I made during the challenge. I wanted to create a series of larger scale abstract watercolor paintings, so I’m looking forward to seeing how these turn out.
Outings
I had a small opening reception for my paintings that are exhibiting at the Sunnyvale Senior Center last Friday. I generally prefer smaller opening receptions because it gives me the chance to have proper conversations with my friends and visitors about my artwork.
In the middle of July, I’ll be traveling to Seattle for the first time. I’m tagging along my partner’s work trip, so I’m looking forward to catching up with some friends who live in the city and visiting the museums and galleries there. If anyone has Seattle recommendations, let me know!
That’s my update for now. I’ve been volunteering a lot of my time as Vice Chair for genARTS, so my vacation in Lake Tahoe was a nice way to take a break and refocus my energies on painting. I’m hoping to spend more time in the studio creating and painting. I had a few new ideas for painting series that I want to get to, but I know that I should finish my current paintings before starting even more new ones.
Beginning of June Check-in
Happy June everyone! It’s been a busy two weeks since my last update with family visiting and a lot of projects underway. It’s continuing to be quite busy, so I’m just going to jump right into what I’ve been working on.
What I’m working on:
Last Friday, I dropped off 10 of my paintings at the Sunnyvale Senior Center as part of The City of Sunnyvale’s Exhibition of art in Public Places. I’m excited to have my work showing in new places and it’ll be on display until July 10th.
This upcoming Saturday, I’ll be painting a live mural with Together We Create 408 as part of the Viva Calle San Jose event. It’ll be the first time I’m painting a mural of my own design and the first time I’ll be painting live, so I’m both excited and nervous. I’m to paint an 8’x8’ mural within about 5 hours and I’ll have some help. I’ve just finished sketching out my design and had some help with coming up with a plan of how I break up the painting. I’ll be purchasing paint and supplies in the next few days, so hopefully I’ll be ready.
I’m also still preparing for my ArtBox project with the City of San Jose to paint a pair of utility boxes. We have hit a bit of a snag with confirmation of payment, which includes a deposit for me to be able to purchase supplies, so I haven’t been able to move forward with buying the paint and additional supplies that I’ll need for the project. I’m hoping we’re able to work through this quickly, since the project needs to be completed by June 30th. I’ve already scheduled out a few days for me to work on this project, but I won’t be able to get started until this issue is sorted out.
I’m working on the fifth seashell painting in the ‘Ocean Arrangements’ series of paintings. The painting process has become pretty swift with all of the practice I’ve been able to do with the previous four paintings. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to finish this painting given all of the mural work I’ll be doing soon, but it is likely that I’ll be able to finish it by the end of this month.
I’ve also been preparing and organizing some more in-person events. I’ve been working with some business close to my studio to revitalize the area, so every second Saturday of the month, I’ll be opening my studio, along with other artists, for people to visit and see our studio space and artwork.
Outside of my personal arts practice, I’ve been really busy with volunteering with genARTS, the volunteer organization based in Santa Clara that supports local emerging artists. I’ve stepped up as Vice Chair of the organization in addition to curating this year’s Experimental Exhibition. I’ve been doing a lot of work to help restructure our organization and secure funding for our programming in the background while also tabling each first Friday of the month in Downtown San Jose alongside the museums on 1st Street. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been a great way for me to engage with my local arts community.
Outings:
I’ve had family visiting me for the last few days and we’ve been doing a little bit of traveling and site-seeing. We went down to Point Lobos, one of my favorite places, to do some tidepooling and hiking. We were able to see seals and otters, which was really nice! We also took a day to go up to SF and visited the SFMOMA, which I haven’t had the chance to visit since moving here. I have visited before the pandemic during a trip out to SF before I had lived here.
In a week in a half, I’ll be taking a long weekend trip up to Lake Tahoe. We also haven’t visited Lake Tahoe since moving here. I’m hoping to use that time to completely unplug, because I haven’t been able to do that for a while, even though I had planned to this week while I have people visiting. There’s just been a lot of things happening at the same time, so I’ve had to do a lot of administrative and planning work even though I haven’t been in the studio.
I think that’s it for my update. There are quite a few things on my mind, but hopefully things will clear up and move forward over the next few weeks and I’ll be able to take some time off during my trip to Tahoe. I hope you all are doing well!
Mid-May Check-in
Hi everyone! I hope everyone’s May is going well. It’s been an exciting time in my studio and art business. I’m writing this check-in in between meetings, so it’s probably going to be a quick one!
What I’m working on:
I think I’m at the finishing touches of the fourth seashell painting in the collection of ‘Ocean Arrangements’ paintings. I’m looking back at my previous updates and I’ve just realized that I’m painting these pieces faster as I have more under my belt. And to be fair, this fourth painting is less complicated than the first three. I have one more painting that I have prepped to round out this collection. I may come back to this collection, but I think that five paintings is a nice number for now. Because I have been very focused on this collection of paintings, I’ve been coming up with a bunch of new ideas for other series of paintings that I want to get started on.
I’ve been selected to paint a mural in San Jose. I’ll be painting a pair of utility boxes, which the City of San Jose has fondly called ‘Art Boxes’. My sketch of the mural has been approved, so the next step is getting my supplies: I need to purchase exterior house paint, paint brushes, drop cloths, among other supplies that I don’t usually use inside my studio. I’m planning to paint my mural in the beginning of June, across a few days, during the morning hours to hopefully avoid the summer heat and sun. This will be the first mural that I’ve designed, so I’m really looking forward to painting it!
I’m really behind in the #100dayproject, but I am committing to catching up and completing 100 watercolor paintings/sketches. Even though it’s been hard to keep to this habit for 100 days in a row, this has been a great opportunity to paint with watercolors again and experiment with some new projects. The last day of the project is May 27th, so we’re in the home stretch.
Finally, the thing that has taken up the majority of my energy the last two weeks: Silicon Valley Open Studios. I had a great time showing my work in Los Altos and San Jose in back to back weekends. I met so many people who enjoyed my artwork, and I had a great time speaking to people about my background in becoming an artist and my artistic practice. Meeting and talking to people about my work is one of my favorite parts of creating artwork and being an artist, so I’m really glad that I was able to spend two weekends doing that.
Outings
Last Friday, I went out plein air painting with my former co-worker turned full-time artist friend around Mori Point outside of San Francisco. It was a great time catching up and painting together. We both paint in oils, but we have two very different styles, so it was cool to see how our paintings turned out side by side. She also created a YouTube video of our experience, and you can watch it here!
And then both of my weekends have been occupied by Open Studios, which I also consider an outting. This was a really rewarding experience and I’m looking forward to more opportunities where I can share my art with people.
I think that’s all for now. I have family visiting in the middle of next week, and I’m going to be using that time to rest and take a break from painting and business work. I have a couple of deadlines for art calls, residencies, and grants coming up at the end of May, so I’m hoping to also finish that work before my family visits, so I can truly take a much needed break! Thanks for reading and following along!
Beginning of May Check-in
Hello! I hope everyone’s May is starting out nicely. Spring is in full swing here in the Bay Area and the nice weather is making me excited for the in-person events that I’m participating in this month. Here are my updates since last week:
What I’m working on
I finished the third seashell painting in the collection of paintings that I’m tentatively calling ‘The Ocean Arrangements’ because they’re paintings of seashells, seaweed, coral, and other sea wrack that has been arranged by the tides. I’m currently working on the fourth painting. I originally had wanted to make seven paintings for this collection, but I think I’m going to aim to finish five paintings. I have the fifth painting planned out and the canvas prepped. I’ve been working on this series of paintings since December and I think it’s time to switch to another series of paintings once I finish the fifth painting to find something else that inspires me.
I’ve been playing catch up with the #100dayproject by completing three or four paintings at a time because I haven’t been diligent about painting them on a daily basis anymore. I had a feeling this was going to happen with such a long running daily project, but I want to make sure I complete 100 paintings by May 27th, which is day 100!
I’m participating in two weekends of SIlicon Valley Open Studios: this weekend (May 11-12) in Los Altos and next weekend (May 18-19). I’ve been spending a lot of time preparing for the event like packing up my paintings and prints, making sure I have labels for all my paintings, and planning out my booth set up. It’s been a lot of work, but I think I have a plan for a booth set up that I’m going to stick with for a while so I won’t have to rebuild the wheel each time I do an in person event this year. The preparation is exciting though because I’m really looking forward to showing my work at these events.
Outings
This past Friday, I volunteered with a local arts organization at a First Friday event in San Jose. At this event, we provide an opportunity for emerging artists to sell their work and share opportunities for emerging artists for professional development and to apply to art calls. It’s been a good way for me to bridge my previous work experience to help local emerging artists gain some business and professional development skills. It’s also been a great way for me to engage with my local arts community and I’m planning on continuing to volunteer and participate in these events.
Those are the main updates for the last two weeks. The next two weekends are busy, but once the open studio events are over, I’m planning on continuing my plein air painting. I also have tentative plans to visit Lake Tahoe, which I’ve never been to before despite now living in the Bay Area for almost three years. So if you’ve been to Lake Tahoe and have any recommendations, please share them! That’s all for now, thanks for reading!
End of April Check-in
Hi friends! It’s been a busy month, so I want to jump right into the updates.
What I’m working on:
I’m wrapping up the third seashell painting that I’ve been mentioning in my previous updates. I want to use this painting for an art call that’s due this Friday. The deadline has been helpful in keeping me focused on this painting. I normally don’t like to paint until the last minute for a deadline, but I had a little bit of poor planning in the middle of the project with other projects that I was working on, so this is just where we are. The bright side of this is that I won’t spend an inordinate amout of time nitpicking and fixing little details that are bothering me and will just have to be happy with what I’m able to complete by Friday.
I’m still going strong with the #100dayproject, althought I am looking forward to when it’ll be over. I am glad that I gave myself space to explore watercolors and try some new things out, but I do think I really want to focus on my oil paintings for a while. I was able to explore a couple of watercolor projects, which I think was the main goal of this challenge, so I feel like it has been a success.
I’m still posting videos every other Wednesday to my YouTube channel. I have a new video coming out in a few hours. It’s a timelaspe of me painting Flash Flood Warning, a landscape of Joshua Tree National Park that was accepted to the California Nature Art Museum’s 2023 California National Parks: Stories of Water Exhibition and awarded an honorable mention. What’s cool about this video is that I was able to collaborate with my brother because he produced the background music for it!
Outings
I was able to go plein air painting again since my last update. We went to the coast one weekend and I was able to paint a couple of coastal landscape paintings. I did enjoy the process, so I’m hoping to find some more time on the weekends to do a few more coastal paintings before it gets too warm out.
With open studios coming up next month, I’ve been trying to prepare for them by making sure I have prints of my paintings. I’m also considering creating greeting cards for my floral paintings. I’m hoping this provides people an accessible way to buy my art. I’m balancing preparing for these shows with still applying to gallery and museum art calls, which helps me get my artwork in front of more people. There’s quite a number of art calls with upcoming deadlines, and I want to try to apply to as many as I can with the paintings that I have. I also have a lot of new ideas for another series of paintings and am trying to figure out when I’ll be able to start working on those projects. I would like to finish five paintings in my seashell series; the last two paintings of the series are prepped and planned. I just have to remind myself to stay focused on a small number of projects and that the projects do take a while to complete.
I think that’s it for now. I hope you all are doing well, and I’ll see you in the next check-in!
April Check-in
Hi everyone! I hope you all are enjoying the warm spring weather. In the Bay Area, the weather has been fluctuating between high-70s and low-60s, but spring is definitely here. I’ve spent the majority of the last two weeks working on paintings in the studio. Event season is quickly approaching so I’m trying to spend as much time as possible painting before that happens.
What I’m working on:
I’m still painting the third seashell painting; I think I’m a little halfway done with it.
I’m over halfway through the #100dayproject. Today marks day 52 of the challenge. Hopefully I can stick it through the second half!
I was inspired by my #100dayproject paintings and started to paint some larger watercolor paintings that also remind me of wetlands.
I painted my first plein air painting of the season. I went to the bay/wetland area in Alviso and painted during sunset. It ended up being a really windy visit and I did my best to paint well while also holding onto my painting and keeping my hands warm. I’m hoping to do more plein air painting this month.
I think I did a better job of focusing on a smaller number of things these last two months. Because of this, I’ve made a lot of progress on my seashell painting. But I also know I have a long way to go, so I’m going to try to maintain my focus. I also have a number of in-person events coming up:
What’s upcoming:
Saturday, April 13: I’m hosting an opening reception in my new studio space for my ‘California Highway One: Finding Home’ collection. I’m excited to be able to share the eight paintings in the collection together!
May: I’ll be participating in two weekends of Silicon Valley Open Studios (May 18th - May 19th & May 25th - May 26).
May 29th - July 10th: My artwork will be exhibiting at the Sunnyvale Senior Center as part of the Artwork in Public Places Exhbiiton program. I’m really excited that my work has been accepted into this program and am looking forward to installing my paintings in this space.
If you’re in the Bay Area and want to visit, more details can be found on my Events page!
That’s all for now! Thanks for following along 🙂
End of March Check-in
Happy Spring everyone! I’ve just returned from a trip home on the east coast and am getting back into my regular working schedule. It was good to take a break from the studio and work in general. I had a number of various deadlines for grants and applications that I worked on before I left from my trip, so last week I did very little work. Now that I’ve been back home for a few days, I have started painting again and have some more applications that are due at the end of the month/early April that I am wrapping up.
What I’m working on:
I finally finished painting the cherry blossom flower painting! It’s the fourth flower painting in this collection of paintings. I initially planned to do ten of these kinds of paintings but I’m thinking about sharing these four as a set. I want to make some greeting cards out of these paintings because I think they look really nice together.
I’m continuing to work on the third seashell painting. I think I’m also finally done with the first two paintings in this series, but I’m going to wait on sharing these paintings until I’m further along with the whole series. My current plan is to create seven of these collections to make a series and I’ve painted the underlayer for two more in the series.
I’m still painting my watercolor paintings for the #100dayproject challenge. The intention for these paintings was (and still is) to have fun and no expectations from them. This has worked out really well, and I happened to get a watercolor painting series idea that I think I’ll explore a bit more with my daily paintings to help me fully form the idea. Hopefully more to come on this!
I’ve been editing some longer videos for my YouTube channel (subscribe if you haven’t already!). I have a number of videos recording my painting process for a few paintings and I thought it would be nice to share some timelapses.
As I mentioned in the beginning, I have more applications to work on for public art opportunities, calls for art, and grants that are due in the next two weeks. I’ve been trying to set aside time in the evenings to work on these; I spend my mornings in the studio and don’t bring my computer with me so I can focus on paintings. This has helped with some work life balance, but I always want to paint more than work on my applications.
Since April is next month, it’s time for the Plein Airpril challenge. I don’t intend to do this as a daily challenge since I’m already doing the #100dayproject daily challenge, but I still want to paint en plein air. I have a plan to go out to the coast every Saturday in April to paint some plein air paintings, so I’m excited to share updates of how this goes!
While on my break, I’ve been thinking about how I can focus on a single project better. I like to bounce from project to project and have a lot of different ideas that I want to explore. I do a good job of starting projects and testing out new ideas, but feel like I struggle with sticking to one thing and seeing the project to completion in a timely manner. I have made more concrete plans about painting the additional paintings for my flower collection, so I’m hoping this helps. I do think I need to make a more concrete timeline for my projects. I like working in collections but I also like to bounce between collections. I also like to share all my paintings in a cohesive collection at once, so it feels like it takes quite some time before I share my paintings. I’m working on figuring out a balance between my working style and being able to share my paintings, so I’m open to any and all recommendations! Thanks for reading my update and I look forward to your suggestions!
Mid-March Check-in
This week has been a bit busy as I wrap some things up before I travel back to the east coast to visit my family for a week. It’s interesting now, because the majority of my work has to be done in person compared to having a job that revolves around the computer. It’s a good change, but it makes me really aware of when I’m taking time off for travel or when I’ll be away from my paintings.
What I’m working on:
I’m working on a third seashell painting. The first two in that stage where I’m trying to figure out what minor touch-ups and changes I feel like I need to make as I spend time away looking from them.
I’m almost done with the cherry blossom flower painting that I’ve been working on and off again. I think it’ll be done by the end of the month, I’m just working on the background of the painting now.
We’re over a quarter of the way through the 100 day project. It’s been fun painting with watercolors and I’m enjoying the mini experiments I do with these paintings each day. I think I have a habit around painting these in the morning. Watercolors are also something I can travel with, so I’ll be continuing the challenge while I’m out of town!
I’ve spent a lot of time this week writing for the various applications of grants and art calls that I want to apply to. It’s been a little difficult transitioning from working on the computer for a few days in a row to painting. I’m hoping that I can finish a lot of additional computer work while I'm home so I can focus on painting the rest of the month when I return from my trip.
Outings
This is kind of an outing, but I helped one of my artist friends paint a mural on an electrical box in San Jose. I had never done this before, so it was a great experience learning the whole process of painting a mural while spending a lot of time with my friend. From this experience, I think that I’d like to paint my own mural in the future!
This is a brief update since I still want to wrap up some things before I fly out (tonight!). I’m enjoying my new studio space and it feels like I’m going ‘into the office’ again for my painting. It’s been nice to have separation between my painting time and at home time, plus I’m happy to have more space back in my apartment. That’s all for now!
End of February Check-in
And with that, we’re at the end of the shortest month! A lot has happened in the last 2 weeks and I’m excited to share my updates. The big update is that I moved into my first studio space outside of my apartment over the weekend! I’m subletting a corner of a larger studio space that is part of a group of studio spaces called Alameda Artworks in San Jose. I’m really excited to be a part of this artist community. I’ve been going into the studio the past few days and the other artists who have come in have been very welcoming. In addition to being my new workspace for my oil painting, I hope to use my studio as a place where people can come and visit me to see my paintings and what I’m working on. So if you’re in the Bay Area, send me a message so I can invite you into the studio to check it out!
What I’m working on:
I keep going back and forth on whether the 30”x40” seashell painting is actually done. I keep touching up parts of it. The 24”x18” seashell painting is in a similar stage; it’s almost done but I want to add in some finer details.
As I wait for parts of my seashell paintings to dry, I am going to work on my smaller flower paintings. I think I’m getting tired of seeing this painting not finished, so it’s time to work on it again. I’m reading my last blog post and I’m laughing at myself when I talk about trying to focus on fewer things at a time. I think this will always be something I work on.
I have done all 11 days of the “100 day project” since the start of the challenge on February 18th. I’ve been painting small watercolor paintings. It’s been a really fun opportunity for me to get back into watercolor painting and painting in a carefree way without expectations of the outcome.
Not directly related to painting, but I’m continuing to work on a lot of applications and art calls. I have been doing some grant writing for myself as well as applying to a number of art calls. I think I have three or four deadlines coming up, so that’s something else I have been trying to prioritize.
Outings:
This past weekend, I went on a gallery tour with a few artist friends to check out exhibitions at a number of gallery spaces in SF. I think it was a great way to talk about art with my artist friends as well as see the different types of gallery spaces in the city. I feel like I also got a lot of ideas from the different exhibits I saw, so it was an inspiring and motivating trip.
This weekend, I will be taking that trip to Point Reyes that I wasn’t able to do a few weekends ago. I’m looking forward to spending some time resting and recharging. I’m hoping to wrap up a number of things in the studio before I go so I won’t be thinking too much about the work I want to do.
I think that’s it for this update. I’m about to head to my new studio to go paint for a while. It’s kind of crazy to think that I have my own studio space a year and half after pursuing art full-time. It’s an exciting time!
Mid-February Check-in
I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe and dry. It’s been quite rainy here and I’ve been hearing reports of snow from my friends and family on the east coast. This month has felt both slow and fast; I feel like I’ve been making slow progress on my paintings, which makes time feel slow, but then the days fly by quickly.
What I’m working on:
I finished the 30”x40” seashell painting that I mentioned in my last update, after making a few adjustments to the background. With that painting finished, I started another one in the series. This painting is 24”x18” inches and follows the theme of macro seashells on the shore. I’m hoping to paint seven paintings in this series and I have them planned out in my sketchbook. They’re quite detailed paintings and overall larger than my previous paintings, so each one is taking quite a bit of time.
I’m taking a pause on my smaller flower paintings. I am trying to be better about focusing on one project at a time in the hopes that focusing will allow me to paint them well and a little bit faster. I’m not sure if it’s working, but I think focus will be good for me. That being said, I’m hoping to participate in a “100 day project” challenge that is starting on February 18t. This is a challenge where the goal is to create something small for 100 days to build a creative habit. I’ve been thinking about painting some small watercolor paintings for this challenge as a way to try something new-ish (I started out painting with watercolors before oil painting). Right now, I don’t plan on doing anything with these paintings beyond having fun and experimenting, so I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. I also have a few accountability buddies who will be doing the challenge with me to help us all make it to 100 days!
I also have a number of individual grant applications and art calls that I’m working on that are due this month and in the beginning of March. So it’s probably a good thing that I’m focusing on one big painting, because I am spending a lot of time and energy on other opportunities. I am learning how to have a bit more balance in my day to day by having enough variety in my activities but trying not to do too much at once. I don’t think I’ve found the right balance yet, but it’s something I’m thinking about!
Outings
Two weekends ago, I visited a couple of galleries and a friend’s opening reception at the San Jose CIty College art gallery. It was a great opportunity to see what my friends have been working on and talk to them about their inspiration and projects. It made me realize that I should probably take more opportunities to visit exhibits and see other people’s work. Last month, I had spent a lot of time at home/in the studio working on my projects and I think I had begun isolating myself without realizing it. So I think moving forward, I want to have one day a month where I visit multiple galleries/exhibits to see other people’s art and talk to other artists about their work. It helps give me perspective on what I’m working on and makes me feel more connected to the artist community around me.
I didn’t end up going to Point Reyes this past weekend because the rental I was planning to stay at lost power from the winter storms we’ve been having over the last month. The trip is rescheduled for early March. Instead, I went down to Santa Cruz and visited some tidal pools during the low tide of the King Tide this month. The low tide goes out further than usual during the King Tide, so you’re able to see a number of sea creatures in the tidal pools.
That’s all for my update this week. Let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas relating to finding balance between having variety in your activities/pursuits and not trying to do too much at once - I would love any advice!
Beginning of February Check-in
Happy February everyone! The month is kicking off with a lot of activity and I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on.
What I’m working on:
I thought I had finished my 30”x40” seashell painting shortly after my last update, but after spending some time away from it, I realized I’m not happy with the background. So I’m back to working on this painting and hopefully I’ll get to a place where I’m happy with the whole thing.
I started a 18”x24” seashell painting that will fall into the same collection as the aforementioned painting. I blocked in the major shapes and have the first layer of painting; I plan on getting back to this painting once I’m happy with the 30”x40” painting.
I also started painting my smaller flower paintings again. I started these paintings in the middle of last year and took a long break from them. I now have three finished paintings in this series and am working on a fourth one. I have been painting these smaller paintings as a break from the larger paintings.
In terms of applications and art calls, I submitted a painting to the art call I mentioned in my last update. There are also two grant opportunities for emerging artists in the Bay Area that have been announced that I plan on applying to. I don’t expect much from my applications, but I think it’s a good experience and learning process to apply to these different opportunities provided to artists.
Outings
This past week I attended a four day figure drawing workshop at an atelier in the Bay Area from Friday to Monday. It was an intensive workshop and I learned a lot from it. I’ve never taken a figure drawing class nor a four day long workshop, so it was a brand new experience. Even though I don’t draw figures, I think that a lot of the ideas and ways of thinking when approaching figure drawing will be applicable to what I do when I paint my landscapes.
In a few weeks, I’ll be taking a weekend trip to the Point Reyes National Seashore to take a break and hopefully be inspired for some future paintings. I had visited the area when I first moved to California, and I’m looking forward to visiting again!
That’s it for my check-in. It’s been raining a lot here recently and I’m starting to get used to the California winters. I hope you’re staying warm and dry!
Mid-January Check-in
January has been off to a busy start. With my resolutions and goals in place, I feel like I have a lot of motivation to work towards them. I’ve also been working on setting boundaries in terms of who and what I say yes to as well as making sure I give myself time to rest and have fun outside of painting and business related work. One way I make sure I have rest and recharge time is setting aside Saturdays as completely work free days and Sundays as paint only days if I decide that I want to work on Sunday.
What I’m working on:
I’m still working on the 30”x40” seashell painting. I’m focused on painting the background, which is sand grains. Lots and lots of sand grains. They’ve been taking a lot of time, but I find them very relaxing to paint. I’ve also been listening to audiobooks while painting, so I find that the time passes quickly when I am working on this.
I posted my first Youtube video! You can watch it here. I’m working on my second video of the month and started planning out some future videos. If you have suggestions of what my future videos should be about, let me know!
I (re)-found an annual art call for a local gallery that is due at the end of the month. I’m going to submit one of my paintings from the California Highway One series that I worked on during the past year and am currently working on the artist statement for the application. Something else that I want to do by February is put the paintings from the California Highway One series up on my website portfolio. I ended up painting 9 paintings in the collection and have been sharing a few of them on my Instagram, and I want to share them on my website as well.
Outings
This past weekend, I went to Davis to see my friend Christina’s solo show Day to Night at the Pence Gallery. The show’s opening reception was this past Friday, and I really enjoyed seeing her work in person as well as talking to her about what it was like to prepare her first solo show. I found her and her work very inspiring!
This update is a quick one. I want to get back to painting my seashell painting. Also, let me know if you want to see something new or different in my bi-weekly updates. They’ve really become a check-in for what I’m currently thinking about and working on, but I’m open to suggestions! Until the next check-in, I hope you are staying warm during these winter months!
First Check-in of 2024!
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful and restful holiday season and feel refreshed for the new year. I spent the majority of the last two weeks resting and spending time with family and friends. I feel excited and ready for what 2024 will bring. I have two resolutions and a couple of art-related goals. My resolutions are:
Work out 20 minutes 20 times a month all months of the year. This is based on the Garmin monthly badge; I just want to be more consistent about exercising (and tracking the exercise) this year.
Read 50 books in the year. Last year, my resolution was to read a book a month and I ended up reading 41 books total, so I think that this is achievable. I also finally joined GoodReads to track my books.
My art-related goals are:
Paint 60 paintings. I painted 62 paintings last year; 30 of them were smaller daily paintings for Plein Airpril, so I think this is a good stretch goal.
Release 3 collections. I released 2 collections last year, so I figured it’d be a good goal to do one more.
Apply to 10 art calls. I applied to 4 art calls last year. I also have a number of art calls lined up that I want to apply to this year, so I think this is another good stretch goal.
Participate in 3-5 in person events. I only participated in one weekend-long in-person event last year. I have a schedule lined up for the events I’d like to participate in this year: some of them require an application process and some of them are open studio events that all artists can participate in.
Post 2 YouTube videos a month. This is my biggest reach goal. I have been posting on YouTube shorts, but I’d like to post proper videos on my YouTube channel. You can subscribe follow along to see if I stick to my goal here!
So now I’ve shared my art-related goals to almost every social media platform I own and now it’s in email and a blog post. Hopefully that’s enough commit devices 😂
And now for a quick update…
What I’ve been working on:
I finished the 30”x40” Yosemite painting, wrote up my artist statement (which went through editing, thank you to those who gave me feedback!), and submitted my application to the art call (That’s 1/10 on my art call goal). I’m really happy with how the painting turned out, and I’ll hear back in about a month.
I painted a 30”x40” ocean painting. I actually painted over the stormy ocean painting that I submitted to another art call at the end of 2023, which didn’t get accepted. I kind of knew that the artwork wasn’t going to be accepted because as I looked at the painting more and more, I started to really dislike it. So I gave the canvas a new life as a different painting and I’m much happier with the painting it is now.
I am back to working on the 30”x40” seashell painting. I’m hoping to submit this painting to an art call that’s due February 9th. I was actually hoping to submit a collection of 10 paintings to the art call. I had heard about the opportunity back in October, so I thought that I’d have enough time to paint 10 paintings. I was also thinking that I’d paint a collection of National Park paintings for the collection of 10 paintings, but I was inspired to paint these seashells, and I also didn’t plan my time out accordingly to ensure I’d be able to paint 10 paintings by February 9th. I think a big theme of 2024 will be balancing the different opportunities and prioritizing what I want to do. So now, for this specific opportunity, I’m probably going to submit 1 painting to the art call.
I’ll wrap up my check-in for now. I’m really looking forward to what 2024 has to bring and the things that I have planned for. I know that not everything is going to go according to plan, so there’s a lot of flexibility in my plans for different opportunities and events to come up. I’d love to hear if you have any resolutions or goals for 2024 and would love to have more accountability buddies!
Middle of December Check-in
The last month of the year is flying by because so much is going on. It’s been a pretty exciting time and I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on in this update!
What I’ve been working on:
I’m back to working on my 30”x40” painting of Yosemite for an art call hosted by the Yosemite Renaissance, due January 1. Which is only 13 days away, by the way. I feel confident that I’ll finish the painting by the deadline. I also need to write an artist statement for the application, which I plan on working on tonight and in the evenings leading up to the deadline. I try to do the majority of my computer work after the sun sets because I try to maximize my sunlight time painting because I really can’t paint without natural light.
The 30”x40” seashell painting and the 8”x10” paintings have taken a pause while I prioritize my Yosemite painting. I also gessoed my big 30”x40” ocean painting that I mentioned a few posts ago because it was rejected from the art call I submitted it to and I realized that I really didn’t like the painting. I figured that I should start from a clean slate with that canvas and try a different painting.
For my volunteer work with genARTS, I’m trying to wrap up the grant writing I am working on to secure funding for their 2024-2025 programming and hopefully will be handing off the work to someone else to finalize and submit before the deadline. Additionally, I have been selected by the co-chairs to be their annual Experimental Exhibition curator for 2024. I’m looking forward to taking on this role because I think it’ll be a great way for me to gain experience and learn about the curating world while also getting to know more artists in Silicon Valley.
Outputs
I hosted an artist networking mixer with genARTS this past week, which let me re-meet a lot of the artists from the 2023 Experimental Exhibition, which I was a part of. It made me realize that I do not enjoy being an in-person event organizer; it makes me really stressed to be physically present and running an event. I did have a lot of fun once the organizing and setting up was done, and it was a good thing to learn about myself so I know where my strengths are.
That’s pretty much for this week’s update. Lots of things in progress and ramping up for next year. I’m planning to focus on painting in the next few weeks over the holidays and spending less time doing computer work. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!
Beginning of December Check-in
It feels like it’s been so long since my last update because it feels like a lot has happened in the last two weeks with Thanksgiving, getting sick, and family visiting. I had some time off from the studio and working in general, but I’m back to being quite busy (but not overwhelmed)!
What I’ve been working on:
I started a new painting that was inspired by a visit to the coastline along 17 Mile Drive. A bunch of sea debris of limpet shells, blue mussels, white coral, and seaweed had washed ashore and I was inspired by the random arrangements the ocean had tossed them onto the beach. I took a bunch of close up pictures of the debris and decided to start a 30”x40” painting of one of the photos I took.
Prior to my seashell painting, I started working on a smaller 8”x10” painting of cherry blossoms. I’ve been slowly working through a collection of 8”x10” flower close up paintings. This will be my fourth painting in the collection. I think I’m better understanding my workflow/creative process. I have these ideas for collections and can pretty quickly come up with 5-10 paintings that will make up the collection, but I get bored of painting the same type of subject. So I usually stop halfway through one painting to start another painting in a different collection, but will eventually get back to it. I’m accepting this reality and letting myself paint what I want/what inspires me because I know I’ll eventually go back to the painting or collection and complete them. So it may take me three times as long to finish a collection, but it also means I’m working on three collections at the same time. I like to have a diversity of projects that I’m working on because it keeps me interested and excited.
So that being said, I’m taking a break from my 30”x40” painting of Yosemite painting. I’ll start working on it again before my next check-in because I want to use the painting in an art call specific to Yosemite National Park.
Outside of painting, I’m writing a proposal for a grant to secure funding for programming with the arts organization genARTS, where I serve on the Executive Committee. The funding would be used to create programming that provides networking and educational opportunities for Santa Clara County artists through art career panels and workshops. It’s been an interesting process and I’m hoping to use this experience to help me write proposals for grants for myself and my art business.
Outings
As I mentioned earlier, I had family visit last week. We did some traveling around the Bay Area, including visiting 17 Mile Drive, which was really relaxing and inspiring.
Inputs
I started reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin again to help me get out of the planning brain space so I could feel less pressure and stress with painting. I think it’s been helpful, since I feel really motivated to paint a lot again.
Overall, I think this winter season has been quite nice. I’m glad that I didn’t sign up for a bunch of holiday events. I’m also glad that I did my 2024 planning, because now I feel like I can spend the rest of December painting and building out my portfolio to prepare myself for next year.
End of November Check-in
It’s really feeling like winter here in California… in the way that it can feel like winter on the west coast: low 40s and dark at 4:30pm. Even though I’ve spent the majority of my life on the east coast, my body has quickly adapted to the warmer weather in California and I feel so cold when it’s 45 degrees out. That’s my mini weather update. In terms of my art:
What I’ve been working on:
I submitted my application to the art call where I used my 30”x40” stormy ocean painting. I ended up calling the painting “Depths Within and Beyond” thanks to the help of ChatGPT. Here’s a secret, I use ChatGPT a lot to help me with naming paintings I have no idea how to name. It’s been great.
I finished painting the 12 6”x6” paintings to create an ocean painting collage. I need to get more frames for it to be fully complete, but I’m happy with how it turned out and I feel like I executed the concept I wanted to achieve.
I’m working on a 30’x40” painting of Yosemite, specifically Tunnel View. I don’t remember when I started it and I don’t think I mentioned it in a previous blog post, which is unfortunate, but the entire canvas is covered in paint. I’m hoping to finish this painting by December 1st for a local literary journal submission, but I’ve been having a hard time focusing on painting. I think I’ve been doing too much business admin and planning and it’s been hard to switch my brain back to painting landscapes.
Speaking of planning, I met with some two artist friends that I’ve made in the past year who create artworks similar to me in palette and theme, but in completely different mediums. We’re working together to come up with an exhibition proposal to a few local museums to see if they’d be interested in hosting our exhibition. It’s essentially like government RFP proposal writing, but less technical and more artistic. But we still need to propose activities, timelines, budgets, and provide artist bios, so it’s very similar work to the proposal writing I did at my previous job. Another secret: you can use a lot of the skills you learned in a corporate setting to a creative business.
Outings
This past weekend, I visited some other artist friends at the SuperFine Art Fair in SF. Both to support my friends and to scope out the event because it might be something I’d be interested in doing in the future.
Yesterday, I saw Ellie Goulding at the SF Symphony. She performed her songs with an orchestra and it was amazing. I’ve been a long time Ellie fan (since at least 2010) and it was like a grow with the artist kind of moment. Not exactly related to my art, but I guess it’s what fill the well.
Inputs
I am rereading parts of The Creative Act by Rick Rubin to help me get into the mindset to paint again. I think I need to be more patient with myself and give myself more space when I am painting instead of trying to force something out.
Overall, it feels both productive and unproductive at the same time. I am busy thinking about what 2024 looks like for my art and my creative business with preparing post videos to my YouTube channel, planning what art festival events I want to participate in next year, and establishing expectations for my volunteer roles across the art organizations I’m volunteering my time at. Lots of planning, but not a lot of doing, and I think I’m at a point where I’m ready to put plans into action. Which requires me to paint more. So the goal for the rest of this month is to dedicate more time to painting and letting myself have the space to create more. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving, because I will be spending it with friends and I think it’ll be a good mental reset for me. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Mid-November Check-In
I’m a little behind on my check-in this week because I wanted to paint as much as I could on Tuesday this week before I had minor surgery on Wednesday. Surgery went well and I’m recovering well, so it’s a perfect time to catch up on my updates.
What I’ve been working on:
I finished my 30”x40” stormy ocean painting. I’m still figuring out what to name it and haven’t submitted my application to the art call yet, but I should do that soon since it;s due next week.
I started painting 12 6”x6” paintings at the same time to create a sort of painting collage. I sketched out an idea and I’m trying to implement it now. I think it would have been a good fit for the art call due next week, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish it and photograph it in time
Lots of business admin. I changed my financial tracking system and so I am doing a lot of data entry to transfer all my information from my previous system into this one. This new system is much more scalable and is helping me track my expenses in tax deductible categories, which is helping me keep track of my budget. I’m also tracking sales data from specific events. This new system will help me make better decisions with which events to attend and what my biggest business expenses are.
I’m working on setting up a Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@margaretluoart .There’s really nothing there right now, and I am hoping to have a video up by the end of the month. If you want to subscribe, please do. I’m hoping to put out a video every two weeks!
Outings
I just participated in SFOS last weekend. It was a really good event for me to get my artwork in front of more eyes as well as a great marketing opportunity. I met a bunch of fellow artists, people who are interested in art, people who are interested in pursuing their own creative endeavors, and people who are involved in the arts community in SF/general Bay Area. It was an exciting weekend and I felt both tired and energized from the experience.
On the Friday before SFOS, I attended the opening reception for an art show called More the Merrier at Art Arc in San Jose. I wasn’t participating in the art show itself, but I had a few friends who were, so it was nice to support them and talk to them about their artwork.
Those are my updates for now. Truly, most of my time right now is a lot of business administration and business planning, with some painting. I’m still a bit in recovery mode from my surgery, so I’ve been just thinking and planning a lot. I’m hoping by Monday next week, I’ll be back into full swing with painting! That’s all for now!
End of October Check-in
I probably say this at the beginning of each blog post, but time is flying by so quickly. It’s the end of October and it’s finally cooling down and feeling like fall in the Bay Area. As much as it can feel like fall here, which mostly means foggy mornings, cooler days, and earlier sunsets. Less of the trees changing color and it really feeling chilly like it does on the east coast. Anyways, lots to update on in the past two weeks.
What I’ve been working on
I applied to the art call that I used the majority (7/9) of the California Highway One paintings. I procrastinated a bit on the artist statement because I thought I could get away with writing something quickly since I have been writing a lot of them lately and it was only 300 words. I was humbled by the challenge of writing something concise and I really appreciate my friends who were able to review and edit my statement with such a quick turnaround. So moving forward, I’m going to have to remind myself to give myself and the people who review my artist statements a bit more time.
I finished the painting that I was attempting to capture ripples on a lake surface. It’s one of those things where done is better than perfect (something a good friend always likes to remind me), because I used the painting to apply to another art call that was due at the end of last week. Again, hubris made me think that I’d be able to paint something brand new so quickly. To be fair to my efforts, the sample of friends that I asked to opine on the painting have found the painting interesting. I’ve gotten comments that it looks like geodes, blue cell membranes, the inside of a brain, etc. and I have found that to be very interesting and appreciate that the painting has inspired so many different ideas. I’ll call it my attempt at abstract art and I don’t know if I like it, but it was a worthwhile experience.
Another worthwhile but difficult experience: I started my largest painting to date, 30”x40”. I am painting a stormy ocean for another art call that is due November 17th. I want to say that I’m halfway done with the painting, but I really can’t tell and I’m honestly using writing this blog post as a break away from the painting. It’s been really challenging for me to paint this. I think the reason I’m having such a hard time with this particular painting is that it has a much darker palette than the ones I usually paint with. So I’ve already learned that I enjoy painting things with bright colors, which wasn’t obvious or explicit to me until now. I think it’s worth working through this painting to see what else I learn from the experience, and I would appreciate all the encouragement!
I think I’m mostly ready for SFOS. I’m participating during weekend 2, November 4-5, at Intersection of the Arts on 1446 Market Street in SF. There’s a lot of website management, printing, organizing my supplies and inventory involved, but I feel like that’s all mostly done. This is probably the less glamorous side of running an art business, but I’m looking forward to meeting people who care about art!
Outside of the studio, on top of the other two volunteer organizations I mentioned in my last blog post, Art Docents of Los Gatos and genARTS Silicon Valley, I’ve joined the Board of the Silicon Valley Visual Artists non-profit organization. The major efforts of the organization include organizing and hosting the Silicon Valley Open Studios. So far, I’m in charge of project managing the 2024 Open Studios, which has me learning a lot about all the pieces involved with hosting such a large scale event. Joining these volunteer organizations has also helped me be more involved in the artist community, and I feel better connected and involved.
Outputs
I attended the ArtLaunch event at SOMArts for SFOS hosted by ArtSpan (who runs SFOS). One of my paintings is in the SOMArts gallery and will be on view for purchase during the entirety of SFOS. It was a great event to catch up with my artist friends and meet a few new ones. It was a pretty loud and crowded event, so it was hard to meet new people and have meaningful conversation, but I hope more of that will happen at the individual open studio events.
This week, a friend is visiting me for a long weekend. I’m hoping to use the time when she’s visiting to relax a bit and take a little break before my SFOS weekend. I’ve been quite busy in and out of the studio with the painting, art call applications, and my volunteer efforts, so it’ll be nice to have a weekend to recharge.
That’s my lengthy update for this week. I hope you all are doing well. Leave a message or comment sharing your thoughts, I always love to read them!
Beginning of October Check-In
I can’t believe two weeks have passed since my last check-in. It feels like time has flown and I haven’t done that much. I’ll just get right to what I’ve been working on and maybe I’ll feel differently about how much I’ve done in the last two weeks.
What I’ve been working on:
I've officially finished my series of 12 Ocean Perspectives paintings, which means I’ve finished painting them, signed them, varnished them, framed them, and added them to my website. If you want early access to the paintings tomorrow, make sure you’re signed up for my Collector’s Club mailing list here. Otherwise, the paintings will be available to everyone else this Friday, October 143th at 10am PT. Framed paintings are a new thing and I think that they look really good in the floater frames I picked out for them.
For the California Highway series, I think I’m done painting the large painting of a panoramic view of the coastline and the moody painting of a spot on 17 mile drive that I mentioned in my last update. Those are paintings 8 and 9 of the collection. I do have a 10th painting that I’ve started, but I think I’m going to put that painting on hold. I’m going to use seven of the paintings from the California HIghway One painting to apply to a gallery art call that is due October 22nd. I need to name most of the paintings in this collection, which I’m quite unoriginal at. I also need to start writing the brief artist statement (300 words) for the application.
I’ve started a new painting attempting to capture ripples on a lake surface. I underestimated how difficult this painting would be, so it’s been a little frustrating. I’m hoping to submit this painting to another art call that’s due October 20th, so I have to work diligently to make sure I make the submission deadline. I probably should have started the painting earlier than I did, since I had known about the art call for over a month. But it took me a while to think of a painting that would fit the exhibition’s theme, so it is what it is. Wish me luck as I work through this one!
Outside of the studio, in addition to training to be an art docent volunteer for the Los Gatos school district, I’ve also started volunteering for a local arts and culture leaders network organization called genARTS (the organization that hosted one of the exhibitions I participated in). I’m working to build the organization’s membership program to strengthen the network of emerging arts and culture leaders in Silicon Valley. I’ve been getting along well with the other volunteers and I’m excited to be volunteering with them because it’s also been helping me expand my local artist network.
I realize in the past month-ish, I’ve been putting a lot more on my plate, but I find that it’s been very helpful in keeping me motivated. I’m saying yes to things that align with my values and goals for my art career/business (In my Business of Art course, we spent a week on writing out of core values, personally and professionally and I’m really applying the advice that your core values should be guiding your decisions and what you say yes or no to). I also know that I’m someone who thrives under the stress of competing priorities (still unclear if that’s a good or bad thing, but that’s what it is for now). I think things will start slowing down by the middle of November, after SF open studios. I’m hoping in December, I’ll have time to reflect and do a retrospective on the year and share with you my findings. But until then, there will be a few more lengthy bi-weekly updates like this. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts via comments or emails or your texts to me. Thanks for following along!