12 Ways to know you are an oil painting addict, and probably have a problem.

1) You love the smell of stand oil, paint, and turpentine.
2) Sometimes you spank the painting, and sometimes it spanks you.
3) You dream about working on a beautiful painting, in great detail. You wake up when the painting is done.
4)You had a beautiful, finished painting, but ruined it by not stopping when you should have.
5) You've seriously considered hurling a difficult painting into the highest branches of the nearest tree.
6) You've walked past the studio, stopped to fix a small detail, and got sucked into 10 hours of painting.
7) You show up at an opening in your nicest pair of blue jeans. They have oil paint on them.
8) You forget to eat lunch.
9) Your significant other has oil paint on his/her clothes, and asks you how it got there.
10) Your cell phone is covered in oil paint.
11) You've failed by whatever commercial or other similar standard, but you continue to paint anyway.
12) You've painted, finished, and signed, the same canvas 7 times.

Reflections on becoming a full time visual artist after a year and a half

For the last year and a half I have tried to make a living as a full-time visual artist working in oil paint. I've learned a lot.

The timing is terrible, I know, with the economic crisis going in full swing for let's see, about a year and a half? Mostly, I've hit dead ends again and again and been rejected or denied in more ways than I can count. I suppose perseverance and hard work are the keys to being successful, in art or just about anything. On the one hand, I've sold lots of work. On the other, I've only made enough money to cover the material costs. And I've worked really hard, as hard as I did managing water supply in Washington during the drought of 2002. And that was hard. On the bright side, I have improved my skill set as an artist, and feel poised to take off when the economy improves. I take inspiration from the support of my friends, and am so grateful to the support of T for essentially being my patron during this time.

I am returning to a career of engineering as a consultant, working from the home office and doing what I can. This will allow me to continue to do art and follow my passion for art making, moreover it frees me from the constraints of having to sell my art and market it through the usual channels of galleries, art fairs, etc. This is incredibly liberating from an artistic point of view as well.

I will continue to make, show, and sell my art on my art homepage, and to publish my artwork on the "Work of the Week blog." I have decided to sell my works at about cost so that I can at least break even in support of this quirky addiction to oil painting... I am hopeful that this approach will allow my art to be seen in the world, and that the website will grow organically as word of mouth spreads and as I build an internet following. The internet is changing how art can be bought and sold. Maybe one day I can build this into something much bigger. I'm certainly going to try.

Fox in our backyard

We have a fox in our backyard! It's one of the coolest things we've ever seen here in the Hague, where wilderness is hard to come by.

Don't forget the cheese!

Near Beaune, France.

Another vineyard near Beaune

More vineyards near Beaune

View of vineyards near Beaune, France

Driving back from Italy

We stopped at around the halfway point in the Bourgogne region of France in a little medieval town called Beaune. We spent a couple of days there. It was so incredibly beautiful, and unexpected. And the restaurants! The vineyards! The waistline!

Here's a picture of a drive through the countryside. Beaune was surrounded by fields of wheat and vineyards. You could drive to other small towns, each with several wine-makers, each offering tastings. Small towns were sometimes only a kilometer or two apart.

We came back with 21 bottles, and plan to return with our bikes so we can work off a small portion of the extra calories to be had there.

View from garden at Eze, France

Lovely sculptures and great views to be had from the municipal garden at Eze.

Èze

If you are ever visiting Nice, take a day and go see Èze, a small village about 10 km away with roots going back to Roman times. The well-preserved medieval hill town is a lovely tourist attraction. Emphasis is on the word “tourist.” Every shop caters to the cruise boat crowd -- perfumeries, bad art galleries, and knick knacks abound. Despite all that, the town is lovely. Within the town walls, at the apex of the hill, are the ruins of the old castle. The citadel was converted in the 1940s by a visionary mayor into a “jardin exotique” that is now full of cacti, aloe, and statues (entry fee, 5 euro; views, priceless). Just be aware there are lots of stairs. Relax for an hour in the sculptural wooden chairs that emerge from the waterfall in a secluded corner of the garden before rousing yourself to dine at the lovely Chateau Esa, former home of Prince William of Sweden. (Apparently he had more common sense than me and T, and fled chilly Northern Europe for warmer climes.) Make reservations, so you get a seat with an uninterrupted view of the 500 foot elevation drop to the sea and town below. And don’t forget your camera, like I did.

We met an artist/gallery owner in one of the shops. She was cranking out art while sitting behind the counter. There were strong lines in the work, mostly female nudes, but it all looked the same and a little wooden. I can’t blame the artist in this case, because she has to pay rent, and she knows that she can sell this stuff. But I resolved then and there not to get in a position where I had to sell out my art like that. The conundrum many artists face is finding that appropriate balance between creating wild and free work versus cranking out what sells. Well, the conflict for some anyway. For others, the choice is more about whether to buy more drugs or art supplies, but I digress. I think I’m lucky to have the engineering background, because I can continue to do engineering in some capacity which allows artistic freedom, if I’m not wed to selling the art. The problem with that approach is that art is a demanding mistress, requiring more focus and time than a part time artist can possibly deliver.

Finding our apartment in VillleFranche Sur Mer

VillleFranche Sur Mer. Our apartment is in a place that you cannot drive to, as it is in the medieval part of town and closed to traffic. So, we got as close as we could according to our GPS and illegally parked. I stayed with the car while T went off to find it and drop off the first set of bags. I was surprised to see her return 20 minutes later, still carrying the luggage . She couldn’t find it. So, we unloaded huge piles of bags, art supplies, and paintings onto the patio of a nearby café, and I went off to park the car at the nearest available space, 1.5 km away. (1.5 km!) T ordered wine and I biked back to the café. Now is my turn to drink some wine while T tried again to find the apartment. She was gone for about 30 minutes this time, but came back without any luggage and a successful set of directions involving a steep climb, many stairs, windy medieval streets, a call to the realtor, and a requirement for Zen-like sense of direction.
The town here is the next cove over from Nice, and it is stunningly beautiful. We are on the a top floor flat, overlooking the harbor. There is a million dollar view, great cross ventilation, and a patio on which we can sunbathe. We are never going to leave the terrace of this location again until they pry the keys from our unyielding hands, or we run out of wine. Hello, freckled suntanned relaxed version of T. Hello, sun. Hello topless beaches and sun kissed peaches and sunny all day games of scrabble and bad novels. Now, it is time for vacation.

Olive Grove at Twilight, July, #2

This, the third of three paintings done in an olive grove, in July, in Tuscany, at twilight. This was painted a couple of days ago. I think this will be the painting that I keep, to remind myself of the time spent in the olive grove. I only wish that I had several more days here to paint here... Well, on the other hand it IS beastly hot, so maybe enough is enough.

It took four weeks of intensive outdoor painting to reach this level of fluency in painting, and I hope to somehow maintain that perspective and energy.

I hear that the sun has returned to Holland this week. But autumn looms, likely next month. Although I will miss the Tuscan sun, perhaps I can find a way to illuminate the well-hidden beauty of the dark and rainy space of Holland.

Olive orchard in full sun, July.

Beastly hot today. Absolutely scalding outside. Not a cloud in the beautiful blue Tuscan sky. So, what to do with my day? Hmm, I know, go outside and paint the full noon sun in the hottest part of the day, without shade in my favorite olive grove. "Why? What a knucklehead! Incredible," I can almost hear the comments now.

Risking certain ill health effects from over-exposure to sun, I desparately wanted to capture the noon-sun effect in the olive grove. Twilight, been there, done that, I've done three of those now, and nailed two of 'em. I knew I'd feel like crap afterwards. But some of you have noticed that this painting trip has been about sunlight. Not much of a surprise there, coming from Holland, where they had summer this year for three weeks in late June. Or was it two? Now its autumn there. I've been exploring sunshine and trying to capture it in paint. Tuscany is a good place for that.

And you know what? I did a little dance after the painting was done. I moon danced, I drew my imaginary guns and I shot that painting. I spanked it. Hot DOG! I laughed, I sang, and I danced some more, out there in those baking hot fields, all alone. Where's video when you need it? It was all totally worth it. It is absolutely what I wanted to capture.

And I do indeed feel like crap now, but I still think it was worth it and not the heat-exhaustion making me dance... After quarts and quarts of water (I drank 2 LITERS onsite, you'd think that would be enough) I still haven't peed much and I have a headache. (By the way, heat-exhaustion is the last step before heat-stroke, which can be fatal. I once rode in an ambulance to the emergency room with a 22 year old who really almost almost almost died from this. His thermostat got screwy and before he recovered his body temp dropped to about 94 or so and his heart slowed to almost nothing. So don't kid around with this stuff, like I'm doing now.)

Welcome to one of my favorite paintings of the trip, I hope that you like it at least a little, it was like hell trying to paint the damn thing.

So it took me three weeks to find the perfect cheap bottle of wine...

A passion of mine is to find the perfect bottle of wine for less than 10 bucks. My mother-in-law and I share this passion, and we first bonded over a bottle of 'Concha y Toro ' (reliable, good value Chilean wine) when I was remodeling her cinder block unfinished basement into an apartment in 1991. The long days of oil painting here in Tuscany, and late nights with an inexpensive wine remind me of those long days of construction and the bottle of good rotgut that followed. Cheers, Mom J, nice to be reminded of those late nights in the Seattle summer.

The most excellent wine we've ever found in this under 10 dollar category was a bottle of Codice, vintage 1997, six bucks. It was a fantastic bottle of Rioja. It was so good that the next day we went back to the store and bought a couple of cases, and for a while it became the house wine. Fantastic. We savored the last few bottles over several years. Of course it had sold out immediately, and we could not obtain more. It defined Rioja for me. Subsequent vintages from that label were not nearly as good.

And now, I have found the Codice equivalent, after three weeks in Italy and lots of sampling, the last day here. Morellino di Scansano, 2007. A DOCC wine, Wine Spectater gives the vintage 2007 its top ranking and compares it to 2001 and 2004. It's been a fun challenge, sampling wines from the 5 to 6 euro range. All but one have been ok.

Here's the label, my translation "And a wine with intense ruby red color with nuances of smoke. Presents a 'odore vinoso' (winy smell? Um, right), light, with a soft dry flavor. Recommended pairing: game and mature cheeses." They forgot the tannic bite, that compliments the interesting nose, and notes that go on long after the wine is drunk. Mom J, I'll save a bottle for you.

Painting on site

The first photo was taken a month ago in Holland, and the second a couple weeks ago here in Italy.

Sadly, my stay here in Italy draws to a close tomorrow. I am grateful for the opportunity to focus so intently on painting for three weeks. Although I must say, after 12 hours of painting each day I'm now ready for a change of scenery.

Monteriggione, approaching storm

This bigger painting was made in the studio. It is oil on linen, 70 x 100 cm
(2.3 x 3.3 feet). Models were oil paintings made on site, plus a photo taken of this mad storm just before it arrived. The town of Monteriggione was already getting hit, my vantage point was way out in the fields where the sun was still shining. But man did it rain hard, plus hail.

Today was another 12 hour painting day, plus a couple of hours of web updating. I'm looking forward to vacation.

A studio day

Today I made changes to three paintings that were started outdoors, and began a new big painting. The new paintings are shown here, I think they are vastly improved. Tomorrow: back to the olive grove for a twilight painting with the cicadas and birds for company.

Titles of the paintings shown here are, in order,

1) Vineyard and olive field near San Gimignano,
2) Evening light, view of San Gimignano
3) Wheat field and approaching storm, Monteriggione

Today's setup

A little different from the ususal olive orchard or vineyard! This is the foyer of my room at the Villa Avvennire. The owner, Leonardo Pepi, is cutting me a fantastic deal as he likes to support the arts.

Monteriggione

Today's work was painted inside, based on smaller paintings and pictures. The painting is big, 70 x 100 cm (2.3 x 3.3 feet). It was a relief not to paint outside today!

Two weeks of work, drying in the sun

Announcing a virtual art show

Yesterday I launched a complete make-over of my art website at www.potamoi.com. I am opening two exhibits there, and I invite you to check them out. Both exhibits are of outdoor paintings I've made in 2009. The first focuses on the current Italian trip, and the second is of paintings in Holland. Please stop by the new art website!

Today's setting

Today's site was wonderful, I was shaded and in the woods, yet with a view of the vineyard through the trees. A warm breeze lifted off the vineyards and warmed me under the cool trees. In the 7 hours I was there, I didn't see anyone and not even a car drove by. Farms are awesome subjects.

Pepi's Vineyard

This was one of those incredibly difficult paintings, for whatever reason it did not go smoothly. Yet another painting that was scraped clean after several hours, only to start over again.

Villa Avvennire

This is a painting of the villa in which I am staying, painted in the 1950s or 60s just after the last renovation. The villa was built in the late 1800s on top of an Etruscan ruin. You can still see one of the original Etruscan rooms now a part of the basement, complete with an amazing wine collection. One of the bottles dates from 1800s.

The villa is located in Siena outside of the old city walls, a short bus ride or long walk away from the center of town. You can rent individual rooms or rent a suite of connected rooms and shared kitchen with a bunch of friends. The owner, Leonardo Pepi, is wonderful. He enjoys cooking, and made one of the best dishes I've ever had (see prior post). If you'd like to stay here or see more, there are two websites, one in Italian http://www.terre-grance.com/strutture/villaavvenire.html and another in English or German http://www.agriturismoavvenire.com/. I highly recommend the Villa Avveenire if you want a unique experience very near Florence and convenient to Siena. The villa is also very close to the train station in Siena.

The painting set up for today

Olive grove at twilight, July

Making today's painting was delightful. I returned to the wonderful olive grove from yesterday and made the same composition. Twilight is a perfect time to be out painting in the hot summer months in Tuscany. Birdsong and cicadas kept me company, and the smell of wheat, dried grass, flowers, and olive trees baking in the sun was blissful. I heard that today it was raining and 60 degrees in Holland...someone wrote and said it was autumn there now. Hmm, maybe working in Tuscany isn't so bad after all?!

Summer flowers

Fabulous Monteriggione, twilight

Wheat fields, twilight