What is it about Lighthouses, Anyway?

Lighthouses are popular. They’re iconic. They’re collectable. There are lighthouse calendars, lighthouse statues that have real lights inside, lighthouse salt and pepper shakers, and lighthouse designs on socks. Why? What is it about these flashlight-like buildings? They’re not even being used much anymore now that ships have more technical gadgets than a Best Buy Sunday newspaper ad.

Some old things are never reminisced over. You don’t see little ceramic salt and pepper shakers that replicate old black and white tv’s much. Nor do you find pictures of butter churns on socks. And those were both as useful as lighthouses.
Lighthouses are symbolic for lots of folks. People think security and safety when they see lighthouses so insurance companies and the like might choose it for their logo. Lighthouse International is an organization for the blind that chose the lighthouse as their symbol. Wikipedia informed me that lighthouses are “often interpreted in dreams as beacons of truth or as male fertility and influence.” It always comes back to sex, doesn’t it?
I can’t even tell you exactly why I chose to paint the lighthouse near Port Townsend except that I simply wanted it and that windswept tree rising above the horizon. Perhaps all or none of the above reasons are why. It’s been framed and up for a year and just recently, I’ve been illuminated as to what wasn’t quite right in the painting. My original sky and sand were too dark. Here you see the brightened up version- a little light shed on my painting.
Enjoy it in person while it’s up at Kirkland Fine Art Gallery, 122 Central Way, Kirkland, WA 98033. The gallery is open every day Dec. 4- Dec. 24.

Composition and the Crossword Puzzler

Composing a group of figures is to painting like a crossword puzzle is to a puzzle-maker. It's a matter of fitting all the pieces together in a pleasing manner that makes logical sense with a bit of fun added in. It has to feel right as well as lead the eye around the painting. Some crossword puzzles have pretty simple layouts like a single person portrait; a head somewhat centered on a canvas. Then there are the New York Times Sunday Crossword puzzles which are the hardest of the whole week--that would be like composing a whole army on a battlefield!

I really like painting small groups of people which must be like the Wednesday crossword puzzle; challenging but do-able. I like feeling the relationship between the people and then trying to portray that in paint. I remember when my own sons were young. When they entered a new group of kids, there was an initial period of "circling around" the group, watching for an "in". I felt like this tentative boy in the lilac shorts is looking for his in-road. Aren’t we all?

My boys are big now and I've found myself circling around the subject of youth, painting kids more often than I intend! Competently fitting together parts of a painting and creating crossword puzzles can give us in-roads to our psyches and great satisfaction when we master a skill.

http://www.joanneshellan.com/, www.facebook.com/JoanneShellanFineArt, http://www.kirklandfineartgallery.com/

Commissions; Pleased to be Working, Working to Please

Artists have a love/hate relationship with commissions. Truly, we artists are thrilled to be working and it's lovely to know you'll be paid for your efforts but sometimes things can go wrong in commissions. Here are a few ideas that might help your commission work go smoothly.


• Decide ahead of time the size/ price/ framing/ expected delivery date/ who will do the delivery/ etc. In other words, decide every detail ahead of time and make sure it's all written down. Emails work fine as written back up. The more expensive the piece, the more details you want to write down.

• Be a good observer and a good listener. Look where the piece will be placed, look at the other colors nearby, talk to the client and listen carefully to what they say. Learn to re-state what the client says back to them. It's a great skill to accomplish and helps people feel they've been really heard.

• Don't bite off more than you can chew. Make sure you can do the work you're asked to do & make sure you can fit it into your schedule. Sounds simple but lots of people either procrastinate or don't have good grasp of how long things take. Things always take longer than you think they're going to! That's my motto.

• Figure out the best way your customer likes to communicate. If they don't answer emails, try texting or phoning. People seem to have a preference. Figure out which one is your customer's and use it.

• Say yes. Always find ways to answer yes and be positive. No one likes a negative, complicated answer. If you need to, sandwich what you can't do in-between two sentences telling what you can do!

Above is a 30x40" oil on hardboard of a recent commission. My clients had been on a trip and held dear memories of this little beach bar. They wanted spots of greens and oranges to match their living room and gave me photos of the beach bar and from around the area. I noticed how tickled they were with the handmade furniture and knew they would have a place in the panting. I went to their house armed with tape measure and comers to see exactly where the painting would hang, what kind of light it would have on it, and what frame would match their furniture.

There is nothing more gratifying than delivering a commission to a satisfied customer. Sometimes you even get tears which is really, really cool. The customer of the beach scene sent me an email a week after delivery that said, "We absolutely love it! I see something different each time I look at it and when the lights are out and the moonlight shines in, I feel like I am there at night. Thank you for all the effort (and talent) you put into the picture."

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Talk about Trying New Things

We love to snuggle into a routine where we know what is expected of us, what the time frame is, and when dinner will be served on a regular basis. We love to drive the same old drives because we’ve already figured out the most efficient route. So what happens when we’re in a new place and the food comes at unexpected times and we don’t even know how to get from point A to point B…we’re all shook up! Things that were settled become unstuck and mixed around. And, oh my gosh, we’re forced to look at things in new ways.

It’s hard to step into the new but it’s the way to find different answers and creative ideas. What happens when I do this? Does this new thing work? Let’s try it!

I’m answering an itch to move beyond representational painting. What happens when I mix real and abstract? This is the first painting from this new mix. I pre-painted four abstract paintings in acrylic using four basic composition structures. It’s not too hard painting real and painting abstract; it’s super hard making them work together as one unit. Out of the box, beyond the routine, trying new things! It’s open season in the studio now!

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Do you buy art or crafts? What were your reasons for choosing those certain pieces? If you never buy art, what is up on the walls of your house? Are there family pictures or posters? Perhaps inherited art?

I am so curious to hear your responses. You, yes you. You in particular.  People have been putting art up on walls since our relatives, the cave man starting painting on cave walls over 32,000 years ago. What's your art story?

Free hand-painted bookmark to all who respond and send me their email address (and mailing address so I can send you your gift! I'm looking forward to reading your ideas and I would like to add your email address to my mailing list)

About this painting; it's still wet- just finished it this afternoon. I painted this scene of the mountains in the Methow Valley, Washington State, from the porch at Dave's lovely home. When I was there visiting last summer, there were fires over in Eastern Washington that saturated the air with a smoky haze. The colors were all muted and the distant mountains were hardly visible. The painting I did while there looked awful, of course, muted and hazy~! Today, I took artistic liberty and painted over that haze with rich, intense colors.

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Do Well and Repeat

The story of Monet painting the lilypads on his pond a zillion times is a great big, fabulous example of why we should all repeat doing things over and over. Usually by about the eight millionth repeat, we finally get it. Athletes talk about their muscles having “ memory”. If they repeat a motion enough times, the muscles will automatically remember how to do something, usually pretty darn well too. If I’m so smart that I know I should repeat things over and over to move towards getting them right, then why am I always looking for new subjects for my paintings? Shouldn’t I be re-painting the same subjects another hundred times? By 99, I’ll be pretty good at it, won’t I? The problem is, it’s boring to re-do stuff over and over. People seem to like and need change. We choose new routes to drive to the same old places just to keep ourselves amused, alive and alert. Not even a dog must like getting the same dang dinner every night. We like variety.

This is the second time I’ve painted this subject. It’s standing at the top of Dave’s driveway looking across the valley at the hills above Winthrop, Washington. It’s so incredibly pretty there. It was not boring to paint this a second time and I actually think it’s better than the first piece. So tell me, why don’t I do this every time?

5 Reasons Why You Should Always Have Your Customer's Back

Much has been written on the subject of backs. There is back-stabbing, backward thinking folks and back-by-demand shows. Backs can be strong or weak, slouching, upright, and sometimes stiff. The phrase, “I’ve got your back” is new to this decade and refers to standing by someone through thick and thin. They will be there for you no matter what. “Hey bro, I’ve got your back” means you can count on me.
Well, customers need to know that too. We all have customers, of course, even if you don’t work. The appliance store treats me as a customer. The machinist must treat his boss as a customer. Just about everyone is a customer or serves customers. It means customizing yourself to make sure someone else’s needs are going to be met. Why bother to adjust yourself? Why should you make any effort at all to adapt to someone else? Here are five reasons why you should consider this approach in dealing with all the customers and people in your life;

1. Adjusting yourself to someone else means you’re watching and listening to them carefully. That’s the way to really begin to hear their needs. Everyone talks and so few listen. Be the person who listens better. Be the person who leaves a gap in the conversation and lets someone else fill it in.

2. When you’re in a good listening and hearing mode, that’s when you let your compassion come forward. Usually it likes to hide a few layers back. Let your compassion come forward and be the first part of you that your customers and friends meet.

3. Adjusting yourself to fit to someone else means you’re the one who is more flexible now. You’ve in adjust-mode already. You’re able to shape yourself to fit your customer thus catch their nuances better than the next guy who wants to also sell them something.

4. When your compassion is the first part of you someone meets, when you’ve truly heard the other person’s needs, when you’ve softened yourself into a shape that fits theirs, then it’s time to follow through on their needs.

5. Write everything down so both parties have a copy. Then do more than is expected of you.

Customers and friends will then say, “That painter/realtor/friend/teacher/whatever you are—that guy really has my back”!

“Karen’s Back”, oil painting on panel by Joanne Shellan, by commission, copyright 2010
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