Hi all. It feels like I haven’t blogged for ages and its not for a lack of desire but I’ve been working on my painting and I started 2019 with a few orders for my handmade cards and another project for a German charity group, so busy busy! I’ve decided that 2019 will be a year of opportunities for my paintings, which means I will sell them and I will improve my techniques by daily online lessons. Hopefully I will also find my style in the process or at least find what and how I love painting the most!
At least I’ve put together a palette made with colours which I love, actually I made 2 palettes, one for floral paintings and one for scenery as I just started taking a “real” physical painting class at my local community college, called the Volkhochschule in German. Online classes are great for the variety and the instant access, but nothing beats the real time feedback from a professional while I’m painting and all my other more experienced class mates are so supportive and helpful too.
The theme for this class is “Light and shadows” and this is the result of the first class. In the process of painting it (afew times), I started out with just trying to paint the colours, before I realised I needed to understand what I was painting and once I did, it got better! Sounds logical doesn’t it but we all see paintings in different ways I guess and I see colours before shapes!
I also decided to refurbish my Etsy store and stock it with paintings instead of my pop up cards, even if they were selling really well. In fact Etsy said I sold better than 75% of other shops and my shop was Number 2 in Germany because of them, but I hated making the same design over and over again and they took alot of time. Whereas if I sell my paintings, once they’re painted, they can sell as prints or to be printed on products, so more time for me to paint!
I’ve been researching on how to do this and decided to use Etsy, linked with a print on demand website, mainly for my American customers, and Zazzle which is a website for customised product with designs from Independant artists, like me, for my European fans! 😉
Its hard work trying to do all this though and I never seem to have enough time… and I feel a little guilty my housework is getting very neglected… Anyway, I just feel very lucky my family is very understanding when the house is less than perfect and the food is on the table late, although they should be used to it by now! My friends are actually calling me too, to see if I’m still alive…😂
On that note, I do have to go get some laundry done cause there might be a little riot if they have nothing left to wear! Happy Monday everyone and I hope you do a little of what makes you happy this week.
Hugs,
Gwendolyn Watercolors 