Featured Artist – Sharon Cummings – An Artists Interview

Today’s featured artist, Sharon Cummings is an artist I have known through social media and some selling sites for quite a few years now. I’ve always admired her amazing work and her ability to market herself. It’s inspiring to see an artist do so well and still make the time to help others. I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do.

 

Here is an interview with Sharon about her and her art.

 

Have you always been an artist?

 

I have always been an artist. But I have only been creating professionally for a little over 10 years.

    

 

Who or what inspires your art the most?

 

I am not the type of artist that looks at other art to get inspired typically. I seem to just have a zillion ideas going on in my head all of the time. My paintings must be inspired by an accumulation of life scenery. My photography and photo painting is inspired by what I see.

 

     

Do you have a studio space in your home, outside of your home or maybe a shared space with other artists? Tell us a little about your workspace.

 

I have a dedicated room in my home that acts as my studio. It isn’t very large, so when I paint the huge pieces over 6 feet long, I use my garage which is outfitted with a large table, lights and air conditioning.

 

          

Is your family supportive or your art and your career choice as an artist?

 

I have had a lot of support from my family and friends with my art. Of course it doesn’t hurt that I am successful and not the “starving artist” type mooching money and food off of them all of the time.

 

     

What obstacles have you faced in your career and how did you overcome them?

 

There are many obstacles to my career choice. But one of the hardest for me is the “isolation”. I work from home and am alone most of the time. I do not have coworkers to cut up with or go out to lunch with. It can get very lonely. I still struggle with this. But try to get out with friends as much as I can.

 

     

How do you find balance between your work and your family?

 

In order to achieve a balance with my work and family life I have to mark off of time for both and stick to those fiercely!

 

     

Do you have a favorite artist and if so who?

 

Everyone always asks me if I have a favorite artist….I am not good with favorites…I like so many, so I will choose my daughter. I believe her to have far more talent than I do!

 

    

 

 

If you were to give an aspiring artist three pieces of advice what would they be?

 

My advice to artists who wish to succeed with their work is to expect to invest a lot of time creating (make something every day!) and also to expect to spend some money…invest in yourself by getting on pay sites, buying the right camera, etc. Dont skimp! And lastly it is to believe in yourself no matter how grim it looks…sales wax and wane…just keep on believing…

 

    

You can find Sharon on Fine Art America, Etsy, her blog and her facebook page as well as many other places on the internet.

 

Keeping Up With The Masses; An Artists Struggle With Social Media and The Art Of Engaging

I’ve spent my morning trying to get organized, listing art on new sites, keeping up with the social media sites, tweaking my twitter, stumbling my pictures and finally updating my blog. There is so much to keep up with……aggghhhh. I want to simplify, downsize, reign things in a little but I find myself afraid to miss an opportunity. How many of you feel lost on twitter? Do you feel like your tweets are just going out into the unknown, never to be noticed? Engage we are told; show you are a real person. Does anyone REALLY want to hear about my kids first day of school, how I burned the oatmeal this morning or how fat my kitten is getting? I just don’t see it but I’ll keep tweeting just in case there is someone likeminded out there actually listening. I just want to paint, lock myself away and paint until I run out of supplies. But what’s the use of painting for a living if I don’t find a way to share it with the masses. I’ll cross my fingers and send new artwork out to cyber space in the hopes someone out there will connect with it enough to press that buy button. I’m just trying to make a living, pay some bills, buy the kids some cloths for school, afford a piece of salmon once in awhile. And maybe, once in blue moon I will find myself engaging with someone else floating around in this vast cyber space who’s also trying to connect and make a living off their handmade goods. Now I’m off to tweet!

PAINTING OUTDOORS; SPRING FEVER AND ART DISASTER WITH MY THREE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER.

       Spring is here, the flowers are almost in bloom, the leaves peeking from their respective branches. It feels great to be outdoors, the sun in my face, the wind whipping my hair as I cart my paint supplies out to the picnic table by my flagstone patio. Seems like a great idea, romantic even. My three year old daughter wants to paint with me and the wind is knocking everything off the table. I try to persevere and keep up the facade of painting outside like a true nature loving, artistic soul. I start the painting but the wind is blowing my hair straight across my eyes making visibility difficult. I take a quick run into the house for a hair elastic and come back to find my daughter “painting” on my canvas, the one I had already started. I start over, placing a tiny canvas board in front of her so she can paint also. I spend about half an hour on the painting, trying to re-capture what I had originally started. Then the wind picks up and tips the water container, dirty paint water and all across the whole painting and into my lap. My daughter giggles. I don’t. After mopping that up I’m still determined to make this work. After all, it’s a beautiful day and I want to be outside. I move the water container to a safer spot and start over….again. This time everything falls into place and the afternoon flies by. My daughter jumps from painting on her little canvas to playing with her toys on the vast lawn. I complete my painting; it looks exactly as I wanted it to. I decide to leave it to dry on the picnic table knowing it will dry fast in the sun. My daughter and I started carting the painting supplies back into the house, stopping for a drink and some cookies. When we go back out we are blasted by a fierce wind, it takes our breath away, almost knocking my daughter off her feet. Hand in hand we walk around the side of the house, back to the flagstone patio and there is the painting, face down in the grass about 10 feet from the picnic table. Afraid to pick it up myself I ask my three year old; she happily bounces over and picks it up. “Look Mommy at all the pretty colours.” The mixed, smeared and smudged painting, grass and dirt stuck to it, the face of the figure unrecognizable; leave it to a three year old to find beauty in the wreckage!