Chipping In

Chipping In

Oil on canvas, 20x20

Please click here to email me about price and availability

I was horrified to notice that my first two golf paintings (Lining Up the Putt and Sunday Drive) were of men, while a small painting I made (Laundry Day - haven't posted yet...) was of a woman. How sexist am I? Sheesh!

So I made sure that this third painting was of a woman, and an older, gray-haired woman, at that. I love the motion in here, and the explosion of sand and ball out of the trap.

Coach Joe suggested that I offer to make paintings of people golfing in golfers' favorite holes. The 16th at St. Andrews, the 4th hole green at the Master's... Whatever your favorite hole is, if I can get a photo of it, I can paint a golfer like you at the hole.

What do you think? Is this an idea that would please a golfer?

***

Stuff I've Seen

While my Florida show was a disaster, my visit was not. I saw Eric and Mary, old friends, and spent time with them at their home on the Suwanee River. While there, I met Ike, a friend who lives nearby. Eric announced that I was a painter, and Ike pulled this statue from a shelf. At the time, the statue was all gold, like the shirt. 

"Can you paint this?" he asked, and I said sure. 

I think it's really cool! 

***

Shameless Self-Promotion

This is last year's booth at the Tubac Arts Festival, here in Tubac, Arizona. The show is coming up, Wednesday through Sunday. If you're in the area, please come! I hope to be on Plaza Road, where I've been in the past. 

***

Dog of the Day

Here is the delightful Baby Girl, left, with the aforementioned Eric, right. 

AND, I got to drive the four-wheeler. That was fun! 

***

A Final Thought

"Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you still have one." 

- Stella Adler

Sunday Drive

Sunday Drive

Oil on canvas, 16x16

Please click here to contact me for price and availability

I started becoming interested painting people a couple years ago. It took a while for me to work up the courage and confidence enough to really try it.

It took me a while longer to realize that maybe I didn't need to focus on individual faces, and that maybe, just maybe, that would turn out to be a strength of these paintings instead of a weakness.

I've personally balked at buying portraits, feeling that I really don't want a stranger looking at me all the time. And if the portrait is of a person I know, chances are that it won't look like the person, or at least not like the person the way I know that person.

So, in much the same way that my buyers and I have accepted that houses that I paint generally don't have doors or windows, I guess I am accepting that - at least for now - my people won't have faces.

Interestingly, I'm not squeamish about painting dogs' faces! Eyes, noses, what have you - these don't scare or dismay me. Cows - about half the time they have eyes and delineated faces. Maybe there will be a transition eventually with people, but for the time being, I'm OK with them like this.

What I really set out to write about was the action, the motion, in these paintings. Guess that will wait for another post.

***

Do you remember Kato, Inspector Clouseau's valet in the Pink Panther movies? Kato would hide and leap out at the inspector at all hours of the day and night, to sharpen Clouseau's reflexes, or so he said. Mostly, he made a giant, furniture-breaking mess whenever they tangled. Koko might be the canine version of Kato, pouncing over and over on Doc, whenever they're out in the yard. 

***

Dog of the Day

It's Ginger, the dear old dog of Heather and Joe, friends from Maine. 

Ginger has had a good life, being well-loved, well-traveled, well-treated. 

And I think she likes winter, too. What a good girl. 

***

A Final Thought

"Even at best talent remains a constant, and those who rely upon that gift alone, without developing further, peak quickly and soon fade to obscurity." 

- David Bayles and Ted Orland

"Art & Fear /Observations and the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking"

Lining Up the Putt

Lining Up the Putt

Oil on black canvas, 16x16

Please click here to email me for price and availability

So what about prices? What are my prices generally, and why don't I just put the price of the painting in the line above?

I price my paintings generally at $1.25 to $1.65 per square inch, and then I adjust. Up, if the price seems ridiculously low. Down if it seems unrealistically high.

I used to price paintings according to what I thought they were worth, but this was endlessly confusing, Tiny paintings would be more expensive than huge ones. Buyers didn't get it, so, taking advice from people who'd been selling paintings for years, I went to the square-inch method. Many painters use this method, and my per-inch prices are lower than most of my peers'. And that's OK with me. I'd rather sell lower and make more paintings!

So there's a starting point. But there are many variables beyond that. if someone buys a piece before I put it in a show, they generally get a discount.

For a while, I had a page called "The Hot Nickel," where I'd put paintings that had not yet been to a show. (The title comes from the saying that a hot nickel is often worth more than a cool dime).

That page shortly became disastrous, as I'd forget to put paintings on it, or, worse, forget to take them off once I'd put them in a show.

There are some other discounts I generally offer. If you come to the studio to buy a painting, chances are I'll offer you a discount. The less I have to do to sell a painting, the better.

If you pay with cash, I'll offer a discount.

If you buy more than one painting (except for the smallest ones), I'll offer a discount.

I'm generally open to negotiation, taking all the above into account. Sometimes there's a painting I absolutely adore, and am convinced is worth every cent I am asking, and I won't budge. Sometimes I am just sick of a painting, or I don't like it, or I'm in a mood, or I'm having a terrible show or a wonderful show - and if you catch me at one of these times, chances are I'll give you a big discount.

Another reason I don't put prices on the blog or the website is that I have a terrible memory, and often forget to take a price or a paypal button off a blog post, so sometimes, people inquire about paintings that are long gone.

And finally, galleries sometimes have different prices than I have. Sometimes they're higher, sometimes lower. I don't always know how a gallery is pricing a piece. I give them guidelines, but in the long run, I want them to sell the paintings, so I allow them some leeway - though I am tightening up, especially on the galleries that sell my pieces for less than I'd ask.

***

Isn't this great? It's Humpty Dumpty, sitting, falling and broken. 

I saw this in a beautiful shady neighborhood in St. Paul this summer. 

***

Dog of the Day

It's Kora, who lives with my friend Tiffany. I love her stripes, her dark feet and her long legs.

Want your pet to be the Dog of the Day? Send a jpg to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

***

A Final Thought

"A finished piece is, in effect, a test of correspondence between imagination and execution. And perhaps surprisingly, the more common obstacle to achieving that correspondence is not undisciplined execution, but undisciplined imagination."

- David Bayles and Ted Orland, 

"Art & Fear / Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking"