Old World Swine

Daily Painting Update

(link to the Ebay auction for this item)

I've decided to keep using Ebay initially for all my new daily paintings, and then moving them to Etsy. I figured out the Buy It Now! thing (don't know how I missed it before), and I relisted a couple of pieces I think had some interest earlier. I also shortened the auction time to 5 days because I'm just that impatient.

This one is a painting I completed during the power outage that happened as a result of the big ice storm a couple of weeks ago. We lost power right in the middle of a brush stroke. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting prepared for the coming freeze, and so the painting had to wait. I finished it the next day by natural light. The red pigments took a long time to dry, and so I couldn't get it on the scanner until now. The scans have generally turned out better than photos and need less tweaking to be presentable (though there is still some textural surface glare).

The cast shadow on the loaf of bread comes from the window frame.

I love the way the sunlight makes these grapes seem to glow from the inside (although that's more noticeable in the original than the photo above).

More to come! Watch my Daily Painting blog.

(link to the Ebay auction for this item)

Check Out My New Daily Painting Blog!

Today marks the *official* launch of my long anticipated (by me... I always was a procrastinator) Daily Painting blog.

Now, "daily painting" doesn't mean necessarily a painting a day... it just means I plan to paint daily, and I'll offer that work on the new blog (via e-bay). In practice I look for this to shake out at about 3 paintings a week, though that may increase as things progress.

These are mainly small - even miniature - pieces, but made with all the care I would give to any of my larger artworks.

I will also soon be offering some very special pricing on some of the art from my old fine art website, as I move into this new strategy.

Up until very recently, making a living in original fine art was mainly a matter of finding gallery representation (in viable commercial galleries) and building a reputation (and generating income) that way. Finding publicity through art competitions and art publications could help to make you more attractive to these galleries. But the whole process of vetting and courting galleries - in addition to actually trying to get any work done - has been like hiking through molasses. One needs almost to work full time just on marketing, scheduling competitions, hob-nobbing and the like. It doesn't help that I'm such an intense introvert.

With the advent of the internet, though, there are now more and more artists taking their work directly to the public. It's a transition I've been turning over in my mind for some time, but hesitated to jump into.

I have now made the jump. That means that the prices I had on a lot of my artwork will be reduced because I no longer need to consider the requirements of a third party (the galleries) or worry so much about impressing collectors that might drop by. So, in addition to the small daily painting pieces, watch for some larger work as well.

The long and short is that I would rather paint - and make my living from painting - than not. If that means pricing my work so that it will be more accessible to a wider audience, then that is a change I am happy to make. It could even be seen as very Chestertonian... a Distributist approach to fine art.

I'll be offering occasional opinions and commentary on my work interspersed with with the new paintings, but the next several posts at the new blog will just be new paintings offered for your viewing pleasure, with a link to the e-bay auction page for each piece.

Do check in often. I hope you like what you see.

Oh! Also please feel free to comment in the comment box of each post.

Visit Timothy Jones' Daily Painting Blog