Thinking About 2014 and Art...

I've been thinking about what I'd like to do with my art over the next few years.  I'm not sure I have any concrete ideas to get from where I am now to....well, I'm not sure where I'm going with it all. But, here are some things I've been thinking about:


Suburbia & Artists:  I live in a suburb of Cincinnati. I have two school aged kids and a dog. (This could almost be a song.)  Most of the artists I know are in a similar situation--we all are making time for art among the day-to-day things that need to happen to make our families function.  We look like suburban moms or dads, or in some cases grandparents. I don't think of myself as an artist.  Many of my friends don't know, or have only learned in the last year, that I paint. They know me as the mom of so-and-so, but since I'd like to believe that there's a place for all of the aspiring artists, I'm going to try to reconfigure my thinking so that I think present myself as an artist.

Media & Shows;  I enjoy puttering around with the social media.  I changed from flavors.me to a site on Weebly and bought a domain--you can check it out at amybrycewatercolors.com. I started periodically posting to a Facebook Page, here.  Set up a little shop on Etsy...see here.  Try to post regularly to this blog, and have got my newsletter sending via Mailchimp (finally!).  I thoroughly enjoy the art on Google+.  It's interesting, inspiring, and vibrant.

If everything was going according to plan, I'd be posting a blog entry about 1x per week.  And, I'd have new paintings each and every week since I'd be painting every day.   I've been working to improve on this for the last couple of years, and I'm slowly getting better.  I can see, though, where this could become a time sink.  I'm resolving to try and build my email list, and to increase my blog posting..

I finished out 2013 with some new semi- to abstract paintings, which I've included here.  The top painting is almost a tree line, and is a mix of watercolor and Caran D'Ache crayon.  It's approximately 9x3.5 inches. The bottom painting was very hard to photograph--for some reason stacked blues and purples elude me.  It's about 8.5 x 7.5 inches.

If you've made it this far, and would like to receive a monthly email newsletter--here's my blatant appeal. Just click this...SIGN UP FOR Amy's NEWSLETTER.  And, I'd love to hear from other people and artists about what you're looking to do in 2014.....here's to a great year.