When I tell people that I’m an abstract painter and mixed media artist, with a lovely home studio and a thriving art practice, the first question after ‘what type of art do you make?’ is ‘how much time do you spend painting?‘.
The truth is, a good portion of my studio time is spent on things other than creating art.
There’s prep work (canvases need to be primed, boards need to be sealed), photography of finished paintings (and works in progress, so I can look back later and understand how a piece came together), editing and sizing and uploading of photos to my online portfolio and website, writing my monthly newsletter, invoicing collectors, packing and shipping artworks and the daily tasks of posting and engaging on social media…
There’s also searching for and applying to calls to artists, writing proposals for exhibitions and grants and online shopping for art supplies 😉
Some artists don’t like spending time on the ‘admin’ side of things, preferring to spend all of their time making art. I actually enjoy having more to do than ‘just paint’, as I find the act of creating to take a ton of energy.
And if I’m completely honest, after two to three hours of painting or collaging, I’ve done my best work for the day and it’s time to do something else!
Here’s a little video I made and shared on YouTube showing how much (and what type of art) actually gets made in a week.
I’ve been releasing new content on YouTube ever couple of weeks. Subscribe to my channel if you’d like to be notified next time I publish a video!