He just bought an old vintage antique car (I can’t remember the name – whoops!) and I wanted to give him something special.

Here’s my first car watercolor from my last post. Just to give it a try.

And here are a couple I painted over the weekend. I think I will do a series. Fun!

Any thoughts on these two little paintings?

Vintage Car
Watercolor – 5 x 6
©Jennifer Ressmann 2012
NFS

Vintage Old Car 2
Watercolor – 4 x6
©Jennifer Ressmann 2012
NFS

I want to paint cars… and boats!

I need a gift for a friend. A guy friend. He likes art…. I bet he’d like a watercolor of his new antique car? or some cool boat!

This is my first try – I need to hone some skill and style. But, it’s kinda cute.

New Mission?!  I have 2 weeks!

Hello Everyone! I have been workin’ hard to wittle away at my goals from my last post. And, I’m making some good progress. Yeay!

1. I painted my studio workroom furniture – a nice soothing ivory color.

2. I found another work table – hoping we can trim it down to size today and fit it.

3. Cleaned up a lot of the clutter and did some serious organizing/tossing.

Today I need to do some labeling, fit that work table and clean up from that, and take some pictures to post! Then, I just have some little odds and ends to do – they can fit in during the week.

And, this week I still need to wrap up my yearly art goals and organize my blog for the year!

It’s going to be a beautiful day here in Colorado. Yesterday was really cold – it must have been humid – we did get a dusting of snow. Looking forward to my morning walk!

“Lain” © 2009, 2.5″ x 3″

I’ve been getting busy. But, I forgot to note a couple of items on my goal list that are big projects. How did I forget these?! Hello!

1. Clean-up & Organize Studio Space tighter. I have a lot of stuff in my workroom. Much of my Art revolves materials and not really subject matter or one medium. So… lots of materials. Since I moved into my new space on the other side of the house last year it’s really just been “make-do” – with lots of other stuff going on, projects to complete. Now I have to make the time – I can’t stand the clutter any longer. It’s hard for me to concentrate when I feel like I should be tidying up!

2. Paint studio furniture. I am tired of the dark wood – so that will go bye bye.

3. Need another work table. I’m going to use an old door slab with saw horses. These items make a great, inexpensive table. I will skirt it and put a shelf under the table portion. This will be where I can store my finished work. Oh, gosh, I can’t wait! A space just to store finished work! Wow! **I just have to note, my husband is so wonderful to let me take over this space! For years, you carve out a little nook where ever you are, so you can work, and then some day… you get a full studio space with 4 work tables and storage! Oh My – I think I might be living the dream!

4. Change this blog look. I have been considering combining my website & blog into one. I’ve been hammering away at that! This might take more time than I think.

So, some big stuff I didn’t add to my list. And, they really need to come before I do anything else. And, I am also wrapping up my Artwork Project List – so very many many ideas and plans. This is my first year doing the yearly plan/goal list this way. Next year I will start earlier and have a better idea what I’m doing – so it should go faster. Plus, I’m sure I will have way more on my list this year, so I can roll over what I don’t finish.

I hope to be done with the organizing and clean up by the beginning of next week and I will show off the progress.

So, how’s your new year coming? Hope it’s starting out right! Did you make your goal lists? Excited?!

Ahh, the New Year!

In the last post I talked about making goals and plans for the future. And, I thought I would list what some of mine will be for 2012.

I always seem to think I can get way more done than is possible – so my list for one year might fit better into a couple of years – but I’m hopeful! I broke down how many hours I would have each week/month to accomplish this and it should come out to be about a part-time gig.

Here’s the Big Picture – I want to Create a life (mine) as a full time, self-sustaining, fine artist.

This year I would like to do all of these things below (and more). This is just a brief overview.

I need to:

• work on my portfolio – both digital and physical
• create a press packet
• locate more/better venues and approach them
• locate more/better online venues for sales
• get better at my ongoing stuff: newsletter, blogging, other social media, grants committee work, website and mailing lists

I am still finalizing my studio goals, but they go something like this:

• Get better and better / more advanced at digital and photoshop skills. While I’ve worked in this area a long time – I could be a better printer and color reproducer. It’s quite boring to me, but I should spend some time with the subject.

and

I’d like to expand on the 2 series I am already working in: Art for the Recycling Heart and Something About Colorado through:

• YouTube video demos
• Through a list of what I’d like to learn I will acquire some books and study!

Fun!

And, I am changing up my blog and website – gotta get more streamlined and clean.

Are you making plans? or do you like to wing it better?

One of my crosses to bear in life revolves around time. I have a hard time dealing with the fact the life goes by really quickly and I will never have time to do all the wonderful things I want or need to do. How do we not live to be 300! You’ll often hear me say “oh, about 2 or 3 years ago… when really whatever it was happened 4 or 5 years ago”. I really don’t know how to deal with this any better than to mostly ignoring it and doing my best to enjoy every day.

Because of this I keep a very busy busy schedule. I bite off way more than I can chew and I work hard to get a lot of it done. Sometimes I have no Idea what I’m doing and I feel like I’m doing a mediocre job. I find that I have to stop caring if the work isn’t perfect and just move forward. Do my best, not worry about it too much, and move on.

On that note – I am beginning to schedule my year better and set important goals.

Want to do this for yourself?

1. Start by reviewing last year. What did you accomplish? Write it all down. Some people aim to come up with 100 items. This year I came up with about 10-20 big things.
2. Then, write down what you need to work on for your new year – your goals. Come up with some assorted categories to focus on. For example: family, home projects, exercise, work related. Break everything down as much as you need to – including actions you need to take to accomplish your goals.
3. From here, make your schedule in a calendar for a certain period of time – monthly, quarterly or yearly.
4. Section out areas of time to focus on your categories (family, home projects, etc). And then in each section/category write down the action you need to do for that. You are probably familiar with this for your job – but you can plan this way for all your efforts and get more done.
5. This can be a really big project. It may take many days or weeks, so try to start at the beginning of December so you can have it all set up for your New Year!
6. This is a really great way to accomplish more, stop procrastinating and fulfilling your goals! Fantastic! I’m so excited!

Other helpful articles about getting balance, setting your yearly plan and organizing your time:

Lisa Call’s article on Balance: www.makebigart.com/2010/01/balance/

Pam at Gingerbread Snowflakes: http://gingerbreadsnowflakes.com/node/140

Bob Wogrin – Setting goals as an artist: www.wogrin-art.com/goals.htm

Alyson the Art Biz Coach discusses Celebrating Your Accomplishments: www.artbizblog.com/2011/12/accomplishments2011.html

Search for these topics online as well. Just make sure not to spend all your time researching and take the time to do the actually planning work.

Happy New Year!

It’s been an eventful year!

This has been my first full year working my fine art career with earnest. Most of my artistic career was spent in the commercial arena – I started out as a photography assistant and worked many years as a teacher,  freelancer photographer and a stringer for the local newspaper. When I got married and wanted less weekend work I moved into the graphic design world. After about 10 years in that field I needed a break. Being creative on demand can be pretty exhausting. Exhilarating, exciting, fun, and… exhausting. It’s business, not hobby. I loved it. But after a long time working this way, I needed a break and I needed a change.

Now I’m focusing on my fine art. I went to art school, and throughout my life I have shown some and always did art. But, last year I moved this into the forefront of my life. It’s really important to me and I’m not going to look back when I’m 90 and say I wished I would have done this.

This past year was a mish-mash of “stuff”. Really just getting my feet wet, focusing and learning.

Next year, I will step it up again. Lots of goals to work on! Lots of fun. Lots of excitement!

Happy Holidays!

**(the guy above is from my holiday card this year! If you didn’t get one yet, please, email me with your address to sign up for my snail-mail list and I will pop one in the mail to you!)

Snowy Colorado Day © Jenn Ressmann, 2011

The weather in our part of Colorado tends to vary a lot during the winter. It swings from spring like conditions to chilly, snowy wintery weather. It’s mostly sunny at the same time. I love the variety. This month has been mostly wintery and the spring like weather has taken too long to get here. We’ve had the same snow on the ground for at least a week! But, no need to panic – this weekend, whew!, it will be in the 50′s! I could even do some yard work if I needed. Maybe open the windows and air out the place. Go on a nice warm walk. Lovely! (Ok, I was starting to get a little panicky.)

Hope you’re out enjoying your winter weather – however it may come about!

Cutting Cards

Folding Cards

** your info will never be shared or sold. Promise!**

"Funny Guy" © Jennifer Ressmann

Hi Friends! How’s your holiday season going? 

We have had some lovely lovely weather. I had heard it was going to be a mild winter, but when we got 2 big snow storms in October – I thought that was a bunch of hooey! (horse hooey?!) But, it’s been dry dry dry ever since and now I wonder if maybe I should get out and water?

The nice weather has been fun for hiking and lots of fun photographing the beautiful Colorado ponies around here! Above is just one from my Colorado Horse Series -

Come over to the Colorado Photography Page at the top and see the whole group gathered there! Here’s the link, too: http://jennressmann.wordpress.com/colorado-artwork/