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Special Note: Its been about 6 months since I posted a blog post on GordonCurrieArt.com. On Oct 9th, 2019, I suffered my 3rd stroke in the last 6 years. I was hospitalized for a week and ended up being readmitted a few times. I ended up going on short term disability and as of this date, I am still on disability.

This particular stroke was hard in that I was very sick for almost 3 months, 1-2 times a day. I made a trip down to Edmonton to see specialist doctors. To keep things short, I still struggle at times with balance, vision and some back/kidney pain but I am alive and still able to paint and make art.

The Good News! Starting around Christmas time, I was able to start painting, albeit for shorter sessions. I started walking outside each day to get better and that has helped. I still have some health issues, but I adjusting.

Because of changes in my vision in my left eye (as a reminder, I am blind in my right eye) and so it takes me longer to paint acrylic/watercolour paintings than 6 months ago. But I am managing.

Using my iPad Pro and Apple pencil, I am creating a lot of digital paintings. These vary in theme from steampunk style paintings to winter themes to jungle and mountain scenes.

I have also shared with many folks that I am starting to promote my art more, hopefully selling paintings and starting in March, prints of some of my paintings. My only limitations are that I have to limit the amount of time each day that I paint.

So What Is With All The Steampunk Paintings?

During my art show event in January 2019, some of my commented on and appreciated work from the show included many steampunk-themed paintings. These are Jules Verne like industrial, old factory-type works. The big interest in these paintings (and now digital art) has come from the USA and Europe (and overseas).

In the past 10+ years of painting, I focused on a lot of garden painting, birdhouses and landscapes around our area. The paintings included wagon wheels and the odd western theme.

The past work was fun to paint but I struggled to reach markets abroad outside our local area. Dawson Creek has a population of roughly 15,000 people. In order to sell more art, I need to hit markets all over Canada, the USA and if I am lucky, Europe.

So what does the future hold for me?

My health is very important to me and my family. I really cannot afford to have any more strokes. Art is a big part of my life and in a perfect world, I would like to become a professional artist. But not a starving artist.

I plan to continue to paint acrylics, watercolours and paint digitally. Moving ahead into spring/summer of 2020, I want to paint daily, but also sell more original works and prints of my work. Prints are more affordable for people that want to own some of my work. My prices for most original acrylic paintings are under $500 in most cases. Prints can easily start at $100 to $200. Very affordable!

Over the next 6-12 months, you will see more landscapes, mountain scenes, more garden & birdhouse themed paintings. I will also continue sci-fi and fantasy paintings as well as abstract works. Lastly, I plan to paint some more marina /west coast paintings from the years of living on the coast of British Columbia.

Commissions

Many of the people that like my art have asked if I do commissions? I do and enjoy doing custom work for friends, family and clients looking for something unique. A commission price is usually based on the size, the complexity of the painting and on my available time. I can budget time each month for a commission. These paintings can make great gifts, giveaways for business clients and those who collect art.

So in conclusion, I hope to produce more paintings, and prints both in watercolour and acrylics as well as digital images. If you have any questions or are looking for art, please consider calling me at 250-784-8383 or email gcurrie@eldoren.com .

Thanks for all your support and I look forward to more posts very soon!

Gordon Currie

This week I wanted to share some different items in terms of my painting process. It varies for every painting, but there are some keys ideas I wanted to share.   I research topics for my paintings and I also use programs/services like Pinterest to gather materials, textures, colours, for prelim sketches. I also collect a list of colours that I think a painting will require and any specialty painting effects and additives I may need.   For many of my paintings, I use my iPad Pro 12.9″ with the Apple Pencil. I will sketch out concepts in the program Procreate. I use version 4, and it has a new release coming out in Nov 2019. Procreate allows you to create and purchase custom digital brushes and sketch pencil sketches to actual paintings with Oil and Acrylic brush libraries.   I also take a lot of my photos (especially gardens and forests) and will mockup painting ideas using Adobe Photoshop CC. It’s rare that I sit down and paint a piece of Art without some homework and research.   When I tackle a project (like I did recently on Koi fish and mountain streams, I will amass about 100-130 images and also some articles on specialized effects for painting water or water reflections, I might sketch different effects on the iPad Pro and save online. Sometimes I draw on my iPhone as well.   ** A lot of folks ask I manage to keep track of everything. Especially with painting projects. Well, I use several programs that include:

• Evernote (used on all my devices)
• I use Pocket to store websites and setup different folders.
• I use DropBox to set up shared folders with clients and friends. I can email images and recordings to these folders.
• I use some email folders as well.

Sizing my paintings – I have been buying canvases and usually purchase 5-10 of one size at a time. They are usually 16 x 24″ or 18 x 24″. But I also by 1-2 larger 24 x 30 or 32″. It just depends on the project and where people wish to display work. Knowing the market for different sizes is good.   In buying canvases, I tend to by every 4-6 weeks and look for sales of 30-45% off. And if I buy 4-5, I try to get a deal on shipping. I also buy on occasions soon, odd size canvases from Picture it if I can find some.   The NEW IOSiPad 13.1 just came out, and I am running it on all my IOS devices. It is very cool and makes working with an iPad Pro more exciting. It has a bunch of extra support for the Apple Pencil and some new gestures that are worth investigating.   New techniques – This past 2-3 months, I started painting in some new styles. They include oil painting techniques and blending ( by using Acrylic Paints) and more aggressive, fluent brush strokes. On my recent Koi painting, I did about 15-18 different washes over the art in very watered down colours. The cool effect is the layering you get. How often do you paint? I get asked that a lot. I try to paint about 50 hrs a month if I can. That gets me about 1-2 paintings each month. Or about 18-24 a year. Most are originals and sold online or in some cases, donated to specific causes or events. I usually paint in the evenings from 7-10 or on weekends on Saturday and Sunday mornings.   One thing I mention a lot is that as I develop as an artist, I am finding more and more I mix colours for almost all my paintings. I have many different blues and greens and yellows that I can combine. I have used a lot of Alizarin Crimson lately mixed to get some incredibly vibrant colours. Another tip when painting is I will draw and research painting, and before I start to apply paint to the canvas, I will go to bed at night and think about what I am painting and how I plan to tackle painting and what ORDER the steps will be. I realized how important this was when I started the painting for the Japanese Koi fish. I had to picture clearly in my mind how to paint reflections, bubbles and the depth of the water above the stone stream bed.   Its late September and I hope to paint some more paintings before Christmas for people looking for some custom work. I can paint a great deal and can work with different budgets and themes.

It’s been a while since I updated my website but I have been very busy painting this past 6 months. Time to catchup!

Since my Art Show in January this year, I sold a number of paintings, did a few commissions and had some old art that was painted about 10 years ago, recently changed hands and is now in a private collection of a prestigious law firm in BC.

My painting topics have included Venice (street scene), Landscape (west of Chetwynd, BC), Tropical Fish and Reef, some more Steampunk images and more. I do bounce around theme wise but it’s worth it as I use new techniques and increase my skills. I still have so many ideas to paint so I will be busy this next few months. I am going to do another show this spring 2020. By then I will have about 10-12 new paintings available.

Christmas is coming and I have room to do 2 commissions between now and then. If you are looking for a custom gift for someone special, give me a call and I can work with your budget and theme.

Since starting work at the School District #59, I have been very busy and unable to teach classes like I would have wanted, but I will be available for private lessons in a person’s home or in my home. If interested, drop me a note and provide me with the type of training you are looking at and I will provide a custom outline for you and a budget.

This past 6 months was tough as my father passed away from Cancer. He was a painter and I inherited some of his paintings and in particular, a Harry Heine original watercolour that my Dad bought in about 1970. I grew up with this painting and it sits proudly in my bedroom. My Dad was an inspiration to me both as a father figure and as a painter. Between him and my brother David (a professional painter), my love of painting has really grown.

Lastly, I spent alot of time at the lake this summer and the picture attached is of me painting one weekend on the dining room table at our family home at Moberly Lake, BC.

Talk soon

Gordon

January 2019 was a busy time for me this year as I put over 32 pieces of my acrylic and watercolour art on display at the historic Dawson Creek Art Gallery. It was a a big success and after 3 weeks, I can certainly say I would do it again. But like many projects in my life, I learned a great deal promoting / selling art and also learning what people like and don’t like. Here is my story and what I learned (in point form):

1. The secret is PLANNING – I booked my art show about 1 year in advance. This gave me lots of time to paint more artwork and most galleries are booked months if not years in advance. In fact, I inquired about booking another show and the lineup at the Dawson Creek Gallery is about 2 years. That’s along time between shows.

   What made my show successful ( I sold 2 paintings, gained interest in 3 more possible sales and had over 72 people attend my opening ) was the extra time in assembling my work, borrowing back previously sold paintings to display and getting the word out!

   Although a number of people know I paint, many people in the community did not know HOW much I paint and the variety of subjects I paint. I reached out to many with flyers, Facebook posts ( and event posts) as well as getting people to share my opening night announcement. I personally emailed over 120 people and that helped get the word out. Pamphlets helped as well. Suzanne helped to distribute those.

2. Initially, I planned on showing about 95% original acrylics and maybe 5% Watercolours. In the end, I had about 15-20% watercolours, many of them already sold and in private collections. A lot of people loved the watercolours and so the message was pretty straight forward – There is a market for my watercolours. The challenge is many were matted, framed and with glass and that adds a lot of cost to the price of the individual work. Most shows required framing.

   

   In choosing what work to show, I have my own favourites and assumed that certain paintings would get a lot of attention and some would not. Boy, was I wrong. Many of the pieces I figured that would sell or get above average attention did okay, but the older pieces and some I worried about, really got WAY MORE attention than expected.

   The other surprise was I assumed ( you know what that means) that certain pieces of art would appeal to certain age groups. I could not be MORE wrong!Some paintings that I figured would only appeal to younger folks ( Age 16 to 25 ) were liked as much or more by the 50-65+ audience. I was pleasantly surprised. Asking them what they liked during the show was a humbling experience and really helped me in terms of future work that will sell.

3. Who buys MY Art? Well with only 2 paintings sold, these numbers can change but one was sold to a collector who buys art regularly and has a great eye for my favourite pieces and another was bought for a commercial firm looking for art for a new office. Those interested after the show included friends and family ( some at quite a distance).

   In the past, I have sold quite a bit of art online to the US and other parts of Canada. But most of the art was sold to collectors that liked my watercolours and those who purchased specific prints. Print sales bring the prices down into the $150 – $200 range but it’s not hard to sell 25-30 prints of each painting in a year.

4. Although I ran my show for about 3 weeks, I had an opening evening about a week into my show. It was a 2 hr opening, from 7-9pm and ran on a Friday night. The DC Gallery included punch, coffee and a cheese and dessert tray. This was nice and everyone loved it.

   We chose not to serve wine or liquor as the risks associated with providing booze are simply too great. I have my serving it right and we could have offered wine but nowadays, if a guest at your event leaves with the possibility of an impaired charge, it is simply too costly if things go bad.Some people asked about a drink but I could easily spend any profit I made from sales, it costs to run the show.

5. It is worth mentioning that my goal was not to make money but to showcase my work, give people an idea about what I paint and why I paint. The exposure was very good! There is as much value to guests in knowing where I got my ideas and what techniques I used to paint certain types of work.

   I did want to mention that I prepared some personal notes on each painting in advance and let guests know what made me paint the subjects that I did. I also shared in many cases, the approach or techniques that I used. Rather than simply explain “this was painted in watercolour or acrylic” I shared in some cases where I used India ink, airbrush techniques or how I blended colours.

   Many of my paintings used layering and glazing techniques that caught the eye of the guests. In some examples, I used 40-50 layers of light, diluted washes and then let them dry between layers.In doing so, you can get very highly reflected colours in certain types of light. A very cool effect that takes time but is worthwhile!

In listening to fellow artists that visited my art show, it was interesting to hear them ask or mention what techniques I used to paint certain colours and textures. Painting cedar wood grain is something I have learned over the years and it was fun to share how I did it. Being open and upfront about my techniques is a real pleasure to share.

6. Common themes – One of the biggest surprises was that during the past few years of painting, many people commented they only liked certain themes and that an art show should be focused on maybe 2-3 themes for the paintings on display. This always bothered me and I thought it would hurt sales having so many DIFFERENT styles or subjects. As it turned out, I was totally wrong. I had paintings of buildings, gardens, aliens, sci-fi themes, underwater scenes, window boxes, snow scenes, birdhouses and more! The crowd that came to my opening all commented that they liked the bright colours and particularly the variety of subjects and themes. This turned out to be one of the top factors that so many people enjoyed my show. There were paintings for everyone.

   Another bright side to my show (no pun intended) was that I typically paint with very bright colours and put a lot of thought into each painting when it comes to colour palettes, high contrast images, lots of shadow detail and complimentary colours that work well together. In many cases, people have no idea how much planning can go into a painting or how much research. That’s why I think its critical in some cases that you share the experience and “journey” with people looking at buying your artwork.

7. Some pleasant surprises – In listening to the visitors to my show and the comments that were shared over the 3 week period, I heard some feedback that was exciting to hear but also quite a shock! Many people viewing my artwork saw detailed imagery that I never intended but “suggested” with brush strokes and colour. In some images, I spent hours working on shadow detail.

   It was important when I paint that I don’t specifically hide images in shadows but that I suggest small strokes or detail that could be interpreted but many as they viewed the artwork.I saw a lot of people who looked up close at paintings and then stepped back 4-6 feet and saw additional images and patterns. Some I intended and others I did not. I learned many years ago that it was important to leave room for the art observer to “see what they see” and to give them places in an image to explore a painting or rest their eyes. This became apparent on a series of “steampunk” style or “sci-fi” style images.

   Another tip that was reflected in the comments was the different colours and details in shadows. Rarely are shadows black or grey. Many of my best shadows had blends of purple, green and burgundy. If I had an orange coloured component of a painting, I loved to mix blues and greens for the shadows with highlights to draw people in. This is very subtle but is worth doing.

8. The majority (but not all ) of my acrylic painting are varnished so as to protect the painting from dust and UV light but to also bring out the rich colour pigments. For a show, it’s pretty important as well. I used spray on varnish and typically spray 2-3 coats ( in different directions) with drying time between each coat.

9. Appreciating your audience and attendees at the opening – I tried hard to see everyone and thank them for coming. It was very gratifying to see so many people come to my opening and view my work. I thanked as many as I could for coming. It was a great night! The Gallery staff were pleased and set a nice standard for the first show of the year.I also thanked the gallery staff, the curator and the folks who installed the show. Without their help, it would not have worked so well. Particularly the order that my work was hung. This made a HUGE difference and made for a true experience to people walking the show.

10. More surprises – one of my original framed watercolour paintings on display at the show was an airbrushed painting I did of some underwater fish. It was an experiment and my VERY FIRST airbrush watercolour. It was very surprising to me that so many people liked that image. Although I have airbrushed models over the years (cars, planes, not people!), this truly was a first. The matt work and framing and glass were about $300 so it does not normally allow for a great deal of extra profit for the painting effort. But it was very popular and ended up being displayed in the local paper after the show opening. Many thanks to the Dawson Creek Mirror for their great support!

11. Certain paintings, including the Old Growth Forest and Cedar Giants, were painted as they reminded me of the west coast and growing up on Vancouver Island. We travelled a lot and camped up and down the island as a youth and this inspired me. An interesting tidbit – the bark of the cedar trees looked very realistic to many and the many observers did not know that of all the paintings I have done, the old growth forest took the greatest amount of time. There are tree trunks that had over 40-60 passes of colour or washes to get a “cedar effect”. A person starts by painting the different browns, oranges, blues, tans and pretty soon you have 10-12 hours of painting just of the tree trunks. But its fun to paint and realism is easy to achieve with the right effort.

    The above notes are just some feedback from my show and an inside look at how I work and the joy that comes from painting.

Coming away from this show I came to a number of conclusions. They included:

• I want to continue painting and showing
• Planning in advance and promoting yourself is important
• There are some themes I want to continue to explore, such as the old growth forest, the underwater scenes, European architecture and the sci-fi / steam punk themes.
• I need to consider doing more watercolours and more prints as they sell well. Sometimes it is much harder to sell a watercolour original for $400-$600 vs selling 20-30 prints at $160 each.
• Social Media promotions is well worth the time.
• Timing the promotions and reminders is important as well.

I will share more info in a future blog post on things I learned! Cheers Gordon

Just finished up my latest painting, “Level 81 – Atreides Mine” last night. It’s a Steampunk / abstract of a underground mine scene on the planet Arrakis.

This painting is 18″ wide and 24″ high (portrait). If anyone is interested in this painting, don’t hesitate to contact me at 250-784-8383 or email

This week I wanted to explore a topic openly and honestly – selling my own art. I also wanted to throw out some ideas about services for other artists.

Over the last 20+ years I have marketed products and services for clients all over North America. Everything from games to books to financial training. I have used social media, websites, newsletters and hundreds of other tools. But i want to talk about marketing art.

About 15 years ago I started painting and in the first year, I painted about 10 watercolour paintings. Each one sold for about $200-$550 for the original version of each. I then sold prints of each for about $150-$200. In my first year, I made about $30,000 in gross sales. Not bad for part-time.

Today, I paint primarily acrylics and they range in price from $250 – $650 for original pieces. The price is slowly creeping up.

My goal (to be totally, brutally honest) is to make enough to match my current consulting work and a bit more. Like most artists, over the years, I found there were 2 ways to sell:

• The traditional Way – selling locally, entering local shows and exhibitions. And hope for the best.

• Sell primarily online, via the Internet, using Social Media and promoting online.

I typically do both but there are many challenges with both.

The traditional way involves getting paintings in Galleries, working on other peoples schedule, booking shows months in advance, and many other challenging issues.

The Online method of sales is challenging due primarily to the type of promotions you do and the branding of your work. The benefit is you reach a SIGNIFICANTLY larger market. During the first year I sold my watercolour prints, I sold 80% to the US and about 30-40% of my original watercolours/acrylics.

Future Directions

One thing I have learned with both techniques is you have to:

• Market as many ways as you can.
• Marketing and promote daily
• Build a following and stay in touch.
• Make it easy to buy
• Know your Target Market

When I talk about marketing different ways, I am not talking about 3-4 methods like a webpage, letter to galleries, Facebook page and Christmas cards. You have to think 50-80 methods of reaching people. I started listing all the different ways you can market and easily come up with close to 80.

Another big challenge is pricing and also determining WHO is your target market and how best to reach them. This is critical. You need to not only think about what gender, income range, interests but need to know about 30 different things that tie to HOW they buy. Do they research the artwork or comparison shop and then buy 6 months from now or do they buy it the same day they see it for the first time.

Experimentation is important and I am finding that on Social Media like Facebook, I can get lots of interest and lots of good impressions from family and friends. But few sales in most cases. On the other hand, Instagram viewers on my feed tend to buy but few are people I know if at all. You need to test.

Pricing is always a challenge. I spoke to one artist online who I read about in a art magazine in BC. He had only painted for maybe 1-2 years. His work was unique and very large, with most paintings easily 4-5 feet across and about 6-7 ft high. He priced his work at about $4000 to $7000 per painting. And he was selling a lot of work.

The average person does not normally spend the kind of money the above artist was charging.

What is encouraging is that you may create a painting and sell it as an original for $500-$1500. But you can print 100 copies and sell each at $300 each as a numbered print. Thats $30,000 in print revenue with about $20K in profit.

I think the approach I may take is to set a goal of say $40,000 in sales. Based on my current volume of work ( say 4 originals a month ) that works out to 48 a year. To make $40K, I would need to sell each for $830. Thats not realistic in the market I am reaching.

The better approach might be to sell 3 original painting over 10 months (taking 2 month off throughout the year) and sell 30 at $400 – $500 each. On the low side thats $12,000. Leaving a $38,000. Now if you created prints of each painting in 2 sizes, you might make more profit.

Example:

30 originals x 75 prints each = 2250 prints

Print size one ( 13 x 19 ) -> $250 print x 2250 = $562,500

Subtract expenses of 35% (a bit high) = $364,236

If you did a smaller size of 9 x 12 size, you could sell for $100 each and make another $18,000 net.

The secret is to save your originals for the target market that want these and sell the prints in 2 affordable sizes (signed and numbered) for the audience that is looking for affordable prints.

In my next blog post, I will share some income opportunities for artists based on some of the marketing I have done. Email me at gordon@gordoncurrieart.com with any comments you have.

Today I wanted to post thought thoughts and feelings about my Art. Why I paint and more importantly what I paint. Hope this gives all my friends and family some background on my favourite hobby.

We all love to express ourselves and in the crazy world we live in today, you really need a great hobby and something that allows you to put aside the challenges and problems of the world. For me, painting is something that allows me to relax.

I have other hobbies and love to read, create stuff with wood and spend time at our family cabin at Moberly Lake. Getting up in the morning, sitting on the sundeck with a coffee and family around makes for a great life.

People ask me why I paint. I can honestly say its one of the few things that help me relax, stay somewhat stress-free and also explore the creative side of my life. What surprised me a few years ago was the combination of painting and researching my painting themes. This was fun but soon I found the feeling of actually touching the paint and using paint textures, mediums and getting my hands wet really made a big difference.

Imagine having a hobby you can do that gives you the best feelings and really makes you feel whole. Your problems literally fall away. I know this feeling for me is very addicting. The closest I can describe it is this example. When I used to draw race a car a few years ago, I would take off like a rocket, pull a few G’s and 10 seconds go from o mph to 130 mph. It was a huge adrenalin rush. Well oddly enough when I paint, the excitement level is just about as big. Mind you without the danger aspect.

Why do I paint what I do?

Alot of people ask me why I paint the themes I do. It is a great question. Lets first start with a current list of what I paint with a short note beside each topic/theme:

• Flowers and Window Boxes – I paint these as I love gardening, grew up in Victoria and spent many years helping my wife garden. The colours smells make it easy to love these themes. And many people love my rich use of colour.

• Sci Fi / Steampunk – I have been a HUGE fan of Science Fiction. Over the years, I started to really enjoy the Steampunk movement. The Jules Verne style blend of old items used to describe art and other Victorian themes was fun. I also helped develop computer games over the years and love non-violent adventure games. Match this with some fantasy coupled with Lord of the Rings and Dune, well these are great subjects to paint.
• English houses / Architecture + Cotswold Homes – I grew up in Oak Bay ( part of Victoria ) in an area with predominantly old English homes. I collect David Winter Cottage and love English architecture. This is a big part of why I want to paint these themes. Coupled with English gardens, it makes for a great day of painting.
• West Coast Themes / Old Growth Forests – Growing up on the west coast of BC….well it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see why these themes are fun to paint. I camped a lot on the west coast and on Vancouver Island. I have many fond memories of this area. My art reflects where I grew up in a lot of ways.
• Firefighters themes – I worked as both a volunteer firefighter and then from 1981 to 1987 a full-time firefighter. Painting firefighters and burning buildings reminds me of that time in my life. My father in law was a firefighter for 35+ years and I always admired his career.
• Rail Car Themes – What can I say? I love trains, model trains and should have gone to BC Rail or CN when I was a young man and got a job. To this day, I hear a train and go running to see it!

• Japanese Architecture and Gardens – This has been an interest of mine since about age 12 when I saw Japanese themed gardens and was enamoured with pictures of Bonsai, Tea Gardens and many other Japanese themes. Hope to one day go to Japan to study their architecture.
• My other topics I paint include Mediterranean buildings, old wagon wheels, west coast marinas and more. Again, painting from great memories when I was younger.

So there you have it. Why I paint and reasons why I paint what I paint. Now you know “the rest of the story”.

Last thoughts – I hope in the coming months/years that more of my work will sell and I can work 50% of my time as an artist and eventually retire and work 100% on painting. It’s that much fun!