October Art Musings

Creating Art For Autumn Shows

It's been an interesting summer with my preparation of pen and ink drawings for the Lyndon House "Common Structures" show in July-August. Doing black and white drawings was so apropos for the summer months here in Georgia. Such heavy green colors in the hot weather needed some stark pen and ink work to add a coolness to the art atmosphere. Now however we are entering the fall months and I have a showing of my new pieces at the Point of Art Gallery in Union Point starting the 9th of October and running through the 8th of November.

What to do to set up for up the autumn season? This show is entitled "Rural Georgia and the Vanishing South". The choice of Anne Jenkins, the gallery owner, not mine. It is so fitting for me since the name of my company is Vanishing Rural Georgia Art. There are several artists represented and they have all produced pieces that reflect the
southern rural heritage. Every artist is different and their
work reflects their diverse disciplines. An eclectic array of Southern art. The artists that will be showing with me at the Point of Art Gallery include Anne Jenkins, Nan McGarity, Ronald Moore, Will Estridge, and David Siffert. I feel great to be part of this group of fine artists.

Well, my work on these new paintings began in early September when I traveled to see my folks in Pennsylvania and brought along one of the pieces that I began to work on. That one ended up being my painting "On The Blocks" It was fun doing a painting where the sky is ominous and threatening while the sun is still shinning on the foreground. That was only one of several new paintings that I did in egg tempera especially for this show.

Working in egg tempera has always been a fairly slow process for me and I usually don't complete more than 6 pieces in a year, Not like the pen and inks where I did over 20 in a month and a half. This time however, I disciplined myself to work hard and long. I completed 7 new paintings in under 6 weeks. A major feat as I was sick with flu like symptoms for over 10 of those days. Well, that being said, I can only hope that fans of my work will like what they see. Even if their budget doesn't permit them to purchase an original egg tempera, I will have limited edition Giclée prints available after the show closes in early November.

Let me know what you think of my newest pieces. I am also working on 5 more egg tempera pieces and have 3 large oils in the wings.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Pete

Payment for work done

Well here we are again, discussing creating art. Instead of talking about how I make art using the egg tempera medium, allow me to hit on a subject that most of us small business owners must deal with, payment for our work.

As we all know, creating art is not an inexpensive process. There is the education, the years of experience, and the supplies, not to mention the overhead: electricity, space, heating/air conditioning, easels, drawing table, camera, etc., show invitations, ads and more, all tend to add up costing us thousands of dollars. And yet, even though we work hard to develop a style, produce product that gives beauty and value to peoples' lives, getting paid what our work deserves can be one of our most difficult hurtles in the creative process.

It's been an uphill battle over my entire career and when the economy goes south, that is the toughest time to sell art. Besides my own egg temperas and other works I am responsible for the sales of works by other artists through the Pantheon Fine Art Gallery at which I am the director.

Recently we promoted a special show on equine art pieces. Targeted a market that love the subject. We placed posters around the area almost a month in advance of the opening, sent out 500 invitations to interested horse owners, ranches, regional art buyers, and personally visited guest ranches. We sent press releases to all of the regional media as well as art groups and visitor centers. On opening night, May 30, 2008 where a show would probably have 150-250 attendees, we had around 50. Slow economy? The featured artist had wonderful pieces ranging in price from $150 to $5,000. Eight other artists in a second floor gallery had beautiful works priced from $150 to $2,000. To date 4 pieces have sold in the $250 to $700 range.

I should say, I also print Giclée fine art and art photography works for artists. Usually the customer pays promptly but since this economic downturn, I am finding payments are coming later and later. At a time when supplies are getting more expensive and work is getting harder to come by, getting paid late is not very helpful.

These are tough times to make a living as an artist and it will surely be a test of our creative resolve.

Painting the Rural Scene

I have been drawing and painting ever since I can remember. I spent most of my formative years on a farm in rural Pennsylvania. Expressing my feelings about nature with pencil and paint came second nature to me. I would even sketch my father's friends when he would be playing cards. It was not until I was in 9th grade and learning structured art techniques under the guidance of my art teacher Andrew Palencar in 1961 that I discovered that my mother had a fine ability to draw, although my dad discouraged her from self expression. Her uncle Steve also drew and wrote books. I guess that this is where most of my creative spirit sprang from.

Andy Palencar started teaching me old master techniques, I was especially drawn to glazing. It was after I had been in the military for several months during the Vietnam conflict when I found out that one of my teachers had come to our house with the offer of a college scholarship in Architecture. It took me 12 years before I was finally able to return to school and work towards a degree in commercial art. During those 12 years I had traveled far and wide with the US Navy, went to many Navy schools and visited several countries. I kept drawing and painting in my spare time and did paintings for friends in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam as well as my fellow sailors and units. I visited many museums, read lots of books on art and it was a Navy friend, John Beckvermit, who gave me a copy of a book on egg tempera in 1982. I had dabbled in the medium before that but it was through reading this book, The Practice of Tempera Painting by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr., that I came to begin to understand the value and technique of working with egg tempera.

After 1982 my interest in this medium became intense and I worked with it every chance I could. I've painted on many surfaces including masonite, Strathmore illustration board, 300# watercolor paper in cold press and hot press, but m ost of my panels are prepared on cabinet grade birch plywood. I use rabbit skin glue for the sealer, tradition glue gesso for the white ground, and if the panel is thin, I will cradle the back. I have posted a detail of my preparation and working technique on my web site, http://www.petermuzyka.com.

I'll detail more of what and why I paint in future blog posts.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Pete

Painting in egg tempera

Hello
I paint mostly in the medium of egg tempera. It is an ancient technique using egg yoke and pigment over an ink drawing on an absorbent ground. Because of the brittle nature of the final dried painting, the work is painted on a solid support such as a wood panel. I've been painting in this medium for over 30 years and have developed my own technique of handling the medium. I also have successfully painted with the egg mixture on archival watercolor paper. As I post future blogs, I will outline my technique for painting in this fascinating medium and why I feel that it is well worth exploring for many of today's artists. In the meantime, please visit my website at www.petermuzyka.com to see some of my work, read my philosophy on painting the vanishing rural American landscape, and view some of my other works in oils, pen and ink, etc.