End of Year

So I bit the bullet and signed up for a year with Artwork Archive at the apprentice level. This gives me room for 100 pieces in my online inventory - and I've already put 17 pieces there during the free trial LOL. I can always upgrade as needed but for right now this suits me just fine.

I want to add some notes to remind myself of things to do in the New Year as well - ie like start a new instagram feed in my own name, likely slangdonart. I don't foresee myself being a big user of ig but can't fail to recognize its value for getting work out there and known. I can envision taking one day a week to update my inventory, ig, this blog. I just don't want to become a slave to social media and have it cutting into my creative time to explore my art world. 

End of year is always a slow time creatively for me as the holidays pull focus but I do want to include some pieces that I have been working on recently. Besides two posts in a row without images is just one too many LOL.

Up first is my attempt to abstract the landscape from our much beloved family farm. I opted to use a very limited and muted colour palette. It's now at the rest and reassess stage. I will come back to it in the new year and see if it tells me what it needs to be completed.  

These next two are experiments with collaging some of my used palette papers onto 6 x 6 cradled wood panels. After sealing the panels I primed the natural wood with clear gesso so the colour of the wood shows through the open areas of the paper. Quite happy with the results and will definitely do this again.

Archiving

The amount of work I'm producing, whether good bad or indifferent, is now starting to pile up. Each time I do a studio clean up I come across pieces that I've completely forgotten about which is often a pleasant surprise. But the time has come to start keeping an inventory of just what I have and where it currently lives.

This subject has been discussed on Art Tribe and the Virgo in me liked the idea of an organization system but which one would suit me best. An excel spreadsheet seemed too clinical for me and a lot of hunting and pecking to figure it out so I decided to investigate some online options. 

After researching a few I signed up for the 30 day free trial at Artwork Archive and I have to say I'm sold. I still have a couple of weeks left to try it out but I'm pretty pleased with how intuitive it is. Plus being a visual person and learner it suits me. I love having the images included with the info. The location info is handy as well now that I have a few pieces installed elsewhere for the moment. And it lets me easily track what I've submitted where, what's been gifted and what's been sold. It also makes sense to do this at or close to the beginning rather than months down the road. Since building a website is one of my goals for 2022, having an organized inventory can only help with that process.