Hi Friends,

Over the years I have visited with many artists about how they got into the business of art. Some have done nothing else but create art and do it full time, others reached a certain point in their lives where they were able to make the transition from a "real job" to art and a livable wage.

However they got to the point of creation, it has been right for them and they pursue it as the fountain of life.

What would you be doing without art in your life? Could you survive? How well?

For me, I raised a family, mostly on my own, and designed electrical substations for a living. An odd undertaking for someone that knew she would be an artist from the time a pencil was first grasped in very small hands. But a practical solution to the huge undertaking of raising a family.

Now as a person of, ahem, a certain age I realize everything that has gone before has led me to this world of total immersion in creation.

If there could be a perfect world without art, what would you have become? I always thought being a zoo veterinarian would rank right up there for me. Now, I'm not sure who I am without creating art. Creating goes back in my family for generations. Is it just because I was around it that I picked it up? I don't believe that to be true, but rather part of my DNA. I could deny the pull to create, but it is still there.

I have read books stating that art is not who you are. Do you think this is true?

Keep Coloring Outside the Lines,
Sandra

Hi Friends,

Where to begin......this has been a bizarre time in the art world here in the Northwest. A major cornerstone show in the western states is now toast. The auction that mostly was the main event in this venerable old show is history and looks like the display part of the show will not survive either. I'm purposely not mentioning the name just yet, but believe me, when word gets out to the public, it will be greeted with a great deal of surprise.

Another long running, main event show is on the verge of collapse....also un-named at this time, but will be greatly missed by public and artists. Both shows can blame the economy, which did play a part, but mismanagement is also a factor. Neither realized that dinosaur attitudes mixed with a dose of above-it-all arrogance is not enough to keep even long established shows afloat anymore.

And that, in a snapshot, is what is happening here in this corner of the world. Reports from many other good artists are attesting to larger crowds at the outdoor festivals, but sales are still not there in any kind of breathtaking quantities.

My Scratchboard Etching workshops have proven to be a hard sell to the public that has very little familiarity with this type of art. In a curious turn of events, I am finding that booking private students may work much more to my advantage. I can hold the workshop in my own home with one or two people at a time and tailor the lesson to either the scratchboard instructions I already have or custom prepare a lesson in a subject requested by the student. Yes, it means more work for me (and I have to be on my toes to keep ahead of my students), but I can see this developing into something that apparently is filling a need. And I don't have to travel!!!

The last few months has been like walking into a major tornado......some of the old ideas have been blown out of the water. Perhaps I'm approaching the eye of the storm, but I know there will be many more changes still ahead. I've always been a proponent of thinking outside the box, but lately I don't know even where the box is.......I do know this doesn't look like Kansas anymore.

It's an exciting time in the art world!

Keep coloring outside the lines,
Sandra

Hi Friends,

In the last few months, the trying out of several shows new to me here in the Northwest has met with notably less than success. It's been awhile since I have found myself in that position, and it's always a humbling experience. Two almost in a row is downright painful. But the worst of the back to back weekends are behind me now.

So now that the schedule has some breathing room in it, instead of the frantic, driving for miles, lunatic pace that it has been lately, I find myself in a major letdown......you know, sort of the depression after a really great party. Even if this party  hasn't been all that great, at least it's been interesting.

Oh, I won't be wasting away with nothing to do.....it's just going to take some analyzing to sort through the good, the bad and the ugly. There are still Wildlife and Western shows, Wildlife Scratchboard Etching workshops, private students, commission work and producing new art pieces that will take up any slack time. And not forgetting doing up some brochures or other reach-out-and-touch-someone-reminders-that-I'm-still-alive mailers, too.

The latest in the auto memorabilia works is this little beauty......

"Hell" (c)        8x10"          Scratchboard Etching

The product of a warped imagination, the title for this one fairly leaped at me while viewing the photo. The destruction of this vintage racing Porsche came about when it hit the tire safety wall at 100+ miles per hour.

A project on the board right now is a book of Wildlife in Scratchboard Etchings. The book will be an art book loaded with images and a few stories about some of the animals in it, all at a very affordable price for gift giving to the animal and/or art lovers on your holiday shopping list. (Technically I didn't mention the C word yet.) It will be available later this summer.

Happy Summer to you all....keep coloring outside the lines,

Sandra

Hi Friends,

With the visit of my oldest daughter and one-year-old grandson, a day of shopping had to be fortified with a meal break. Instead of a fast food place, we opted for a sit-down restaurant....the first such visit for the person that is one.

As we arranged ourselves at the table, a small array of coloring crayons and a place mat meant for coloring were brought to the table. I'm always on the lookout for any grandchild that may show a glimmer of artistic inclination, so I offered small child the crayons. He's a good-natured, sunny type, but was watching the demonstration of applying crayons to paper with great seriousness.

Demonstration done, I arranged the crayons in front of him, red, blue and yellow in a neat row and waited for my little artist-in-the-making to make his choice. He carefully made his choice....the blue one......and ate it.

Then proceeded to make some marks with the remaining red and yellow crayons, on his napkins. Being the eternal optimist, I'm hoping this means that he is a free thinker that already has the idea of coloring outside the lines. Maybe that's easier when you've never learned to color inside them in the first place.

A new piece has arrived on my easel.....seemingly created by a mind that wasn't paying attention to what I thought my art was supposed to be. Landscapes in oil and wildlife in scratchboard etchings has been my main focus, but taking a left turn somewhere has produced this.......


"Nevermore"   10x8"   scratchboard etching

I found this intriguing enough that more of this rusty, dusty kind of art will be done.....much of it in an automotive vein. Haven't the faintest clue why I think this is a good idea.....this wasn't an idea so much as it was a happening. I think I will follow along and see where it goes.

I wish for you a day with a few surprises......go ahead, eat the blue crayons and color outside the lines.
All my best,
Sandra

Hi Friends,

After the show in Burns, Oregon last week I went home the long way......actually headed nearly the opposite direction from where home lies over the mountains to the north.

With artist friends in Idaho and being somewhat less than a couple hundred miles from them, it just seemed perfect to go visit. After a couple days the weather cleared enough to consider a trip into the Snake River Canyon country.

Now, there are some really big rocks in that wild river canyon and mostly seem to be vertical. More than just the rattlesnakes that you get used to watching that you don't step on in this country, what I found was a place full of riches....a wildlife watchers paradise.

In a rare day that was warm and no wind at all, the surface of the Snake River was glass in many places, while many varieties of ducks, geese and other birds formed the only ripples in that perfect surface.

All of us on this adventure had brought along binoculars and they were needed to spot the big wild goats. Even though they are white against dark cliffs, it's extremely difficult to see them all. Once you get practiced up...get your goat eyes on.....it was apparent that the place was crawling with them. Mountain Sheep inhabit this formidable country too, along with Mule Deer, while up some of the side canyons can be found Pronghorn Antelope and Rocky Mountain Elk and turkeys.


Snake River Canyon....at the end of the road.....

The photos I have of the river with it's reflections will turn into paintings with a very surreal, almost abstract feeling to them. It was truly hard to tell what was "real" and what was a mirror image.

It was a memorable trip......I look forward to putting some of that feeling into new paintings.......and to going back.

Take care and Color Outside the Lines,
Sandra

Hi Friends,

Coming home from a show that was less than monetarily successful is always a traumatic experience.......alright that's a little bit like it came from a drama queen. Anyone that knows me, knows I'm in this for the extreme long haul. So even though I have the usual artist's passionate ups and downs (sometimes by the minute), I'm also well acquainted with the realities of this business, and many times it doesn't follow "the plan".

So let me tell you what did happen at this show.

It was in the southern Oregon desert country in the small town of Burns. Now I knew I would like the people....they are as country raised as I was, and most country people share a common bond. Not to say I don't like city people....I do.....I clean up pretty well and know how to relate to most anyone no matter where I find them in the city.

Anyway, the people that came to see the show were great even though not spending a lot of money.

But the artists from the Burns area were in a class unto themselves. Imagine walking into a room full of friends that enclose you in a group hug, and that will give you some idea of what I experienced there.

The outcome of all this group hugging was a Scratchboard workshop opportunity for me to teach there and in a town about a 100 miles north. This amazing, enthusiastic group picked up the idea and ran with it.......the Burns workshop is almost filled already.......perhaps the John Day workshop will follow.

So was this show a disaster? A show is only a disaster if you allow it to be. Talk to people....make contacts....network with other artists........don't allow the opportunities to slip away.

I hope I can give back to them something that will be of use.

So, my advice is keep the sunny side up even when the smile seems a little forced at times.....it only takes a few seconds for that smile to become truly sincere once again.

More on this trip next week..........

Keep Coloring Outside the Lines,
Sandra

(p.s. To see details about the Scratchboard workshops, click "Workshops" to the right of this screen.

Hi Friends,

As I'm off on another road trip, I wanted to ask you a question that has been on my mind and discussed with various others many times.

If somehow you were to awaken one day with total amnesia, would your artist's soul still be there? If everything you have learned along the way with your art is just that.....learned, would it still be there somewhere, or would you truly not have any recollection of it?

As time went on, would you be moved to pick up that paintbrush, pencil or whatever and create, or is that truly lost? What keeps you creating? What got you started in the first place? Were you born knowing it was your calling?

Would you then become an Accountant? Police Officer? Taxi driver? Engineer?  Fan dancer? (Some of us have already done some of those things. No, it wasn't fan dancing.) What do you think you would do?

Talk to you all next week,
Sandra

Hi Friends,

With total determination my artwork has maintained it's number one position of importance in my life. At what point does it become an obsession?

Do you focus so completely on something that life seems to be in the way? After this last successful art show, life seems to have run over me like a truck. Now mind you, these aren't earth shaking, huge problems......just things I don't want to deal with right now.

Number one on the list has been a sick cat. With a really terrific vet cheering me on, I have the cat at home, doing an IV four times a day, a catheter that has to be removed tomorrow (believe me, I didn't want to get that acquainted with my male cat), and 3 different kinds of medications that apparently taste vile as I end up wearing quite a bit at each session.

He's now getting well and faster with each treatment.......and I'm determined he will get all of them since the vet bill was still pretty sizable. Reminder's that he lives only because I allow it seem to be falling on furry little deaf ears.

This new little painting is something I focus on and always brings happy thoughts of summer skies, and the John Scharff Bird Festival show coming up in Burns, Oregon next week instead of some of my more usual wildlife and western shows. With a detour into Idaho on the way home to photograph scenery for upcoming landscape paintings and to visit artist friends, this road trip will have it all.

"Blue of the Sky"    oil    10x8"    $300

With the Mountain Bluebirds, Goldfinches and Rosy Finches now in nesting mode it seems like such a glorious time of Spring, and between snow showers, such a promise of the hot summer to come here in the Oregon desert.

I hope your days are filled with blue skies too......
from Sandra (and her wretched, ungrateful cat)

Hi Friends,

As I will be at the Western Heritage Art Show in Great Falls, Montana for awhile and miss the next blog post time, I wanted to share something with you that I found completely fascinating.

This observation and photo were sent to me by a friend in China:

Check out the attached picture. Notice these two guys on the tallest part of the building way up towards the top of the split towers to the left.

No safety harness. A single strand of cotton rope (not a stronger hemp or synthetic). Their "seats" are hunks of old wood just notched on the ends for the rope. There is a rope-brake sort of thing at the top, but once they start, they "hand-over-hand" and paint their way up from the bottom, get to the top, release the brake, and "hand-over-hand" back to the bottom without touching the wall.

Oh......and for painting equipment they have a roller and bucket of paint.


Just stop and think about the scope of this job.....not to mention the threat of imminent death.

Makes going to the easel to paint every day seem like a bubble bath.

Thank you for stopping by.......
Sandra

Hi Friends,

Courage is all around us. Each day I see something in a new and different way and realize that courage isn't always the hero act of saving someone from a burning building, but shows up in small ways, too.

Hi Friends,

So many of us in the part of the art world that I inhabit have discussed at length the economy and what that's doing to art prices. For some, art sales have taken a pretty good downturn, while for others it has remained constant or even gotten better.

I'm relatively minutes old in the world of full-time artists, but I have put a theory into practice. Diversify.
This idea is based on successful markets across the globe. Will it work? The question that comes instantly to my mind is "Why not"?  Diversify ideas, diversify products. Diversify your marketing.

While I will continue to do the art that I know sells, I will also strive to find new and fresh ideas. One new way of thinking was to completely abandon the website I had been using and set up a fresh new one on FineArtStudioOnline, the artist's site by Clint Watson. Check it out if you are thinking of an art web site.
A couple of the things I'm doing differently are writing a weekly  newsletter and blog, and there is a "contact the artist" link on every page of my website. It has proven to be invaluable.

Another idea that works well for me is to do art that is backed by a passion. This sounds like a "well, duh" statement, but not every artist I know paints with that connection to their art.

My life force from childhood is wildlife.....the force behind my artistic passion is the Rowena Wildlife Clinic in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. Having been adopted as the "resident artist," I am allowed to go into the flight cages with the eagles, hawks, falcons and many other birds, and be around the animals that are in for rehabilitation after injuries sustained in the wild.

My education with the clinic and the up close encounters with these wonderful creatures brings to my art an authentic ring that is hard to attain any other way.

"Bobcat in the Evening Light" 
 
    Scratchboard         12x16"                 $795          

The human connection to wildlife that I want to establish with my art comes from showing viewers the up close details and expressions of these beings that share the same planet.

The scratchboard shown here, "Bobcat in the Evening Light" will be a 100% donation of the selling price to the Clinic from me. Other art pieces designated as "Clinic Wildlife" shown in the Collections on this web site will also have a portion of their selling price donated.

More information about the Clinic can be found at Rowena Wildlife Clinic. Their work is a valuable contribution to the world and a cause I truly believe in.

Keep Coloring Outside the Lines,
Sandra

(p.s. Click here to find my sign up form on Sandra Haynes Fine Art  for my weekly  "Letters From Home" newsletter to have it delivered to your in-box.  More thoughts and news from the studio. Thank you for your continued support. I'm grateful.  S.)

Coloring Outside the Lines. Where my heart has always been, and now where my life follows.

First, let me introduce myself......my name is Sandra Haynes.
After recently cutting all ties with anything resembling a traditional job, the fires have been lit under my office-chair sitting behind and I now have joined the ranks of full-time professional artists.
Not a decision to be taken lightly, but at what point do you know something is the right path for you even though you can still hear the echo of a collective gasp from friends and family when you announce that you've taken leave of your senses?

When do you know the time is right?

This and many other subjects will be explored.......at times I would like to introduce you to the incredibly talented people that I count among my artist friends, and sometimes you will meet the wildlife, from up-close encounters, that become my subjects.

I will write about some of the hidden landscapes that I seek out......and offer an explanation to what draws me to the scene, and how it becomes a painting.
Words of encouragement to artists beginning their journey, or stuck somewhere along the way. Articles from creative souls that have already walked through the fire ahead of me, and quotes from our ancient past that still hold meaning for us now.

Whether you are already Coloring Outside the Lines or would like to come along as a friend and observer to this artist's weird and wonderful journey, I look forward to getting to know you all.