In the meantime…Let’s Catch Up!
Grand Opening Ceremony
The Artist Cove studio.gallery
It has been a long time since I’ve posted in my blog and so much has happened! Since I’ve written, I opened an Art Gallery and Studio in downtown Panama City, called The Artist Cove studio.gallery. It took quite of work getting that business set up and opened. The space was awesome. It was a large enough that I was able to set up working studios for 12 artists, as well as have enough gallery space to hang over 300 paintings. I also hosted many workshops, had monthly Opening Shows, had an ArtWalk, and lots of opportunities for our community to enjoy art. Because I basically became a Gallerist, I was not able to paint as often as I would have liked. So, for about two years, I was in the art business, therefore I was not improving my practice of painting. The gallery was very successful and I loved every minute of that experience.
Then everything changed in our town in October 2018. We were hit by a Category 5 Hurricane, named Michael. It destroyed our town. The gallery was destroyed as well as our home. Most of our businesses, churches, schools, and living places were all destroyed. We lived in an RV for 18 months while rebuilding our home, as did many residents here. My landlord for the gallery was not able to rebuild as he had multiple properties that needed rebuilding. It was so hard to find construction workers. We all struggled for 2-3 years trying to get back to ‘normal.
During this time, I was not painting. When we rebuilt our home, I built a home studio and finally started painting again. Then COVID was upon us. Since we were stuck at home, I started taking online art workshops offered by Winslow Art Center, Cold Wax Academy, Larry Moore, Kathy Odom, Michelle Dunaway, Tina Garrett, Susan Woolgar, Melinda Cootsona and Christine LaFluente. My goal was to get my skills back up and try some new techniques.
I started using Cold Wax with my oils, I gave acrylics another try and added some mixed media. I took some abstract courses, started abstracting my landscapes, and doing some non-representational abstracts. I added some portrait classes and enjoyed these as well. My paintings were stacking up.
I needed to get my work “out there,” so I started posting more on Instagram and started entering shows. I won a First and Second Place award for my landscapes in one show! I started selling my work again.
At this point I was painting daily. I would come up to my studio every morning with my coffee and plan my day. Since I now painted in layers, I had lots of pieces in different stages, which makes it easier to paint every day. And I can stay up here for hours and hours and hours.
I have bit the bullet and I am now working on setting up a website. What a daunting task!! I tried to do this on my own, but I just don’t understand all the codes and lingo. So I hired a website designer, Mariana Durst, and we are presently working on that huge task.
I hope to launch it in late September.
In the meantime, I am collecting all my data, professionally photographing and scanning all my work, naming everything, getting work framed, and entering all of this on my site. Hopefully this will be behind me soon and I can get back to painting!
I now have you caught up. The last four years have surely tested me, but I survived and found many blessings along the way.
I sure hope you enjoyed my blog, and I thank you so much for reading it. Hope to see you soon on my website! And follow me on Instagram, as I will be posting new works there as well.
I sure hope you will follow my exciting journey by signing up for my newsletter.
