Calendars and DVD's

I finally got a chance to see my instructional DVD that Bella Muse Productions - Elizabeth Robbins, produced!  I am so happy with the final results.  Liz and Darin did such a great job editing it and assembling the clips.  There is so much information about composition and design, sometimes I didn't even remember saying it!  The DVD takes you from the very beginning, the concept and tools through to the final signature and frame.  I've already got ideas for the second one!
Also, the calendars for 2016 have been ordered.  For a limited time they are $15.95 each and after December they will be $19.95.  I think this is my favorite group of paintings so far.  This last year has really been about drama, contrast and emotion.  The paintings are highly saturated with tons of color, most of them low key and bold.  This coming year will be more high key and delicate work - I think :)!
Let me know if you would like either the DVD or the calendar!  Call me at 801-389-2369 or go on my website to the paypal button and order.  Thank you for all of your support this year!
Shanna
shannakunz.com
shankunz@gmail.com

First Instructional DVD - Sublime

I've finally done it!  I was filmed for an instruction DVD showing my process of composing a landscape.  The painting is called Sublime.  The DVD is two hours and will be ready for Thanksgiving.  There will be a special pre-order price advertised soon and I will post the link to purchase it as soon as possible!

http://shannakunz.com/page/7730/the-art-of-landscape-painting-instructional-dvd

Business Classes - The Next Level!

Every once in awhile, I offer a business class to my students.  This class involves making their art statements and resume, putting a portfolio together with a cohesive body of work, discussing every avenue of art sales and career direction I have in my knowledge bank of 26 years of painting, marketing and social media plus all the insider info from frames to panels and tools of the trade.  I have done this workshop about three times and every time I hear that it was the most useful and informational class they have taken so far to get going in the (their) right direction!  It is individually geared to each person according to their style, their needs and what they truly want to get out of it.  I put my heart and soul into each person and do my very best to meet their unique needs.  The last time I posted the workshop, I had plenty of people that wanted to take the class but their schedules were full and we could not come up with dates that worked for all (including me).  Instead, I committed to a few personal sessions either in the office or via skype.  I do believe my consulting business has begun!

I am going to offer 2 one hour sessions, plus a portfolio review for an introductory kick-off price of $150 - PLUS $25 off if you sign up for my email newsletter!  If two or more schedule for the same session, the price will be adjusted accordingly.

Covered in the class:

Artist Statement/Resume - How to get the attention of your audience
Portfolios - How to put together a cohesive body of work
Marketing - Website, social media, advertising, client development, printing options
Invited Shows, Juried Shows - The best shows and the best way to get in
Which path should I choose - shows, galleries, self promotion?  All of the above?
Photography and software choices
Critiques if requested
Any other information stored in this brain of mine over the last 26 years!  I am an open book.  I have been down almost every imaginable path to build my career.  I would LOVE to share with like-minded people that are passionate about their art and want the world to see it, and be able to continue to do it at the next level!

Call or email me at shankunz@gmail.com, 801-389-2369 if you are interested or want to know more information.  Please leave a message if I can't answer and I will get back with you as quickly as possible.  And check out my website at shannakunz.com if you get a minute to see where my heart is.  If you like it and you like the idea, let's get started!

Shanna

http://shannakunz.com/event/72204/business-workshop-the-next-level


By the way, I love love love fall and fall colors!  Check out my newest piece - I have a crush on it (for now) and hope to do many more in this series.  I hope you LOVE to do what you do as much as I do!

Reviews:

Shanna has been my mentor since I first had the notion, “I think I want to paint”.  At that time, I had no idea that, under her tutelage, I would develop a hidden talent and ultimately take on an entirely new career.   That career is developing now, but the business of art is much more than hoping someone will magically show up and fall in love with your work.  Shanna has worked and succeeded as a professional artist during economic ups and downs over decades.  Her knowledge and experience are formidable, but like her landscapes, her nature is generous and her sensibilities down-to-earth.   Yes, she will instruct, and encourage, and occasionally critique, but equally important, model what it means to be a professional artist.  

Collin Noortmann Chandler

Fine Art

801-645-7304

collin@cnchandler.com

cnchandler.com

Finally finished???

Sometimes it just takes awhile....

A Walking Path, 12x16 oil on linen

Business Workshop announced!

Two Day Business Workshop, September 25-26th, 10-4 pm, $120

www.shannakunz.com

A Lazy Day

It's Sunday, August something..., my brain is so worn out I can't remember the date.  I think it is time to slow it down a bit.  Since my last post in February I have had a show in Great Falls in March, one in St. George in April, one in Maynard Dixon Campout in May, one in Bozeman in July, one in Sun Valley in August, one in Eden in August and three more to come before the end of the year.  Add to that the running a gallery, planning shows, playing with grandkids, the roller coaster of life and you probably can imagine why my brain is worn out.  And yes, I still LOVE what I do!

My favorite cap these days is that of Grandma.  Aspen and Jack are my youngest babies.  Seems like they might be the only thing that stops me from working these days, a time to stop and smell the roses.  I love my babies SO much!  You know, I really always imagined I would be more "settled" by the time I had grandkids.  I thought life would be slower, more predictable.  I think I am working harder than ever before, doing my best to balance life and art, when actually there is no balance between the two.  They are both full time, entwined together with experiences of joy and sadness, optimism and disappointments, abundance and financial stresses all together.  Life is how you look at it, a choice of interpretation.  And no matter what your successes, there is always more to do.  The better artist one becomes, the harder it is to achieve those successes.  Naivete propels us to the place we need to be to truly understand what comes next.  Have you ever wondered what it would be like to not think and feel so much?  To be pleased with all you do?  To take life's gifts for granted and not ask why or how?  Yeah, me neither!

Back to paintings....  Here are my favorite pieces from the show at the Kneeland Gallery.  I think one might understand my introspection of late by looking at this latest work.  A little dark,  a lot moody and always looking for more.  Maybe my next series will be that of "lightening up a bit"!  Drop me your thoughts if you have a few extra minutes in your day.  I would love some feedback as I have lost some of my objectivity with this series.  The forest from the trees kind of thing :)

Harmony of Light and Shadow, oil on linen panel

I've been working on some "study to studio" pieces of late.  Sometimes the studies are finished works and sometimes they are just that - studies.  The larger formats can be the same or different.  I try to take the things that work in the smaller work and make them work in the larger piece.  There are times it works and times it doesn't.  Scale is a strange thing.  A composition on a smaller scale might be predictable and ordinary on a larger scale.  Often the feeling of a larger piece must accompany a different size format.  Here is one I just finished:

This is a 14x18.  I very much consider it a finished piece.  I love it's freshness.  It has a rougher, less finished look, but the light and contrast really felt honest to me.  Sometimes that unfinished more spontaneous look works better than the more finished look and sometimes vice versa.  I like to think they each have their own distinct personalities and one is not better than the other - just different - kind of like our kids :) 

This is 22x40, a commissioned work for a great client.   I've used the same lighting in this piece, but it is all a little more honed in and more polished because of it's size.  I like the different format to extend the water, making it a little more dramatic.  There was certainly more space to develop the land masses more and the sky drama more effectively.  

Stay tuned for another example from my demo last weekend.  I'm working on it right now.....

I LOVE Winter Work!

I do, I really do.  I love the Twachtman winter pieces, Whistler pieces, Willard Metcalf, etc. etc.  They are so difficult, so subtle, so thoughtout.  I am drawn to the high key work of winter time after time and I absolutely love to paint it.  The rest of the world liking it - not so much.  I can't tell you how many times I have been told that "winter doesn't sell", it's too cold, noone wants to look at snow year round.  Am I just strange?  I love it for art's sake, not for weather's sake, though I really don't mind it then either.  The funny thing is - it always sells for me.  Maybe it takes a little longer than Autumn pieces but generally not.  So I will paint them anyway just for me and maybe someone with a strange sense of beautiful like me!

Working habits

I have noticed a pattern after all these years (yes, I'm slow at picking these things up) of deadlines and downtimes.  I have a really important show or shows, I work for a few months committed, putting in tons of time, energy, research, work, etc.  The work is finally delivered, the reception has passed and I'm back in the studio.  For almost two weeks I go to the easel and I simply cannot paint.  CANNOT PAINT - WILL NOT paint LOL!  I get sick to my stomach when I think about it.  I have to take time off.  I have to get in my left brain and catch up or do absolutely nothing.  It's a very physical thing.  I just can't do it.  I have tried so many times to work through this to no avail.  Then slowly, I start mentally creating my next body of work.  I draw some thumbnails, make some new compositions out of my photography and studies, start to prepare.  I always have a new piece in mind with a freshly mounted linen panel staring at me.  Here I go, 1, 2, 3 GO....  No, really, here we go....   New piece coming.....really.....

Not so fast.  Panel comes off the easel.  Every time!  I look around and some other piece of older work is screaming at me "pick me, pick me".  Ok, just one more thing to change.  I'll just rework a part of it.  Before you know it, I have completely reworked an older painting.  Never fails, I do this every single time I start a new session.  I have no idea what this is about.  I'm sure there is some psychological reason why I can't begin a new painting after a break, but I can't for the life of me figure it out.  I have to do a search and destroy piece first.  I think this has been going on for ten years now.  And every time it is not intentional.  It just happens.  Well, here it is, happened again and I might not even be ready for a new piece today.  When the mood strikes.....

This is a piece from the Bitterroot Valley, done two years ago.  I always like the painting but I didn't love the painting.  I loved the high key, I loved the peacefulness, but the composition always felt off.  Out goes the right group of trees, create a few more paths through the piece, a little of this and a little less of that.... I think I'm happy now :)  I think....  

Now:  

Then:  

Good Monday Morning!

Tonight I start a six week series of watercolor classes.  It's been awhile since I've pulled out the Arches and I really do miss it.  I always have the intentions of doing a series, but for some very unknown reason, I end up with a large oil on the easel instead.  I have always noticed that my watercolors improve my oils, simply by the reason of a more intentional composition.  The composition in a watercolor must be thought out ahead of time, the palette choices, spacial relationships.  Yes, you can lift color back out, but painting back over for a light value plane isn't an option so you slow down and think.  And plan.  And think.  And draw.  And then let the spontaneous quality of the watercolor happen.  I'm always excited to see a group of new students fall in love - just like I did 23 years ago.  And I still fall in love when I pull them out again!

Happy New Year! Welcome 2015!

I have had my blog quite messed up, so I'm kind of starting over.  I'm going to use my blog this year as more of a journal of an artists life, rather than a promotional tool.  I will post new paintings, but hopefully it will be more personal - the where and the why's - than it has been.  There are always trials and tribulations in this world of art.  We put on our best face and show the world the positive and confident side, but there are tough times as well as the amazing ones.  We are sensitive beings, we are for the most part quite spiritual in our own individual ways, and our outside life gives meaning to our artistic life.  Maybe this is more for me to get that out than to have an audience, but if another artist can relate to my story and feel a greater sense of community, then all the better for it!  Please feel free to add comments or share your ideas!  And here we go, my favorite painting of last year...

The reason this was my favorite painting of the year was a few different ones.  First and foremost, Marco and I took a trip to Bozeman, MT and it was a very special trip.  It has been a long time since we have been on the road together.  Marco has been sick a lot lately and struggling a bit.  This was the two of us together, looking at the beautiful world again and enjoying our private time together.  I truly didn't know what the next day or days would bring so I was living in the moment in every sense.  This is also such a beautiful place, the headwaters of the Gallatin River, just outside of Yellowstone National Park, one of the most beautiful places in the West, and we arrived just as the moon was rising and the light was racing across the distant valley just about to disappear.  It was just an amazing moment!  The last reason for this being a favorite was I believe it was a turning point in my abilities and vision, exceeding my expectations and surprising me with the results.  And of course, it found a home the first night it was presented and that is always a good thing!