Why the high cost of paints doesn't matter

This morning, I did my quick sneaky perusal of Facebook to see how much greater my family's and friends' lives are than mine, and I came across a post that made me think a lot about why I paint.  It was a photo of a few tubes of paint, and the poster was complaining about their price, which paint prices can be quite steep.  I almost never comment on Facebook, but this time I had to say a little something.  I said something along the lines of "Think of all the wonderful paintings you can do with these tubes of paint; then they don't seem so expensive."  That made me think about why I paint at all.  There are many other "careers" I could still have, but I'm somehow driven to paint.  And the cost of the materials is relatively irrelevant.

Well, I still don't know why I paint exactly, but I can give a bit of insight into it.  I paint because I am internally driven to do so.  Maybe there's a kind of personality that causes some people to push themselves to excel at something, not to compete with others but for the sheer satisfaction of knowing they're doing their best.

I have two main activities that I pursue in this way:  One, of course, is painting.  Painting is as necessary to me as eating or breathing.  I don't think I'm a very good painter -- better than many and worse than many, many more -- but I truly don't compare myself to others.  But to myself I'm not good enough yet.  Maybe that's what drives me to keep trying and trying, that I don't think I'm YET a very good painter.  I want to be the best painter that I personally can be, and I think I can be better.

I also have this overwhelming drive to master another language, in my case, French.  Unfortunately, I don't know anybody well who even speaks French, so this pursuit is for the most part unknown to those outside my family -- whom I drive mad with my constantly speaking to them in French.  (I am teaching my little granddaughter to speak French, though!)  But I think the same drive I have to paint is what motivates me to continue to improve my ability to speak French -- even if it's for the most part something I do "in a vacuum."

So, yes, the cost of the paints and all the other materials necessary to create paintings is high, but the personal rewards far outweigh the costs.  Plus, on a more practical note:  A tube of paint can go a long, long way in creating many paintings.

Brown Cashmere Goat Painting

Here's our second cashmere goat that I've painted.  I think she's a beautiful animal, and I really enjoyed painting her -- especially that foreshortened ear above her eye!  That was fun!  Hope you like her.  I've forgotten her name, so I'll add it later.

Due to a lack of interest currently in my goat paintings, I'm going to hold off painting the other, grey, adult goat and get on to some other paintings that I've been getting requests for.

The next one I'll be doing is a painting of a Holstein cow (I'll have to go search for one around here because I don't think there's one in the field across the road) lying in front of the beautiful old barn across the road.  Obviously, I'll have to combine the two of them onto one canvas, which is always a bit difficult for me because I have to get the perspective done perfectly, or it doesn't work.  We'll see . . . .

Another "As Promised." Some Photos of our "Really Old Complex of Buildings we Call Home" now

 This is a shot from the back of the old white farmhouse, with some of the out buildings on the left side, while the photographer is standing in the field behind the buildings.

 This is the small front yard of the farmhouse from the front porch.

This building is what I'm calling my "Ellensburg Blue."  I'll explain:  If you look, you'll notice that this place is really, really in great disrepair! And that's an understatement, too.  This is the second large building on the property, and it was kind of "thrown in," with the likely possibility that it would have to be destroyed.  Well, to us, my artistic family and I, it was studio space, lots and lots and lots of studio space, lots of rooms to explore (it has around 30 rooms in it)..

So back to the "Ellensburg Blue" appellation:  We are just outside the town of Ellensburg, which is the unique home to a beautiful robin's-egg-blue agate.  It's highly sought-after and very difficult to find, but I'm told that if one is very diligent and tenacious and has lots and lots of time to search, one might find an Ellensburg blue agate (aka "Ellensburg blue")  in any of the myriad rocks lying all around this place.  The outside of the rock that houses the agate I hear is quite ordinary, often described as a shriveled up old potato; but when the rock is broken open, the beautiful wonder lies within.

So it's the same with this old brick building:  On the outside, it's not a pretty sight at all, but inside there are beautiful studio rooms to work in and lots of places to explore and someday fix up as the place deserves.



Here's a photo of one I found via Google from around here.  And, also, here's a story about the Ellensburg-blue agate, too, from the Seattle Times newspaper:

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/rockhounds-sniff-out-treasured-ellensburg-agates/

This coming summer, I'll be painting upstairs in an airy, very-well-lighted part of the building that needs a lot of work.  The basic structure of the building is sound (we've had it inspected after purchase), and except for some damage done by rain and snow and human mistreatment over the years, it's in pretty good shape.   Well, it has "good bones" for the most part.  It's going to need a lot of cosmetic work to get it pretty good looking, both inside and out, but it's worth the time and effort -- and cost!!  I have a ceramics shop in one room, and my other family members have several rooms that they've claimed for their studio space.

I'll add a lot more photos later when I have more time, including photos of the insides.  Plus, I'll be sure to include photos of the landscapes around here (breath-taking!) and of the old red barn just across the road (not a part of our property, but it is a part of the original complex of buildings here that go back to from the late 1800's to the very early 1900's.

As Promised, Here's the first of the Cashmere Goat Paintings

Here's "Snowflake."  My granddaughter very aptly named her, I think.  And she's adorable, too, along with the other three:  another white baby, a tan-and-brown one, and a light grey one.

The original acrylic painting is on a 16x20x1/2" stretched canvas, already wired on the back so ready for hanging.

Either the grey or the brown goat will be the next to be painted.  Also, I've come across a beautiful, beautiful Jersey cow, with those enormous, gorgeous eyes, in a field nearby, so I'll be doing a painting of her, too, very soon.

I'm settling in to our new country place, and it feels great to be back painting again.

A new Cow Painting - a Black Angus steer

16x20" Painting of Black Angus Steer

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We're finally settling into our new home, but it's been (and still is) tough -- and ongoing.  I'll talk about that in another post pretty soon.

This is a painting I did of a black Angus cow that I think is a beautiful creature.  Now that I'm living in the country (five minutes from town!), I have cows as neighbors.  This little guy I just fell in love with.  He's very shy, but I have sat outside his field and visited with him enough that he now will come up fairly close to me to graze.  Up until a few days ago, he was in a field all alone.  Now, there are many other cows there with him, so I think he's not so lonely anymore.

The original acrylic 16x20x3/4" stretched canvas painting (along with prints) is available on Etsy; so if you're interested, drop by for a closer look.

How Time Slips Away!

I had no idea how much time has passed since my last post.  I've only done a couple of paintings since that time, too, and I'll post them later.  At this time, I -- and all my family, including spouse, daughter, her husband, and my little granddaughter -- and of course, all of our various pets, including Winry the horse -- are moving!

We have been looking for a forever place for a long time but didn't expect anything just to pop up!  Isn't that the way life often is?  We've been searching all over the entire country - and Europe, too -- for that perfect place.  It turns out that it (Ellensburg, Washington) was just a few hours north of us, smack in the center of the State of Washington!

We -- well, my daughter -- found a perfect old farmhouse on a few acres of land.  Of course, knowing us, it had to be a bit eccentric, so it also has a gigantic old red brick building with a really interesting history.  About a hundred years ago, it was the center of what was euphemistically called a "poor farm," a place where people really, really down on their luck lived (in apartments inside the building) and worked on the adjoining farmland to "earn their keep."  We're still doing research on the place and will do our best to try to preserve it because it, too, has fallen down on its luck over the past few decades.  I'll eventually post photos of it because it's really quite interesting inside.

Llama!!

Llama in Afternoon Sunlight

I just finished this painting today, and I absolutely love it.  I feel I'm finally getting the hang of warm and cool colors -- in their correct places, of course.  This was such a fun painting to do, and I feel s/he came out quite well!  

The acrylic painting is on an 11x14x3/4" stretched canvas.

A Dark Red Cow at Sunset

Sorry, I don't know what breed this cow is.  Perhaps a Salers?  I've titled it "Just before Sunset."  I love the strong contrasts between the sunlit side and the darkly shadowed side.

I painted this cow painting, acrylic, on 11x14 hardboard, using a photo submitted by Gail Klett. Thanks! It was a pleasure to paint it.

Italian Greyhound with Yellow Tennis Ball

This is a little cutie I finished up today.  (I had to take a couple of days off from my grueling landscape work.)  It's an Italian greyhound, I think.  I can't remember exactly as it's from some photos someone submitted to me years ago, and I'm finally getting around to going through some of the photos.

The original acrylic painting is on an 11x14" stretched canvas and will be for sale on Etsy in a day or so.

Several Practice Paintings I've been working on

I'm kind of busy these days not making money but trying to bring my landscape painting skills up to what I consider "good enough to sell."  But I want to keep track of where I've started and where I hope I'll be going, so I'm listing just a few I've done in the past few days.  

Let me say a bit about these little paintings (and they are small, some 8x10, some only around 7 x 8).  I'm painting them within a very strict 15-minute time limit, so I'm really, really having to think before I start, plan what's important, and try to get it down in a fairly believable way that quickly.  I just scanned these little paintings for the sake of saving time in getting them up, and for some reason, they seem just slightly out of focus.  Please, if you have any comments, positive or negative, kindly let me know by commenting.  I would really appreciate any feedback I can get.  My family are the only ones who have seen them so far, and they are a bit blind to my faults!

Bathing bird, 15 minutes about 6x6"

Bull Run River study, about 6 x 8"

Langeland, Denmark, Beach with Vacation House,  8x10" This painting is the only time exception:  I couldn't get enough info in within 15 minutes, so I took 25 on this one.

Bird sitting on Twig, in Sunlight, around 5x6"

A Revisit to a Painting I did a Few Years Ago

Guernsey Cow Painting on Teal/Turquoise Background.

This painting is prettier in person, and I'll try to get better photos of her in a few days from now.  It's a 16x20x3/4" acrylic painting on stretched canvas, no staples on the sides, and is wired and ready to frame or hang as is.

The earlier painting I did was similar to this one, but it was on a smaller sized canvas.  I've had many requests to do a painting again from the same photos I used for the first one, so here it is -- at last.

A Rough-Coated Collie Painting just finished

I just finished this painting a couple of days ago.  It's a beautiful tri-colored rough-coated collie, and the original, an 11x14x3/4" acrylic painting on stretched canvas, is still available.

Also, the original of the cav that I listed yesterday is available, too, and it's the same size as this painting.  Both are in my Etsy shop, along with prints.

Lately, I have been given a fairly large number of photos from a loyal customer, and I plan to paint as many as I can after the holidays.  Many of them are some of the most adorable goats I have ever seen.  I can't wait to get started!  But my family members come first during this holiday season.

We celebrated the fifth birthday yesterday, in fact, of my little precious granddaughter (my only grandchild!), and we did it in as grand a birthday style as we possibly could because, being a close-to-Christmas birthday person, her birthday often gets passed over in all the busy-ness of the holiday season.  Oh, and a happy birthday on the same day to her Aunt Eileen, too!

A new Cavalier King Charles spaniel painting

This is a tricolored cavalier King Charles spaniel painting I finished recently.  I'm quite happy with it -- another painting I've done fairly recently that makes me happy.  Sometimes for me painting is such a struggle, and sometimes, such as lately, it's become a pleasure.  I wish the pleasurable days outnumbered the difficult ones!

I have a problem with a photo thief

Not my typical blog post, obviously, but I feel I need to warn people and to vent a little bit.  From time to time, I search my name on Google; just curiosity, just to see if I'm even a bit relevant in the big wide cyber world -- and I'm usually kind of okay with my level of relevancy.  However, I did such a search a few days ago and was upset at what I found:  Several pages into my "Dottie Dracos" search was a site that said something about Dottie Dracos Art, and I knew it wasn't someplace I had listed any of my work.  So I clicked on the site, and there were what appeared to be listings of my work.  I clicked on one of my photos of MY artwork, and I was taken to some pornographic images and videos.  I am appalled!

I did a little research online; and from what I can learn, there's probably nothing I can do to stop this outright theft -- and embarrassing theft at that!!  I do not support pornography in any sense at all.  I find it reprehensible on so many levels that it would take me weeks to even begin to scratch the surface of my loathing for such despicable exploitation of all that is (or ought to be) decent in this world.

I generally just create my posts of my artwork and move on to my next painting and hope that from time to time, someone will be interested in some of my artwork and buy a painting or a print.  But this time, I'm asking if any of you who read my blog if you know of anything I can do to stop these people (and I realize it's probably nothing I can do); or if I can't stop them, things I can do -- or stop doing -- to prevent their stealing and illegally using my images.  Is it because I post my images on this blog, on Pinterest, on Twitter, sometimes on Facebook?  How about my posting my artwork for sale in such places as Etsy and Fine Art America, where they're supposedly safe?  And I store my artwork in cloud accounts; can it be stolen from those, even though they're supposedly for my eyes and use only??

I know -- because I've tried it -- that one can steal the small files I upload to, say, Etsy, etc., but I thought my large images were safe.  And maybe that's what these people used, were the small images that anyone low enough to want to steal my artwork could easily take.  And I think the photos I saw on this site were this smallish size, by the way, although I didn't do any thorough checking to see.  

So if you have any advice on what I might do, please let me know.  And, please, if you're trying to sell me something to stop the theft/piracy/whatever-it's-called, don't bother writing.

An absolutely beautiful Holstein cow painting I just finished

Holstein Cow Lying in Field Original Acrylic Painting 16x20x0.75"

I have been working on this girl fairly steadily - and lovingly for a change - since I was in France, where I roughed her in.  But today, I finally finished her.  She was such a great pleasure to paint; every paint stroke was well thought out and deliberate.  I am quite proud of her and hope I can continue to work in such a comfortable and relaxed manner.  (Well, I can't call this painting "work." It was too much fun.)

Hope you like her.  I'm still on a farm animal kick, so I'll be adding even more new paintings over the next couple of months.

And I also let in a couple of custom paintings to regular, long-term customers, so I'll be showing those, too, in the next few weeks.