Forty eight. It may be December now, but out of curiosity, I just had to go back to last month and add up the total amount of paintings I finished in November of 2013. Forty eight paintings ranging in size from a mere 4"w x 4"h to a whopping 60"w x 48"h. My favorite artist, Vincent Van Gogh, painted 900 paintings in his lifetime. If I kept up this pace, I'd create 5,760 paintings in ten years, the amount of time my painting hero Van Gogh worked. I'm not trying to boast or compare myself to anyone, I'm thinking about how fast I'm working and how to make a living as an artist. Van Gogh sold only one painting in his life,
Red Vineyard at Arles, which now resides in Moscow. I often wonder after a slow month of painting sales how Vincent did it. How did he paint for ten years only to sell one painting? Obviously, it was the love of the painting that kept driving him. He didn't earn much money but he left us with a much greater gift, his collection of work that revolutionized the art world and began the modern art movement. While I don't aspire to be a revolutionary, I do hope to create work that people connect with and wish to collect. I also want to have work priced for anyone who wants to collect it, which is why I paint such tiny pieces one day, then a larger than life the next. (The large work takes a week or more). I'd hope my work warms the homes in which it resides. And on a cold December day, this painting seen above seemed appropriate.
Warm Colors of Autumn features a cardinal on a birch branch with a golden sky in the background which includes a warm brown distant ridge. Obviously I'm waxing poetic here on this Monday morning, the calm before the storm which may bring us over a foot of fresh snow and arctic air by the end of the week here in Duluth, MN. Time to burrow in and stay warm.
Please contact Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais, MN for more information on this painting.
