Monday, April 29, 2013

Clearwind Farm and Career Changes

Hello all!
Last weekend I had the privilege to paint at beautiful Clearwind Farm in Mebane, NC. This farm is home to the North Carolina Theraputic Riding Center and they had a show and fundraiser this past weekend. Myself and some other artists were invited to paint during the show and we donated some work for a silent auction to help with the fundraiser. to find out more about them visit www.nctrcriders.org .
I will post some photos from the event when I get them downloaded from my camera card. Here are some shots I took of the property with my phone.







I was thinking after the event that day, how my freelance art career has changed since the birth of our second daughter last July. I used to try and commit work to every show and invitational event because I was producing a ton of work and trying to gain more sales to keep learning and moving forward. After our second daughter was born and two kids were in the house, things changed!

 We had a lot more on our plate, and I was mostly painting late at night. I couldn't commit to as many shows or finish a solo project that I hoped to exhibit last year, but that's okay. I am learning to make good use of limited time to just slow the pace and improve my work by much study and painting as much as I can.
I am now finding more time to work on some new projects and I will keep you posted!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Hard at Work on New Things!




 
Late night in the studio trying to finish up a bunch of works that are in progress


Although I have not been posting much to the blog, I assure you that I am painting!
In between studio time I juggle a family and a full time job, so life has been a bit exciting lately. We had some tenants move out of a rental property we own back in January and they left a mess, so I have taken on that huge project of getting the house painted, repaired, etc. so we can rent it out again.
All of this has meant that while I have been painting, I haven't had much time to post. Remember if you are on Facebook, you can find my art page there where I post more frequently than the blog. Just search "Justin Holdren Fine Art" on Facebook to see my art page or go directly to www.facebook.com/justinholdrenfineart .

I am also launching a new etsy store with my wife that will be different from my fine art, it will be commercial art prints themed for kids rooms and homes. My wife will plan and design the prints to offer and I will do the artwork. This will be marketed separately from my fine art business of course, but it will be a fun project that will allow us to do something creative together. More on that soon!