The Todd Blog
Back into the House
Hi there! And welcome to The Todd Blog. Find news of all things related to the studio here!
As many people already know, over the summer, in between painting and all the other stuff that goes with it, (like marketing, etc.) we were able to get the house pretty much done. And since the studio is part of the house, that got done, too!
During construction, the entire studio was moved out to our machine shed. I mean everything was moved out there; all my paints, tables, brushes, easels, books, stereo, computers and more! Not the greatest place for keeping equipment and paintings clean due to all the dust that blows around. And of course, there is no air conditioning out there, making things very hot indeed.
It was great to be in a dedicated building, away from the distractions of the house. But my Epson printers did not like the humidity or heat. My R1800 has a permanent new squeaky belt now.
But on a positive note, it was really wonderful to be able to have a physical separation between work life and home life. Not to mention, I can have my music as loud as I wanted in the shed. It also gave me a place to think and be quiet. The birds were making lovely noise, the wind blew gently in the big garage door opening, and Charlie Brown (our Airedale) could run lie in the grass.
That’s life in a nutshell; the good and bad in everything.
Summer Art
Some things of note happened this year. Well, actually when I consider it, this has been a very good improvement in my lot as an artist. A few new commissions, some gallery sales, and some online sales. And my body of work this year has really grown dramatically in number and, dare I say so myself, quality. At least sales would indicate as much.
At the beginning of the year I sold a piece entitled Lounge to a gallerist I had never met before. He was one of the recipients of my monthly newsletters and happened to find a client for a piece I had in storage. Love those little surprise gifts!
Guild / Artful Home
Something else I have been working at for quite some time finally came to fruition. I am now a part of The Artful Home (previoiusly, The Guild) here in Madison, WI. The guild offers one-of-a-kind paintings and Giclees. In my first two months, I sold 3 Giclees (reproductions) and several weeks later during an online sale, 3 original paintings were also sold.
Milward Farrell Fine Art continues to do great work for the studio, selling one of my favorite large-scale paintings, Loud Cloud II, to a visitor to Madison who took it back for his office wall. Thanks, Brian!
I was thrilled to be able to participate in commissions for the American Family Children’s Hospital in 2007 with the sale of Go Fly a Kite and A Grand Company. These sales led to commissions for UW Hospitals and clinics including High Noon. Many thanks to Sarah’s continuing support for my work!
One other bit of nice news came with the sale of 3 Giclees for a new building project in Milwaukee, WI. Lounge, Woods and Animals, and They Sleep were all taken up to be photographed at Opacolor II in Madison. They specialize in large format Giclee printing and photography, to name a couple of services they offer. Woods and Animals was particularly challenging to photograph because of it’s scale, measuring 42 x 113 inches. So you can imagine how difficult even lighting would be to accomplish. And yet, they did so flawlessly. After shooting and outputting all three large Giclees (final sizes were 16 x 36 inches, approximately) the Giclees were handed off to Kim Keister at Concepts in Art in Janesville, WI and delivered to the client with high praise.
Looking back, I’ve been pretty lucky to have made some nice sales, nice contacts, and made a living doing what I love, making art! And I have wonderful support from my best friend/wife, and our friends. I’m one very blessed dude! :)
