Art and Gardens

Is there greatness in a garden? Or is a poem about a garden or a painting of a garden greater than a garden itself? If you were to sing about a rose, is that somehow greater than growing a rose? Or can the force that drives a garden be considered the greatest artist of all?

Etsy Shop

I've just opened up an etsy shop to try to sell some artwork online. Who knows if it will actually sell some things for me. I've started with just a few items and then each day I'll add a few more.  I'm continuing to use the O, Sweet Nature moniker and so my shop address is www.OSweetNature.etsy.com   So far, it is taking up a lot of my time to create this online source. I wonder if I'm not better off just spending the time on painting or drawing. If anything sells, it will be worth it. Now I have to get my website (also O, Sweet Nature) up and running. All these places need to be linked. Then perhaps I might actually get some visitors to these sites.

This is one of the items for sale at etsy. It's a small watercolor, only $35, but the shipping is almost half that, so who knows if it will get any buyer interest. Wonder if I should charge more?

Why?

I'm trying to find a way to make my artwork more meaningful and engaging to people. So I am asking myself these questions about my art:

Why do I paint this subject?

Why do I paint it the way I do?

Why should anybody care?

The inspiration to begin questioning and improving my art came from this site:

www.artisbroken.com/blog

I recommend a visit there for all artists.

Ginger root

This is a small graphite drawing of a ginger root. It's worked on a very smooth, Strathmore 500 plate finish paper. Love the way my pencil point just glides over the paper. Smooooooth.

More soul from Vincent

"Sometimes I have such a longing to do landscape, just as I crave a long walk to refresh myself; and in all nature, for instance in trees, I see expression and soul, so to speak."  --Vincent

Yes, I, too, am drawn towards landscapes as expression. It's the act of being out in nature, experiencing the "soul" of it, and then communicating that in painting or drawing.