Caution:Artist at Play-Artwork by Shana Rowe Jackson

  "My life As a Painter" Self portrait 20"x20" Oil © Shana L Rowe Jackson 2013   One of the things I love the most about being an artist is being able to set my own hours. This is great in theory, but not having a set plan for the day can often lead to procrastination and cause important tasks to build up, which will become over whelming. I don't want my passion to feel like too much work!! So to try to curb this at the end of each day I make a mental list of the goals I want to complete the next day. These goals can be something as little as putting a hanger on a painting, doing a blog post, or entering a new contest to as big as starting a new painting. I also factor in house hold chores on my list too. The important thing is to do something to promote and support my art each day. I find this helps me plan out my day a head of time so that I can do something creative each day, and not get over whelmed by how much I need to do. Doing a few things each da

  One of my favorite things about being an artist is doing series work. Often times I don't start a piece of art planning to make it a series but once it is finished, I love it so much that I want to do more like it!! Series work is great for the collect-ability factor. Patrons want more of what they love, a series is a great way to give them that!! I personally like to work on many different subjects, so doing series work helps me to make many different bodies of work, which is really helpful when you have a hard time defining your "Niche".   A series is a group of pieces that are linked in some way. Like doing the same subject at different angles or colors, or a repetitive concept. My newest series is a progression series, which follows a hot air balloon on its journey. In each piece the hot air balloon is a little bit farther along on its journey. I have three in the series so far and have at least three more planned!! A series can range anywhere from three painting

   Inspiration is an artist's best friend, but at times it can also be an artist's worst enemy. When I am inspired I feel like I am on top of the world, but even being inspired has its down sides, like lack of sleep, and an obsession with a certain project that can take over my life. The only thing worse than being inspired is being uninspired. When I am uninspired, in a slump, I don't even feel like myself, I'm depressed and irritable. I second guess my artistic talents. It is one of the worst feelings a creative type can go through. These ups and downs on the roller coaster of creativity is one of the main reasons I think artists have a history of mental illness. Just saying ;).  "Inspiration-The Musician" Part of my "Be Inspired" series © Shana L Rowe Jackson 2012   So how do you get out of it? How do you break out of the slump? The best way is to keep on keeping on. It is so easy when in a slump to just give up and say you are throwing

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter." -Oscar Wilde "My True Colors" Self Portrait, Colored Pencil and Marker © Shana L Rowe Jackson 2012   Portrait and figure painting is very exciting for me. There are many things to factor in, not only do you have the same challenges with composition and color mixing as with any other painting, but you also have the challenge of creating a likeness to the sitter. Likeness is not only shown in a persons face, but body language as well, so it is important to pay attention to both in order to capture a persons essence. Likeness paintings can come in many shapes and sizes, they can be of one person, many people or even of pets (just because it's a Dalmatian doesn't mean it looks like all Dalmatians). Whether you are doing a close up (shoulders up [Portrait]) or far away (whole body [Figure]) view, likeness is very important. Looking at the painting below you

  I live in Maine, which is a wonderful place to be an artist. The different seasons are a great backdrop for new inspiration, and it's nice to have the change in scenery. However, winter seems to run on forever!! I love winter don't get me wrong, the snow is beautiful, the cool crisp air, it is a magical time of year. By February though, I am ready for spring. It could be that the snow is all brown from the plows, or the fact that I am sick and tired of being sick and tired (flu season, ick!!) or it may be the fact that days are finally getting longer so I know spring is around the corner and it makes me want it that much more!!! Spring and fall tend to be my favorite seasons anyway, the colors are vibrant,(makes for fun and dynamic paintings!!) both seasons mean big changes and neither are too hot or too cold.        Lately I have been inspired to work on spring, and even some summer artwork. This is not unusual for me, it seems my inspiration "clock" is always a

   Life in the 'Dale is a fun, whimsical series that I am working on, based on childhood, farming and a whole bunch of giant sized objects!! It is my longest going series thus far with 16 paintings and many more to come. I got the inspiration for Life in the 'Dale when I painted "I should have Kept that Cow" which is an illustration of the fairytale Jack and The Beanstalk. "I Should Have Kept That Cow!!"     I really liked the way it came out and the whimsical style in which I painted it so I decided to do more like it.      The name "'Dale" (The word Dale itself means valley or broad valley) Comes from a shortened version of my hometown "Farmingdale" . In fact the series is loosely based on what Farmingdale may have looked like long ago in it's founding days. Most of the images have an old fashioned twist to them, depicting simpler times.  I'll Be The Teacher's Pet For Sure!!!     All the titles are clever des

  I have been thinking about doing a blog for sometime now, but was worried I wouldn't have anything to say. Also, I am not the best at sp e lling (You have been warned ;) ) So never really thought this would be my thing. My main reason to have blog is to help promote and share my artwork with my fans, and give them a chance to get to know me better . Then I thought about it and realized that I LOVE talking about my art and art in general so why not start a blog? "New England Drive" 18"x24" acrylic © Shana L Rowe Jackson 2011   I guess I will start by stating a little bit about myself and my journey as an artist. I have been an artist for as long as I remember, in fact I was already showing signs of the "art bug" before I was out of diapers. I don't remember ever wanting to be anything but an artist. I started documenting my artwork in scrapbooks by the time I was eight years old, because I knew I would want to look back someday as a f