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I had a mentor to help me with my art career. The advice they gave me was to say YES to any opportunity that came your way even those that make you nervous and take you out of your comfort zone. I tried this for a year, and I am for the first time, making money from my art. Saying YES will help you to gain confidence and lead to further opportunities. 

I will give an example, of what happened when I said YES to enter for the B.C. Wide Portrait Challenge. I was nervous to enter, as I had not painted a portrait in years, and this was a timed event in front of an audience! However, I said YES to the challenge, prepared, and won honourable mention. Saying YES to this opportunity then gave me the confidence to say YES to Hallmark movies when they approached me to paint a portrait for a local film set. Now, this is an opportunity I would have been nervous about, had I not done the previous event, but having been successful in that I was able to say YES and confidently complete a job!

You will find by saying YES you will discover that you can actually do way more than you ever thought. 

The current Pandemic, has changed for a lot for us. It has disrupted our routines and with the continuing recommend guidelines and restrictions has given some of us more free time. As a result, more time to spend on pastimes like baking bread, bird watching, walking etc. I called this blog post UFO's as this for me stands for "UnFinished Objects“ ...a problem that I unfortunately have a lot of in my studio. With the loss of my job and routines, I found myself with no excuse but to tackle them. I tried to focus on these unfinished paintings and re-examine and in some cases, repaint them. Rereading Robert Genn's Twice  Weekly Letters on Compositional Boo Boos and How to Critique Yourself will help with the process of tackling UFO's. Some went well and even got accepted to shows but others were unfortunately launched out to space where they belonged:)

My first Blog post ever! Another thing that you discover during a pandemic, as you consequently have more time, is the fact your website has a Blog feature! I live in BC, Canada and we are currently heading into the second wave of COVID-19. Painting and creating art during a pandemic has had a lot of ups and downs. One definite “down” is the fact that I can no longer work at my job of teaching seniors art because of lockdown restrictions. I have for the past eight years worked at several senior retirement residences teaching art as well as teaching private lessons at home. I miss my them all very much. One if the “ups” is that I was able to have a show, just prior to the March lockdown, for my longest running art group the “Pacifica Never Too Late Art Group” at the Newton Cultural Center and after that at their home the Pacifica Retirement Residence. It was featured in the Surrey Leader Newspaper and was very well received!