2015 year in review

2015 A Year of Growth, Development & Successes from Sue Pownall

2014 in review and resolutions

One of my last sketches from Oman.

This is how I started the year 2014:

1. I wish to be single-minded with my art by which I mean I will be selfish with my art time and not let people nor events cut into it. The obvious exception is Degas. 
2. I still want to move Degas and I to Barcelona, so will continue to organise my finances, whilst helping my parents.

In order for these to be goals rather than wishes, I have an amount to achieve by October. Also, I am setting aside a minimum 8 hours each weekend for art production. Finally, I want to produce a minimum of 6 ink drawings within the year.

As many of you who regularly follow me know, my year did not go to plan neither personally nor professionally. It was also a year full of highs and lows and I am still struggling for the middle ground.

44th WWSketchCrawl, Portobello Road, London.

I made several trips back and forth between Oman and UK following the hospitalisation then death of my father in January. Then I took 3 months unpaid leave through the summer, to pack up my parents' house, whilst trying to keep my mother happy, and finally moved back to the UK full-time in September. A constant throughout the year has been my guardian angel, Degas, who flew to UK with me in June and loves it here.

What                       Result              Positive thought                           .

Finances?               No                    I do have a lot of air miles though!

Barcelona?              No                  I'm in Europe.

8 hours?                  No    

6 ink drawings?      NO

As you can see above, there are only 3 ink drawings, and 1 ink and watercolour experiment. The ink boat I have just had rescanned and am looking to add some colour to it as it is flat and lacks something, so that's 2 I'm pleased with.

As my resolutions didn't go to plan, what did go well this year?

April, I ran my fourth annual charity event and raised £434.50 both through collecting at the event and an online donation site. All the money went to UNICEF UK's Children of Syria appeal.

Mayor of Colchester looking at my drawing at the opening.

July, My drawing Into the Shadows was juried into the Colchester Art Society's Summer Show.

August, I attended the 5th Urban Sketchers Symposium in Paraty, Brazil. I wrote in my first after-trip post:

"... I am jealous of the sketching others have done in that beautiful country. Whilst I had a fabulous time... I am not very happy with my sketches... obviously workshop sketches are experimentations and are not expected to be great yet... it would be nice." 

I may not have been happy with my sketching, but the wonderful people at the symposium made up for it. I re-met sketcher friends and made new ones. One of my happiest memories is sketching with the Brazilians of the sketching group, Croquis Urbanos Curitiba, on the last day.

With Croquis Urbanos Curitiba.

November, I have been taken on as an art tutor for the charity WEA and had the pleasure of teaching a sector of society I normally would not associate with. I summed up the course in this post, Lessons learnt. I really enjoyed teaching the course, and look forward to teaching more soon.

 So that was my year, now what about 2015?

Art resolutions: 

1. Produce a series of illustrations to be sold as greeting cards.
2. Produce a minimum of 1 fine art piece a month (preferably 2/3 per month).
3. Enter 4 open exhibitions throughout the year.
4. Run 4 art workshops.
5. Participate in a group or solo show.

Marketing & networking resolutions:

1. Post daily on FB page, www.facebook.com/suepownallartist
2. Blog every Saturday or Sunday.
3. Attend 6 networking events.
4. Look at feasability of art fairs.

There are a few other goals I have for my art business, but I won't share them here. Let's see what the year brings.

What about you? Have you reviewed your year or set resolutions? You are welcome to leave a comment or share the link to your post here.

2013 in review and resolutions

2013 was a rollercoaster year with very high highs and very low dips both personally and professionally. The best was rescuing a street pup, Degas, who 8 months later has grown into a beautiful young dog with a lovely friendly temperment. Due to her, I have moved to a house with a garden, 30 seconds from the beach. The low has been seeing my mother after she had a massive stroke in May and helping her move into residential care after a long spell in hospital, whilst making sure my father (along with his dog Nelson) is cared for with his developing dementia.

Al Minsefah Doorway. 2013. SOLD

 For 2013 I had 3 words to guide my art: inspiring, happiness and dream. Plus my resolution, as written in last year's review post was "throughout 2013 my resolution and goal will be on getting my finances in order, so I can move to Barcelona as soon as possible. ... my sketchbook will remain with me throughout 2013, I already have 2 commissions for drawings and further illustrations to do for The Story Shack... obviously my art passion will not be totally neglected." Well, due to having to take 3 trips to UK to help my parents, my finances are still not in order, though they are a little better then a year ago and I am still not in Barcelona. However, my art passion was certainly not neglected.

La Sagrada Familia, 2013. ©Sue Pownall inspired by Norberto Dorantes

Inspiring: The biggest inspiration I found was attending the Urban Sketchers' Symposium in Barcelona. Four days of sketching and talking about sketching with amazing arty people. I met artists there who I have been in awe of and following for years like Luiz Ruiz and Norberto Dorantes. I was especially pleased to finally meet Pete Scully , Omar, and Liz Steel and to sketch with Alissa. I got to catch up with the Barcelona sketchers and Nina Johansson who I'd sketched with in 2012.  Then, there were all the new artists I had the pleasure to meet and sketch with such as Simone and Chris, who I can't wait to sketch with again.

Burj Al Arab from Souq Madinate Jumeriah, UAE. 2013

Other inspiration came from attending Art Dubai and the Global Art Forums in UAE, in March. It was great to see the contemporary art and attend the talks.

Illustrations and drawings from 2013.

Happiness: Whilst Degas has brought love, laughter and fun in my life, happiness within my art is hard to measure:- my biggest year end profit, 3 commissions, only half as many drawings 6 compared with 2012's 14, illustration work, or a solo exhibition - which brings me to ...

The Blind House. 2013 SOLD. One of my favourite drawings from the year.

  
Dream: I'm not sure when the dream to have my first solo show became more than a dream, but it was realised in December where I exhibited 30 pieces at the Beach House, Seeb. The exhibition exceeded all my expectations when I sold 12 of  the 28 available for sale.

A wall of portraits. Another dot was later added to Still Celebrating by Mary (left)

*****

Resolutions for 2014

The last three years, I have used three words to guide my life throughout the year, but cannot fix on any this year. 

• I wish to be single-minded with my art by which I mean I will be selfish with my art time and not let people nor events cut into it. The obvious exception is Degas. 
• I still want to move Degas and I to Barcelona, so will continue to organise my finances, whilst helping my parents.

One of my first sketches of 2014: Degas

 In order for these to be goals rather than wishes, I have an amount to achieve by October. Also, I am setting aside a minimum 8 hours each weekend for art production. Finally, I want to produce a minimum of 6 ink drawings within the year.

*****

May 2014 see you produce lots of art, laughter, and bring peace & happiness.

What do you think? Please leave me a comment. Thank you.

A review & resolutions.

My illustrations published for the novel True Vines

  Review of 2012

For 2012, I had 3 words to guide me: Focus, Vision, Produce. From those words I had 3 resolutions of which some were more successful than others.

1. To produce a minimum of one finished piece per month.

Yes. Looking in the folder on FB there are 15 drawings for 2012. I have also produced 6 published illustrations and two commissioned portraits. Yea me - my most productive year to date. Whilst I still prefer to draw buildings and landscapes I have enjoyed working on my portrait series: Festival Faces, of which the first one sold and is now hung in its Australian home.

2. To exhibit at least twice in the year.

hmmm... This didn't exactly work out as I thought as I didn't have any work in exhibitions. However, I did end up with work hung in 2 galleries.

Through the OSFA, I submitted a piece to an exhibition in September, however the exhibition has been delayed and so will be hung sometime in the new year.

 
3. Continue marketing myself.

Yes. Throughout the year I continued to blog, both on my site and blogger, tweet and keep my facebook page up to date. I distributed over 100 business cards throughout the year and I had a stall at a winter fair in order to get publicity here in Oman. Also, I was interviewed on the local radio and had newspaper articles on the of the sketching events I arranged.

 Surprises from 2012.
A lovely surprise was following an email from the author Diana Baur, I produced both the cover illustration and section illustrations for her novel True Vines.

Something else I didn't anticipate was to start illustrating for the online short story site The Story Shack. To date I have had 3 illustrations published with more due in 2013.

With some of the artists of the Ghalya's Museum's Wall Painting project

Finally, a lovely surprise was getting to participate in a 100 artist wall art collaboration, which tested my little used painting skills, and led me to work alongside both Omani and international artists.

*****

Resolutions for 2013

2013 will see my art taking second place throughout the year. Following my month in Barcelona, my love for that city was renewed and my long-term goal is to move there. However, I'm not sure if financially I can do it within 2013. Like many artists I have to work to pay the bills and I also have a flat in Italy which as a partial renovation project needs work and money, so I have just secured a new job here in Oman with a better package. With the higher salary comes longer working hours, a necessary trade in order to reach my goal. The flat is for sale, if anyone is interested in a holiday home in the beautiful Pollino National Park, Calabria. Therefore, throughout 2013 my resolution and goal will be on getting my finances in order, so I can move to Barcelona as soon as possible.

Of course, my sketchbook will remain with me throughout 2013, I already have 2 commissions for drawings and further illustrations to do for The Story Shack. Also, I plan to go to the Urban Sketchers' 4th Symposium in July and... well who knows what other arty things will happen, but obviously my art passion will not be totally neglected. 

On a personal level, I resolve to eliminate but from my vocabulary and only focus on positive aspects. I also need to make sure I exercise throughout the year.

*****

May you fill lots of sketchbooks, produce lots of art, and have many laughs, health & happiness in the forthcoming year.

Resolution review and revision 2012

Reviewing 2011

Last year my art was pinned on three words: focus, creativity, happiness, with 3 resolutions.

  
The 1st was: To focus my life, my thoughts, my dreams on my art and market myself as much as I can. 

One of the first steps within this was to set up a facebook page "to get my finished work out there", which I did and I now have 217 who follow my page, suepownallartist. Also, I set up a twitter account @suepownall to tweet about my art with, as I write, 200 followers. The biggest two marketing things were to establish a website suepownallartist.co.uk , which went live in October, and a quarterly newsletter, which has 37 subscribers. Of course, I continued to blog and post my sketches here as normal. 

Surprising marketing successes came from a 3 page newspaper article on me and my sketching and, for me even better, a magazine article on my art with my name on the front cover.

Within this 1st resolution I also wrote "I am thinking about printing postcards and/or gift cards". I went a step further as well as printing gift cards of 2 of my pieces of work, I also had limited edition Giclée prints of 6 drawings made. I have sold several to date, which I'm very pleased with.

I also wrote that "I may develop and deliver some workshops", but due to a lot of changes I have not done that.

The 2nd was: to continue working in pen and ink with regular sketching, which I did. I planned a "minimum of 1 finished piece a month ready to try to get hung in a gallery or exhibition and to update the facebook page." Life was a bit crazy in 2011, nothing new there, so the monthly goal was not achieved per se, however I finished 9 pieces over the year, selling 3 and donating 2 others to charity. Plus I got a commission for 3 illustrations from Qatar Museum Authority, so I completed 12 pieces, they were just not done monthly. 

Trees For Life Charity Exhibtion. Photo by John Need

Surprisingly, without a body of work I had work hung in the Trans-Siberian Train exhibition, Trees for Life Charity Exhibition, and had 2 drawings juried into the CAS Winter Exhibtion. Also held in Doha was an Art event: private view of my original drawings and prints.

The 3rd was: Happiness will come from following my dreams and continuing to interact with wonderful artistic people, which it did.

Resolutions for 2012

As last year, here are my three words to guide my life throughout the year:

Yes, I kept focus as it's important to keep my focus on my art, in this year, which already is a bit crazy. Vision is my 2nd word as I need to keep myself open to opportunities, as I did in 2011. Finally, produce is the 3rd as without actually producing finished artwork, I cannot achieve anything.

Resolutions:
1. To produce a minimum of one finished piece per month.
2. To exhibit at least twice in the year.
3. Continue marketing myself.

Thank you to all of you who follow my work, take the time to comment, and who have encouraged and inspired me throughout the past year.

Fabulous opportunity.

 The Art of a Nomad newsletter is now available! 

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My seven links.

Khalifa's Gate, Omdurman.Pen & ink 400x200mm ©Sue Pownall 2010

The My 7 Links Project was generated by TripBase to "unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavour to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again." Bloggers list their Top 7 Links in the following categories and then tag others and so it goes on.

I was tagged for this project by Lisa, who does a fabulous job as a travel concierge, and arranging travel reservations, weddings and more, at Wanderlust Women Travel.  Please pop over to her website.  

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Here are a selection of my past posts, which I think deserve this trip back in time:

My most beautiful post:

For me has to be the featuring of the first of my new Decay Series drawings, which has subsequently sold. Decay.

Darragh's House. Pen & ink. 320 x 200mm. © Sue Pownall 2011

My most popular post:

My art based resolutions for 2011 had the most hits, still continues to get regular hits, and had one of the highest number of comments.

My most controversial post:

I don't really do controversy, but at the beginning of this year my stats showed that someone had searched for Cute Eritrean Guys and landed on my art. Consequently, I used that as my next blog title to show my sketches & photos of the ATP tennis final.

My most helpful post &

a post I felt didn’t get the attention it deserved:

I am trying to use my art for good so two posts that mean a lot to me. 

First, the 31st WW Sketchcrawl Doha-Japan benefit, which I organised in Doha to raise funds for Japan following this year's earthquakes. This is the post which I wish had got more attention, so I could have raised more money.

Second, the post for the current exhibition for Scottish charity Trees for Life for which I donated a drawing. Please go to the website and you can buy my original drawing, or one of the others that have been submitted, for only £45 and 100% of profits will go to the charity.

The President's Tree, pen & ink, 160 x 230mm © Sue Pownall 2011

NB: A friend is organising a charity cycle ride for the end of September for CLAN cancer support and I will be donating towards their raffle too. Please look out for news here / on twitter /  facebook page: "The Clan" We cycle for CLAN Cancer Support / and the event website justgiving.com/Scotland-Coast2Coast . Clan's website is clanhouse.org if you want more information on the charity itself.

A post whose success surprised me:

Bear on a chair was a sketch I posted in August 2010 and then reposted for Illustration Friday as IF: Toy.

Bear on a chair. Pen & ink. A5 sketchbook ©Sue Pownall 2010

The post that I am most proud of:

This has been the hardest one to think of, but I think it has to be my first ever post here back in September '09, as it was the first time I really put my work out there for all to see. An idea of my work.

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Finally, my 5 nominations/tags to take part are:

Writer, ceramists, advocate of simple living, owner of a gorgeous boutique B&B, and my friend: Diana of A Certain Simplicity.

Fabulous photographer & Italy correspondent: LindyLou at News from Italy.

Artist: Sandra of Sandraws.

American expats in Calabria: Doug & Di of Il Terrazzo Italiano.

New twitter pal, artist and jeweller: The Hyper Monkey