Autumn Day

Here is my latest offering, which is an oil painting, 16 x 20 inch on a stretched canvas. This painting has tonalism features. My inspiration was a commercial I saw on T.V. in which everything was black and white except one object. I thought that was a great way to emphasize a focal point and so decided to use the same approach in this painting. Except for the one tree which has leaves in yellows, orange and reds, the entire rest of the painting was done in different values of grays using payne's gray, Davy's gray and a mixture of black ivory with titanium white. I think it worked well and it will be on Ebay next week. We will see how the customers like it!

Pacific Bay

Wow! Solitude actually sold, so I am very happy. It had 1 bid for $25 and 13 page views. 1 watcher also. I was surprised as I was not getting any kind of traffic at the beginning of the week. It just goes to show, there is no rhyme or reason to selling on Ebay. I have had bids at the beginning of the week, on the last day and every day in between. I have had bids when I only had a few page views, or have not sold a painting with tons of page views and watchers. What I am finding is there is no science to this endeavor.

My new painting is "Pacific Bay"....I enjoyed doing this painting and did it after having spent a week on the beach in California this past summer. That is usually one way I get ideas for painting subjects is doing something and then wanting to get those major impressions on canvas. What I focused on in this painting was the waves, as I have always loved how translucent sea water is. Seascapes are challenging to do, but they can also be very rewarding. This is an oil painting on a 16 by 20 inch stretched canvas.

This painting did not sale. It was listed for $25.00

Starving artist

Solitude is not getting much traffic at all. I have no bids and no watchers with only 2 days left. I can say that the last 3 weeks on Ebay have been my worse....Well, no one said it was going to be easy and I guess that is where the word "starving artist" comes from. I'll keep my day job....On that note, my study section met today regarding my R15...I am really hoping to break the 200 barrier for a score. On another note, I am applying for a Jefferson Science Fellowship, which would give me the opportunity to work in Washington D.C. for a year and develop foreign policy to tackle Alzheimer's disease. It is a long shot that I would win such an award, but as they say you can't win the lottery without buying a ticket. I can't believe that for one of my letters of rec., the president of my university is going to write a letter in my support. That should carry some weight!

My guess is solitude will not even get another page view.....I will be posting my next painting on Sunday so till then.

Cost analysis

OK, here is my best guess cost analysis of how much I would like to sale my paintings for if I could pick a price...Most painters would say that they value their time at around $30.00 per hour. Most of my paintings take on average 7-10 hours. Let's use 7 hours the minimum, which would give a value of $310 dollars. Supplies:
1) Canvas....on average $10.oo for a 16 by 20 inch
2)Paints and medium....this is really a guess, but I would estimate I use about $5.00 worth of paint and medium for one painting.
3) Wrapping and boxing painting for shipment. Including bubble wrap, tissue wrap, tape and box, I would say this is probably around $4.00 per painting.
4) Shipping...I always seem to short-change myself on shipping charge and usually I end up paying at least $1.00 more than what the buyer actually pays.

In total therefore, I would like to list my paintings for an average price of $330. Well, I usually list them for $25.o0! So, I am making a whopping $5.00 per painting. Now, why don't I list them for much more? They would not sale,period. There is no demand for my paintings, so I could never get the true value of what I think they are worth. Only once out of about 20 paintings I have sold on Ebay have I had more than 1 bid. I always figure that if my paintings are worth more, somebody would bid 1 more dollar. Anyways, I can truly say that my paintings are listed as a real bargain on Ebay. On a future post, I would like to talk about an artist on Ebay who really has been successful and who I admire....

About the Painting "Solitude"

This is my first painting posted on my blog. It is currently for sale on Ebay for $25.00. I spent the better part of 12 summers working, hiking, and climbing in Glacier National Park, Montana. Our work location was in St. Mary's at the Park Cafe (great pies!), which is actually on Blackfeet Reservation. Because of my experiences with the people who make up this great tribe, I have tremendous respect for these people and Native Americans in general. Therefore, I love to acknowledge them in some way in my paintings---my favorite of which is to paint tepees in the landscape as shown in this particular painting. I also tend to paint in seasons, and since now it is fall, I am using fall colors in my paintings. Well, the painting took about 8-10 hours to paint over a two week period, which is pretty average for one of my paintings. The next post, I think I will give a cost analysis to show how much I think the painting is really worth, if I could set the price...Of course there is no demand for my paintings so this is just wishful thinking!

First entry---Monday 10/12/2009

My First entry ever on a blog. I guess I should give some background to myself. I am an Associate Professor in the department of biology at Boise State University. I have a research program in neurodegenerative diseases with an emphasis in Alzheimer's disease. I also do quite a bit of teaching: this semester I am teaching pharmacology (for preprofessional students) and molecular neurobiology.
My major hobby is painting. I paint in oils and love to do landscapes. I would like to use this blog talk about my paintings, but also other things as they arise. For instance, this week is a big week for me as I have a pending NIH grant that is going to be evaluated and scored. As other scientists know, this is a very difficult process with a low degree of success. Further, it is completely out of your hands and you have no idea how your idea/grant will be viewed. So....it is pins and needles. My last 5 or so grants have gotten lousy scores so I am not very optimistic---how can I be? I am also posting my first painting, entitled "Solitude", which is presently on Ebay. I "try" to sale my paintings on Ebay, but it is very challenging. There are only about 20,000 paintings listed at any given moment. I don't make a dime as I sale my paintings for $25.00, which barely covers costs. More on this later....