Alyice on February 20th, 2008

Interview With Jan Blencowe

Today I had the honor of interviewing Jan Blencowe. Jan’s been painting for years and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree back in 1984 but it wasn’t until she committed to painting something every day that her career as a full-time artist and instructor took off. The coverage Jan’s received through her daily paintings has earned her coverage in top magazines, representation in various galleries across the United States, and given her the ability to help struggling artists succeed at their craft. Discover why Jan says the Internet is a wonderful place for artists of every skill level.

Jan Blencowe, Artist

Meet Jan

Jan Blencowe Artist

Buy Jan’s Art

How did you get started with the Painting A Day movement?
One of the wonderful things about the Internet is the ability to connect with other artists from around the globe. In a discussion thread over at Wet Canvas back in 2004 another artist brought Duane Keiser’s blog, “A Painting A Day” to our attention.

Keiser was already well an accomplished gallery-represented artist and art teacher. He had been doing small postcard size paintings as exercises or warm-ups on a daily basis. After accumulating a number of these, 100 to be precise, he decided to have a studio show to sell his works. He called it “A Hundred for a Hundred”, and sold the small works for $100 each. That was such a success that he began thinking about other ways to sell his small paintings. He made a commitment to himself to do a painting every day, without fail. Keiser did a lot of small still life pieces, often just single objects: a marble, an orange, a PBJ sandwich. (Still life work is also one of the best ways to improve your painting skills, regardless of the subjects you choose for your larger works. They are truly a technical work out for an artist.) it wasn’t long before he launched his blog, which became an immediate success.

This idea was intriguing to myself and other artists for a number of reasons. First the idea of an artist painting everyday and doing small studies is nothing new, but posting them on a blog for the whole world to see and purchase was. The blog was a way to keep one accountable. Second, every artist knows that the more you paint the better your work gets. So we decided to take the challenge and commit to a painting a day.

I began in January of 2006. At first I, like the other artists posted my work only on Wetcanvas. Several months later I decided to start my own blog, and called it “The Painting A Day Project”.

Do you allot a specific time each day or do you simply set aside x number of hours to complete your task?
I usually paint first thing in the morning because that’s the best way for me to make sure I have time to paint, otherwise life crowds in and the time seems to evaporate. If the painting for that day is a small study, it takes 1-2 hours to complete. However, after doing small studies daily for quite some time I’ve switched to doing larger works which take 6-8 hours to complete. When working on a larger work, I will break up my painting sessions into 2-3 hour chunks so that I can take care of daily chores, phone calls and the kids. And since I don’t watch much television I can get a lot of painting done at night—when everyone’s in bed or watching their favorite shows.

What have been the personal rewards?
The personal rewards have been many. There is always a great deal of satisfaction when you set out to challenge yourself and stick to it. At the beginning of The Painting a Day Project, I painted everyday no matter what. After two years that has changed somewhat as demands for my work have increased and commitments to various galleries have also increased.

However, I gained a tremendous amount of discipline through that challenge. I am much less likely to let time crowd out the time I’ve set aside for painting. Furthermore, those daily paintings have improved my work and have given me a chance to explore many avenues in subject matter, style, technique, and composition.

What has been the professional benefits of committing to a painting a day?
The professional benefits have also been numerous. Just after I started doing the Painting A Day Proejct I was contacted by Domino Magazine, a home décor magazine. They were doing a feature on daily painters who blog. That article included 6 artists who were the first generation of daily painters behind Duane Keiser and Julian Merrow-Smith. Hits to my blog went crazy and I sold nearly 50 paintings the month the issue came out. That one piece of publicity opened the door for many other publications to contact me, including the New York Times, USA Weekend Magazine and Mastercard’s blog Priceless.com.

My experiences blogging and marketing my art on the Internet led me to develop a seminar for artists. A seminar designed to teach other artists how to sell using the Internet.

The daily painting phenomenon has really become part of art history and now I’m being asked to present lectures about it by many of the same groups who have had me teach my Internet marketing seminar. In essence, my daily paintings have helped me create a parallel career in teaching and lecturing.

Traffic to my blogs and websites continues to rise and the small daily paintings have generated interest in my larger works as well, and that in turn has attracted the notice of art galleries. In fact, after finding me on the Internet, The Black Sheep Gallery in Gloucester, MA contacted me and now carries my work, both small pieces and large, in their gallery. On the whole the daily painting movement has been very good to me!

Visit her at JanBlencowe.com