Alyice on February 24th, 2008

Interview With Justin Clayton

Clayton. Justin’s been featured in Food & Wine Magazine, The Artist’s Magazine, and several other publications based on his ability to sell his artwork over the Internet via his website and eBay auctions. But as admirable as that is, I was more intrigued by the fact that he’s so graciously humble. While he loves being able to work as an artist full time, his greatest satisfaction comes from producing art that gives pleasure to others. Take a peek into Justin’s world and discover why he feels it’s important to do what you love every single day.

Justin Clayton, Artist

Meet Justin

Justin Clayton Artist

Buy Justin’s Art

How did you get started with the Painting A Day movement?
A few years back I had an art teacher who taught me two things: get rid of my TV and paint every day. Even though I understood his point and don’t watch much TV anyway, I couldn’t bear to throw it out. However, I did manage to paint every day. This was my first introduction to daily painting.

At that time many of my daily paintings were business card size, even smaller than the ones I paint today. Many of these paintings were studies of other artists I admired like John Singer Sargent and William Nicolson. I remember feeling like it was quite a commitment to paint something everyday, but I soon saw the benefits. I realized that to be a proficient painter I would need to paint regularly.

A couple of years later I came across Duane Keiser and his “painting a day” project. He brilliantly combined the practice of painting daily with a simple way to promote and sell online. I was very inspired by what Duane was doing and this was about the time that I decided to start my Daily Paintings website. I’ve been painting these regularly for over two years now.

Do you allot a specific time each day or do you simply set aside x number of hours to complete your task?
I usually spend about 3 hours on my daily paintings. I generally like to complete a painting in one block of time as opposed to splitting it up throughout the day; however, I do take a break or two within that three hour block. When doing the kind of painting that I do, painting from life, it’s good to go away from the painting for a bit and then come back to it with a fresh eye. It’s amazing to me how when I come back from a break I can instantly see the things I need to fix in the painting.

What have been the personal rewards?
It has been tremendously rewarding in terms of learning the craft. In my opinion, it also keeps the artists’ muscles fit. This kind of painting is similar to other occupations… like writing poetry or dancing, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

The technical aspect of painting, like mixing colors and measurement, become easier, too, which means I can focus on the mood of the painting or any other aspect that interests me about the subject. It makes the painting process much more fun when the technical part of the craft has lessened. Painting is still difficult but it’s just nice to focus on the “good stuff” like composition and rendering the light.

What has been the professional benefits of committing to a painting a day?
When I started, over two years ago, I had no idea where it would go. A few months into it I was starting to get a lot of emails from people all over the world. I was surprised by how kind they were. I was caught off guard a bit by how much people were affected by my paintings. I make a great effort to paint subjects that interest me and to paint them, from my perspective, in a beautiful way. So, to have other people comment so positively on how they enjoy seeing my work has been one of the greatest rewards.

Another great benefit from doing this has been the fact that I’ve been able to sell my work regularly. It certainly helps, if you want to be a full time artist, to sell artwork regularly. Setting up a website and selling these daily paintings has helped me achieve that.

If there was anything you’d do different, now that you’ve been doing the Painting A Day movement for 2 years now, what would it be?
Start earlier! It’s been rewarding in all ways for me. I don’t get paid as much as I did in my office job sitting behind a desk but it definitely pays in satisfaction. I’ve wondered in the past what it might be like to be a flower delivery person because if you think about it, probably most everyone is glad to see them when they arrive at the door. I think in a way I’ve felt like this the last few years when people get my paintings in the mail. They often write and say how much they like the painting and that makes me feel good. In these instances I wonder why I didn’t start sooner.

Visit Justin at JustinsPaintings.com