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Interview With Manuela Valenti

Monday, February 18th, 2008 by Alyice

The “Painting A Day” movement began with Duane Keiser. Duane had been painting for years and was already represented by many galleries when he began his “Painting A Day” project. He had many small paintings sitting around his studio that couldn’t be sold through traditional galleries and wondered what he could do to get them sold. He also wanted to challenge himself. It was no longer enough to paint daily. He wanted to complete a project a day. When word got out about his little project, it exploded. Soon artists across the globe were taking their talent to all new heights. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing posts about how artists have implemented this movement into their own lives and how it’s helped them as artists and business owners.

So without further ado, here’s the first interview…

Today I had the honor of interview Manuela Valenti, Manuela has been painting since the age of 12 and selling her work long before she began the Painting A Day project, but it was her dedication to painting something every day that has allowed her to grow as an artist and a business woman. Discover why Manuela believes the discipline of pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone is so important.

Manuela Valenti, Artist

Meet Manuela

Manuela Valenti, Artist

Buy Manuela’s Art

How did you get started with the Painting A Day movement?
I started with the daily painting back in September 2006. The idea of painting everyday was not new to me, I was already completing 1-3 larger paintings daily and selling them online and in galleries. Painting small postcard size paintings was not new to me either, that’s how I started in oils when I was 12 years old, doing miniature paintings back in Venezuela.

So when I heard of Duane Keiser’s project I thought it would be a great idea as a way to not only provide my collectors with an affordable piece of my work, since my larger works were getting so expensive, but to tap into many other subjects otherwise I wouldn’t even have considered to paint. I never ever in my wildest imagination would have thought I would get so much out of this discipline.

Do you allot a specific time each day or do you simply set aside x number of hours to complete your task? And have you ever been known to break your painting up into segments throughout the day, just to get it done that day?
As a professional artist I work the same number of hours any other person would in their jobs. The only difference is that I work in my homebased studio rather than driving to an office. And in many cases I stay at my studio more than 8 hours a day. My tasks through out the day are varied, not only pertinent to the painting a day movement. There are commissions I need to finish, computer jobs that need to be done, websites to update, galleries to fill (per their requests), packing and shipping of paintings to clients (throughout the world) and so on. Right now the most important task I have is occupying my entire time: preparing for the New York ArtExpo, where I’ll be exhibiting the daily paintings in a small segment of my both called “30 paintings in 30 days”.

What have been the personal rewards?
The rewards? Wow! Incredible! From the artistic point of view it has been a constant learning experience, mainly for the fact I’ve defeated my fears with respect of painting while tapping different subjects matters.

I’ve became a scavenger. I’m no longer satisfied with the landscape from Provence or Tuscany I so love to paint, but I’m going deeper into taking more detailed picture reference for my future works and dissecting them to get the most out of that special moment that captured my attention.

I was able to create different bodies of works that completely satisfy me professionally and personally which I wouldn’t have accomplished otherwise or would have taken me longer to do. I feel I’ve grown as an artist and so has my techniques.

What has been the professional benefits of committing to a painting a day?
Business wise, the experience has being rewarding to no end. These small paintings have lead to larger commissions which is always a good thing for an artist. I feel these little gems as I many times call them are the tools to open new portals to incredible opportunities.

Commissions, exhibits, shows, increased awareness, increased sales, increased prices. All of them! Professionally like I said the learning experience this has brought me personally is incredible. Commissions, exhibits, sales and increased prices as well have being an important part of it, but this wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the artistic growth this discipline has brought me.

If there was anything you’d do different, now that you’ve been doing the Painting A Day for years, what would it be?
The only thing I would have done different is set up my websites sooner to satisfy my collector’s needs providing them with a safe place where to purchase my works. I feel this was a big disadvantage in the beginning. Today they are ready but it took longer than expected.

Visit her at ManuelaValenti.com

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For Keifer

Monday, February 18th, 2008 by Alyice

Keifer is a 15 year old boy with multiple handicaps, one of them being that he must see everything close up. He watches DVDs on a small player that he holds in his hands as he pushes his face close to the screen so when I began work on his canvas, I had to keep that in mind. For Keifer, less was definitely more.

When his beloved Lady Beasley died last year, it was heartbreaking for the entire family, but even more so for Keifer. She was more than his pet; she was his companion and best friend.

When I began creating this collage, I had every intention of doing it as a mixed media abstract painting, but after painting the background an entirely new story came to life. I could just envision Keifer sitting under a tree with Lady Beasley by his side. And so, the story unfolds…

You can’t tell by the way I took this photo, but the photos of Lady Beasley and Keifer are three dimensional. I made several copies of the same photo, then layered them with raisers. Once I painted the tree, I used Diamond Glaze to hold the beads in place and then placed a few drops of alcohol ink over the beads. I sealed the entire canvas with decoupage paste.

Keep Creating

P.S.

Keifer loved his canvas. Keifer has this gorgeous smile that lights up the entire room and I was honored to be the recipient of such a smile last night!

Posted in Artful Wednesday | 3 Comments »

Art Teaches Us That Mistakes Happen

Sunday, February 17th, 2008 by Alyice

I’m doing art again and I am loving it! Once I get passed the negative self-talk, it’s rather refreshing and fun. I find that I am enjoying the process and if something doesn’t work out the way I want it to, I can just redo it. I like that. I like the idea of being able to fix my mistakes and I like how it reminds me that not everything is set in stone—that mistakes happen, and changes can be made, and that sometimes, the changes we make because of those mistakes actually makes things turn out better than they would have in the first place.

I am going to try to create something every single day. Whether it’s creating a canvas, painting patterns on paper, altering jars, taking photographs for future projects, crocheting, or scrapbooking, I am going to commit to a minimum of one hour a day to actually “creating” something.

In fact, today I just finished a project for a teenager who lost his dog. I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow when I upload the photo…

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