Blair Atherholt was our latest guests on our BoldBrush Live! program. As a paid subscriber, we are happy to provide not only the video replay but the full transcript of the insightful session with Blair below. Please keep in mind the transcripts are generated by AI so there may be some typos.
Creatively,
Clint Watson
BoldBrush Founder & Creativity Fanatic
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Olya Konell 00:00
Welcome to BoldBrush. Live today, I have Blair with us. And Blair, it's ultra right. Am I pronouncing it right after Hall? Oh my gosh,
Blair Atherholt 00:12
yeah. It's all good. It's, it's a tough, yeah, it's a tough one. So I've it's all good.
Olya Konell 00:19
So my apologies, but welcome. Welcome everybody. So as those of you that are coming in, or as you're coming in, you you see the chat box, let us know where you're from, feel free to drop questions in there. But I would actually recommend that if you're going to have a question to what we're talking about, to put it into the chat box, or, sorry, into the Q amp a box at the very bottom, and so at the very bottom of your zoom screen, it should be a little box with a question mark in it. So I'm going to try to get your questions to Blair, you know as you know, as quickly as I can and as you know, and hopefully include all of them. So we want to involve you guys in the discussion. And something I like to do at the beginning of every session is just give you a quick rundown of who BoldBrush is. And basically, we are a company, and you can visit boldbrush.com I'll share all of those links, but we are a company that our goal is to inspire artists, to inspire the world. That's kind of what it says up here. We offer free and paid resources. So our free resources is this webinar. We do it every month. We feature a new artist. We have a podcast that is also available for free for everybody, wherever you get your podcasts. And we have a BoldBrush contest where you can, even if you're not a customer, you can enter for free and have your art reviewed and featured. We do get a lot of galleries that look at these to, you know, find new artists that they can bring in. And then for our paid products, our main thing is, we are a tech company, so we offer websites for artists. Our main one that we've built from the ground up that Clint basically created the whole database. And the system is Faso Fine Art Studio online. And you can find more information on faso.com about that. We also partner with Squarespace, and we have Artful Squarespace by Faso. The cool thing about our Squarespace plans is you get all of our marketing benefits, but you also get it for a lot cheaper. And the equivalent of a Squarespace is advanced plan, which is like 100 I think, something dollars now. So I'm sharing the link to that information and all of our customers. We also have BoldBrush VIP for anybody that like needs a little bit of extra assistance and support, and if you just want to learn, you can subscribe for free to boldbrush.com you can get recordings of these webinars. You can access our free articles. We also have a paid version as well. So the whole point is to give you education on how to sell your art, teach you give you the tools to be able to do it, connect you with other artists, connect you with resources to kind of help propel artists forward. So that is about us. And then one of our favorite features is all of our customers get access to the BoldBrush circle of marketing. So once you create an account, you log in, you are able to access a art marketing calendar that tells you what to do every day to share your art online, or you know when to send your newsletter, or ideas about what to write about in your newsletter all of that information. We also have eBooks about marketing. There's a whole Get Started section start here, and it tells you what to do step by step. So if you're new to selling your art, this is an amazing resource for our customers. So All right, so now I'm going to bring up and officially introduce our featured artist, Blair. On this side, welcome. I excited to have you on You were recently on the podcast with Laura, which was a great episode, and I'm going to share the link to that as well for everybody that wants to catch it afterwards, but something I like to ask is just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Blair Atherholt 04:27
Sure. Hi everybody. My name is Blair Atherholt. I'm an oil painter. I've been working full time as an artist for the past four years, truly full time. My specialty is still life primarily, and I've just been kind of, kind of plugging away and making it work. And I'm super excited to be here and talk about my paintings and process. And, yeah, I'm just, I'm really excited to to, you know, meet all. Of you.
Olya Konell 05:01
So I shared his links. And I don't know if you guys can see behind me, this is his website. I went to available works. One of the things that caught my attention about your art with your still life is it has a very kind of unique glow, a very unique take on it. It just makes it so magical. That's the first word that came to mind. I'm like, oh, that's just so magical. And it has that imaginative uniqueness to it, which is really cool, and it really resonates with people. Because, you know, looking at your Instagram, for example, you're almost to 100,000 followers, which is great, yeah? Which, honestly, and I'm going to say this, Instagram followers does not equal sales, but it does help in letting people know who you are. I mean, it is useful for that purpose, so, and I should have pulled that post up, but, and I'm going to try to, I'm going to try to scroll while you're talking so I can share, but I like to kind of dig into our artists a little bit. And you know, see what their story is, and you know where they got started. And I noticed that earlier in your career, your still life, had more of a traditional vibe. And then on December 14, 2015 you posted what you referred to as your first attempt at imaginative realism to Instagram. After that, there was, like, this whole atmospheric shift where your work started to have a very, like, I said, magical imaginative quality. And then you know why? I want to ask about that is one of the biggest struggles that artists have, and I'm struggled with that as well, is to stand out in today's market and get your work noticed to be unique or different in some way, and to find out what it is about you, or how you see the world, or what you want to say you know is unique. And so that particular moment when you posted that was there, like a pivotal moment or specific experience that pushed you to experience experiment and step out of that traditional way, or, you know, and kind of, what advice do you have to artists that are trying to do the same thing?
Blair Atherholt 07:10
Um, I don't think there was one specific moment. I think it's something that kind of grew on its own. I think that really started, though, when I came to the realization that I needed to paint way more than I was just in art school. So I, you know, I went to the Schuler School of Fine Art in Baltimore, and it's an atelier style program. It's a, you know, it's nine to four every day, different classes, you know, class in the morning, class in the afternoon. And I kind of came to the realization in like, the second or early third year where it was like, oh, I need to, if I want to really, like, grow and get better at this, I should be painting way more than just, you know, painting class on Tuesday and Thursday. So I set up a studio in at my parents house, at the time, in the basement, and I started painting after school, like in the evenings, and I think that's once I started doing that a lot. I felt a lot of freedom to explore more, not that that wasn't encouraged at school, but, you know, I was kind of on my own, and I could put my headphones in and paint whatever I wanted, set up these crazy setups. And I think, you know, it was at that point where I started to realize, like, I can take this and sort of paint whatever I want, really. And it was very freeing, you know. So there wasn't like, one specific time, you know, or one painting necessarily, it was kind of like all of these things, all of these paintings I was doing on my own, I would take back, you know, what I've learned there back or, you know, what I learned from them back into class, you know, and vice versa, you know, I'd get really good feedback from my teachers and be like, Okay, I want to try it with something at home tonight. So I think that's kind of how it evolves, you know, yeah, not necessarily one, one moment, you know, one aha moment. But it was kind of like I slowly gained confidence in the fact that I had the freedom to, you know, paint whatever I whatever I wanted, basically, yeah?
Olya Konell 09:20
So, yeah, on top of, like, what you're doing in class, you you you made more time to paint. So would you say just painting more will help kind of lead to finding something funky that you're, you know, into, or finding a unique twist or, and I'm just trying to think of like advice for the regular artists that's kind of stuck in a rut, and they're they they want to elevate their work,
Blair Atherholt 09:47
yeah? No, I think that's, I think that is what I would recommend just, you know, try stuff, paint as much as you can, you know, and and something will come out. Yeah, you can kind of work through if you're feeling stuck, just paint. Paint, paint anyway, you know, and work through the whatever artist block you might be feeling, or, you know, just, just try stuff. And to try stuff, you gotta paint. So, yeah, definitely paint as much as you can. You
Olya Konell 10:14
almost have to also be, I wouldn't say, become fearless, but you have to let go of the fear of making mistakes, and you have to, you know, sometimes, like, you'll make a mark and you're like, Oh, I actually kind of like that. That, yeah, that works. I'm going to work that in, you know, or you mix a color, and you intended to go for something traditional, maybe what you were seeing in front of you, or whatever, but then it turns into something else. You're like, oh, this is kind of bright, but I kind of like it. So you feel like you have to start breaking some rules, like you need to learn the rules, but then you have to start messing up a little bit to find out what you're capable of, to a degree,
Blair Atherholt 10:56
exactly, yeah. And I think that that what you just said is it perfectly sums it up, you know, you to break the rules. You gotta learn the rules and and once you kind of get those foundational, you know, things down, you can start to bend things. And, like you said, accidents might happen where it's like, oh, yeah, I kind of like that. It wasn't what I was going for, but it's pretty cool. So I'll lean into that, you know, yeah, then just, and that can happen organically while you're working. So
Olya Konell 11:27
yeah, and, and it's there because I also do video editing, and so back when I first started and I was learning video editing, it remind me of a lesson that I because I took courses and things like that from people. And I remember It's like somebody said your first 50 videos will be your worst 50 video videos. And it's true, you really do have to kind of experiment to the point of being a little awkward. And then you find that you unique, you unique touch, because and the reason, guys, why I really wanted to talk about it is we're all hearing in the news about AI chat. GPT is a big thing, whether you're using or not. It might be built into, you know, your systems that you know your you know, the apps that you're using, or the you know Canva, for example, if you're using it to make flyers or just different things. And in the convenience of AI and in the convenience of technology, it is way too easy to get lost and become like everyone else, because there's it's almost like you have to be very careful using these conveniences so you it doesn't start writing things for you, or doesn't start giving you ideas that it's giving to everybody else. And so right, you really need to step back away from that and just, you know, put yourself in a space like you did. You created a studio space that you could devote all that time to, and it's paid off. And actually, this is, this is the piece. This is it. I found it, and it is so fun. I mean, I could tell you were just having a blast with it, yeah, and, and you really, did you, you really focused heavily on, you know, accuracy and technique and mastery. And if you are somebody that's been painting for a while, it's okay to go back and revisit those things, you know, make sure that you're doing things accurately, and seek out a mentor and take a workshop, which you recently just got done teaching one. And then, you know, because, like you said, learning those rules and then breaking them, and then it just took off from there, and things just got wild. I love that.
Blair Atherholt 13:42
Thanks, yeah, thanks, yeah. I do think that I opened up my, sort of creatively mentally, opened up to more possibilities. I think it was always kind of in me, like that's kind of what I what I wanted to do with with painting, but until I tried it, you know, and started really exploring that, I didn't You never know. You just got to try stuff. So
Olya Konell 14:10
and I have rod asking question, when you're painting, do you work from the setup or a photo of it, and do you composite things to change the setup in Photoshop or some other editing tool?
Blair Atherholt 14:20
That's a really good question. I do as much as possible work from life, add the shadow box. Pretty much everything I've ever painted has been in that box in some way. I've edited a few things in Photoshop. Did a painting of a banjo in the last I think it was last year. It had, like a not very ideal background. It had, like some stuff, because I just took a picture of the banjo and worked from the photo. So I'll use Photoshop to maybe edit something like that out in a reference picture. But yeah, to the best of my ability, i i. Into things. And I put them in the, you know, I set them up in the shadow box and and I paint from life as as much as possible, so, and
Olya Konell 15:07
I can see, for anybody that's watching, not just listening, behind him, he has some of the on the show. Yeah, look at, look at that. That's beautiful.
Blair Atherholt 15:18
Yes, that's my collection of antiques I love that's one of my favorite things to do. Is I love to go to antique shops and pick up these, you know, metal objects and vessels and and glass, you know, glass bottles and things. And I'll use them directly in still life, so
Olya Konell 15:37
in the different shadow boxes. And, yeah, and I'm sure Pennsylvania, so has such a historical state, there's so learned, probably a lot of cool stuff. Yeah, yeah. And somebody asked, Do you paint on panels or canvas?
Blair Atherholt 15:50
I paint on panels. I've done some paintings on canvas. It's not my favorite. I don't prefer the texture of Canvas. I like a smooth surface panel. That, being said, I've worked on panels that are, you know, mounted Canvas. So it's not like, it's a bad thing, obviously, yeah, I just, I tend to prefer, like, the smoother, like a gesso surface panel,
Olya Konell 16:14
yeah, I which, I agree. I love that buttery nature, especially with oil paints. Like satisfying. And I have seen also the thicker panel. So if you like the canvas look but you want a thicker you can get one that's kind of framed, a framed, not framed, but like a box, whatever it is called, but it looks like a canvas, but it's not so. And somebody asked, Can you show the shadow box? I don't know. Oh
Blair Atherholt 16:42
yeah, there's some stuff on it. I can, I can pick it up.
Olya Konell 16:46
Okay, we've never had somebody do that, but might as well ask. This is cool.
Blair Atherholt 16:51
Yeah, it's kind of unbelievable. Yeah, Christmas. Any Christmas ornaments lately? Yeah? Ornaments lately? All right, so this is the shadow box I was talking about. I made this myself, just out of super cheap plywood, yeah. So this will sit, I have a stand light, you know, to light the still life objects. Everything goes in here, so it has this nice, neutral kind of background. And you know, you can flip it around if you want to paint like a taller, taller thing. So, yeah, this is basically everything I've painted in the last probably eight years.
Olya Konell 17:39
Someday, you'll have to auction that baby off and be like this. Yeah, that's really cool. So So the lesson in that, I mean, for anybody that's wanting to set that up, it doesn't have to be anything fancy. You can go find some scrap wood and make your own because, yes, painting from life is definitely more challenging, and plein air is a whole nother, you know, world. But if you're not in a position to do that, maybe you don't have that much time. And, you know, practicing at home from life is is a great option. So let me see what else. What the other question before we move on, how? How about the light you use? So you just use different lighting to adjust. It's just,
Blair Atherholt 18:20
it's just, it's super, again, super simple. It's a, it's a giant, tall tripod with, I mean, the world's most basic, see if I get it in frame here, oh, world's most basic, like, flood light. Yeah, this is pretty cool. I think this is specifically, like, a daylight you can buy a daylight bulb, daylight bulb. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it's just a, just a tripod, yeah, with, I mean, this little mount thing is ancient, but yeah, like that, and you can change the height of it, you know, yeah. And so that's what I that's what I use.
Olya Konell 18:54
And I was almost thinking too, for anybody that's trying to build out their own, go in your garage. I used to do this when I just got started and needed lighting, I took those garage clamp lights. I'm like, I know, I Oh, yeah, somewhere, and I to diffuse, like, if I wanted the bright light, I wouldn't got a Walmart daylight bulb. If I wanted to diffuse it a little. I took a baking parchment paper, white part, because it's like, heat, you know, it's good for heat, and just flipped it on depending on how many layers of diffusion I wanted. And if you want just the direct light, you know, don't do that, obviously, but you could, you just, you could literally rig up anything.
Blair Atherholt 19:31
Yeah, it's, it's good to be kind of scrappy that way, where it's like, you don't, you don't have to buy, like, professional equipment. You can kind of put stuff. I mean, that's what I've done basically my entire, my entire career. I mean, my palette too. I don't know if anyone would want to see that. I made this out of a TV dinner tray and an old tripod. So it's, oh, wow,
Olya Konell 19:53
that's cool. Yeah, that's smart. That actually is really, really, really smart. Yeah. You
Blair Atherholt 20:00
can, you can make your own I kind of like being, you know, kind of DIY, you know, make my own stuff. And it's super becomes more personal in a lot of ways. Then too,
Olya Konell 20:10
you can tweak it to fit, you know, fit your needs, which, which is awesome. And I can actually see, like in a lot of your paintings, even the under painting, you kind of have that similar color, and then you, you know, you're able to adjust things kind of as as needed, and then create those other elements. So most of the elements that you add in, you just add them in from your imagination on the fly. Obviously, you know, you're like, I'm going to put a little moth over here or a little bee here, yeah, yeah.
Blair Atherholt 20:38
I don't, I don't paint the bugs from life. But, yeah, yeah.
Olya Konell 20:42
Somebody says, How do you get the same light on your support as on your still life?
Olya Konell 20:52
Probably, probably by turning off like other lights.
Blair Atherholt 20:55
Yeah. So in here I need to get, I've been wanting to get some, like, blackout curtains, but I have blinds, so I'll close the blinds in here and just shut out as much of that ambient daylight coming through the window. And, you know, that really isolates, you know, the stand light I just showed on the still life, and I have, you can see that there, I have a little light on top of my easel that, you know, I make sure it doesn't shine into the still life object in front of me. But yeah, I just try to, I try to shut out as much ambient light coming in through the windows, and it makes it super dark in here, but it works. You kind of get that intensity,
Olya Konell 21:38
yeah. And since we're on the topic, I'm going to pull out this question and we'll jump on to the next one. What's your advice painting ingredient background? Do you paint it first on the entire panel? Or do you paint it around your still life objects?
Blair Atherholt 21:53
I typically start around the still life objects. Yeah, because, you know, I have a tone on my panel, as you can see there, which is pretty close. I don't like to paint on pure white panels or backgrounds, so I'll typically start around the object so that I can immediately compare values in this one, you know. And it's funny I say that, but I mix it up every now and then, like I basically painted this entire orange without a background, because it was so close to the to the actual, to the actual, you know, the still life, or the shadow box rather. But yeah, you want to, kind of, and this is what I was, you know, sort of learned in art school. You want to, kind of, like, establish values against one another. So I'll paint the the object, and then I'll start around it with the background, and then, you know, move out from that point with the gradient. But in general, with painting gradients, it just takes, like a little bit of for me patience and not trying to jump too quickly between, you know, it's light here, it's, you know, mid tone. Here, it's dark. Here, it takes, like some I have to force myself to slow down and really think about like, okay, little darker, little cooler, you know, just keep kind of following that line of thinking throughout the gradient. But they're challenging, and that's kind of why I like them, but,
Olya Konell 23:18
and then also probably the object, depending on what color it is. That reflection, it impacts, you know, the background color, because you have a little bit of that mutual like, back and back and forth. Here's, like, a really good time lapse of painting around the object. And also, you like, and here's the thing, this is what I want to emphasize, you have your own style, so you are able to break the rules and make it look unique. It doesn't have to be exactly what you're seeing. Because you can say, Well, I think this will look better this way. You know, I already know how to do it so, you know, it doesn't. I think in the beginning it's good to try to get, you know, if you're trying, if you're going for realism, to try to get it as close as possible, but then you can start tweaking it a little bit and making it a little bit more yours in whatever way that is going to be. So
Blair Atherholt 24:11
Exactly, yeah.
Olya Konell 24:14
So we actually were talking about this and so, but my initial question was risk taking and experimentation. One thing I wanted to point out, you actually describe yourself as somebody that loves control in your still life compositions, and then you've embraced experimentation, which, to some artist, is considered very risky. So and and I we might have even covered it, but I'll read the question in your journey, how did you balance following classical techniques with venturing into more imaginative realism? Did you encounter any artistic risks that paid off in your development? And so you know is, is there anything that you do that would be considered a risk that has actually become part of your Yeah.
Blair Atherholt 25:01
I know there have been risks for me, like, in terms of subject matter, so, like, I'll paint musical instruments. And I remember my first big violin painting was, like, I don't know how I'm gonna do this, which I think is a good sign, and that's kind of something I look or not look for, but if I feel that, I kind of know I'm on the right track, you know? And I feel like that's the best way to grow as an artist, is look at something and be like, I I've never done this before. I don't know how I'm going to do this, yeah. So I think, and in terms of balancing things, I think it's really important to learn the fundamentals first, as long as you have a good drawing, an understanding of how light works, some basic color theory. That's not, you know, color theory is not a strength of mine. But you know, if you, if you have the fundamentals down, you can then, like I said before, paint pretty much anything like and that's something I have to kind of remind myself too, is like, why am I choosing this thing I could, if I set my mind to it, probably paint most, you know, if it's In the still life box or in the shadow box, like, I could probably paint it, but I would say, like, that's the best way to balance things is, is, know, your fundamentals, and then, you know, just kind of chase those crazy ideas where it's like, what if I painted, you know, this with this background, And then, because you have solid fundamentals, you'll be able to do it, yeah, you know, or at least, you know, get a good attempt in and then learn from that as well. Yeah,
Olya Konell 26:49
I was gonna say, if you are somebody that's struggling painting something you've never painted before, if you have, if you have children or a spouse or a partner or a friend, have them pick a random object in your house and put it in your you know, where you set things up, whether you you have a shadow box or not, and then whatever it is, whatever that surprising object is painted, yeah,
Blair Atherholt 27:10
just do it, yeah. So probably be better for it afterwards. So
Olya Konell 27:14
yes, and have them position it. And just go for it, as weird as it may be, turn it in into something. And there's a when it comes to so in studies on creativity, you have to have some constraints to it's like you almost have to create some rules and control to then think out, to be able to think how to create something within those rules and have it be, you know, and be outside the box. If somebody says, paint anything anywhere, however, you might sit there for hours and stare at a white canvas. But if you say it has to fit here, it's going to be like, this, okay, how can I make this cool? It's almost like you have a fridge with only a few ingredients, and you're like, how gonna make the How am I gonna turn this into a meal? Yeah,
Blair Atherholt 27:59
exactly.
Olya Konell 28:00
Yeah. So, like, yeah,
Blair Atherholt 28:02
or go ahead. Sorry, no, no, I just it kind of that exactly ties into, kind of what I was saying with the fundamentals. Like, those are your parameters. Like, you'll, you kind of can't go too wrong. But, like you said, if, if, if you don't set any limitations, it's like, like, there's just too much. There's too much that you could potentially paint, yeah, so,
Olya Konell 28:26
and the other thing I noticed, too for you why you're choosing your subject matter, you love vintage things, so that connects you. You probably appreciate antiques and old houses and cool things and so definitely it just, it just makes sense. Very cool. And I want to jump into some of the marketing stuff as well. So and I see your guys's questions, and I'm going to pull some more of those out at the end. So please keep putting them in there. So social media, your work, has grown so much over the years, and your social media reflects that journey as well. You're like we talked about almost 100,000 you're at 92 somewhere around there. How has sharing your evolution online? Because we hear both things, don't share your journey. Share your journey, you know. So how has that played a role in your success and in building a more engaged following? Do you have any best practices and tips and if you were getting started in picking a social media platform to focus on? Platform to focus on a day, would it still be Instagram? Kind of loaded questions?
Blair Atherholt 29:29
Well, first, definitely still Instagram. It's worked out pretty well. I feel like I had a decent understanding of, you know what Instagram is kind of looking for and and you know how to, you know how to post stuff that people want to see, but in terms of sharing my journey, one of the, one of the best things I ever did was start posting reels of my process, because I think that really resonates with people. I mean, I know I like to watch artists that I love paint. Be, you know, from nothing, you know, starting with a blank canvas, and then at the end, there it is, you know. So I think that was a big step in building, like, more of a following in terms of numbers, but also a more connected following where they feel like they're, you know, kind of in on the process, which is, I think is really cool, and I love sharing that with with everybody. And so I would say, like, that is also a, I guess, a tip I would give is, you know, if you feel comfortable filming yourself painting, give it a shot. Because, you know, I think it really, like I said, resonates with people who are looking to connect with an artist and see what their, you know, process is like. And, you know, even though they're sped up, yeah, you don't want to post, like, a an eight hour, yeah, an eight hour painting process, video, um, but I think that is, you know, was sort of the key to my following growing. And, like I said, I think, I hope, you know, people feel a little more connected to me as an artist, by, you know, through seeing my process. So, yeah,
Olya Konell 31:07
I agree with you. It's 100% Yeah, yeah.
Blair Atherholt 31:11
Oh, and like, Instagram is, is great. Tiktok is also something that I'm I've been posting on it. It's not as you know, you know, I've been consistent with Instagram. I think that's also a really good platform I should have, you know, ideally you'd want everything. But for me, I feel like I can only really focus on, you know, one or two main social media things. So, yeah, Instagram is good, and that's
Olya Konell 31:40
a good piece of advice for everybody. You know, don't try to do it all. Pick one thing and focus on it, whether it's Facebook. I mean, if you and if you're somebody who's using put using Instagram, you can link your Instagram to your Facebook, and so your posts will go to both places. So you can text you to kind of double up, but 100% on the time lapses. And if everybody has a smartphone, which I think we all do, doesn't matter if it's an Android or an iPhone, you know, you can, I'm assuming you set up your phone or, to use a professional, yeah, you probably set up your phone on a tripod that you can buy on Amazon for under $20 and just, you know, a tip, though, put tape where the tripod legs go. So if you ever move your tripod back, so you're, so if you're painting in over, you know, covers, several days, you're, you're kind of picking up where you left off. Because I've done that where I'm like, oh, yeah, that that just then the next day, it's like this, yeah, yeah, exactly. So, yeah, that's a really good tip. And let me see we had a question. Somebody says, I see you enter your paintings and contests like Igor and the Noa. PS, how long do you plan to keep doing that? Also, congrats on your recent win.
Blair Atherholt 33:00
Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. I plan to keep doing it. You know, as long as I am painting, I think it's a really good way to that was one of the main ways that I first got my work out there in front of collectors and galleries. And I think it's a, it's a good tool. So I'm, you know, I, I'm really proud of my memberships, you know, with them, so I'm planning on, you know, entering those shows as long as I, as long as they let me,
Olya Konell 33:28
Yeah, as long as they let you in. And that kind of this. The reason I wanted to call that, that out, because this goes into our next question, talking about marketing, something that we here at BoldBrush Highly emphasize is marketing is not just posting on social media. It that's not marketing is basically everything that we do as a human being, to meet other people and share our work. And this could be online or offline. This could be contests. You know, this could be shows. This could be even attending a show for a fellow artist friend and bringing some business cards and shaking some hands and in conversation. Oh, what do you do? Oh, you're also an artist. Do you have a card or what do you paint? And I feel like even just social events can be an opportunity to meet somebody who's an art collector. You know, it really is everything. So what I wanted to ask about, besides, thank you for asking rod about the contest, but what I wanted to ask about besides the contest, what are other invisible, non social media, things that you do that have helped you move the needle over the years, you mentioned memberships to the various organizations, right?
Blair Atherholt 34:49
That's that's been huge, you know, because, like I said, it gets your name out there. It gives you some show opportunities. You know, you'll have a painting hanging in the gallery that you maybe you can't travel to, or. Ever been to or, you know, so that's great. Another thing that's been big for me, and I've been embracing this more and more, is getting kind of involved in community, like your local community, in terms of, you know, the the art scene, there's a, there's a great foundation and museum here in Lancaster called the dumuth Foundation, and I've done some of their shows, you know, and it's not necessarily, you know, super social media, heavy focus, you know, it's really, is connecting with people right downtown and, you know, patience of the arts and this great community that I was able to, you know, become involved in. And so I would say, you know, in addition to the, you know, the memberships try to get involved with, you know, local, your local art community, because, you know, your neighbor might be, you know, patron of the arts, and may want to collect something, and, yeah, and it's just in general, good to support, you know, the local arts. So, yeah, that's been huge, and that's been something I've been trying to pursue more actively, especially in the recent years, yeah,
Olya Konell 36:08
so I think a lot of in general, I'm going to say, I think a lot of our younger artists can sometimes overlook this because, you know, it's so much easier just to get online. You know, for somebody, it depends what you know, your preferences and you know, but I just noticed kind of a trend. And I'm glad you mentioned that, because from my observations, just like what I'm involved with are, like our local historical chapter and stuff like that. I do random things like that, but they are so supportive when they put on these community art events, the community overall is supportive of its artists, and I think it's a great place to build and make connections. You might meet one person, but their friend in a different state might hear about you and you know, hey, what are you doing this weekend? Oh, I'm here. Oh, that's a cool painting. How do I you know it? You never know what those little connections will lead to exactly. It's like those little ripples, yeah. So, yep. So that's really good advice. So if you guys are taking notes, enter contests, find organizations that you connect with, you know, art, art groups, and join them. And yes, there's fees for a lot of this stuff, and you kind of have to, you know, budget that in with, you know, obviously, but do what you can, because even a little bit in the beginning will help make the difference. And then go to Google and type in your city or your county, or the nearest largest city or county, and then look up art events or art organizations, and then you can kind of find out what's going on and get plugged in, and Google does a good job of summarizing stuff now from so that's really awesome, good advice. So reflecting on your career was there, was there a piece of Miss, a piece of business advice that you received early on that shifted how you approach being an artist, and then what advice would you pass on to other artists hoping to build a sustainable career?
Blair Atherholt 38:12
I think this kind of ties into what we were just talking about with the memberships and entering shows. A teacher of mine encouraged me to join the OPA and start entering shows. And I think that really did give me, you know, once you become a member, there's, you know, five, sometimes six, or give or take a few dedicated shows in these through these organizations per year. So that gives your year some structure, which encourages, encourages you, or at least it did for me, to paint more and with a purpose. Now, yes, you know, so that was really good. Another thing that really helped me, it wasn't advice necessarily, but it was a job I had while I was in art school. It was for a landscaping company. And, you know, I was, like, just some 19 year old kid, and the structure of that job, it was something I could take into art school at the time, and then, you know, into my own paintings, like really, kind of learning the value of working hard and and, you know, working towards a goal. I'm not going to recommend that somebody works for a landscaping coach, but kind of having that inspiration to work hard and apply it to art specifically was really good. But yeah, in terms of advice, you know, my my teacher, Carol Thompson, encouraged me to enter these art contests. And, like I said, it gave me my painting some structure, and, you know, had some deadlines to meet, which I think really helped, like, make it feel like a more professional career. Even when I was in art school still. So yeah, that's, I
Olya Konell 40:03
would recommend that that makes complete sense. I mean, in general, if you're if, if the basically, it gave you goals before you even had any, you know, you were just getting started, but it gave you those dates. So okay, I have this, this and this, I need to make sure I have some stuff to include in this, you know. And in my experience, I feel like urgency is the best motivator. So if I commit to something, the best way totally not art related, but the best way to clean your house is just to have tell somebody to come over the next day you're gonna be like, tidying up really fast. So, I mean, I think that's just a human thing. So, but yeah, that's a really good advice, just to get involved, because we do, and if you're an artist that doesn't know, you know what to join, where to get involved, something that I will recommend to you guys. You know, you all probably follow artists on social media that you like, you know, artists that you maybe admire, or your style is similar. And you kind of want to learn, where do they go? Go to their websites. You can go to Blair's site as well, and you can just go to the like, the CV or the you can look at all the different, you know, online resumes, of all the different things they've entered, all the different things they're part of. And that might give you some inspiration. You could also start small and look in your local state, in your local community as well. So artist relationships. So I wanted to ask you, have your relationships with other artists? Help with other artists helped you in your career, or, you know, kind of connected you maybe, with other galleries, events or collectors, or, you know, has it mainly been through these other organizations that you're a part of?
Blair Atherholt 41:49
No, I mean, relationship, relationships with other artists, has been huge. You know, is lucky to have really good teachers in art school who, you know, gave me some advice and connected me to, you know, these contests, and not specifically with galleries necessarily, in my experience, galleries have kind of like approached me in general. But you know, having a group of artist friends is really important. And actually, I have, you know, I just did this workshop in Austin, Texas, and, like, it's really cool. I've done it for, you know, three years now, and those guys in at the tattoo shop are amazing artists in their own right, and we've become friends over the years. So that's kind of like a long distance artist friendship, where we bounce ideas off each other. We show we show each other stuff that's in progress and kind of like, give each other advice and input and feedback. And it's really helped me a lot, and it's inspiring to talk to other artists who are who share your passion and also have a different view of things. So yeah, definitely, it's definitely helped my career to have some friends, some artist friends who are, you know, willing to look at what I'm working on and say, you know, give me some advice. So, yeah, definitely, if you can find a community of artists who you can be close with, I think it's, it's definitely worth the time, the time, it's definitely something worthwhile. Yeah, and
Olya Konell 43:26
something that Clint often says, or he's written about, even one of the biggest opportunities for artists is, if you have this, or you build a circle of friends, and it could just be a handful of people that you connect with in that way, is when one of you has an event going on, you know, you can support each other. You can share each other's Hey, my buddy is having a show here, you know, and you can benefit from each other's networks, online and on social media, you know, sharing your stories or things like that. So, really, really, really cool. And then, before we kind of go into some of those last ones, we had a few people asking about painting and mediums. What do you have preferences on brands? Or, you know, you see, said, You mainly do oil paint. But do you do? Yeah, somebody was asking, what kind of paint do you use? What
Blair Atherholt 44:19
I use? A combination. I really like Utrecht brand for earth tones. So basically, Burnt Umber, raw umber, ivory, black, yellow ochre and their burnt sienna are on my palette basically all the time. They're really good, in the sense that they're very well, they're not very but they're, they're good, semi transparent earth tones, which I like, yeah. And then for like my cadmiums, I'll use cadmium and basically everything else I use gambling. Those are the two brands that I prefer. And then for my medium, I use liquid, like the gel, the liquid. L medium. That's kind of my, my preferred brands. Yeah, so
Olya Konell 45:06
there's your answer. As far as I have Naomi and a couple other people that had asked about that I really wanted to know, what is your favorite random My question is, what's your favorite paint out of the tube paint, color, brand? Yeah, straight out of the tube
Blair Atherholt 45:21
pigment or color,
Olya Konell 45:24
yeah, yeah, favorite color, like brand of it. And
Blair Atherholt 45:30
I think my favorite, or, you know, my most used color, is raw umber. I go through raw umber like crazy. And like I said, I really like the Utrecht brand of raw umber, nice and cool, semi, semi transparent, like nice and not fluid, but so I think that's probably my favorite of the my palette, at least. Yeah,
Olya Konell 45:56
I'll have to, I'll have to try that, because I go through raw umber quite a bit as well. So I'll try the Europe brand for sure.
Blair Atherholt 46:03
It's good. Yeah,
Olya Konell 46:05
there was somebody else was asking, if you have had success selling paintings at a certain price level, what sales are harder to come by? Do you lower prices? Or any special way to accomplish that? In general, I haven't asked you about this, but pricing, I guess maybe talk to us a little bit about that, because there's that, because I'm sure your pricing has shifted over the years. You don't have to, you know, divulge specifics if you don't want to, but, you know, any pricing advice for
Blair Atherholt 46:34
it's, it's so nebulous. It's something that I, you know, I've tried to keep, obviously, keep, you know, tabs on, basically, what I how I price my paintings are on, depends on the size and almost more importantly, the complexity of the painting. So if I do like a 12 by 12, like I think we showed one earlier, is just a single orange on white background, 12 by 12, that'll be one price. But if I do, you know, like a little eight by eight, that's super complicated, that might have a higher price because it's, you know, it's more complicated. Took longer, yeah, required more, like, technical ability, I guess you could say, but that's my basic thing is, you know, size of the painting, and, like I said, it's almost more important how complicated?
Olya Konell 47:28
Yeah, for for sure, and for when you were starting out, versus now, I'm sure, every year as you and this is something I like to remind people, as your reputation grows, your price is going to change. I mean, is that what you've sort of done over the years, as you've gotten more sales, you know, sold more art, had more opportunities, you grew your skill, I'm guessing, You increased your price to reflect. Yes,
Blair Atherholt 47:55
I just did little bit by little bit. And you know, like, mainly when I would get an A like, if I got an award for something I, you know, just a little increment bump it up. I don't know if that's the best practice that it kind of worked well for me. So it makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Like, it kind of follows that. Like, as your career grows, as your, you know, I thought of it as my resume kind of, then prices go up a little bit because, you know, gaining a little bit of notoriety,
Olya Konell 48:23
and that's completely fair, and artists that don't increase your pricing ever, as you do that you should really start, because think about that's going to give you more opportunities to enter contests, because that's going to cover fees for various other things that you Do that allow you to grow your resume, you know, grow your skill, all of that. So I think that's really, really good advice. I'm scrolling through, making sure. Let's see. I'll make sure I didn't miss anything that was that we hadn't already talked about the one of the things I always like to ask our our guests is, if you had a do over. So this is great if you're listening right now and you're either stuck or you're just getting started. If you were starting your art career today with all of the knowledge that you have, what steps would you take to jump start and grow your art career?
Blair Atherholt 49:21
Oh, man, this is tough, because I kind of think that everything tends to happen for a reason in its own time. So I think what I would do is I would start painting more earlier. So, you know, like I said, I the first couple of years, two years of art school, I, you know, just went to class, and that was great, you know, I learned and improved. But I think if I were to start today, it would just be pedal to the metal, kind of like the way I grew into painting from the get go, you know. And I think that would basically double the amount of time at the easel that I was spending, that or that I would spend, and just like, you know, crank out paintings from day one. But that's a tough it's a tough question, because I really, I look like, I kind of look back on my career and time at art school, and it was such a special time for me then that I almost wouldn't, I wouldn't want to change anything about that. But I think that, I think that's the best advice I can give is, you know, if you find your thing, just get kind of obsessed with it and do it as much as you possibly can. And the amount of growth that I saw, and I think, you know, anyone pursuing something in the arts will see, is just astronomical, like it really was a game changer to to just realize that that's what I wouldn't do, and just go, you know, 110% on it, yeah. So,
Olya Konell 51:06
so a person doesn't matter how old they are or where they are in their career, maybe they already have a career, but they're kind of, you know, they they're stuck, or they're trying to elevate it. Basically, just go, and I love the way you said it. Become obsessed with it. You have to find the thing that you are able to be obsessed over and, you know, and and if you're not obsessed over it, then maybe step back and maybe that's maybe what you were just talking about, that moment in art school, that first two years, that exploratory timeframe. I mean, that part is necessary. You do have to sort of be bored, or stare at something, or have those moments of introspection, and, you know, figure out who you are and what do you like, then to figure out what to paint. So it really is kind of a balance. But, and there's a thing about 1000 hours, or something about 1000 hours. I've heard a quote before it, and it's true. It's if you do something a lot, you're going to get good at it. And yes, yeah. And then for everybody that's so worried about the marketing and the social media, you know how to get if you get really good at something, it becomes a lot easier to to share, you know, to to share about it. But do share the, the, the blah, blah, I stutter sometimes the process, because it's really cool to still see how an artist grows and how they change over time.
Blair Atherholt 52:35
Yeah, yeah. It brings your audience with you. They get to, they can almost say like I knew him or her, when beyond that, when you know and and it's still something that you know, sharing my art journey is still something that I have to, like push myself to do more, you know, because otherwise, you know, I'd spend all day kind of here at the easel, quietly by myself. So it's like, I have to remind myself, like, you know, people want to see, you know, it's important to share what you're doing and to grow that audience. And, yeah, you know, but yeah, it's, yeah, it's a cool, it's a cool process to share your stuff with everybody. Yeah,
Olya Konell 53:17
and, and what you were saying earlier, people love that. People are so fascinated by seeing the artist space that, you know, people love the things that that I feel like artists we take that are mundane to us, like, like, for to you, you walk in, you have your setup to you that's mundane, that's normal, that's every day. But to everybody else, you're like, Oh, what's that light? What's this? What's that? Yeah, and that is the same thing. You know, the questions that you guys are having, those are the same curiosity moments that you know people have about you and your work, whether it's artists or collectors. And collectors love seeing all that stuff too. They love seeing the inspiration. They love seeing the you know, they love learning about the artist as as much as they love collecting the the art, because that makes the art cooler. You know, if, if there's a person behind it that they like, well,
Blair Atherholt 54:11
and they're in, they're investing in you as an artist as well. You know, they're, they're physically buying a painting, but they're investing in this person. So you know exactly to share your your life or your process or your journey, I think really does go a long way into, you know, establishing yourself as an artist and someone that somebody wants to, you know, invest in, invest
Olya Konell 54:33
in and support, for sure, yeah, the and I just really quick, I want To remind everybody I'm sharing Blair's links again on so he's kind of, you said you were in between. You know, if, because this is we're going into the holidays, it's the crazy time. So if folks want to know, like, if there's going to be a workshop or a show, or maybe you're doing some kind of a virtual. Event or something. If they want to know about any of those things, they can subscribe to your newsletter. And I talked to him, he's not a spammer. He's not going to spam him with crazy emails. You'll just get a heads up when there's something cool going on, yes,
Blair Atherholt 55:14
yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm, actually, I should do more newsletters, but I promise I won't I. I'm not a newsletter.
Olya Konell 55:22
So, you know how it is. You sign up for something and then you get one, like, literally every other day. Yeah, that's, that's an actually fun fact about artists emails, artists, we have the highest open rates. So it's like government emails, medical, those kinds of things, you know, child care, if you have kids or whatever, then it's like art emails have the highest open rates. So if you've never sent a newsletter and you don't know anything about it, we have resources, and you can learn all about it and how to do it and the technology to do it. I want to ask like, your last words of advice. If there was only one thing someone could take away from this conversation? What would that piece of wisdom be?
Blair Atherholt 56:06
I think I I kind of touched on it earlier. I think, spend some time and find the things, or find the thing that you're really passionate about, and just kind of fall in love with it and get obsessed with it. And, you know, because I also kind of touched on this, like you could paint anything. So why paint something that you don't want to like? Spend some time and explore and really think about what it is that resonates with you in terms of art, and then just paint those things, because that's kind of what I do, is I paint stuff that I think looks cool or looks beautiful or speaks to me in some way. And I think that, I think that is an important thing to keep in mind, because I can tell if I'm painting something that I don't care about. You know, painting falls apart. So that would be my advice, is, you know, do some experimentation. And if you if you really like something, just fall in love with it, and and, and kind of get obsessed with it. And I think you can only find success that way. 100%
Olya Konell 57:17
that's like such a good little quotable. I'm going to turn that into a real put it on a t shirt. Put it on a t shirt. Yeah, exactly No. Thank you. No. That is 100% true. And going back to what you said you had that two years, I think that was part of your finding out what it is that you were obsessed over what you enjoyed, and for everybody listening, you know, if you've never taken the time to do that, you just dived into painting, take the time to do that. There is no special timetable you're on. You might figure out that it's right here, and you never knew that that was what you were obsessed over, you know, or that you could obsess over kind of a deal, yeah, so that is awesome. No. Thank you so much for absolutely joining us, for sharing. I know we kind of jumped around quite a bit, and guys, I really do appreciate your questions, and thank you for showing us your shadow box,
Blair Atherholt 58:15
yeah, of course, that
Olya Konell 58:15
was actually fun. I think that was like, Oh, what do you got over there?
Blair Atherholt 58:19
Nice, yeah, there's all kinds of stuff in here. So somebody
Olya Konell 58:22
had a question, and I don't what's the light on your easel that? Oh, is there, like, a name for it? Or, Yes,
Blair Atherholt 58:31
it is a Tron, T, R, o, n, d, it's really nice. It just plugs in. You can change the color temperature. I
Olya Konell 58:40
don't know it's coming through. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we could see that,
Blair Atherholt 58:43
yeah. So you can change the color temperature to light, you know, bright bit dark. Yeah, it's really nice. I think it was like 30 bucks. It's super
Olya Konell 58:51
attainable. T, R, o, n, d, you said, right, yeah,
Blair Atherholt 58:55
Tron, yeah. And hopefully they're still around. I bought that probably 10 years ago, so
Olya Konell 59:01
they still have them on Amazon. You could find different ones. Yeah, they have little clips on them too. $39 yeah, yep,
Blair Atherholt 59:10
super affordable. And like I said, I've had this for 10 years, and it's still going strong. So
Olya Konell 59:16
Nah, that's that's awesome. No. Thank you so much for the question. You guys. I feel like we got some tips. I really like that. Like though I I struggle with lighting. I need that because my setups, right? Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah,
Blair Atherholt 59:31
definitely check it out. Yeah,
Olya Konell 59:32
yeah. Thank you so so much. And guys,
Olya Konell 59:36
thank you, thanks. I Something I like to leave, or let all y'all know, if you want to pass on a message to Blair, go ahead and drop it in the chat right now. As we're kind of wrapping up, I'm going to make sure I share your comments with them. If there's anything at all that you'd like to, you know, thank him or share or ask, I will make sure I pass that on. And as they're doing that is. There anything that, anything exciting you're doing for the rest of the day? Are you going to be going back to your painting?
Blair Atherholt 1:00:05
Probably just be in the probably just be in the studio the rest of the day. So
Olya Konell 1:00:10
what are you working on? If I may ask,
Blair Atherholt 1:00:12
I can actually show
Olya Konell 1:00:17
that was very nosy of me.
Blair Atherholt 1:00:20
It's, you know, we're coming up on the holidays. I've been trying to paint some, some holiday food thing.
Olya Konell 1:00:25
So cool,
Blair Atherholt 1:00:29
yeah, kind of working towards, there's actually a started working with a gallery here in Lancaster.
They're having a holiday show that's coming up so that hopefully it needs another sitting, I think. But
what
Olya Konell 1:00:41
I like about that, you know, Christmassy stuff, or holiday stuff sometimes ends up being overly bright, and I like, almost like that, I wouldn't say, little Gothic vibe to it, but that little darker, you know, yeah, thanks. Very cool, yeah. Well, thank you for sharing a little bit of insight. So yeah, guys, if you I'll make sure I will pass your messages on to Blair and again. Thank you so so much. I hope you have you. I hope that you know show goes great, and we will be sending out these recordings next week. If you want to re watch the recording, make sure you're either a customer or you subscribe to the boldbrush.com newsletter, and I'm going to drop that in the chat before we go. Forgot to do that.
Blair Atherholt 1:01:27
This is where you I just want to say thank you to everybody who tuned in. Thank you so much for all your questions and for being here, and it's been a lot of fun to talk about my process and everything. So it's a great opportunity.
Olya Konell 1:01:43
Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, and we will end it here. Everybody. Have a fantastic rest of your week and we see we will all see you at the next one, our last one of the year, in December. So take care. Bye. Everybody. Bye. Yeah.
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