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For today’s episode, we sat down with Cynthia Rosen, a successful palette knife artist who began painting seriously after raising six children and having previously worked as an art educator, first exploring realism before moving into abstraction and plein air painting. After a break from art to focus on family, Cynthia returned to painting through mural projects, eventually discovering her passion for plein air and the palette knife technique. Throughout the conversation, she emphasizes the importance of continuous growth, problem-solving, and self-awareness in her creative process, often working on multiple canvases at once. Cynthia credits social media, particularly Facebook art groups, and networking at plein air events with helping her build a successful career later in life. She also discusses her teaching philosophy in workshops, her belief in balancing hard work and luck, and reminds artists that it’s the heart that drives the work. Finally, Cynthia tells us where we can see more of her artwork and to stay posted for her upcoming shows and workshops!
Cynthia’s FASO site:
cynthiarosen.com/
Cynthia’s Social Media:
instagram.com/rosencynthia/
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Transcript:
Cynthia Rosen: 0:00
There is luck, but I am much more inclined to say hard work or heart. If you have the heart, I’d rather say the heart, because the heart drives the work. So if you have the heart, it will drive you.
Laura Arango Baier: 0:19
Welcome to the BoldBrush show, where we believe that fortune favors the bold brush. My name is Laura Baier, and I’m your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast, we are a podcast that covers art marketing techniques and all sorts of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages their careers, as well as others who are in careers tied to the art world, in order to hear their advice and insights. For today’s episode, we sat down with Cynthia Rosen, a successful palette knife artist who began painting seriously after raising six children and having previously worked as an art educator, first exploring realism before moving into abstraction and plein air painting. After a break from art to focus on family, Cynthia returned to painting through mural projects, eventually discovering her passion for plein air and the palette knife technique. Throughout the conversation, she emphasizes the importance of continuous growth, problem solving and self awareness in her creative process, often working on multiple canvases at once. Cynthia credits social media, particularly Facebook art groups and networking at plein air events with helping her build a successful career later in life. She also discusses her teaching philosophy in workshops, her belief in balancing hard work and luck, and reminds artists that it’s the heart that drives the work. Finally, Cynthia tells us where we can see more of her artwork and stay posted for her upcoming shows and workshops. Welcome Cynthia to the BoldBrush show. How are you today?
Cynthia Rosen: 1:44
I am further and I’m honored to be here. Thank you for the invite, of
Laura Arango Baier: 1:50
course, and I’m so excited to have you because your work is so unique and so expressive, and I feel like it really harkens so deeply into the Impressionist movement and really pulls, you know, the plein air into back into, you know, the roots, or some of the roots, which is, of course, Impressionism. And I love the sort of dappling effect and the visual color mixing that happens in your work. So I’m very excited to pick your brain about you your work and your career?
Cynthia Rosen: 2:24
Oh, thank you. Totally open. Awesome.
Laura Arango Baier: 2:27
That’s what I like to hear so But before we dive into beautiful work, do you mind telling us a bit about who you are and what you do?
Cynthia Rosen: 2:37
So I actually started painting when I was over 60. I was like a major mom. I taught once the kids hit school, I raised six children. I did have a, what could have been an art career when I was really young. When I was about 20 years old, I was invited into a gallery, mostly corporate Gallery in New York City. The time. They had seen some super realistic drawings that I had done, highly finished, super realistic and they invited me into the gallery. But by that point, because I went to the Boston Museum school, and this is the era of non objective art, and all of a sudden I had transitioned from the super realism and it was just pencil drawings to mixed media, non objective. And I said to the gallery, well, I’ve sort of changed. And they said, that’s fine. So, you know, I was really lucky that I got into a New York City Gallery. Didn’t realize how lucky I was. I was young, and I wasn’t sure if I was really that interested in art or psychology. I had set up a program, got a grant from department mental health in Boston, set up work programs in halfway houses and jails and alternative schools. So, you know, I was sort of divided, but I kept making art and went to the museum. School. Attended, really for a year. I tried ceramics, I tried jewelry. I did a lot, some print, making photography. I did not paint. I learned how to stretch a canvas. I went into the painting studio. It’s like, so how do you start? Well, this is how you stretch a canvas. So I did that, but I never followed up beyond that. And my second year here I am. Setting up art programs elsewhere. So I would just do my art in the evenings, when I’d get home from work. Back in those days, to get credit at school, all you had to do is submit a portfolio at the end of the semester, and they either gave you credit or they withheld credit. So I graduated because I’d accumulated credit. Didn’t realize until many years later that I really missed all the wisdom I could have gotten from the instructors. But that’s just sort of, you know, young and what I’m doing. So I did apply for traveling fellowship. I got one from the museum in Boston and took myself to a northern island in Norway. I took a lot of paper, I gessoed it, I rolled it up, flew into Oslo, stayed with some people that I had connection to for a few days, and then hitchhiked up to Bergen, where I got on a ferry, went to this tiny fishing island in the love dinner islands, and sat there and painted. So that was the beginning of painting. I could study. What I wanted to do is study light, which is what I was able to do, because it never cut dark. Now, summertime, it’s light year, you know, maybe gets to dusk in the middle of the night, then it starts to get late again. So I, you know, I was there for about five weeks on the island, and came back home, moved to Vermont, and I painted for about a year and a half. And then, sort of, I didn’t have a gallery, but somebody had seen my work and had a show at the State Department of governors building in Vermont, and then moved on. Did other things, went to Vail, Colorado, still was feeding some non objective work to the gallery in New York, and just went to lived life, worked in Vail, Colorado, moved to Florida, painted outside because there was no place to paint inside, and just did these large skyscapes because I didn’t like the landscape. And did that for about a year. So in total, in what I consider my youth, I maybe painted a total about two and a half years. Then my husband and I started a family and realized there was no way I could make art and be the kind of mother I wanted to be. I really, you know, one of those soccer moms, you know, always with their children. I had four children of my own. I raised six. I had my two stepsons that moved in with us, and, you know, was busy, got my teaching certification and became a teacher. So life took me sort of all over the place. Went through a divorce, was teaching. When I remarried, I moved away from Vermont, left my job. My husband did not want me to work at the time. He wanted me to be available to travel when he could. And so, you know, I dealt with cleaning up a house, and I don’t even know I spent my time, but eventually discovered center painting. It’s like, I need to do something. And the reason it was painting was during this time period about 2012 I discovered that a restaurant in New York City was looking for murals. I had not done murals per se, but while my children were growing up, I volunteered. I did costuming for community theater, and then I did backdrops for the stage. And. Discovered, ah, painting 30 foot olios with a one foot roller. Just was had been sent. I had seen somebody else do that for me, and they left, moved to Scotland, so I’ll fill that spot anyway. The situation in New York, they wanted to see a portfolio, which I didn’t have. I did a three foot square realistic painting, and I said, Look, I’m a chameleon, you know. And I showed them a little bit from the murals, and I had painted, I mean, the backdrops, and I had during the time, painted a couple murals in a restaurant in Long Island when I was living there things here or there. And so they said, well, let’s see what you can do. Do you do one at a time or more than one at a time? And I said, Well, I usually do more than one. They said, well, we just want to see one, and then we’ll let you know. I measured I walked all over the restaurant. Measured it on my drive back from New York after meeting with the owners, I jotted down ideas of what I could do. And spent the next like 36 hours sitting at my kitchen counter doing little wash studies, putting them on Photoshop, superimposing them on photos of the walls I had taken and sent down. Said, This is my idea for the restaurant murals. Can I proceed? They said, Sure. So month later, I took down one and a half murals, not totally finished, but for them to see. They said, Okay, you’re on. Got the job and got paid not a lot of money. In fact, I was told that I had to install them, and that was the hardest part of its old brick walls. And drilling into old brick was, I mean, I went through probably 10 diamond bits. You know, I spoke to somebody. I got my son, who is living in New York, who’s an artist, to help me, and so we installed some murals. I get a call back next winter saying we’d like more, because there was a huge restaurant. It’s now closed because they had a short lease. But I said, Well, you have to wait till I get back to Vermont, because what I would do is I would do canvas here. I’d paint them on canvas. I’d roll them up, install them in New York. And so could not do it in a small condo apartment in Arizona, so I came back did murals that year. So this is 2012 2013 and all of a sudden it dawns on me, well, I can make money doing art. And so that’s pretty much how I got started. Went back to Arizona, and really, 2014 really began to narrow. We were in a condo, no place to really paint. I did not know how I wanted to paint, so I set up an easel, and I took two panels at a time, and I’d paint one realistic sort of what I saw, somewhat loosely realistic, and one abstract. It’s like I had, I knew I could draw what I saw, but I had been an abstract painter, so to speak. I mean, that was mixed media at the time, when I had stopped making art, and I realized I don’t know anything about color, so That’s when I picked up the palette, and it’s like, I mean, I don’t know how to mix colors, and I don’t like green. I’m not buying green paint. I don’t like brown I’m not buying brown paint. But I would probably the first. Six years of my painting was palette knife, and the majority of my pleasure was seeing the colors I could mix, I mean, and whether the color was in the landscape, I’d include it because it was just such a beautiful color. And I think that’s how I move transition to the palette knife. So the palette knife, you use thicker paint, and I just reveled in color. And what had happened was my abstract nature sort of melded with my interest in painting, what I saw, and it just fit in plein air. I mean, I remember, I was in Arizona, there was a Scottsdale artist League, and it’s like, I don’t know what that is. I didn’t know any painters I joined. Well, you can’t show with them if you haven’t been participating for three months. Well, I’m only there during the winter, and I like to paint outside. So I did ask the people, anybody paint outside. And I got connected with a woman who didn’t care free Tony. And she would take every Wednesday, she’d say, Okay, we’re going to go here, or we’re going to go there. And I called her, Can I join? She said, Sure. And the first time I went, I took little boards and said, so what is plein air? I mean, I had been painting outside, but I just didn’t know anything. And so she said, Well, 85 90% of the painting should be done outside on site. It’s like, okay, that’s fine. I do not like going inside to edit a piece. I feel only on site. Do I really grasp what I’m seeing, what I’m feeling. It incorporates the sounds, the breeze, hopefully it’s not freezing cold, but I really did not like to bring the work inside, now that I’ve been painting for well over 10 years. Yeah, I can make some adjustments afterwards. Inside, I don’t do that much, but I like to paint large, and I live in the Northeast now. I don’t I love painting out west. I miss painting in Arizona, but my life’s not there anymore. So I only live the Northeast, and you’re lucky if you have two or three days in a row with consistent weather here. So, yeah, sometimes, I mean, I have a large painting that I started painting off my desk deck, and it was basically a sunset. You know, the clouds for paint, the mountains across the valley that I live in are not really what’s in the painting. It’s more about the sky. So the painting sitting on an easel until you get another sky like that. Meanwhile, today we have snow, but, yeah, I like painting plein air. I love painting outside because my favorite size to paint is now 30 by 48 or 36 by 60, I’ve gone more to studio work. Sometimes the plein air feeds it, and sometimes it’s just an interpretation from a photo. I have like 60,000 photos on my phone, and I’ll take similar image over and over and over again, and I don’t copy my photos at this point, I’m familiar enough with the landscape that it just feeds me some inspiration, extra inspiration. But you know, it’s really, it began with a knife. It began with loving movement of color. People have said, when I started it’s like, you paint like Matisse, or you paint. It like, you know, says on and, yeah, I know a bit of art history from my college years, but that’s not what feeds my work. It doesn’t inspire my work. My work is just this constant growth, and it’s changing. So see, one thing I did not include was because I was in art school, but I would drive, like 40 minutes to work to this halfway house that’s alternative school. I was seeing the world move by constantly, and so visually, it’s what fed me. And I think I have an interest in movement, which is what I’ve included with my use of color, and the palette knife, which is such a very quick touch kind of stroke that it is embodied in my work, so on my website. Quote, you know, or I state, time doesn’t stand still, neither will my work, and it’s really how I feel. And I think anybody who wants to be an artist or who is an artist, should expect or hope that their work changes, that it grows, that it’s organic, you know, the whole process is so next question, I can take a break from talking now,
Laura Arango Baier: 21:51
yes, no, but that is yes. I agree with all your points. You know that life, like you said, you know, time isn’t something that stays still. Nothing is stagnant, not really. Everything’s in constant flux, and as I say, the only constant has changed. Because, you know, I mean, it’s kind of a funny oxymoron, but it’s very true. And if, if your work as an artist does stay stagnant, or, you know, exactly the same? I think those are two. There are two things happening. One is maybe there’s no personal growth happening, or there’s something happening where you’re forcing your work to stay stagnant, which is very interesting, too, but I think it’s the natural, you know, progression that happens where just work changes as we change, right? Because we’re works in progress, our work is work in progress. And it’s, you know, this endless dialog between artists and art work that just naturally happens, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. And then
Cynthia Rosen: 23:03
when I get workshops, what? And I explain the process to people, what I say, it’s like hiking. Of course, I live in the country, not the city. You decide what you want to learn or do, and you take a hike, and you study that, and you hit a plateau where you practice it. The height feeds you, but the practice is when you hit the plateau, and when you’ve mastered that skill, then you’re looking for something else to improve on. And so then the height continues, and you hit and then you hit a plateau where you’re practicing, you know, during that second stage, the second height, it’s like, what do I want to learn? What do I need to learn? You’re mulling over in your brain and you’re dealing with the discontent that you may have. It’s like, okay, I painted this over and over again. What can I do now? That’s what you figure out on the next leg of the height, and all of a sudden, oh, I know what I want to learn. You hit the plateau, you practice it until you’re ready to step forward towards something else. And my belief is this is a non ending height. I mean, it’s like life is a journey, and we’re always on it. So, you know, that’s how I talk about the process with workshop attendees. Yeah, you find what your next inspiration is while you’re hiking, while you’re looking around, after you’ve become this. Intent with what you’re doing, or forward with what you’re doing, time to move on.
Laura Arango Baier: 25:07
Yeah, yeah. And I think there are two things there also that kind of tie into, you know, your point, which is, you know that if, especially as an artist, I think we’re very sensitive people in general. And one of those sensitivities I think a lot of artists have, and is very important to the work, is having that self awareness that you just mentioned, you know, that awareness of, oh, I’m lacking in this part of painting. How can I improve it? Or what did I get right this time that I didn’t get right the second time? And then on top of that, you know, in that plateau, is finding that curiosity again, of oh, I don’t think I’ve ever painted this very specific type of tree, or I don’t think I’ve attempted to paint bark before, and I want to try it right? And there, I think that’s where the real magic happens as well, because it comes from that self motivation instead of, oh, what can I paint that’s really cool that other people will like instead, what do I think is cool? You know?
Cynthia Rosen: 26:15
Yes, well, we’ve seen artists that have said, Okay, this is what’s going to sell. This is what I’m going to do, and I won’t put anybody down. I mean, if that’s works for them, it’s fine. It doesn’t work for me. I’ve been lucky. I mean, incredibly lucky. You know, people see things in my work that I don’t maybe, because I see it all the time, and I’m most often discontent with it. It’s occasionally, it’s like, Oh, I really like that piece. You know, one out of 10 pieces, it’s like, oh, that worked. How did it happen? You know, most of the work, it’s like, well, it could be better, but, you know, people paint for different reasons. I had an uncle who actually, he’s the person who gave me my first paint set when I was in junior high. He gave me, I don’t even know what kind of paint it was, but it stuck. You know, it’s like, that’s when I fell in love with art. I mean, for me, it was painting, what you could see, super realism. But anybody who engages in any of the arts in this life, in my book, is lucky. You know, for visual artists, you walk outside and it’s like, Oh, my God, look at that. For a musician, you hear a sound or beat and you say, Wow. You know, for poet, you read a beautiful piece of poetry. Or a writer, you find some literature, and the use of the words is stunning, you know. So I think anybody engaged in any of the Arts Theater, anything is blessed, because there’s something that can make our day unexpected. We can have a tough day at work. I mean, when I was teaching, it’s like, you can have a tough day teaching, or you can be loading grocery bags and somebody’s nasty to you. But if you have some kind of esthetic for visual artists, which what I talk about the most. It’s like, walk outside to see something beautiful, and it’s like, oh, relieves that stress from the day. But, yeah, it’s so if you want to be a Sunday painter, and you get pleasure from it, it’s fine, you know, it’s what you want to do with your work. If you want it to grow, if you’re content just not worrying about that, you know, that’s fine, too. As a professional artist, I always want to grow. I have an acquaintance who’s a really fine, really fabulous and highly reputable painter who said, when they go to the plein air events, they paint what they know. And so these plein air events, for anybody who doesn’t know, are these opportunities to go to a different location. It could be for three days, it could be for a week. The ones I used to participate in, I’ve sort of stopped doing them now, but I. We get put up in people’s homes, and so the only costs you have to color are the transportation and food and these, the hosting organization would constantly be showing your work with the opportunity for sales. So you know, this person said they always paint what they’re familiar with, no matter where they go. And I said, I always paint what I don’t know, what I’m not familiar with. And they said, you like the challenge? I said, No, I don’t like not knowing how to paint something, and it can get you in trouble. The first time painting cars, I went out with a group of people up on this hill overlooking a town. 630 in the morning, no traffic. There was, like, this one little shop that was open, and there would be a car in front of it’s like, okay, I’m petrified of cars. I didn’t know how to paint them for me. I just want four wheels, warmth in the winter, windows that work in the summer that will get me where I need to go. That’s what a car is. So how to paint something mechanical that I’m so unfamiliar with? So I started to paint it, only to find out that those cars were parked in front of a coffee shop, so they kept leaving. Every 10 minutes, the car would drive off, and there would be a new car there. The first time I was in Florida, and it was raining, and it was at plein air maintenance to Cuesta Florida, and there were these two boats in this waterway that would just set these great angles to each other. And so I’m standing in this garage where the words covered, and I’m looking out on this waterway, I’m going to paint boats, and somebody comes by and says, You’re not painting the boats, are you? It’s like, yeah, look at the angles. You know, the composition, it’s awesome. The dynamics. I was all excited. They said they’re going to move. What do you mean? They’re going to move, whatever. So I’m going to, you know, I’m painting them well, yes, the current is constantly shifting. The votes are constantly shifting. And finally, I wiped one out and just painted the other. You know, I kept waiting for, okay, it’s going to come back this way. Well, that didn’t really quite happen. So, and this was a quick draw, so you’re timed, you know, you have an hour and a half, two hours, whatever you have, to complete the painting, get it framed and display it. So for me, it’s like I will go where there are votes, because I don’t understand votes. I am amazed that somebody had that kind of mind, that they could if you look at the skeleton of a boat, it’s gorgeous. I mean, how they decided to make the curves so this thing would cut through the water the way it does. It’s just amazing to me. But for me to paint a boat, I’ve been on a couple of cruise ships, and in terms of a fishing boat, maybe I’ve been on one or two in my life. So I don’t understand. But so if I’m somewhere where there are votes, I want to paint boats, because I don’t get them. So, you know, it’s a it’s not the challenge. I just don’t want to be incapable of painting something, you know, and I don’t perceive it as a challenge. But yes, so our work is growing. For me. I like that change. It can be frustrating. I can do a horrible painting. Happily. I paint on ampersand gesso board, and I’ve discovered that, oh, I can sand it down. A year later, after the paint is all dry and cured, I can sand it down and use some of that residue color that’s left on the board, and you incorporate that into a new painting. But doesn’t mean my painting successful, and I still don’t like painting. Votes, even though, intellectually, I know they’re just a shape, but I will still go paint them if I happen to be where they are, until I feel comfortable. So anyway, you know that’s the process for me
Laura Arango Baier: 35:23
that’s very fascinating. Because oftentimes, you know, we get, and I’ve heard these two different pieces of advice, and I think you really exemplify one of those pieces of advice, which is, strengthen your weaknesses, which is, you know, it’s one of those components that is very useful as an artist. And you know, you need to have some sort of temperament that lends itself to resistance to frustration, because it’s very easy to give up, throw in the towel, and be very, very angry when things don’t work. But then the other piece of advice, which is kind of the opposite, is, you know, work with your strengths, right? And kind of avoid the difficult things or the things that are more challenging. But I think it’s a it’s a little bit of both, right? It’s a little bit of, yeah, you should be working on your weaknesses. And if something just if you gravitate sort towards this thing that’s really challenging you, that’s where the growth really happens, right,
Cynthia Rosen: 36:25
right, right, we learn more from our mistakes than from our achievements. Yep. So for me, painting plein air is a different creature. But I’ll still, unless I’m working on an 18 by 24 anything smaller than an 18 by 24 I’ll usually have two paintings going at the same time. You know, I used to joke, well, when you start painting and you’re over six, you have to paint fast. Then it is, I’m on a site. I like that view and I like that view. So why not? You know, basically I’m feeling the same time of day, similar palette. Why not paint them both. And not only that, but I’m painting on this one, and I can still see that one. I can problem solve that, an issue that I’m having with that one. When I’m in my studio, I have five easels going, so I’ll have five paintings, and even if it’s a plein air, I can still see it. And I’ve turned my living room into a studio. I mean, I have another room that was going to be my studio, but I live here alone. What am I using a living room for? You know, in all the years that my first husband and I used to entertain because we like to cook more foodies, so to speak, we’d never leave the dining room table. Everybody would sit, and we sat, sit around and talk around the dining room table. I would say maybe one out of 20 times. Would we move into the living room? We just we’re all comfortable at the dining room table. We have a slow meal, and we continue chatting there. So it’s like, this is my life now. I have quite a few grandchildren, and there’s another room that they can hang out in, you know, play in, play room, so to speak, family room. But, you know, at Christmas, yeah, I push my paintings back against the walls. It’s a large room. It’s fine, but this is my life, and I have a cathedral ceiling. My bedroom is upstairs. I can look down into the studio, so I can come out of my room in the morning and look at my paintings and do some troubleshooting. Or I can be in the kitchen and look at my paintings by having five easels up. I might be working on this one, these two. Let this one dry a little bit, or just take a break. As I said, I’ve got one on my easel where I’m waiting for another day, where this sun hits the clouds, right? You know we will, you know it’s white and snowy now, but we’re supposed to have sun next week. But you know all. Work on that painting then, but in the meantime, I have not resolved what I want to do with the hills below that sky, and so I can sit here and still look at that painting, even though I’m not painting right away, and say, okay, yeah, that side, because I do makeup. A lot the kind of work I do, it’s not dictated by what I see. What I see gives me the idea. So I have a left corner that’s totally unresolved. What am I do? I really want to put hills there. Do I just sort of let it, want it fade out, even though I’m not working on that painting actively today. It’s there. I can problem solve it. Other paintings, it’s like, okay, I need a break from this one. I’m going to work on that one. It gives me the flexibility. And as I said, when you’re painting plein air, having two out there, I went out with a friend to paint, and I actually had she takes a lot more time than I do to paint. She takes more time to think about it, even though her painting would be considered abstract. It’s just how she functions. And instead of getting impatient, I bring extra boards with me, and so I had a couple mini boards that I sort of did sketches on, besides the painting that I was working on. So, you know, there are ways to accommodate your personality, your type. You figure it out. What works for you. It works for me to have more than one image in front of me. And as I said, you know, it’s everybody’s different. My son’s a painter. He’s, it’s very he’s the opposite from me. He will use a double O brush on a four foot canvas, and be exacting. And I am just like, throw the paint. I torture myself with, okay, there’s a little spot here that’s not working, but it’s just part of my process, you know. So we’re all different, but, you know, he still has more than one painting going in his 10 by 10 foot apartment at the same time. No for him, it’s more this one needs to try, but he still problem solves. And occasionally I can send him a photo. It’s like, Ian, what’s wrong with this? I’m not getting something. So it’s really helpful to have other artists to talk to. I mean, that’s a treat for people that live in the city, to be able to work in a studio building where there are other painters. That’s the ideal in the country. I don’t have that, but I can call my son my daughter. Knows our you know, another daughter is a fashion design. There’s a lot of sort of points of view I can get. But when I go into New York, he’ll say, so what do you think about this here? And I can give him feedback. But, yeah, our process is different, but he still keeps a number of paintings in sight because of that problem solving issue. And when you know when I teach, if I’m talking too much, go ahead and tell me to stop talking. But when I teach, I often warn people. I said, Look, you’re going to be tired. At the end of the workshop, you’ll be exhausted because it’s problem solving. Painting is problem solving. I don’t care what medium you’re using, it’s easy to start a painting, finishing it, getting it right. It’s constant thought and problem solving. So, yeah, people are surprised. It’s like, I’m just painting, but I’m exhausted. It’s like, yeah, because I’m constantly. Saying, Well, what about this here, and what about that there? You know, did you consider this? What about the relationship between this shape and that shape, or where those two shapes are placed? Okay, are they too parallel, and what does that make the viewers I do, you know, the same size or repetition? Was that intended and why? So it’s problem solving. So for me, having half a dozen paintings around in process works.
Laura Arango Baier: 45:41
Oh, that’s awesome. That’s honestly, that’s so genius. Because, I mean, I’ve actually reached that point as well where I started a painting, and then I really want to keep going, but I know that to achieve the effect that I really want, I have to stop because the paint has to dry, because I want this layering effect to happen. But now I feel like, okay, I feel like I’m, I’m being, you know, prevented from, like, you know, I have this impulse to continue, but I can’t keep going. So I also have another painting that I started, and I also just like to, like, have them both. Like, I wake up in the morning, I turn and I see them and like, okay, that’s what I want to do, or that’s what I want to do. And I think it might be time for me to do what you’re doing and have just like, five because, I mean, it is very genius to have that because, you know, sometimes a solution to an issue in one painting is in another painting, right where it shows you like, oh, well, this is what’s happening here, and that’s similar to what I’m struggling with over there. Let me just, you know, do that, which is very genius. I think, you know, I really love that you mentioned that about having that sort of, you know, figuring out what your personal process is, and having, you know, kind of like that, like I mentioned earlier, self awareness to understand what are my unique needs as an artist? What are my unique needs creatively that will help me achieve this goal, whatever goal it may be of, you know, problem solving this image, right? And I love that you mentioned that it’s constant problem solving, because I have the same perspective. And the reason I think a lot of people get tired is because there is something that exists, which is called decision fatigue. And you can get very tired. I mean, this happens even if you’re not an artist, if you’re constantly having to problem solve, problem solve, problem solve, yeah, you’re gonna get very tired because your brain is on overdrive. And actually, your brain uses the most calories of your entire body just from existing and thinking, right? So I love that very much. It’s very genius to have, you know, multiple paintings going if you have the temperament, you know, to that requires that I need this and this and this and this, right, right?
Cynthia Rosen: 47:57
I mean, as you said, it’s the temperament. Everybody’s different. Now it’s and part of the journey is finding your process, what works for you, what medium works for you. I mean, the medium doesn’t matter. What matters is the old the image, okay? And if you’re going to put it out there, as opposed to putting it in closet or just gifting it to your, you know, friend, even if you gift it, you want to understand how the viewer is going to see it, how they’ll perceive it. So, yeah, it’s a, it’s a fabulous process, you know? It’s an interesting process. You you can write about it all day long, you know. And never tire of that. But absolutely, some people are much more content in certain ways. I’m not those people, I guess, you know? Yeah, I know what works for me, yes.
Laura Arango Baier: 49:06
And again, you know, it’s self awareness. And it’s like, for example, like, I because you mentioned the medium thing doesn’t matter. I love that you mentioned that because I was even thinking when I was working on this piece. It’s like, maybe I shouldn’t do oils, because I need, I need to move. I have this, you know, impulse to keep going, keep going, but the oil slow me down. So, of course, I love oils. I don’t want to give them up. So having multiple paintings is definitely the way that I’m going to have to go, for sure, right?
Cynthia Rosen: 49:35
Yeah, well, I just gave a workshop this past weekend, and I had one person there who sent me some photos of her work before, and she was talking about it, and it was evident by what she had sent we had met before. She was in Vermont for a retreat. I went with a friend. And then we sort of did it. Did a demo one evening, so we had met before. So she sends me some images, and there was an evidence sensitivity there. But, you know, she’s writing, she wants more saturated colors. Well, the way she’s using her acrylics is more like a watercolor. And I took in some samples of some acrylic pieces I had done. And said, this is the same medium, but it’s used in a different way. Look how, you know, dense. I also took in some gouache. She can’t use oils, and there’s some health issues, and it’s like I said, stay away from pastels as well, because of health issues. But I took some gouache for her to try. I said, if you want something solid feeling, you know the opacity and gouache is going to work for you. Or use your acrylics in a dense way, you can glaze. I mean, glazing is the best part of acrylics for me, the fact that you can paint and glaze 10 minutes later, it’s just wonderful. So with oils, you have to wait my sun glazes. That’s why he has so much drying time in between in his process. But, and I mentioned casein, I mean, there are other mediums that you can use that won’t have the same health impact as oils or so forth, but yeah, and another person, it’s finding what works. Another person, I showed her in different way of starting that will speed up the process and it’s looser, and I did a demo showing how I create trees, not by painting the tree, but the negative space behind the tree is what creates the tree. And so I was showing this a different process to another person who started it, and then said, you know, I really like that way of doing, which was more traditional. And I said, that’s great. Okay, you’ve tried something. And the next piece she did was fabulous. It’s a small piece, and it’s not totally finished, but it’s almost like she had the greater confidence to just charge ahead making that decision of how you want to work, what works for you, whether it’s the medium, the process, it’s all part of figuring out Who you are as a painter,
Laura Arango Baier: 53:02
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Cynthia Rosen: 56:08
it could be, I just had a show. So I had a show a year and a half ago, something like that in Manchester, at the gallery here. I had been in France and visited Cheverny. I had never been there. I have a sister who lives in France, and so I try to go when I can, to support her. She’ll never come back to the stage. She’s been living there for 3540 years of so, you know, I go visit when I can. And we went to chiverni, and I was, I just came back to Verney on my brain. And so I did a Monet series and had a show. I did a five by 11 foot painting that’s in the gallery. And then some more smaller ones, you know, three by four, three by five foot ones. That year, I really knew what I wanted to do. I mean, that period and culminated in a show. And now, for me, I am so affected by my surroundings. You know, I have not been out to those gardens. I have my own garden. I’ve been to other gardens, but that’s now estranged for me. You know, it’s, I can’t put my head back there. You know, for the winter, I’ll be painting snow. Next fall, I’ll paint fall, because I’m just tied to the world around me visually. Can’t separate well, but a few years ago, I was discontent with my work. I usually am wanting to change it. Do I need I’m tired of just these small plein air pieces. Do I want to go abstract? What do I want to do? I don’t know. And so I was offered a show at a gallery one of my galleries, and so Vermont this year, my works in transition. I mean, I can’t help that. And when I first said yes to the show, I’m thrilled and honored. I didn’t it was a year ago. I didn’t know where my work would go, but I ended up writing to the gallerist, you know, four or five months before I said the um, the title of the show is across the spectrum, because I’m going to have some pieces that are more abstract. I’m going to have some pieces that are more realistic. Right now, my work is in transition, and that’s what I have to show. It’s all done by me. And there was this little sketch, which I just picked up a few pieces. The show went really well, sold really well. I picked up the few leftover pieces the other day, and they kept a few and one of the ones they catch was just a little study. It’s not fully developed color wise, but it was just a study of this tree, you know, and that is nothing like my palette knife paintings. So for me, different states. Age now I think, yeah, I mean, I tried some abstractions. You know, I have some Canvas hanging on my wall. I can throw paint it, but it’s not satisfying. I thought maybe it would be paint, ink, whatever, charcoal. Have fun, but it’s not where I want to go. So I did a floral piece that’s much more abstract in a way, a lot of movement, I just needed to let loose. So I took my arm and, you know, move, lots of movement, large shapes. A gallery in Maryland that I show and sell it, they wanted some large pieces, and this was one of the pieces I had done this year in a transition, and it’s sort of crazy and wild and fun. I send it down. It sold the next day later. So it’s still me. It doesn’t look like most my work, but it’s just a different time, different part of me. I think I have finally settled down with what my next series is going to be, and I like having that established. I’d like being able to work on a series with some idea of where it’s going. It’s like you finally find the road that you want to travel. You know, there are five different ways to get to this town. This is the road I want to take. So, you know, I do feel like, okay, I’ve tried different things. I spent the year. I spent two years being discontent. I finally spent the year trying things. Now I know what I wanted to so there’s some comfort in that. But once again, part of the process and the hardest part, is finding who you are, finding your voice. I of being true to yourself, yeah,
Laura Arango Baier: 1:02:26
yeah, yeah. Again, it’s that self awareness, right? It’s that constant searching, looking, thinking, it’s Yeah. I think it’s also one of the things that best exemplifies, you know, what it means to be human, right? That search for fulfillment, and it’s just such a fascinating thing, because it’s never ending. And, yeah, yeah. And it’s so reflected in the work of an artist as well. You know, those stages that they go through, especially long, long term, through an artist’s career. It’s like, you know, when you look at like early Titian versus late Titian, it’s a huge jump, it’s a huge change. And I think it’s also very reflective of the life that you live, right? You can’t have the art without the artist, right?
Cynthia Rosen: 1:03:23
Yeah, right. And for me, it’s life I can now live. I could not do it while I was raising my children,
Laura Arango Baier: 1:03:36
yeah. Oh, what matters is, you know, you went back into it and you said, this is calling me. This is what I want to do. And that’s actually the perfect segue into asking this, because I’m very curious, what was it like for you when you went back into painting and you realized you can make a living out of it, what was that transition like for you?
Cynthia Rosen: 1:04:01
So what I did initially, you know, I had done the murals. It’s like, okay, I’m going to paint. I posted on Facebook. Actually, I joined Facebook plein air groups, and really, I learned more there than anywhere I look at work and it’s like, What do I like, what doesn’t excite me? And by seeing what doesn’t excite me, I learned as much from that as seeing what I liked Okay, and using what I like to sort of model where I went. As I said, mostly the need to learn about mixing color is what moved me to the palette knife, and the fact. Fact that I did not want to forsake that beautiful color I made, but I want to include in the painting. But it was really from Facebook that I learned a lot. I think Facebook now it’s a different world. You know, 1012, 13 years later, is for the Facebook groups as activists. They used to be. I don’t know. I don’t have time. I’m horrible at social media. I don’t make the time. I would rather spend the time with my grandchildren, paint. I do some volunteer work. I don’t want to be posted on social media, but it is a social media that helped make my career. I was interviewed by plein air magazine because he saw some paintings bar, saw some paintings that are posted on social media. And at first, you know, I had gotten a lot of well, you shouldn’t paint. How are you painting like that? This is plein air. It’s supposed to be realistic, you know. So I had plenty of skeptics, and I remember asking Tony’s, I paint differently? Is that a problem? It’s like, No, you know you paint, how you paint. But I figured, oh, just another person, because he said it’s his painted plein air. It’s like, yeah, I posted on a plein air site. It’s painted plein air. And a month later, he called says, I want to do an interview. I want to write an article. So it was from Facebook that the connections were made. Of course, I was building a website, and Fine Art Studio Online was easy enough for a non techie to figure out how to do it. And so I created a website, and I’m trying out different medium, and because I have a website that shows that I’m really painting, and I would I painted three, 400 paintings my first few years, they were all small, but doing two at a time, you get a lot of work done. But, you know, I contacted Gamblin at one point said, Well, you know, I want to do some portraits, and this medium is trying my paints drying too fast, you know? They went to my website, saw that, yes, she’s obtained her and they sent me a couple samples. Try this, try that, you know, so it all works together. Galleries, I got invited to a gallery because of being on social media and I, I went to one of Eric Rhoads retreats. It was I was gifting myself the time away to go for a week and just be with other artists and paint nothing to do, no family, no travel with my husband, just a gift for myself. So at one of his retreats, I get an email from somebody named Barbara down in Warm Springs Virginia, saying I’d like you to apply for Bath County plein air. And I’m at this retreat when I get that email, and I’m sitting having lunch with Christopher Bassano, and I said so I was shy, too shy to be with most of the people. Chris, at the time, was wearing Goths, and she was much younger than most the painters, and so she was sitting off the side. It’s like, okay, I’m sitting with her because I’m shy. It’s like, and intimidated. But I said I just got this really strange email from somebody named Barbara Burr, and they are counting. And she said, Oh yeah, it’s great. I said, What is it? Well, it’s a plein air event, and you go for the week, and yeah, you should do it. And I said, Well, she just said I could apply. You know, she’s not saying you’re in and Chris, who said, Look, if she’s reaching out to you, she likes your work, so you’re probably in anyway, getting myself where there are other painters. Years, which was this retreat? I mean, honestly, our town, the Southern Vermont Art Center, just held a retreat. And I don’t know if they had 10, 1214, people, not, not a big retreat. Eric Rhodes, from who’s the publisher plein air magazine, fine art connoisseur hosts these big retreats and these big travel tours for center painters. But going to his retreat, it went so max of 100 people or so, I got to meet other painters and going to the plein air events, you know. But it all sort of started with Facebook. It’s where I was seen. Now, maybe it would be Instagram, I don’t know, but my recommendation, if somebody’s wanting to start a career, get to be seen. When I first started, I had these little paintings, and I would hang them up at the local art center. The price was $350 for like a nine by 12, and the paintings would sell before I could do another. And so that’s when you raise your price. So then they went to 450 and they were still selling before I could do another. That’s how you start. You know, at my workshop, one of the attendees once become a professional painter, and she says, Well, she she lives in Vermont, and there’s, you know, shows in the valley, in the valley green, so to speak, in the little center of town, when they have some sale of crafts people. And she told me what she prices her work, and it’s like, you can’t make a living if you’re selling it at $100 or$120 because what are your materials? What is your time? What about the equipment to set up your show? You have to take all that into account, the framing, everything, the business end of being an artist is tough. It’s what I like least. So for me, accepting the fact that a gallery takes 50% they can take care of the business end. But in the beginning, it was all on me. It was gaining visibility on social media, going to the plein air events as a plein air painter. For this woman, she’s not a plein air painter, she’s a good painter. I said the land conservation groups host sales you should start there. You’ll meet other artists. You’ll meet people. I was amazed, a woman who had once or taken once or twice some workshops for me, has become a friend. She doesn’t, you know, maybe she lives an hour away or something, and she’s come to some of my shows, and regrettably, when she’s had a show, I’ve been out of town or something or other. So there was a show she was participating in, and I went to. It was land conservation show. It was almost like a county fair. They had people telling you where to park. I mean, there were hundreds of people there. There was wonderful work there, and it was a great place for a country painter who likes painting landscapes or animals, cows, anything to begin. But yeah, recommendation would be, anybody interested in being a painter, get yourself out there in Viable Places where people can see it. You know, libraries. My son went to the New York Academy of Art for grad school. He studied at RISD, and he likes to paint landscapes. And one of his teachers said, you don’t want your work hanging in restaurants, and you don’t want it to look like Corot or curve A and one of the other teachers stood up for him at some kind of teacher review and said, Well, look where Turner started and look where he ended up. This is a young guy. We don’t end up where we start. You know, hopefully we grow. You. But I’ve got to tell you, I had the opportunity to hang work in a restaurant, and as a result, I probably sold 20,000 so I would not cancel anything other than make your prices realistic. To start with. As it sells, you grow your prices. I know I’m getting into this because something you had said sort of led me there. Yeah, yeah. It’s advice to people when I give a workshop and so forth. I mean, you don’t sell much off of the website unless you have sales for sales and track attention. And I know all the advice that Faso gives, or you know every all the advice is Eric wrote as well, send an email out every month consistent. Send newsletters out every month. Be consistent. One, that’s not me. And two, if I get newsletters from people that I have not asked to get a newsletter from. Forget it, and especially if it comes every month. You know, I just shut them down. I mean, I don’t shut them down, but I don’t look at the newsletter. I just delete it. I don’t like how much email I get, and so I will send a newsletter out two at most, three times a year if I have something to say, once again, it’s not me. John McDonald writes incredibly informational newsletters, wonderful. They’d be worth reading. It’s like reading an art for me, I was actually really surprised, because I walk my dog in the morning and someone I don’t really know that I’ve passed as we’ve walked our dogs. Had read one of my recent newsletters, and I know that the rate of newsletters that get read is supposed to be relatively low. I get my newsletter opened by far the vast majority of people that I send it to, and I think it’s because I don’t send out so much. So they figured if they’re getting something from me, it’s because I have something to say or some announcement to make. But once again, the marketing yourself, getting your work out there, getting people to see it if you like being on the computer, guaranteed the more newsletters and the more visibility you get, the better. I’m just at a later stage in my work where I can say, yep, let the galleries take care of it. So you know, it’s different if you’re beginning from where I am.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:18:40
I definitely, yeah, yeah. And I totally agree with, you know, starting, and a lot of people also say it’s starting local, putting yourself out there, putting your work out there, being seen. And especially now with social media, we have so many more opportunities to build online communities that lead to physical communities and more opportunities, right? I think we’re in a time now where it’s a lot easier to connect with the specific community that might be more most welcoming to your work, right? And I think that’s very important, yeah.
Cynthia Rosen: 1:19:18
I mean, you’re tied to BoldBrush. However, whatever way you are, BoldBrush offers Faso Fine Art Studio online people opportunity to show work. I actually have two BoldBrush awards that I’ve never cashed in for marketing, but it gives people the opportunity to show their work, to get it out there. There I get in my E. Mails from BoldBrush. I don’t know how often, because I don’t always open them. You know, BoldBrush likes this painter, or, you know, that artist or something, depends on what my time is. If I’m traveling and sitting in a hotel room, I’ll open it up. If I’m busy with my own life right now. It’s like, yeah, I don’t have time to look at it. Sometimes I’ll look at it and it’s like, Oh, I’ll take note, because that painter, I really like, no. It’s like, you know, I mentioned to you. And for Povey, it’s there are great people to look at. And I do love it when somebody gets brought to our attention. You know, sometimes it’s like anything you look on Facebook, you like look on Instagram, you look in art books. I like this painter, yeah, I’m not going to bother with that one. The ones you really like you look up, put a star next to their name, or logging in on your phone, take a photo of their work. So you know, when you’re sitting in an airport or sitting at a bus station, you can log and delete photos how it’s like, Oh yeah, that person I want to look up, you know, it’s there. So, yeah, there are a lot of ways. As I said, if you want to progress your career, you really want to get out there. And I don’t care what that teacher at New York Academy said, you don’t want to be in a restaurant if it gets your work out there, why not?
Laura Arango Baier: 1:21:47
Yeah, you never know who sees your work. You never know. Yeah, exactly. There’s something also that you mentioned the last time you spoke about luck and how you think luck has also influenced your success. Do you mind elaborating on that
Cynthia Rosen: 1:22:06
kind word? I think I’ve been incredibly lucky. Some people would say, bless. Others would say, well, you work really hard, but there is look, people are born lucky. Some people are born far more fortunate than others. I mean, life is strange, beyond compare. Okay? We are blessed in whatever way we are, and yes, I’ve worked hard, but I do believe that there is luck. I was very lucky that my friend said, Oh, you’ve got to come to the plein air convention when I had first started painting plenair. He said, So what’s that? And I’m not a group kind of person. I’m shy, and it’s like, not super comfortable around lots of people. She said, You just got to come and so I said, Okay. And then I looked at where the convention was going to be, and it’s going to be Monterey, California. I look on the map, it’s like, where’s Monterey? It’s on the ocean. And I called her, I said, I don’t paint horizon lines. I’m in water. That’s a big horizon line, you know, out there in water. I don’t paint that. That would be boring to me. She said, You gotta come. So I went, and it wasn’t boring, because it’s actually there were these rocks, and the water is crashing in on the rocks, and I had three panels up painting, because it’s like, I can’t get enough of this. Okay, it was fabulous, but I came back and they give you a goodie bag, so to speak, you get a bag, your backpack, plein air convention, whatever year it is, and it’s filled with magazines, plein air magazine, fine art connoisseur, couple tubes of pain, some advertisements for this or that, maybe some paper samples. I come home and my husband was still out in Arizona. I would come back east for a month before. Before he would, and I’d leave the east coast a month after him, because I have my house and my family’s here, so I’d be on the East Coast longer. I’m thumbing through the magazine, and I see this retreat 100 artists a week in Maine, and it’s like I’m gifting myself that retreat. I’m gifting myself the time to be away from everything and just paint. My husband was not super supportive of the time I wanted for painting, you know, and it’s like, I need to do this. I had made some money from doing the murals. I need to make money. I could be bagging groceries. I could be working in a store, but I’ve got grandkids. I want flexibility, and so I’m going to try to paint. So I’m going to go give myself a week, and which is what I did, and that’s where I didn’t know who Eric Rhodes was. I mean, he been on stage at the plein air convention, but now there are 1000 people, and I’m in the back and watching the hoopla. He drives by me, and he says, I heard about you because I had two paintings on my easel. He said, I heard about you why you’re painting two paintings. And so, you know, we talked about it and so forth. So getting myself to the retreat, and the people that came to the retreat this year, even though it’s, as I said, 1220, 1520, people, really small people get to know each other, and they network. And it’s from that that you get started. But yes, it was lucky. Getting the job to do murals was lucky, having the ability to make money. I had started cleaning houses with a friend. A friend had a house cleaning business, and I needed something very flexible and very part time. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. She loves it for me, no, but I needed some way, the flexibility that was not a big commitment, that I could make money. I was lucky that I got to the murals for the restaurant New York. I was lucky that it said to me, you can make art. I was lucky that my paintings of this size went from 300 to now. You know that would be four times the price or whatever. Luck has a lot to do with it, but getting yourself into the right places, getting yourself where there are other people of the same ill and the networking as shy as I am and was, it was still great. And I actually said to some people that are part of this group, I said, Please don’t take my shyness as a snobbery. Okay, it’s just that I’m shy. I did not grow up around a lot of people. Why had siblings, but they were all four years apart, here and there, or further enough apart that and we didn’t do a lot as a family. Kids were not brought to my house after school. You know, I raised my kids totally like the opposite way of how I was raised. So, yeah, I never gained the people skills that makes me feel that comfortable around people. But I was lucky that my uncle gave me a painting set and that my mother was not present, and so I could retreat and paint, and my high school art teacher sent my portfolio away, so I ended up with a national scholarship, free ride to college. I’ve been incredibly lucky in life, and I know how hard it is for so many people, but I also do believe that you can help that luck along, working hard, you know, for me, going to a place with honey. With other people. It’s not exactly my comfort zone. Yeah, some people would say, Yeah, but look how hard you work, but look how lucky I’ve been. Yeah, there is luck.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:30:15
There is Yeah, yeah. And it’s good to have that balanced perspective, because, you know, I think a lot of people don’t realize how lucky they are in a lot of ways. You know, we’re born into the situation that also affects the way that we develop, right, like, if you’re born into poverty, it’s a lot harder to get to a certain point if you’re born into, you know, middle class, upper class, you know, situation, you have a lot more opportunities, more ease in in ways that you know someone who isn’t can like there’s just so many benefits that we’re born with that we don’t recognize, and it’s, of course, important to recognize them. And I find that it’s a little bit similar to the talent versus, you know, hard work perspective, where some people are quote, unquote, born talented, which I think is actually very, very rare. And then there are people who they say, I don’t know how to paint it all. I was never the best of my class and but I’m going to work so freaking hard. And that always outworks talents in every sense. Talent that doesn’t practice
Cynthia Rosen: 1:31:27
is absolutely, yeah, absolutely, totally, no. You know, I’ve seen gifted people that it’s fine, yep, but whether they don’t take advantage, they don’t work with it, I don’t know. And some people just been lucky, you know? And there’s some really bad art there that people are making a million dollars from. There’s all sorts of things. But no, I do believe that hard work is what I don’t know, then somebody’s gonna say, yeah, look at the person who just got lucky. You know,
Laura Arango Baier: 1:32:12
it’s a balance, yeah, it’s a little bit of everything.
Cynthia Rosen: 1:32:16
Yeah, I do not see myself as that really talented person, but I’ve worked hard, and I also don’t see my work as being that good, but that’s me, because I am discontent with it. And, you know, I’ve said I recognize some pieces are good, and I do say it’s like, one out of 10 pieces, it’s like, wow, who did it? How that happened? That one just worked. And that’s true, especially with plein air. It’s different in the studio. In the studio, you can work at it and work at it, work at it. Sometimes it won’t work. Sometimes it needs to be put away for a year, and then you pull it back out. But other times, yeah, you can get you can solve the problem. But no, there is suck. But I am much more inclined to say hard work or heart. If you have the heart, I’d rather say the heart, because the heart drives the work. So if you have the heart, it will drive you.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:33:31
Oh, I love that, because it’s so true. I think also it’s very evident in someone’s work when they put their heart into it, right? Of course, hard work is one thing, but it’s also, yeah, you have to have that curiosity, that motivation, that drive, that love for the craft, right? Because there’s also the possibility of someone working hard. But if there’s no fulfillment, and if there’s no like, it’s almost like a car that’s stuck in the mud and the wheels are just spinning. It’s very different from a car that’s actually moving right, right.
Cynthia Rosen: 1:34:09
Yeah, now it’s true. Mentors, yeah. I this person who is in my workshop, said, so do you do mentors? And my sister had, my older sisters mentioned, oh, you should do mentoring. And I look at the logistics, and it’s like, I don’t want to deal with all the logistics. But this person who took my workshop, it’s like, would you mentor? Do you ever venture? It’s like, look, you’re in my workshop. You want to send me some images. You want to ask for advice. Feel free. Okay, we have a relationship. Now. Do I want to take on strangers and go through this whole rigamarole? No, you’ve taken my workshop. You want to send me some work. I had one person that was like, sending me something every week. I said, Yeah, that’s too much. You want to send me something a few times a year. You want to ask for a crit a few times a year. That’s fine, but I have to do my own work, so, yeah, but for people that want to move on, you know, or try something new, find somebody, talk to them, build a relationship. I am so the workshop I just gave the two day one, it was not set up with a curriculum. It was a guided open studio so people could come in with whatever they’re working on, whatever they want to do, whatever they want to try, and I’m there to help guide them. And it was actually, it was fun for me. It was a nice change, because usually my workshops are a little more structured, but this was just a two day easy thing, and it was really nice. I was surprised there were no beginners, and part of what drove that, I was doing some volunteer work at what we call the barn sale. It’s a fundraiser for United counseling service in town. And there were a couple of women that came over to the Art Section, which is where I was, and they were talking, oh, yeah, we’d like to take workshop, but we’re beginners, and that’s what put the seed in my brain for having a unstructured workshop where you could I could have beginners. I could have advanced painters come in, wherever you want to be, whatever medium you want to try. I am not a watercolorist. Have I played with watercolor? Have I done a couple watercolors, none that I show but yes, I like, I love watercolor. I won’t deal with glass. You know, I said to somebody, now that I can varnish watercolors, maybe I’ll do watercolors, but I can’t seem to put down my palette knife, but it’s a great medium, you know. And I’ve given a couple watercolor workshops, but beginner level, you know, not, I’m not a watercolorist, it’s just I’ve been asked to for a day or two or, you know, or a private group or something. But no, it was nice not defining a medium and the step process. So it’s smaller workshop, but, you know, very nice. Yeah, so get yourself somewhere. If somebody wants advice, put yourself out there. Get your work seen. Get yourself if you want to learn something, if you think you know it all, all the more power to you. I never think I do. I had a gallery say, Cindy, you need to leave because she said, I come in. I said, somebody said, Oh, I hear you did a great piece. I said, No, it’s horrible. She said, You need to leave the gallery so nobody hears you say that you don’t like what you just did, because we’re going to try to sell it. Do but that’s our discontent with our work, and I think we’ll always have it,
Laura Arango Baier: 1:38:52
yeah, yeah. I think it’s a it’s in many ways, it can be important to have some level of discontent, because it means, you know, oh, well, that means I can improve
Cynthia Rosen: 1:39:08
Exactly, yeah, otherwise, you may.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:39:11
I don’t know. I’d be more worried about a painting that I feel satisfied with than one that I don’t. I’d feel like, okay. That means, you know, I’m doing something wrong, and that’s important, because that means the next one could be better, even though I’ll still be doing something wrong.
Cynthia Rosen: 1:39:27
I did a painting once that I brought to the gallery, and I put a really high price on I said to the gallery, I don’t want it to sell for less than such and such, and I hadn’t sold anything near that price at that point. And I did that because it needed to be worth my while to sell it, otherwise I wanted to be able to go look at it and figure out what the heck I did that made. It work because it worked, but I wasn’t aware I was a newer Painter at the time. It’s like it works, and I don’t understand why. So I want to be able to go look at it and not let it go until I figure out what that was. And then, you know, she had an offer that was lower than what I came in at, you know, later on, and it’s like, yeah, because by then I had figured it out. No, it’s important. It’s important to see your work. It’s important to see what works, what doesn’t work, learn from it to make your next step.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:40:49
Absolutely, absolutely and then if someone did want to take a workshop with you, or wants to see one of your exhibitions or anything, do you have anything coming up that you would like to mention.
Cynthia Rosen: 1:41:02
So I’m really bad at keeping up with my website, but I think I have posted some recent one. So my galleries, or Helmholtz fine art in Manchester, Brian fine art and style, they said both Vermont gallery 46 in Lake Placid and the trip gallery down in East in Maryland. I used to do a lot of planner well, not a lot. I do maybe four plein air events a year, and last year I decided no more. We’ll see about next year. I may apply to one, but I’m not sure it was sort of nice not having to travel. So workshops, I always get workshops Southern Vermont Art Center, and that’s one or two a year, and this coming year, there’s a new place that I’ve never been to. It’s called artist rising creativity retreat in Glastonbury, Connecticut. I’m giving a workshop there in spring, the Wayne Art Center. Every spring, I go down and give a weekend workshop. And let’s see there. I’m not doing it till 2026 but I’ve given a couple of, I think, three workshops at the Hudson River Valley Art Center, which is a fabulous place. I mean, I love it. I’ve never been to this Connecticut place, but that is, it’s a five day workshop. I like the five day workshops. They are residential. People live there. We eat meals together. I tend to go back into the studio at night. If anybody wants to come into the studio and work some more. Maybe if people want I’ll do a small thing on perspective, or we’ll get somebody to sit and do portraits, which would not be part of the regular workshop, but the retreats provide that opportunity, and I’ve been asked to judge the Adirondack plein air festival whenever it is, probably next summer. I think it’s in August, and I’ll be giving a two day workshop up there that’s in Saranac Lake area. So you know, those are the workshops. Some are on my website. If they’re not all up there, it’s because we haven’t come up with all the lesson descriptions yet. But that’s sort of where I’m at. I had a conversation with somebody a couple weeks ago, an artist came up to visit and paint and was saying, Well, you need like, 10 galleries. It’s like, No, I’m good with four. Four galleries. That’s plenty. It’s hard to keep up with them. So that’s sort of about me. I can’t think anything else.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:44:25
Well, do you mind telling us what your website is and maybe your social media? Okay?
Cynthia Rosen: 1:44:32
Website is www dot Cynthia rosen.com, it is a Faso website. I made some changes. I haven’t even checked it to see if they went through, but, yeah, I put pieces up there every so often. I don’t always add the new pieces. Sometimes they get into a gallery and they sell. Before I get around to putting them on my website, but on Instagram, Rosen, Cynthia R, o, s, e, n, c y, N, T, H, I A, and Facebook, I think it’s Cynthia Rosen. You’d have to sort of, and there’s a Cynthia Rosen studio, but that’s meta, making a fancy Facebook page, which is sort of beyond what I want to deal with. But the people that, most of people that know me follow Cynthia rose in on Facebook I can see if I can look it up right now, sure, and I do have some paintings, actually, at Sarah Beth’s West restaurant in New York City, talking about restaurants from which, as I said, I’ve made some sales. So galleries will say, Oh, you shouldn’t do that. Well, you know what? I was invited to, and the exposure has been good. And so I’m lucky to be there, but
Laura Arango Baier: 1:46:15
yes, I will be also including all of your links in the show notes. And then, in case someone wants to get your bi annual or tri annual newsletter, they can also sign up at your website. They can
Cynthia Rosen: 1:46:27
sign up. I mean, that’s a great thing with Faso one, as I said, it’s for non tech. It was super easy to set up. And I could change the layout. I could change all this stuff, which I just don’t do because I’m wanting less computer time. Not I keep getting more and more grandchildren. But yes, Faso has links to things you know, it’s easy to go from my website to it even mentions if a painting’s at a gallery, it shows that it’s at that gallery anyway, yeah,
Laura Arango Baier: 1:47:12
yes, yeah, no. I also, I also have a Faso site, and I think it’s the most convenient, fast. I mean, you don’t have to deal with anything you can have your blog there. So easy, yeah, yeah.
Cynthia Rosen: 1:47:24
Though I have been asked about prints, and for a while they were going to do prints, and they stopped, but they are again, so I have to, I contacted services. It’s like, so they gave me a list of how to set up prints so people can make prints for my work.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:47:40
But of course, computer time,
Cynthia Rosen: 1:47:45
I know exactly it is, and I want to switch out the paintings that are in New York. I’ve got to take some new paintings up to Lake placi and I get kits done for Helmholtz. So it’s like, yeah, busy,
Laura Arango Baier: 1:48:04
yeah, it’ll get done eventually, but yeah. Well, thank you so much Cynthia for giving us some of your time and your excellent advice. I have tons of notes, and I’m so grateful to have had to you on the podcast.
Cynthia Rosen: 1:48:21
Well, thank you very much. I am honored to have been here. And hello to everybody in arts world. Have heart work. Get your work out there. If you want to be a professional, if you want to enjoy it for yourself, gift it to family. It’s a joy. So yes, they’re lucky to have it. Okay, everybody in art world, hi, thank you BoldBrush. Take care.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:48:52
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