How to help yourself attain your goals? 1. Keep you paints out or make a place that you can keep them out, that way when you have just a moment you can sit down and practice your favorite techniques. 2. Try to paint every day at the same time if possible, for me it was when my boys went to school 7-4 and after all those years I still work this schedule. 3. Practice your painting techniques and skills, this way when you do have time to do a painting they will be right at your finger tips, like doing scales when learning to play the piano. 4. Plan a paint day or dinner with a group of art friends, it's great to have fresh eyes to look at where your improving and to talk art. 5. And if there is a art organization in your area join and be a worker, president, cookie or show chairman.

This type of art group is where I learned so much in hanging shows, organizing group shows, and showing my early work in small businesses and hospitals. Keep your art in the public eye. NO one is going to come to your front door and say "I hear you have great art in your house?"

Answer from Arleta. Painting for 30 years it's part of the routine to have these feelings. What to do about them is the key. If you do beautiful paintings, you must eventually re-fill the well with beauty and color. So for me just getting some fresh flowers in the house in the dead of winter, I love seeing the "COLOR" and look at them each day. I love to go to the greenhouses, or antique stores to just look around to pick up objects or think how they might fit into a painting, this spurs new ideas for me every time. The all time best is to see a great art show, or even to just take a short break and work in my garden just to take time off. But never longer than a week or I get grumpy to get back to my studio and paintings. When it's that much of a habit to go to the studio each day, eventually you need it like a drug.

To make a living as a artist is the most challenging of the questions: A big part it the discipline to paint every minute possible and to work though the paintings you have started before starting new ones. It’s important to finish paintings. I never think about going to work on a painting, I think only about going to the studio which is much more fun. Make your studio a great place to go that is just your private space. I also listen to books on tape while I paint, so I’m usually looking forward to where the story left off. This keeps my right brain free to paint, it’s amazing if you have never tired this.

In the early years, I used to paint fish store windows, creative signs for buildings, teach art in classes and on DVD, write books, articles, jury shows, and of course keep my originals out in the public eye in as many places to generate sales. Then paint like crazy to replace sold inventory. The biggest parts of my days are spent thinking or doing something related to my art business. Most of the professional artists I know are driven to create and work very hard all the time. The more often you paint the more ideas you have; it’s a cycle that just keeps picking up speed.

I love this little painting, it's from my trip to New Zealand. What I have learned over the years is every location has different colored sun light. In New Zealand it's warmer and yellow, so it gave this little watercolor still life a pretty glow.

Art Tip: When you do words in a painting take care that they don't pull to much attention. With these old books I left off the title on the top book, and used the texture of the cover to loose a bit of the title on the bottom book. The color of the words on the real book they were very black, so I changed them to be a dark brown to also lessen their impact.