Hurray! What's next?

I did it! I hit some targets I was only dreaming about when I first set out to try and make some income from art. I knew I wanted to paint, to get better at painting and to start to make enough money to pay for the eye-wincing cost of oil paints and pastel pencils. I thought to myself - if I could paint a set of animal paintings and get them up somewhere and then maybe start selling them - then the ball would be rolling and I would in fact be a legit artist. Well, the ball has rolled!

However, I'm not an artist...yet. Let me explain.

I've considered this title 'artist' quite a lot since I been putting some serious hours into it and I'm not sure I'm wholly comfortable with it - I mean I'm not Zorn or Sergeant or Lucy Kemp-Welch (three of the best realist artists!) I mean I'm nowhere near those people in terms of skill or understanding of colour or line or the zillion other things that make artists artists. I've not put 20 years into the work or have anywhere near the hands on experience of those masters but I do produce art-work. So I've concluded that I shall refer to myself as a painter. That's enough for now. I paint. I learn. I've got about a thousand paintings to go before I consider anything else and it would be ridiculously arrogant and deluded to try and muscle into the same category as some of the brilliant people I have the pleasure to follow on instagram etc. My website is called Banx Art... just ignore that.

Anyway back to the point - so I hit a major achievement this week by selling my first proper commission and by hanging my paintings up in a space where actual human beings will be looking at my work.

As you may have read in my previous blog it all came about by bumping into a fantastic feller who made a decision to give me a chance. Then as a result, I found myself hanging my paintings on his pub wall. I know - its not the Tate - but its a pub - an actually those are EXACTLY the type of customers I want - just normal folk who see a painting and go I like that! That'll go well in the loo! Anyway, the best bit about it was knowing that the huge piece that was commissioned would be kept up on the wall for all the locals to see. I must say, Mike from The Black Horse in North Nibley a hugely generous guy and it was pure serendipity that I was given the opportunity. It was equally my responsibility to not disappoint him and so I worked hard on making his painting the best I could do.

The Black Horse in its home in The Black Horse Pub in North Nibley, Cotswolds

My other paintings

So it was with an amazing sense of achievement that I took the photos above.

Now I'm wondering - what's next? I realise that these paintings are not going to fly off the walls - but I need to reach for the next goal. So I'm planning my next phase.

I plan to keep creating my pet portraits - they pay the bills and actually the satisfaction I get for completing them and finding out what they mean to the buyers is amazing. I've just completed the one below and it was amazing to hear that it is for a Christmas present for the customer's mum who recently lost her husband and her dog Mitzy was a real anchor for her during her grieving. That's wonderful and chokes me up a bit that she'll see that on a wall and it will evoke these beautiful emotions. See - I'm a right softie but its so precious to know that my paintings will do something to bring happiness to someone.

my most recent pet portrait

I'm in phase 2 now. I plan to work on another 5 paintings and try to increase the pet portraits. These next paintings I plan to expand the horse theme to include riders too. I'm a bit of a military geek (played with soldiers for hours as a child) and I recently painted Richard III about to go into battle for my mum for Christmas. I totally loved it - so my next piece will be an attempt to paint a rider from The Charge of the Light Brigade. It's a big step - I've got to get the uniform right, the feel of the picture - the horse running, the expression on the troopers face - but you've got to reach up - otherwise you're going to stand still and I need to be good - good enough for people to say wow - that painting is good.

Richard III for me dear old mum

I also plan to expand my wildlife paintings - I want to paint a hare, perhaps some more foxes and my wife wants a huge painting of elephants. So I've got a lot of paintings to plan. At the same time I'm really trying to improve my skills and so I'm enrolled on an online course from a fantastic painter called Andrew Tischler - If you are interested in learning to paint, I highly recommend going to The Tisch Academy https://www.tisch.academy/. He's a great guy, a brilliant painter and a fantastic teacher.

So watch this space to see where I go next.

Thanks too for all the support and encouragement from my friends and family on Facebook - You can find me here https://www.facebook.com/BanxArtUK/

James