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The BoldBrush Show
159 Barbara Jaenicke — Push Through the Self-Doubt
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For today's episode we sat down with Barbara Jaenicke, an accomplished fine artist known for her impressionist landscapes created in oil and pastel. Originally from New Jersey, Barbara moved to Atlanta and later to Bend, Oregon, where the scenery continues to inspire her work. Her journey began with various art media and developed into a passion for capturing light, atmosphere, and reflective elements in nature. After careers in advertising and marketing, Barbara gradually transitioned into full-time painting, applying business and organizational skills to support her art practice. She emphasizes relentless skill development, time management, and perseverance as keys to succeeding as an artist. Barbara believes that genuine drive and a love for beauty are essential, encouraging artists to stay inspired and tackle both the creative and business sides of their careers. Finally, Barbara tells us about her upcoming workshops as well as her solo show at Cole Gallery in Edmonds, Washington, which features coastal and mountain scenes!
Barbara's FASO site:
Barbara's Social Media:
instagram.com/barbaracourtneyjaenicke/
Barbara's Book:
You have to be true to yourself and know where you are in your journey realistically. And there's nothing productive with getting down on yourself. You know, artists have many setbacks. Everybody has self doubt and you know, geez, you just, you just have to push through it and just know you're going to go through ruts. You just have to start another painting work through it. You know, many times you have to regain your confidence.
Laura Arango Baier: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 of 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 Barbara Janicki, an accomplished fine artist known for her impressionist landscapes created in oil and pastel, originally from New Jersey, Barbara moved to Atlanta and later to Bend Oregon, where the scenery continues to inspire her work. Her journey began with various Art Media and developed into a passion for capturing light, atmosphere and reflective elements in nature. After careers in advertising and marketing, Barbara gradually transitioned into full time painting, applying business and organizational skills to support her art practice. She emphasizes relentless skill development, time management and perseverance as keys to succeeding as an artist, Barbara believes that genuine drive and a love for beauty are essential encouraging artists to stay inspired and tackle both the creative and business sides of their careers. Finally, Barbara tells us about her upcoming workshops, as well as her solo show at cole gallery in Edmonds, Washington, which features coastal and mountain scenes. Welcome Barbara to the BoldBrush show. How are you today?
Barbara Jaenicke:I'm doing very well, Laura. Thank you so much for inviting me to be part of the BoldBrush show. Happy to be here, yeah,
Laura Arango Baier:and I'm happy to have you, because when I came across your work, I think one of my favorite things about it is how much you play with the focus you know, how much you know you have these beautiful, sharp areas and then surrounded by this beautiful, dreamy softness that really just pulls you into the scene. And I think that's one of the best things, besides the way that you describe water, I think it is. It is absolute eye candy. So I'm very excited to pick your brain about your process and your gorgeous work. But before we dive in, do you mind telling us a bit about who you are and what you do? Oh, sure.
Barbara Jaenicke:Well, I I was born and raised in New Jersey. Lived for a long time in Atlanta, but I currently live in Bend Oregon. I've lived here for the past 10 years. We moved here for the scenery, and I'm a wife, I'm a mom of a college student, and I'm a professional Fine Art painter, and have been for little over 20 years. And I work in oil and pastel and paint mostly landscapes, although I do dabble every now and again in still life, and my style is more painterly Impressionism. I like a loose style, very edited style. It's usually what I shoot for. It took a while to to really loosen up my work. It was a goal of mine. I was admired artists who could do that well. So that's what I've always strived, strive for with my work, and also capturing light in my work is something that is important to me.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, yes, yeah. And I think you've definitely done a great job. I was admiring one of your paintings. You're welcome where you have this gorgeous little stream and this snow surrounding it, and the way that you captured the reflections on that dark stream, you can tell that it's dark, right? It's a black little stream, but at the same time, or seemingly black on top, you have these gorgeous reflections that, ah, yeah, definitely
Barbara Jaenicke:achieving, yeah, reflective elements in the landscape is a favorite theme of mine. That's why I like to paint snow. It's very reflective. You can have a lot of fun with color temperature. With color palette, it expands the value range. It expands the temperature range. With reflective elements, you know, white water does the same. And I've been doing a lot with white water, and, you know, moving water and waterfalls, and, you know, a little bit with clouds and just other other things that sort of extend, extend that value range in a painting. So that's, that is what I, I enjoy quite a bit in landscape painting. And it's when other artists do that, well, I call them my go to artists who, you know, work that I love looking at and inspires me that tends to be what they capture, well in their paintings, too.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can tell you have that love for the water, for sure, and the reflective surfaces, because you can really see it in the strokes and in the just the flavor, the way that you describe it. Why did you gravitate so much towards the landscape? Having been, you know, raised in, you know, New Jersey, which is very much cities. Why landscape?
Barbara Jaenicke:Well, you know, I really didn't get into painting more seriously. You know, I was a painter. I was an artist when I was younger, you know, living in New Jersey. We lived, you know, in central New Jersey, so it wasn't really urban area. So I did always love being outside. And, you know, especially now, I love hiking. I love being outdoors. And it's really landscape paintings that have always inspired me. So that's why I sort of gravitated toward that I, you know, as I was younger, I, like most artists, I dabbled in all kinds of subject matter. I did, you know, I did pet portraits for a while, really everything and anything, just trying out different subject matter, even different media I, you know, worked in Well, I think my my first medium I worked in was just pencil. I loved drawing, and that's really sort of where I came into it was just a love of drawing. So I did a lot of pencil drawing, charcoal drawing, a lot of pen and ink. You know, this is that way back when I was a teenager, I went through this whole pen and ink phase, I did watercolor. We did a lot of that. In my high school art classes. Did acrylic, an oil pastel. I did all of that. So I kind of ran the gamut of lots of different types of media to work in, and when I got back into it years later, I sort of had two starts to my painting journey. One was when I was a teenager, back when I was in high school, and then a little in college, I painted quite a bit. Then during my early careers, my you know, I call it my first and second career. Before I came into painting career, I got back into it maybe 15 years later, when I had a little bit more time kind of job with better hours, so I had more time to paint, to classes, that sort of thing, and in the evenings. But when I got back into it at that point, at that second, my second start, I'll call it, I I started, I guess, a little bit with drawing, and then I thought I would try a little bit of pastel, because that's what I did early on. I did a little pastel before I went into oil when I was a teenager. But I and I figured I'd go eventually into oil. But at that time, all the better pastel products were on the market, the sanded surface papers, the softer consistency pastels, and I really enjoyed those. So I did stick with pastel for quite a while, and got into back into oil a little later than I had intended, but I eventually did, and so now I currently work equally in both. But you know, like I said, as the as I really studied the work of other artists, I really was drawn to landscapes, so I did gradually gravitate toward mainly landscape. So that's, that's why I'm primarily, primarily a landscape painter.
Laura Arango Baier:Now, yeah, it makes sense, because, I mean, the landscape is such a beautiful thing to paint, right? It just, it's a gift that keeps on giving. Even the same location every day is a different day, right?
Barbara Jaenicke:Yeah, there's a lot of variety, I think, in landscapes. You know, I always have to sort of chuckle when I go with artists to paint at a particular location, and they'll say, Well, I don't know if I want to go back there. I painted it once already. And for me, a lot of locations I could paint there every single day for a year and paint a different painting. You know, I you know, the composition is different, the lighting is different, the atmosphere is different, you know, the vegetation is different from one season to the next. So you. You know, to me, I could make a completely different painting. You know, when I when I still lived in Atlanta, and I was painting quite a bit, we, we used to travel to Minnesota once a year, and it's usually just after Christmas time. So there was always snow on the ground. And living in Atlanta, we would get a little tiny bit of snow maybe once every few years. So as I was visiting Minnesota over the course of it was probably almost 20 years I, I was stockpiling my snow reference photos, snow scene reference photos, and at a certain point, I started bringing my painting gear up there and painting out in it. And so what would happen is I would try to take as many reference photos and collect some studies. It was a family thing, so not a ton of time to do that, but I would really try to stockpile my reference photos of snow scenes, but I would have to make them last a whole year. And so that's when I really started training myself to use either the same image or many similar images of the same basic view of the same basic landscape and crop into it many different ways. Zoom out, zoom in, vertical, horizontal, and it really trained me to understand how to work a composition each painting may focus on something a little bit different in each painting. So it really having it's almost like having that limitation improved some skills in the design and composition thinking through more of a very precise visual statement about the landscape. Is it about the light on the tree, or is it about light peeking through the tree, these delicate tree edges, or is it the light skimming across, you know, the field behind it? So it's something where you're really going to take your focus a little different, throughout the scene. And you know, I would get so much mileage out of a single reference photo. And I was doing a teaching, a lot of teaching around that time, so I needed lots of reference, and I was making some headway with some success with snow scenes, as far as entering them in shows and that sort of thing. So of course, you want to keep it up, and that's then what students want to learn from you. So I had to make snow scenes work with only having a week's worth of or even less five days worth of reference photos last me the entire year. So again, it was like a limitation that helped me gain some skills.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, oh my gosh, that's a that's really awesome, though. Because, like you said, there's you can look at one place, right? But if you really notice the place, you can definitely capture or see a lot more than if you're just glancing in a place, right?
Barbara Jaenicke:And the more you study a subject, yeah, the more you see. But now I live where we get we don't get a ton of snow right here in the city of Ben, but it's there for me to drive to, you know, about a 45 minute drive up into the mountains for whenever, whenever I need it so it's handier now.
Laura Arango Baier:Oh, yeah, yeah, you don't have to stretch out four pictures. Yeah.
Barbara Jaenicke:But you know, there are those favorite subjects I'm real particular about my reference. And you know, even when you know places I've known that are my that have become my favorite places to paint on site. I'm particular about what what it offers in terms of the composition. And so even though I might go to all these different places to paint or take reference photos, I'm pretty particular about what's going to make its way into a larger painting. So I still have to put those skills to use. I still have my favorite reference photos that have served me well, because they just have a lot of the nuts and bolts in them that I look for for a good composition, good visual statement about the subject, whether you know it's usually the lighting, if it has or has maybe some good edge variety to work with. So there's, there's always those favorite subjects that will make their way into a painting, maybe a few times.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, yeah. And then in terms of your. Process. Since you mentioned, you know, having reference images. Do you do a little bit of both, like, you know, on site, sort of note taking, and then also, you know, pictures, and then
Barbara Jaenicke:studio, yeah, yeah, I've, you know, there are many ways to bring visual information back into the studio. When I was back in Atlanta, I had a wonderful group of painters there that we went every Tuesday, and we would go paint. And we did that for a year. So I was in the habit of painting weekly on site, so that, you know, an experience like that over the years is really invaluable to the landscape artist. And when I moved here, I to understand the landscape. I did a lot of painting with, you know, local painters, and maybe not quite as much as weekly. But for the first few years I was here, I went out pretty weak frequently, and painted on site, either with a group or some, you know, nearby areas I could, I would just, you know, head out and paint on my own. There's even in, even in and around my neighborhood where I live, there are some pretty nice views to paint where it's easy for me to just go and paint on site. But I'm also the type of artist where I also like little zoomed in snippets of the landscape, like a little clump of snow covered grass next to some water, and I'll sometimes just use that as a nice subject to study and understand the landscape, just By studying something from life after you are studio bound for too long, sometimes you just have to get out for a little bit. And you know, see it from life. But we go on a lot of hikes here. My husband and I love to hike, and we have a couple of friends that hike as well that we like to get out with. And bend is a great place for that, because there are just so many areas to go see and hike to. We're, we've been here for 10 years, and we were still learning of new places to go and explore. But a lot of times, if I'm if it's too far to go to bring painting gear, and also, you know, when you're with non painters, it's, you know how that goes. You don't want to make them sit there and wait while you try to get a painting in. But sometimes I'll bring my little gouache kit and I'll beg for maybe 15 or 20 minutes to do just a little color study. And sometimes they'll be amenable to that, and that's usually an okay thing. It's good for a quick little rest stop. So I've taken a liking to gouache for that reason, and I don't really use it for finished work, but just for these quick little color studies. And they're fun. It's fun to do. It's you can I have my little, tiny, little scale down gouache backpack with a little gouache kit in it, and that's been a lot of fun. So I've developed a habit of doing a little color study, but also some notes I'm, you know, I want to be able to describe what I'm looking at, what is special about it and what's peaking my interest. What is the real exciting part of what I'm looking at? I want to be able to remember that that's all the stuff that photos don't capture. And so I'll do that. And then other times, if, if it's still a situation where I'm not going to bring the gouache kit, but maybe just bring a little notebook, I'll do a little just a pencil sketch in the notebook, and then it's the note taking. That is really the information I need. You know, one thing I want to be able to jot down is the mid value of that scene that I'm looking at. That's something that the photos always get wrong. So what is my mid value? So I understand what I'm looking at when I look at a reference photo back in the studio, and then again, I describe all those other things. What's exciting about it? What does the light look like? What is the color of the light, all of those sorts of things. And if I have none of that, I don't have the gouache kit, I don't have my painting gear, I don't have even a sketchbook. What I'll also do is use my phone, and sometimes I can, with my finger, jot some notes on the one of the photos, or I'll take video, and I'll talk over the video and describe all of those things that I'd like to capture. So that's become another way that I do that. So just it's, you know, at that point, it just becomes fun to find different ways, I think, for me, to bring visual information back into the studio. And you know also, I found that some of my most successful paintings are those that have been inspired from a. Hike, an all all day hike, when I was completely immersed in the landscape all day, just looking at it, being amazed, just understanding what is so beautiful and amazing about the scenery that I'm looking at all throughout the day, looking at how the lights changing throughout the day. It's just that that whole immersive aspect in it that really, I think, is just as important as if you're trying to paint a quick study, fighting the light, trying to look at all the the nuts and bolts of the lights and darks and all that sort of thing. Sometimes it's it's also helpful to just slow down and just soak it in and really just observe. And if I can get in the studio, maybe within a week after that hike and at least do a quick study, I'll usually have something that has a little bit more inspiration behind it. So that's, you know, to me, I think constantly bringing back visual information and all those different ways, I think is all important in the studio,
Laura Arango Baier:yeah, and I think you definitely have a very awesome way of doing it. I mean, you're really going at it from so many angles, because you mentioned recording, and then, you know, checking, you know, keying those values. And then gouache, which, you know, I love gouache, because it just dries quickly. And, you know, it's, it's not as funny medium, yeah. And I think the one trouble, the one troublesome thing that could happen is maybe, like, you know, the wash colors. It's kind of, you know, across the board, since companies don't really have the same color, right, they'll call it like, Yeah, this is burnt umber, but it's not the same Burnt Umber as this other company. I think that's, I could see, maybe that being the only real challenge. But, geez, yeah. I mean, when you really want to capture a scene and be able to pull it back into your memory, you really have to do what you can to put yourself back in that place. And I think that's very smart to, like, take a recording and, like, describe things as much as you can. That's, wow. I've heard that one before.
Barbara Jaenicke:Oh, yeah. And it's, you know, I think I got it to a certain point where I had to realize that I want to do something more than copy my subject matter, you know, as the type of style that I work in. I want it to be Painterly. I want to want it to be impressionist in style. I really want to to have more of a visual message within the painting than just a copy of it. And you know, and I'll try to bring back that visual information to the studio. I think hitting it in, you know, various ways, you know, each time I gather visual information it, it allows me to not simply copy it. Now, when we paint on site as plein air painters, yeah, you have to understand the landscape. You want to understand what you're looking at, get the values correct, what does the light look like? So, you know, in a way, you're doing a little bit of copying more so in just seeing from life and understanding what you're looking at. And of course, you you know you're trying to do all that as far as a visual statement too, if you can lock into that when you're on site. But I think when you're not under the gun with that time with you know how long you have the light for, sometimes it allows you to tune into other things happening in the landscape, you know, I think all of us, you know, as whenever you're starting out as a painter, you know, I say you're a beginner, and you start out, there is a time period where you do have to copy. That's, you know, every artist has to learn, like that. You there's copying involved. You have to learn how to see, but the when you get further on your journey, for I think for most artists, the the goal is to go beyond just just copying. And so I guess that's why, you know, I'm trying to look for other ways to bring back that visual information. And to me, it's just become more fun when I find different ways of observing the landscape to bring it back into the studio. It's really just, you know, bringing those solid ideas and plus and just the inspiration into the studio. I think every artist has gone through that period. Where, especially a professional artist, when you have deadlines and you're, you know, you're trying to get work into shows and sell in galleries and that sort of thing, it you know, it is work. There are many times where, when the you know, it's not quite as fun as a lot of people think, that you know you're having all that fun in your studio. So I think, you know, I've gone through those periods, especially when I'm real busy trying to teach workshops and get work banged out in the studio. And you know, you don't, you don't want it to become drudgery. And there are many times it can become that. It's, you know, if you're a working artist, it's not a hobby. It's not a fun little hobby. It's it. You have deadlines. It's work. So you I think it's been important for me to find ways to continue, get to continually make it fun to remember that inspiration. What drives me? Why do I do this? And, yeah, I think just, you know, finding ways to continually be inspired by the landscape, or, you know, really, whatever it is I'm painting, you have, you have to keep that inspiration going
Laura Arango Baier:for sure. Yeah, yeah. And, like you said, you know, if you're caught in deadlines, and you know, you have to perform, right, because you have to make good work so that it sells, so that, you know, you can continue doing this career, it can become, you know, painful, almost like, Oh, I gotta do this, and I don't really want to. So I think it's very smart to try to re vitalize that inspiration, that joy, because it can, yeah, it can drag you down if you're not careful, you know that, and it affects
Barbara Jaenicke:the quality of your work. It really does, yeah, it really affects, you know, it shows, you know, paintings that come together a little bit more easily were many times paintings that there was something that I was more inspired by and not forcing it.
Laura Arango Baier:And I think that's so important, because you can, like you said, you can see it in the work when it feels like, oh, this poor person's car was out of gas. Type of situation where they're just pushing through something, it's like, calm down. It's okay, it's okay, take a break, right? But, of course, deadlines, and I, actually, I wanted to bring that up, because you were an art director and you were, you know, in the corporate marketing world before, you know, you went back into fine art as your first love. Um, how has that, you know, influenced not just maybe, like the the business side, but also the compositional side, the sort of, like the quick thinking, sort of, uh, aspect of painting? Well, yeah, I had the
Barbara Jaenicke:I've had, you know, three careers, yeah, the first two. One was in advertising, the other in marketing. You know, all three careers I've enjoyed and have all sort of fed off the other. And, you know, progressed as an art director, as an art director in I worked on the agency side, and I was the type of art director that, yeah, I worked with a I was always teamed with a copywriter, and we would come up with the concepts for ad campaigns. I worked mostly in print advertising, and, you know, part of that was, you know, coming up with what we call the big idea. And you know, kind of an umbrella idea for an ad campaign, like a series of ads. And usually that big umbrella idea resulted in a tagline, like a company that has a tagline, and all of the advertising sort of tied into that tagline that wrapped everything up. And so that was always the goal. It was really creative effort where you really had to, you know, expand your thinking to come up with those ideas. It's basically, you know, visual with the verbiage that went it went with it and, you know, combined, it had a nice, you know, punchy idea to it now, as a painter, I didn't realize until, you know, much later in this career that I'm in now how it it's sort of the same thinking in that you're, you're coming up with that big idea of a main visual idea you want for a painting, and you want to stay on track with that main visual idea, and every element within the landscape that you then address has to support that main idea, whether it's an area of the landscape that stays quiet or something that has a little. More punch to it that leads your eye, you know, to some of the main areas of the landscape where you want the viewer to look and you know, for example, if, if I have a landscape with some rocks and there's sunlight coming across, well within that landscape, there's trees in the background, there's grasses in the foreground, other little rocks poking up here and there, but I want to stay on track with the idea being light just skimming across the tops of some large rocks. Well, everything I do in that painting to address that has to make sure that it remains about that main idea. You know, if there's grasses on the side, that's just a supporting role, I don't need to render those in a way that's going to steal that attention. So in other words, I'm not going to render everything equally. I have to stay on track with that main idea. If it's, you know, a mountain in the distance and small buildings in front of it. I want to think through all of the proportions throughout the composition to make sure those mountains compared to the little buildings, stay that same proportion. Or I want to set it up to a very specific proportion so that it those, those little buildings look dwarfed by the large mountain, because that's my idea, the large mountain looming over the little building. So everything I do in that designing that composition supports that main idea. And so really, it sort of is the same sort of thinking that I did back as an art director, and also as an art director, I you know, things like understanding composition, design, proportions. You know, whenever you're designing advertising, all of that has to fit together in a certain size and have a nice eye appeal to it. So yeah, when all of those years thinking through those things definitely lends itself to everything that goes into composition for painting. Then when I moved into I basically went from the agency side to the corporate side. One thing I wanted to do was use the other side of my brain for a while. You know, it's just starting to burn out a little bit on the creative side of advertising. It was still fun, but I I got to a point where I felt like I was enjoying the scheduling and organization of those projects more so than banging out the creative after a while they you know, you rehash the same ideas and not quite as fun, but it was still fun, but it was just Time to move into something else. And I also wanted, you know, selfishly, wanted better hours in advertising. Although I really enjoyed the career you work crazy hours, you just do it's, you know, it's not, definitely not a nine to five job. And, you know, I just, I wanted a little bit more of a life in the evening and on the weekends. So and I wanted more time to paint, I really wanted to get back into fine art. So that was a pretty important impetus to making that change. And and I did get back into painting when I had more of a nine to five job in marketing, and that career really helped me a lot with a lot with writing. I had some jobs in marketing where I did the writing, other jobs in which I worked with the ad agency creatives and worked with writers and did more editing. And so it was a lot about developing written communication that was very concise, very compact. Try to get a message a clear, clearly communicated message across in the short, shortest amount of words as possible. And also make it grammatically correct. So definitely that that background helped me quite a bit. I never would have thought that a career as a fine art painting would involve so much writing. But for things like your website, your social media, posts where you want to, you know, really pack a punch in just to in a few sentences. Otherwise you totally lose the the reader scrolling through, you know, their social media feed newsletters, you know, any of that stuff you you need to be able to clearly communicate what you do and. Communicate your work, descriptions about your paintings, all that you're, you know, you're always asked to write up, this, that and the other thing about your work, your teaching, yeah, you know, workshop descriptions, that sort of thing. So there's, there's a lot of writing. And luckily, I do enjoy writing. I've written articles for some of the art magazines, and I've always enjoyed that. So it's definitely it has been a good background to have when I worked in marketing, to give me some knowledge in that area. And you know, also, there's, you know, I do place some paid advertising. So just knowing a little bit about how that all works, it's done quite differently than when I was doing all that back in the 80s, as late 80s was early 90s, was when I was an art director. But yeah, having all that knowledge certainly, I think, gives you a leg up on getting all that, all that done on top of, you know, your your painting endeavors, just trying to actually create the work. So, yeah, they all have, sort of all. Each of my three careers have sort of built on each other and been Advent advantageous to what I do now, for sure,
Laura Arango Baier:yeah, wow. I think just hearing you, you know, discuss it, obviously, it's like, yeah, we all know that as artists, we have to wear so many hats, and we have to do all the things. But I think, you know, the way that you just described it is like, oh my gosh, we have so much stuff that we do really have to do. Like, you just, like, don't really consider it, because, you know, all you want to do is paint and just focus on this one thing that you're doing. But in order for that, you know, it almost feels like the 20% is the painting and the 80% is all the other business side, right? That we have to do,
Barbara Jaenicke:yeah, yeah. I try hard to not get those percentages too out of whack. It's, it's definitely at least 5050, but some weeks it does, yeah, skew to the business and marketing and and, you know, you have to squeeze that in for, you know, definitely you have to squeeze it in. But yeah, it's always a balancing act.
Laura Arango Baier:If you've been enjoying the podcast and also want to ask our guests live questions, then you might want to join our monthly BoldBrush live webinars, where our guest artists discuss marketing tips, share inspiring stories and answer your burning questions in real time. Whether you're a seasoned painter or just starting your creative journey, this is your chance to connect, learn and spark new ideas, and whether you're stuck on a canvas or building your creative business, this is where breakthroughs happen. Don't miss out. Ignite your passion and transform your art practice by joining us. Our next BoldBrush Live Webinar is coming up on the fourth of December, with our special guest, Kevin McPherson, you can find the sign up link in the show notes. At BoldBrush, we inspire artists to inspire the world, because creating art creates magic, and the world is currently in desperate need of magic. BoldBrush provides artists with free art marketing, creativity and business ideas and information. This show is an example. We also offer written resources, articles and a free monthly art contest open to all visual artists. We believe that fortune favors the bold brush, and if you believe that too, sign up completely free at BoldBrush show.com that's B, O, L, d, b, r, U, S, H, show.com, the BoldBrush show is sponsored by Faso. Now more than ever, it's crucial to have a website when you're an artist, especially if you want to be a professional in your career. Thankfully, with our special link, faso.com, forward slash podcast, you can make that come true and also get over 50% off your first year on your artist website. Yes, that's basically the price of 12 lattes in one year, which I think is a really great deal, considering that you get sleek and beautiful website templates that are also mobile, friendly, e commerce, print on demand in certain countries, as well as access to our marketing center that has our brand new art marketing calendar. And the art marketing calendar is something that you won't get with our competitor. The art marketing calendar gives you day by day, step by step, guides on what you should be doing today right now in order to get your artwork out there and seen by the right eyes so that you can make more sales this year. So if you want to change your life and actually meet your sales goal this year, then start now by going to our special link, faso.com, forward slash podcast, that's faso.com forward slash podcast, yeah, yes, yeah. And this actually brings me to another question that I think you know, it's, I feel like it's become more relevant now because, you know, social media and because of, you know, I. AI, unfortunately, what defines an artist for you?
Barbara Jaenicke:Yeah, that? Well, that's definitely a question that can go in a million different directions.
Unknown:But to me, it's an artist is someone I think who is,
Barbara Jaenicke:and I don't, I don't ever, ever want to use the word somebody who's talented with, you know, producing art, because that's definitely not me. It definitely doesn't apply to me. But it's, I think, someone who is very unexplainably driven to create an original work of beauty or passion that is a response to, you know, something an idea, something that we're inspired by, and you know, for many people, that it basically revolves, revolves around capturing beauty. Now, all there are so many different styles of art, so it's not always about beauty. I'm, you know, I'm an artist who definitely falls into that category. I want to capture beauty, but sometimes it's just something they're passionate about. So it's more like an inner drive and not something that's only a natural gift. You know, I had to work at developing my skills as as an artist. It was definitely not something that came naturally to me, but something that it's more the drive, that inner drive, that I don't know where that comes from. You know, that really is the God given gift, not the the actual skill. It's the the drive inside me is the the God given gift, and that's why I say it's unexplainable, because it's, you know, there are some, sometimes, you know, you you want to be able to really push your skills as far as you can. And sometimes I think, why do I do this to myself? Why? Why am I putting myself through this? So I think it's just, you know, something we're passionate about, and, you know, you don't want to give up at it. And it's, you know, the the the prize at the end is having a painting that is successful. You know, to me, that's, you know, that's that feeling of elation when the painting works and you're happy with it. And you have to go through a lot, you have to go through a lot of duds to get to that, but, but that's, that's the prize at the end. And I think that's why we, we all do it. And I do, you know, I've got a funny story that sort of as sort of a precursor to what I ended up doing now in my life. And this is was, of course, told to me. I don't remember it, but when I was about three, and my sister was about she was six or three years apart, and at my grand we were at my grandmother's house, and like a lot of people at that time, they had those crystal chandeliers, and, you know, she had one in her dining room. And at a certain time of day, light would come through the window, and it would, you know, light up the crystal chandelier. So you have all these prisms of color all over the place, and it affected my sister and I differently. My sister, she danced. She saw it and danced around the time the dining room she you know, just it made her happy. I had a completely different response. I wanted to capture it in my hand, and I went into another room, and I opened up my hands, and it was gone. And I started crying because I wanted to capture, I wanted to take it with me. So I just laugh at that story, and I think that's it's sort of, since it's something I did when I was so young, I think that's just, that's what's in my nature to want to just capture beauty and be able to take it and use it somewhere else. So just kind of a weird, funny story. But I have to, you know, it wasn't until, you know, more recent years that I thought, yeah, that kind of is sort of a foreshadowing type of thing that stayed with me until, you know, right up into adulthood.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, no, I love that. I love that so much. And, oh, I think what I really love that you mentioned is that drive for sure. Yeah, because we're all, we all have that capability to be creative, right? We all have that capability and in different mediums, in different ways. Could be music, it could be painting, it could be, you know, decorating a house, right, right? Yeah, but, but what like you said, what really keeps us going is. Our specific artistry or craft, is that drive, because it's so it's so easy to give up. It's so easy. I mean, how many people out there don't keep going because maybe it doesn't capture their interest, or they don't have that drive to continue in that path, but they do have it for a different one, right? And I love that you mentioned that too, because it doesn't really box in the idea of an artist as much as other definitions, yeah, because I do find that creative people who are artists in this sense that also spills over into other crafts, right? I mean, it's not just oh, yeah, I'm an artist in the sense of painting. It's like, No, I'm an artist in the sense that I like, like like you said, capturing beauty. I like creating and sharing this beauty that I want, you know, I see in the world, and I want to share it, and I interpret it, and I want to put it back out there. And I think that's, oh, that's a really great definition, yeah, yeah.
Barbara Jaenicke:I don't know how other people define that. I, you know, possibly it's a question you ask a lot of people, but I don't know that that's my take on it.
Laura Arango Baier:No, I love it. I love it, and it makes perfect sense. I think it's most inspiring for sure way of viewing it. Yeah. And then I wanted to ask you too, because you know, you had these very challenging careers before you stepped into fine art, what was it like for you when you decided to just, you know, cut your old career and just go for painting? What was that transition like for you?
Barbara Jaenicke:Well, for one thing, I want to make a correction there that this is the most challenging career than all the other
Unknown:ones, for sure,
Barbara Jaenicke:but I guess maybe, no, I have to just laugh at that. But you know what's funny is just a quick aside, but it's funny that you put art in the job title, and there's a different level of respect versus working in the corporate world. When I worked in corporate marketing, and I would tell people my job title, what I did, I honestly got much more respect. They thought I was smarter than when I described a career that had art in the name of it, and but my career as an art director and what I do now were definitely more challenging careers in terms of time, stress, keeping on deadlines, doing it well on a deadline. And you know, in marketing, I'm sure there's other you know, there's stressful jobs in marketing, but in comparison, I mean, I still had deadlines. I still had busy days, for sure, but overall, it like I said, it was more of a nine to five job, and I had several jobs in marketing. They were all sort of the same. But yeah, that's a frustrating thing. People stereotype you if you're an artist of any type, which is unfortunate. But anyway, let's get back to your question about, How did I make that transition? And I think, like a lot of artists, it was certainly gradual. It wasn't just, you know, quit the job one day and you know, you're a income generating fine artist the next I mine was prompted by my company's layoff where I was working at the time, and so I was without a job at a weird point where my husband and I were wanting to start a family, and we're noticing, all right, we might have this little gap between, you know, now and when that might happen. Now we wanted to have me at least be home part time, as you know, a part time, you know, stay at home mom, that was the goal. And so we looked at finances, and we said, well, let's, let's try see what we could do. And we don't know how long, you know, it's going to take, you know, before we have a child. So we made it work. And you know, it ended up being about a year and a half, maybe just under a year and a half, before we had our son. And so I looked at that time between when I had my job and when I was a mom, I looked at that time like gold, and I didn't waste a second of it. I had thought, well, at that time, I was getting back in, you know, into painting for a few years at that point. And somebody had had told me that, you know, I could consider teaching at, you know, one of the local art center. Dollars. And, you know, when I first heard that, I thought, Oh, am I good enough to do that? Is that something I want to do? I'm without a job, so I probably can't be too picky, but, but anyway, during that time, you know, if the first thing I thought is, you know, I need to really buckle down and get my skills up as much as I can. I need to be good at what I do if I want to teach it. And I was making a little bit of headway with the local art scene, getting into shows, selling a little bit of work. So I was on my way already, but I really wanted to push myself. And so I went to at this was in Atlanta at the time, and there was, you know, a lot, since it's a bigger city, there was a lot happening there as far as opportunities to learn, and, you know, different groups to be involved in, that sort of thing. So I went to, I attended anything that was free or affordable to gain little tidbits of knowledge. I thought I want to constantly learn open my eyes to just different types of art, types of skills, things that might help me, even if it's just understanding, supplies, that sort of thing, any little tidbit better ways of framing all that sort of thing, you know, I really wanted to turn myself into a sponge and not waste a second of that time that I wasn't working a full time job. And really within almost funny like the day, I didn't particularly like my job at the time, so I wasn't all that unhappy with losing the job, but I have to say, I never stopped keeping my day planner. I'm still, I still keep a paper day planner. I'm not a little bit on my phone, but I like a paper and pencil, and I had never stopped scheduling my time and being organized and efficient about what I want to get done each day. So I kept that up, and I just basically hit the ground running, so that within about a year, it was like through a co worker of my husband's who was looking for somebody to teach a drawing class for their young adult church group, and I thought I could do that. So that's where I started with, teaching a drawing class. I priced it dirt cheap, just in case I realized I wasn't very good at this. And so I tried it. And I understand, I think many artists would tell you this, that once you start teaching something that you've been working at for a while, you realize you you know more than you think you did about it, and it becomes just very rewarding to pass that knowledge on to others, and especially if it's something you're passionate about. So I realized I wasn't terrible at it and and I thought I might enjoy this. So so the teaching aspect progressed from there. Once I had a little bit of confidence in doing that, I approached a local art center and started teaching there. And then, you know, a few other local art centers. Eventually I taught from my studio in Atlanta, and then from there, started teaching workshops. After a few years, I started teaching the out of town workshops. But, yeah, you know, my career grew just incrementally. And I think that does that for a lot of people. You know, as my son got a little older, you get a little bit more studio time, and really pushed myself with trying to enter shows, getting published in art magazines. It just sort of progressed, you know, little by little from there. And I think that that's probably how it happens for for a lot of artists, you have to just build on it little by little. So both with the producing paintings and with the teaching, yeah, just kept working at it. And my son's in college now, so yeah, so I have a pretty full schedule now,
Laura Arango Baier:yeah, I can imagine. And I think what I like also is that, you know, I think what you what you mentioned too. It really emphasizes the that slow, building that, you know, steady, stable, sort of, okay. First we start with, really, you know, getting good at the skill. And then, okay, now that I'm good, I can teach. And then that actually builds the skill even more, because you realize, huh, there's this tiny gap in my knowledge that I can notice now, but then I have the solutions as well, because I've been doing this and I can understand it. And now you can learn these things three times better, because when you teach, you need to know the subject extremely well. And then from there, of course, you know, joining shows, painting societies, and then getting more, uh. Getting yourself out there. And I think a lot of people, and I've been mentioning this many recent episodes, a lot of people who are artists don't realize how important it is to network and to socialize and to have community as an artist, to really get your work out there. Otherwise, you know that I feel like the stereotypical starving artist is an artist who stays in their studio and doesn't realize the importance of socializing.
Barbara Jaenicke:You work in a cocoon for quite a while, but yeah, teaching it definitely in order to teach something to someone else, you have to figure it out yourself and make sure you know better ways of describing it. And I'm sure other people have, who have been on here have said this, that it really force reinforces your own knowledge of skills that you teach to others. I think that works in really any field.
Laura Arango Baier:Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. And I'm curious to know also, because since you mentioned earlier, you know, the crazy hours and like all the I can imagine, you know, having to handle the business side of your two previous careers. Do you find that that has also helped you business wise in your art career?
Barbara Jaenicke:Oh, absolutely. I think time management is definitely something you need to be good at. You know, you wouldn't think that, you know, or the lay person would not think that for an artist, but really in any field where you're self employed. And you know, if you're a professional fine artist, you're not working for a company, you're self employed. So you have to be comfortable with any all that goes along with being self employed, and, yeah, time management skills. And I mentioned that, you know, I keep a day planner. I keep a pretty structured schedule. I keep a work day I have, you know, work hours, and I don't mess with them, you know. I try to be kind to myself, and every once in a while, give myself a little breathing space if I've had an especially busy week. But you know, you get the idea. I keep, I keep a schedule. I try to work efficiently all of my painting or my studio time, my painting time, I do when I have the most brain power. So I plan those for during the week, during the bulk of the day. I plan when I do the business end of it, when you know my my brain is maybe not at full power. So you get to know yourself and know you know, when you're a little bit more mentally alert and have the most brainpower a lot of the peripheral tasks, like, you know, varnishing, framing, that sort of thing I do, you know, on, usually the weekends, or stuff that I'm needing to bang out on the computer evenings, or first thing in the morning, evenings, weekends, that sort of thing. I try not to work seven days a week, but, you know, things spill into the weekend. I don't mind, you know, getting on the computer for a little bit on the weekend, or, you know, that's when I can get a couple pieces framed that need to ship out. I like to just get that done and not have that creep into my studio painting time. So I try to structure my schedule that way. And you know, anytime you're in the business world working for any kind of company, yeah, you usually have to stay with in a schedule. Time is money, and you you know you want to be efficient with how you get work done and meet your deadlines, that sort of thing. So, yeah, I think a lot of people who have worked in the corporate world, or, you know, it's something like advertising, where you have to stick to debt deadlines, you maybe have better time management skills.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, yeah, for sure, I've also heard the same, you know, about people who've worked in illustration that has also, you know, tied to, like, deadlines and absolutely, yeah, yeah. And I, actually, I love how, you know, earlier you mentioned this is the hardest career you've had, because me, as a lay person who's never experienced a corporate world, I would say the corporate world as extremely stressful. But, you know, just thinking on it and hearing, you know, discuss the time management, time management aspects, and like the the self employed aspect, right? Of being an artist, I can, I can definitely see why you would say that it's the hardest, since it's so a lot of it just has to do with,
Barbara Jaenicke:you know, everybody's, you know, needs are different, as far as you know, their financial situation, and it just depends on, you know, does this need to be income generating, you know, equivalent to if I was still working in marketing, and, you know, that's the gist of it. If it's, of course, much less stressful. If you know, your income doesn't need to pay bills. Of course. Um, so I'm coming at it from, you know, it has to be a full time job that that pays the bills. And I think any artist would agree to that. So, you know, unfortunately, money always puts, you know, stress on everything. So you just have to be smart about if this is something you want to do as as your your profession that pays the bills, you have to come at it a little differently than if it's more of a hobby that doesn't necessarily require the same deadlines. So it just, you know, it works differently for every person in whatever the situation that they're in. Yeah, so. But I think for those of us who are able to make it work as a profession, it is very rewarding. It is definitely a rewarding career to have, and you know, to see the results. And you know, everybody has ups and downs in it. You know, you go through phases where you know nothing selling, you know, a workshop didn't fill the way you wanted to, that sort of thing. You have ups and downs, so you just have to plan for those times.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, yeah. It actually makes me wonder, do you obviously, I mean, you're an artist now, and this is what you love, but do you find that you get a deeper sense of fulfillment now from your daily life than you know, in different in your different careers,
Barbara Jaenicke:depends on the day. It definitely depends on the day. You know, when I worked in marketing and a little bit easier schedule, I have to say, I probably had more of a social life because, because I had more time to do those things, to get together with people in the, you know, evenings and weekends and, you know, I do live, you know, when we moved here to bend, I was especially busy at that time for a variety of reasons, with, you know, the amount of workshops I was teaching, that sort of thing. And, yeah, it was just harder to, you know, make a social network for just friends, that sort of thing. It's just, I have that, but it's smaller. Now, I think anybody who has a busy schedule, it's just harder to do, but when you have more time to do that, it's maybe a little easier. You know when, when you have more of a nine to five job, you can usually just go home at the end of the day and do your own thing, doesn't you know your work in you know, most cases, and you know it's nice when you have a job that doesn't creep into the week, evenings and weekends, you know, just logically, you have more time to do the fun stuff with friends that you like.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, it's easier to compartmentalize. And also, I mean, the nine to five gives you a very exact, you know, check every, every bi weekly or month, right?
Barbara Jaenicke:Comes with health insurance, and 401, K, usually too,
Laura Arango Baier:I think. But, you know,
Barbara Jaenicke:I think for a lot of artists, though, are, you know, other artists become our friends. I think for me, we're a little spread out, but my artist friends are just my a lot of you know them are my closest friends, and we go on painting trips. And you know, they're, they have really become my closest friends, but they're not local here, which is, you know, a little sad, but, yeah, you keep in touch. You do have to work at keeping in touch with everyone. But you know, if, as you're attending events or going on painting trips, that's really what keeps you close. And you know, I think with any, for anyone, when you have that bond of, you know, the same profession, that really keeps you close, and so that's important to me,
Laura Arango Baier:yeah, yeah, totally. And actually, since you mentioned too, you know, meeting these friends, I'm guessing you've met them, you know, through networking or through going to these events. Do you find that, because I have heard this from many artists, you know that attending these events and going to painting societies or becoming a part of communities or competitions or these things, do you find that going to those has also helped you a lot in terms of the exposure of your work and getting your work out there.
Barbara Jaenicke:Oh yeah, yeah. Certainly, you know, sometimes, at some of the events, you have collectors there, but actually just Yeah, I think it's important even for other for your peers to know you, to get to know you. And you know, at a lot of these events, there are a lot of learning opportunities, so that's a good thing to keep your learning going, especially if you're doing a lot of teaching, trying to produce work on a schedule in your studio. Video. Sometimes you get away from your own learning, and so it's important. And you know, as I'm saying this, I need to actually do it. I haven't been able to attend a lot of these, but I want to. But yeah, it's just to watch some of the demos. And, you know, here's some of the talks it. It really is quite inspiring to be able to do that.
Laura Arango Baier:I really love that you mentioned learning, and it's because, you know, it's so easy as an artist to, I guess, forget that you're still learning. Or like to you think, like, Okay, I'm at a very good stage. I kind of know what I'm doing, and you do it, but it's still important to go back and enrich and go enrich yourself, and go back to those fundamentals and kind of do a bit of, like, a, you know, kind of like a routine maintenance check on, like, yourself.
Barbara Jaenicke:Yeah, it's, it's actually easy to fall into the trap of just thinking you know what you need to know already to do what you need to do. There are times, sometimes you forget about some of the basic stuff as you're trying to forge ahead with getting work out of, you know, off the easel and out of your studio. Yeah, sometimes you have to take a step back and turn yourself into a student again. So, yeah, yeah. So that's why, you know, events like that are, you know, great to attend. You know, they're also great places to, you know, for if you're an instructor, for teaching opportunities to talk to, you know, some of the people they're attending. And, you know, they might keep you in mind, to bring you to a venue that sort of thing.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, yeah, totally. And, you know, like, like I said, it also helps with a bit of exposure. Is there anything specific, or do you have any like, things that you've noticed, business wise, that have really helped your exposure as an artist, so that more people see your work?
Barbara Jaenicke:Yeah, that's a good question. I, you know, I try to come at that exposure thing with from many different angles, and I think that's just my marketing background. That's sort of how you do it. You know, several different ways of, you know, advertising and promoting and that sort of thing. But I think, you know, early on, you know, one of the things that definitely helped me was when I was teaching back in Atlanta, out of my studio, I started keeping a blog. And at first it was purely for providing a recap to my students who attended those classes. And I, you know, I would, you know, do a quick little demo, and then they would paint, and I would help them for the duration of the class. And then, you know, after they left, I would maybe finish up or fine tune the demo and post the finished on my blog, and then I would just write up a recap of what the class covered, and, you know, that sort of thing. And what I started doing was posting the link on Facebook. Now things have changed a little bit about with links since then. But as I would, you know, I would, you know, on Facebook, I would post the the demo that I did talk about what we focused on, because every every class, I had a particular focus, a topic that we're going to study that day. And with sending people then to my blog. I started building a following there. So I think that made a big difference with starting to, you know, make some headway with exposure. The other item that I think probably helped me was after I had started getting into shows and maybe some galleries and building a little bit of a following with my blog and on social media. I I was or I approached the pastel journal to do an article, and the editor and Hebner, when she responded, she said she already had me on her list of people to contact to be featured in an article, which I was really happy about. So I think getting into getting published in an art magazine is a great way to get some exposure, you know, out there to the readership of that publication. And so since then, I've, you know, I've been approached for articles, and I've also queried other publications, and, you know, maybe proposed an idea for an article. That sort of thing. So that's always a really great way to get some exposure, if you can have your work and yourself and your writing published in an art magazine.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, totally. And I love that. You know, you also just went for it and asked, right? I think that's the other thing maybe a lot of people are afraid to do is, oh, how could I, you know, a little bit of that imposter syndrome of like, oh, but I'm not there yet. I'm not important enough. Yeah, I don't Yeah. What do I know?
Barbara Jaenicke:Yeah, I have that big time and yeah, you have to just toughen up and just go for it. Yeah, yeah. I Yeah. I totally, totally get many days like that, yeah, yeah.
Laura Arango Baier:I think that's one of those typical artists daily life issues where one day you look at your work and it's like, oh, this is so bad. And then the next day, like, it's not that bad. And then another day you're like, oh, gosh, I can't look at it, yeah? But it also, you know, comes down to, like, just being really honest with yourself about your skills as well. It's like, well, if these voices that are, you know, full of doubt were true, you know, then I wouldn't have had this opportunity, this opportunity, right? Like, there's that balance that we have to kind of keep where you can't go too much into being delusional about, you know, oh, I'm terrible. But you also can't be delusional about being too good. It's very much absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Barbara Jaenicke:You have to be, yeah. You have to be true to yourself and know where you are in your journey realistically. And you know, there's, there's nothing productive with getting down on yourself, you know, even though I do that a lot, but I, you know, I have to be realistic and say that I have accomplished things and I can still build on that. You know, artists have many setbacks. You know, lots of funny memes on social media about, you know, setbacks for artists, because they're true. It's, it's, you know, everybody has self doubt, setbacks, and, you know, geez, you just, you just have to push through it. And just know you're going to go through ruts, and you just have to work through it. You just have to start another painting, work through it. And, you know, I forget what the saying is. You know, inspiration finds you working or something like that. I can't think right at the moment, but, and it is so true, you just, you just have to work through it. And you know, many times you have to regain your confidence. You know, real easy to lose your confidence when you go through a run of really bad paintings.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, yeah. And I think that's also where community also comes in, and the importance of having those artist friends and having people around you that are supportive, because it's so easy to fall into that dark pit of despair as an artist and not want to come out of it, or, you know, start having this narrative about your work and yourself that is entirely untrue. So that's the point where I would say, if you start feeling that way, you know, go get a hug. Find find a friend, get a hug, have, you know, some time off and then get back into it, right?
Barbara Jaenicke:Because, and we all, yeah, we all have those days, you know, I have days too. I either get just so overly frustrated or I'm just tired. We all have those days where you feel like you're sleep way, sleepwalking through the day. And on those days, if I have framing to do, I'll frame framing day or varnishing day, or, you know, organize the studio day, something that's still going to, you know, be productive and help me, as I, you know, move on to the next day. So, yeah, I found that, you know, once I get too, too frustrated on a painting, I do need to stop. I do need to stop, take a breath, either do something else that needs to be done and then start fresh another day. It's, you know, as artists, we, I think we, we sometimes can get into our heads too much, and it is quite the mind game. When you're trying to think through a painting and it's just not going well, you just have to keep at it. I know it's an overused phrase to just keep at it, but that's true.
Laura Arango Baier:It is, yeah, I just gotta keep rowing that little boat forward, because that's the other thing, right? If you stop, you know, moving forward, you're going to be stuck in that frustration, right? You have to, you have to keep moving to get out of it, otherwise, you stop there. So, yeah, it's a lot of, it's a lot of, I think people don't realize that. I think it's, you know, create. Creative Work has, like you said, a bit of this intellectual challenge that comes up no matter what you do, that you have to face. I think that's the hardest hurdle, sometimes, not so much the work itself, but it's the mental aspect of it that can really just dig into and hurt if you're not careful. Yeah. So yeah, totally, totally, yeah. And then I wanted to ask you, do you have any final advice for someone who wants to make a living as an artist?
Barbara Jaenicke:Well, you know, all artists approach their careers a little bit differently. So, you know, I don't think there's a one size fits all for that, but I think for anyone you just the first thing you have to do is make sure you are constantly pushing your skills as high as you can. You know, I have had people ask me that when I know that their their skills aren't where they should be to be able to generate an income from it, but but then I've also known other people who have the skill but really don't put the effort into actually getting the business side of it going so that could go either way. But, you know, I think, yeah, I mean getting your skills as high as you can, if you're not an organized person, which artists often aren't, but it's one of those things that it's a skill you have to develop. You just have to become good at it. I know for me, what I lack is an innate sense of patience. That's a skill that I've had to learn to be patient at the easel, and I'm still not all the time, but I'm not a patient person in other areas of my life. So that is something that you may have to at least pretend you have a skill that you may not have. So time management for anything. Again, it's that you know self employment thing, whatever it is that you do, if you are self employed, you have to learn how to manage your time well, understand the business side of it, and constantly be very forward thinking in terms of knowing you know what opportunities are ahead, what you need to prepare for, so you don't miss those opportunities, Whether it's entering a show or having opportunities to get your work published. You know, any of those you want to constantly know the opportunities that are around the corner and plan for them and always have plenty of opportunities down the road that may be. You know, income generating opportunities you do, unfortunately, you do, if you want to make a living at it, you you have to consider those. You can't just be an artist for, you know, art's sake and not want to deal with with any of that. You have to be honest with yourself. You have to be smart about it if you do want to do this as a business, and, you know, be a self employed person, so you have to, you know, balance that those you know increased skills that you'll continually push with what you have to do for the business side of it.
Laura Arango Baier:Absolutely, and I really love, gosh, that you mentioned, you know, the importance of planning, right? I think, of course, a lot of artists, and especially early on, when we're all like, playing with the idea of like, oh, I would love to be an artist. You know, we don't really think about like, Oh, this is the season where I sell the most, or this is, this is when this event is happening. So I should, you know, start working on planning a painting, you know, that I can apply to this with. And then that hopefully goes through, and then that might lead to this other thing. And then suddenly, you know, you might have a few galleries, and it's like, Okay, shoot, they're all asking me to participate in a show. I need to plan my time out so that I have pieces for these shows so it, yeah, I think that's at the point where it does get really hard, and it can be, you know, a challenge for most people. But I love that you really emphasize that because,
Barbara Jaenicke:yeah, and the artists that I know who have been successful at this as a career, as their full time career, have become very good at that. They're a little bit more business minded. And it doesn't even mean that they came from any kind of business background. It just means that they've learned to become that way and think that way. For that part of their career,
Laura Arango Baier:yeah, yeah. And that's, that's the truth of it is, you know, the bulk of the work isn't just painting. It's also business, especially if you want to, if you want to make an income from it, for sure, for sure. And it can also be fun. I mean, again, going to events, meeting people, it can be fun if you, you know want it to be as well. Yeah. And then, do you have any upcoming shows, exhibitions, workshops, that you would like to promote?
Barbara Jaenicke:Yeah, I mean, I do have. And, well, let's talk about, you know, the teaching first, I want to mention that, you know, I got a whole full calendar for 2026, of workshops all over the place. They're all here in the US. And then I do also have, you know, a whole, a separate website. You can get to it from my website, but a separate website where I have videos in my book, if you see that, and then I have a book that came out last year, a book of lessons. Basically. It's 20 some lessons, both oil and pastel. So you know you like my work and want to can't make a workshop that I'm teaching. Can't make it to any of those. Those are some options. As far as shows I do will have one coming up right around the corner. It opens December 4 at cole gallery in Edmonds, Washington, all have eight pieces there in a little solo show titled the mountains to the coast. So it features a lot of recent coastal scenes and mountain scenes and a range of sizes from 24 by 36 to 11 by 14. I think it's the smallest one. They're all those are all oil paintings. The show will be up online, I believe, by the time this is aired. And yeah, that show. You get to it from my website, Barbara Janicki do com, or you could go right to coal gallery.net is where you could see
Unknown:the show up online for that. Yeah, so I'm excited about that one.
Laura Arango Baier:Yes, it sounds awesome. And then do you mind telling us your social media and where people can see more of your work?
Barbara Jaenicke:Sure, yeah. As far as other galleries, I'm in Mockingbird gallery right here in Bend where I live. That sure makes shipping, delivery things easier. Wonderful gallery, really glad to be in that one, as well as a loom gallery West in Phillipsburg, Montana, and also the artful deposit in Bordentown New Jersey, which is kind of a nostalgic place for me, because my very first art classes were right around the corner there in New Jersey from that gallery. And my social media is, I'm on Facebook and Instagram. I on Facebook. I've got a business page and a personal page. I post more of my art on the business page, which is Barbara Janicki fine art on Instagram, I'm my name shows as Barbara Courtney Janicki. You can see all my artwork there. Then my website, of course, is Barbara janicki.com I keep a newsletter that I write about once, roughly once a month. And you can, of course, sign up right at my website. And yeah, I usually try to, I'll post upcoming shows, upcoming workshops, and every once in a while, if I have new work that I feel, you know, I might have something interesting to share about the process. I'll, I'll share a little bit of that on my newsletter.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, well, thank you so much, Barbara. I will include all of your links in the show notes as well, so people can go check out your stuff. Sign up for the newsletter, get your book or your your painting videos and yeah, thank you for the lovely chat.
Barbara Jaenicke:Well, thank you, Laura. Really appreciated it and enjoyed the conversation.
Laura Arango Baier:Yeah, yeah. This has definitely gotten me more in, like, the business mindset, for sure, and the importance of it. I also keep an agenda. But yeah, work hours, very important. Thank you to everyone out there for listening to the podcast. Your continued support means a lot to us. If you've enjoyed the episode, please leave a review for the podcast on Apple podcast Spotify, or leave us a comment on YouTube. This helps us reach others who might also benefit from the excellent advice that our guests provide. Thank you.