One of the most frequently asked questions to me at Art Fairs is How long it takes me to do a particular piece / any of my paintings. It is also one of the most difficult questions to answer. Just to illustrate, this week from Monday through yesterday, here is everything I have been working on in the studio -
1, 2. Peacock on 24" x 36" canvas - started with prepping the canvas to quite a bit of progress! Thats from working almost 10 hour days
3. Dragonfly canvas made it back to my table to start the textured lines
4. A new flying owl piece on 24" x 30" canvas - prepped the background, drew the outline & added the eyes
5, 6. A new version of the Chicago flag - prepped 3 backgrounds in silver with interference green / red/ violet mixed in and started painting one.
7. Added one more circular layer on the red 24" x 36" diptych mandala
8, 12. Two new 20" x 24" Tree of Life paintings - did the background work last week and started with the trunks and shoots this week
9. Another peacock on 20" x 24" canvas - started from prepping the background on Monday
10. A set of 4 18" x 18" canvas prepped for mandala paintings
11. One more 24" x 36 background prep for another peacock!
When I am working on so many projects in parallel, it is really hard to think of time spent on just one piece. In fact a few years back I did estimate the time I spent on a 16" x 20" piece - turned out to be 38 hours from opening the canvas to the signing off on the piece. Well, when I also calculated what I actually made per hour on piece after selling it for $200 minus the cost of supplies, it got too depressing to think further about time spent on painting single pieces.
So, please don't roll your eyes at me when I tell you I don't keep track of time spent on a painting, because I really don't and I can't think of a way when I can either. I hardly ever have just one project going on in the studio and given how easily I get distracted - from moving from one work to another, or starting something else when waiting for another to dry, estimating time is the last thing on my mind!
