I don’t remember if I chose a word of the year last year or not… I’ll have to go back and search my blog. But 2024’s word is GROWTH.
Now, I don’t want my physical body to grow in girth or size. But I would sure like to see my body of work grow some more. Both in volume and in actual size of the paintings themselves.
I also want to see it in my personal skills, business, skill levels in art and my new real estate adventure, and definitely in my bank account, haha.
Personal Growth
Last year’s word was mostly to do with my personal goals and self-imposed limitations. This year’s word has mostly to do with my business goals. However, there’s always room to improve myself and grow out of those subconscious limitations, so that’s what I intend to do.
Artwork, Size, and Market
2023 was a big year of growth for me in my art journey. I learned how to paint with oil paints that I make from the Ozark pigments. Not only did I grow in that I learned a new skill, but I also grew the size of my portfolio for the year.
In 2024, I want to see growth in the amount of sales I make, and in the size of the sales. Larger paintings sell for higher amounts, so just adding a few more large paintings to my body of work will be growth in the size, and in the potential for larger sales. However, it takes longer to find a buyer for the larger paintings because of the larger price.
So, between the larger paintings, I’m going to paint smaller ones and grow the collection of birds that I’ve painted. Specifically, I want to paint more birds of prey, since those are my personal favorite.
With that said, I’ve got a project on the books for January that involves a cow painting. There’s a potential for growth in both size of the art and size of the sales when it comes to painting world-class Brahmans. And since I love painting Brahman cattle, I won’t mind getting started on the first of those for 2024.
The first one will be a smaller size, a gift for one of my granddaughters who shows them. And the second one is a commission of a prize winning Brahman cow for a friend of my daughter.
More Markets
I’ve applied to two local art fairs. In the past I’ve done craft fairs, but I’ve yet to get into and do a fair specifically for art. One is in Tontitown and one is in Bentonville. There are a lot of them in Colorado that I’d like to do, but first I’d like to see if the smaller local ones are good for my kind of work.
Growth as a Real Estate Agent
It shouldn’t be hard to find growth in this area. Since it’ll be the first year of working in real estate, there should be nothing BUT growth this year on this front.
Previous Words of the Year
I did look back and found that I chose a word for 2022 (UNSTOPPABLE) and 2023 (SMASH).
P.S. How about that image background?
That’s the stone wall on the outside of my studio. I love it. Love the little patches of lichens growing on it, too. I took a pic of it the other day before I left and thought it would make a good graphic for backgrounds like this.