Dan Gerhartz: 0:00

If you want to be original, just just tell the truth. What that means to me is just paint. Just look at something that inspires you and try to paint it as accurately as you can.

Laura Arango Baier: 0:13

The style that you are supposed to paint will emerge. You have to just trust that. Welcome to the BoldBrush podcast where we believe that fortune favors the bold brush. My name is Laura Arango 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 kinds 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, BoldBrush interviewed Daniel Gerhartz, a figurative pastoral painter from Wisconsin to talk about his inspiration, his painting process and advice for any artists who needs help finding their authentic style. We also discuss a wonderful quote that will help anyone who feels lost when it comes to their voice and inspiration. And finally, we talked about Daniel's upcoming teaching video where he teaches composition and the art of picture making. Hello, Daniel, how are you today? I am great. Thank you. How are you, Laura? I'm good. I'm good. I'm excited to interview because you have very unique work, it's very uncommon to find a painter who actually makes pastorals. And I really love that because it really reminds me of some of the people that I know have inspired you like best download Podge and Bouguereau, and all of these really awesome realist painters. But before we get into that, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your background and what you do Sure, I grew up in Wisconsin, my dad grew up on a farm. And I spent a lot of time as a young boy helping him on his brother's farm. So we used to, you know, Bale hay and milk cows and, and we saw we'd go to my grandma's and stay over there. But we, in order to get to my uncle's farm, we'd have to take this walk. In the morning at sunrise, it was this idyllic, beautiful walk through this pasture with these cows in this winding river. And these huge oak trees that were just like the paintings you'd seen from, you know, 17th century Europe, you know, cattle and sheep and pasture and glistening River and it was just just a beautiful time. So those memories are like cemented in my mind. And it's those memories that I often draw from, that I try to kind of relive or recreate to me, they're I know, they're not necessarily but to me, they're a picture of, you know, heaven of just peace and beauty. And so I can't help but want more of that. So I tried to put that out there. And it seems that it resonates with a lot of people as well. So Oh, yeah, absolutely. My grandparents had a farm when I was growing up. So that also reminds me of when I would visit and I'd go hang out with the cows and the pigs and the horses. Yeah, it's very peaceful.

Unknown: 3:18

Yeah, all of this, you know, every, you know, the sights, the smells, the sounds, all that plays into just bringing back this beautiful memory. You know, I've been so blessed. That sounds like we both been blessed. You know, some people don't have those warm, fuzzy memories, and I feel for them. But you know, it's what I can do to it's all I know, to do to, to put put out the kind of work that I feel like I need to put out there. So I'm just you know, and I tell my students a lot who asked me, I don't know what to paint, I don't know what to do. You know, I just say to them, just listen, just listen, just be quiet enough. So you can hear something, too, you can feel an inspiration, and then follow that and then, you know, just do your best to put it out there. The world is so much angst and you know, coming off the election all you know what all the bitter, ugly garbage. Let's let's just get along and let's just try to point towards something bigger. You know, that's what I try to do with my work. So

Laura Arango Baier: 4:23

yeah, and if it really comes out to have that peaceful, serene, meditative quality that that you referring to with, you know, listening to that something, then it's there, but we've become so engrossed in social media and all of these other things happening all the time. It's very hard to get that silence. Right properly. Meditate on life.

Unknown: 4:49

Yeah, I agree. You mentioned lapide and Bouguereau. You know, so growing up in Wisconsin, fall and winter and spring, we'd have a lot of those really moody, overcast, but beautiful days. I love that light. And the French painted that so well. And I think that's, I mean, I love their work as well. And I key into them. You know, when I see a besting the posh, I see that light all the time here. And you know, that's soft. To me. It's almost like this velvety, cool blanket of light that just falls over everything. That, to me, it's just an influence of, you know, God's love and touch on all of us. And I, you know, so that too, I tried to get into the work just by keying into the harmonies that are right before me.

Laura Arango Baier: 5:41

Yeah, yeah, nature is. It has this, like you said, I also really love overcast days. And nature has just such a wonderful way of making everything look magical. In different times of the day, where sometimes, like, I'll look out the window and there's a sun, I'm like, wow. Then there's overcast, I'm like, wow. Right? I don't know if that happens to you, too. Or it's just, it's almost like if you really pay attention. It really is like seeing something new every day even though Yeah,

Unknown: 6:16

just the sense of awe and wonder, you know, kind of childlike is something that I I try to keep alive. I tried to share with my students, and it's really big. It's kind of where it's all at for me.

Laura Arango Baier: 6:32

Yeah, yeah. It's, it is what it's all about. It's that keeping that inner child alive. And that playfulness and curiosity that I think a lot of us lose track of, because we become so I guess we forget to be that way. Because we're convinced that we have to be adults. And I mean, yes, of course, you have to be responsible. But it doesn't mean you can't have a curiosity and a joy and a love for the things around you in nature.

Unknown: 7:05

Well said. Wilson. Thank you.

Laura Arango Baier: 7:09

Yep. So aside from La Paz, and Bouguereau, who has been both your greatest influence and inspiration for your work?

Unknown: 7:21

Um, you know, certainly Richard Schmid played a huge role in my development, Richard spent most of his professional career painting in Vermont, and the New England was, which was very similar light, you know, that cool, soft light. And, you know, he taught us how to see that really well. There was another painter by the name of Carl Mar, who was, was born in Milwaukee, but he spent most of his life in Germany ended up teaching at the Munich Academy, and was a fabulous artist. He won some huge awards at some of the world expositions like 1893, he won a huge award for this massive painting he did. Anyway, there was there's a museum 10 miles from my home here, that houses a lot of his masterpieces. So his grand niece inherited a lot of the a lot of the work, bought a lot of it back and then built the museum. So his work is very low podcast, as well. You know, it ranges from going to being very academic to being very impressionistic. And I love his work. So Carl Mars has been a big influence. The Biggie Sargent and Zorn, and I traveled to Sweden to see as huge Zorn show, probably 20 years ago, it was really inspirational. And set me kind of sent me in a direction. So yeah, so those are some of my big, you know, and all these people work from life, and they, they they tried to capture things, you know, mostly lifelike, and so that's been my aspiration as well. So, yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 8:58

yeah, and your work definitely has that quality of it isn't literal copying. It's an interpretation of a scene, which I think gives it more of that. Storytelling quality.

Unknown: 9:10

Thank you, Laura. Thank you. I try for that. You know, I try to to bring, you know, subtle message messages and curiosities to the P so

Laura Arango Baier: 9:21

yeah, they definitely bleed through. Like there's one painting that I'm thinking of right now. Here's where it's a woman and she's in the moonlight at the beach. I really love that. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, I just I love the she seems I don't know there's there's something there it I don't even know how to describe it. Of course a picture's worth 1000 words. So even if I tried it wouldn't, wouldn't do it justice. But I'd like to I could stare at it. And really just imagine and imagine, which is really lovely.

Unknown: 9:54

Thank you, Laura. You know, that's it really, there really are no words for most of the field. Things that I have, when I'm painting something, you know, it's it's, it's a feeling that I'm trying to convey more than, you know, she's picking up a shell or she's, you know, it's, it's you don't really have to be doing anything, but you can just sense that there's some deep yearning, or something going on. And that's, that's more what I try to capture than anything it seems, is yearning.

Laura Arango Baier: 10:25

Yeah. So it's a good word to describe it. Yeah. And then I am curious about your process, because, like your process of creating your work, because since you did have Richard Schmidt, as one of your influences, I do notice that your work has a lot of wet into wet. And then also, it almost seems like alla prima but I'm, I'm also sure you probably do more than one session. Right.

Unknown: 10:51

Right. I, you know, I do a lot of ALA prima, but it does often the work, for instance, the piece of the girl on the beach, the moonlight. Yeah, you know, I just, I couldn't do that in one session. It's just a, you know, as a life size painting. And I did studies from life. But so my process is gather as much information from life as I possibly can. So you know, so I've got the model out there, the moon is coming off the water, the lighting is perfect. I'm having her move. And you know, just start directing and designing the look, as I'm out there. Before I started shooting with the moonlight, I knew we get out there early, I get the easel setup. And when the light was right, I had the model just kind of moving around, got the photographs knew that I got what I needed photographically put the camera down and then just did studies from life, little paintings. Here I'm pointing and showing you the sizes and you can't see it. But you know, nine by 1212. By 16 really fast, they don't really even look like much, but their color notes, you can barely make out that it's a figure in moonlight. But for me, they're critical to get done. And then when I get back to the studio, I have the photographs, I've got these studies clipped all around the final canvas, so that I'm constantly referring to the the notes from life, it brings all of the enthusiasm, all of the energy that I felt while I was out there, into the studio and onto the canvas. And so that's that's primarily how I do it. So if I can't work from life, I am gathering as many studies that I can do from life. So

Laura Arango Baier: 12:37

yeah, cuz that one, like painting would be very challenging to do. In real life, like from life,

Unknown: 12:43

right, the light lasts, like, you know, seven minutes, and then it's completely either completely dark or too light or, but yeah, it's gorgeous. So,

Laura Arango Baier: 12:53

yeah. And then speaking of the part of the process and collecting things, before you paint. Now curious about the before the before, which is, are you suddenly struck with inspiration for your work? Or do you seek it out?

Unknown: 13:11

More often I have to be struck with it. You know, having said that, I'm always seeking it out in quotes, you know, I'm always, I've always got an ear and an eye open for what might make a good painting. You know, so when I get an idea, often it's as I'm dropping off to sleep, image will drop into my mind or just a contrast, in emotional contrast, dark light, you know, could be could be physical, dark, light, it could be spiritual, dark, light, it could be whatever it might be, you know, sometimes developing a piece on those contrasts, and then putting them in a notebook so that I remember them so they don't go away, and then come back to them and try to set them up as best I can.

Laura Arango Baier: 13:56

Do you have any tips for someone who's seeking inspiration for painting? Maybe someone doesn't get an image dropped into their mind as they're falling asleep?

Unknown: 14:08

You know, that's a good point, Laura, um, read, listen, you know, I the scriptures that what I find in the scriptures, I find very inspiring and very emotive. And they, you know, when I read something, and it's not always just the Scripture, it can be can be a lyric to a song. There was a piece Have you ever heard of the Canadian musician? Loreena McKennitt.

Laura Arango Baier: 14:35

Yes, I love her. Yeah, she's

Unknown: 14:37

got some great some beautiful work. I love her music as well. There's a line. So there's a line in there was a line in one of her songs. The line was pill you come to me, you know, and as I was painting along, this music was on and that line had just been sung and it immediately got this vision in my head of my daughter. On the seat, the shore, riverbank, and then a distant figure rowing towards her. And it would just been prior to that, that I'd lost my dad and I just thought of, you know, the, you know, just waiting to see him again. And then just that lyric till you come to me, you know, till I still see him again. Until. So that's how something you know, so that song lyric and I wrote that lyric down till you come to me, or, you know, it can be I've got a whole list of them, you know, um, things, just kind of really poetic phrases that inspire visuals. So that's, I hope that answers your question, Laura.

Laura Arango Baier: 15:44

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I mean, I'm like you I don't, I don't struggle with inspiration. I also get struck with it for paintings. And it's also through the same things. It's like just before bed, or I'll look at the way the light hits something or a lyric and a songs, especially with Larina. Because she her songs are so amazing. If someone hasn't heard her, they really should, because she is fantastic. Yeah,

Unknown: 16:14

she's a fabulous musician.

Laura Arango Baier: 16:17

Hmm. And then, you mentioned in a previous interview, a quote by CS Lewis, I'm going to state it the way that I found it on Google. He's very sassy, which is really funny. But he says, even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original. Whereas if you simply try to tell the truth, without carrying two pens, how often it has been told before, you will nine times out of 10 become original without ever having noticed it. So you mentioned this quote in another interview. And what I find interesting about it is that in modern art, especially in like modern schools, and universities, they tell you to be original, which is contrary to what CS Lewis is saying. Exactly. Yeah. So I wanted to discuss the quote a little bit further with you.

Unknown: 17:17

Yeah, I find I find that quote, to be absolutely dead on in terms of how to be authentic with your artwork. I was, I originally went to art school in Chicago, and I studied commercial art. In commercial art, it was all about flash and style and mimicking this style or that style. How do you how do you grab someone's attention? How do you make it as commercial as possible? Well, when I was in Thankfully, it was only in that for about a year and a half. And it but it still took me several years to kind of beat that thinking out of my system. But so I was, when I embarked on my fine art career, I had to kind of disengage from that, thinking that I had to have a style that I had to have, you know, what style in quotes, do I want to paint? So you know, you just have to kind of get that out of my thinking. And then Louis's quote was, then, if you want to be original, just just tell the truth. But what that means to me is just paint, just look at something that inspires you and try to paint it as accurately as you can. The style that you are supposed to paint will emerge, you have to just trust that. And so that's really what I have got gotten out of that. And, and I've so many, I often have students ask me about that as well. I just don't know, you know, I feel like I've been this style and this style. And this style. I don't know what style of paint well, don't worry about it, just simply tell the truth. Simply try to paint that grouping of trees just as you see it. And when you do that, you will be beautifully unique, beautifully original. Maybe not the first time, but if you do that over and over and over, you will develop and you will your preferences, your all of your life experience will all end up coming through the end of your brush, and you will create these wonderful, unique pieces without as he says, without you having noticed it and that's the best part.

Laura Arango Baier: 19:52

Yeah, and I guess that's also, you know, a lot of artists these days, especially artists who have have only been existing at the time of social media and haven't understood, you know, life before that, right? A lot of them are very concerned with originality, branding, finding their voice. And I think that that quote is perfect to counteract, you know, everyone's work just looking inauthentic or not, or even like, because when you look at a painting by someone, sometimes you can tell like you feel it that it's like, this isn't? Yes, maybe the painting isn't bad, but it just isn't authentic. It's not being honest. Somehow, you know?

Unknown: 20:42

Yes, I do. Yeah, I do know what you mean. And, you know. So when I find myself being drawn to trying to be too much like someone, I just have to remember Dan, just just tell the truth, just be who I was made to be, and be good with that. And it's going to be sufficient. No, there's only one you there's only one me trust that that's where you're supposed to be with it. So, you know, social media is wonderful. You know, there's, there's the exposure to so many different things. And I DEA is awesome. Sometimes, as an artist, as a working artists, sometimes that's too much, though, sometimes you have to quiet yourself to just listen, and figure out what you need to do. You know, personally, and you can really easily get confused when you have too much stimulus. So have you found that true Laurel?

Laura Arango Baier: 21:47

Yeah, I mean, I have found myself sometimes with brain fog, just from like, overwhelm from too much. And I find myself these days, not even, like, I'll get off my phone, I won't have any music playing at all. And I'll just sit there and drink my coffee. Because I just want to experience drinking my coffee. And really just being in the moment with it. And I think, like you said, social media is really useful and great. Because you're, you can expose your work to more people, you can see other people's work that might inspire you, but then there comes a point when it can be too much. And you just need to put a pause button on it and get out of there and refresh. Green, and then not. Yeah, and then also not confusing. Because sometimes, you know, when when we you know, the idea of truth, truth being hopefully an objective thing, it can be a little bit tricky. Because if you are putting more trust into someone else's truth, say you decide that only Bouguereau the way he paints that is truth, then you are then limiting yourself to your own truth, if that makes sense.

Unknown: 23:12

Yeah, I agree. Right. You know, so listen, you know, again, that would be right, don't try to copy him, you know, learn what you can from them, you know, what is it about his work that that inspires you, you know, what can you learn from his technique in terms of his incredible transition from light to shadow? Or, you know, the, the luminosity of his of his shadows, or, you know, whatever it might be? But, yeah, but then, but then work, work on your own in front of things from life. And then that's, that's where the beauty emerges?

Laura Arango Baier: 23:52

Absolutely, yeah. And it's allowing yourself to also explore instead of limiting your, your, I guess, abilities, just saying, Oh, well, this is it, you know, but there's already been one Bouguereau you don't need to be Bouguereau.

Unknown: 24:11

That's true. Yeah. I, I totally agree.

Laura Arango Baier: 24:16

Great. And then also. So I'm noticing more and more that branding, you know, like how we were saying finding your voice that truth. Branding is really just an actuality a form of authenticity, or honesty that an artist shares through their work. So I wanted to know, how have you shown your authenticity? And has it helped you in the marketing sense to sell your work?

Unknown: 24:50

Gosh, Laura, you may have a better idea that Annette than I do just in terms of you know, basically I try to you know, when I think of branding, Certainly it's, uh, you know, I have to look, but it's also a vision or a statement, the mission statement of, if you will, for me, I'm, the look that I go for is just clean and professional. And, you know, try to keep it. And the FASO websites have been beautiful for that. They've just done a gorgeous job of really creating a beautiful, clean image. And they're very workable, they're very user friendly. Um, in terms of my mission statement, you know, I, and I think that goes along with branding. Is that am I? Right? In that, Laura, do you would you agree?

Laura Arango Baier: 25:51

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, branding. Branding is a lot of things. You know, it's, it's the way your work looks, the way you present yourself. The, I guess it is, you know, like you're saying, like a mission statement or something that's overtly present in your work, that people can see and say, oh, yeah, that's, that's Dan. You know, yeah.

Unknown: 26:11

You know, so So for me, you know, I, when I, when I look at all of the beauty that, that I try to paint that comes from someplace, I believe, it was put together by an incredible mind, it is way too complex to have happen by accident. And when, you know, so here goes that wonder again, you know, so I wonder about this as being. And when I read about some of the attributes of this being He's a God of love, he's a God of mercy, is the kind of hope. And that's what I try to put into my work is hope. I, I can't. Like I said, you know, life is hard life can be really hard. And there's so much pain and angst. And I'm not drawn to paint that, you know, I just am not, I'm drawn to paint images that point someone towards, towards hope. So that's, I guess, part of my branding, as well. So how does, how do how does the imagery? How does the look of what I tried to do? How does it all point toward that? So that's, in a nutshell, my thought on it?

Laura Arango Baier: 27:30

Yeah, no, I think it, I think it definitely shows through your work. Thank you. Of course, do you think that has also helped you sell your work? You know, just it isn't? Obviously, the end goal isn't solid work, because as artists, we all know, we do it because we love it. We don't do it to say it, just the selling helps, because we need to eat? Right. But have you found that by being authentic? With your work? It has helped you sell?

Unknown: 27:58

I would hope so I think I mean, I would hope honesty, you know, is integrity and honesty, I think you can lose, you know, really with with with those things. So I'm not perfect. But I, I try to do the right thing. You know, I've got a family of five kids. I want to model what it looks like to do the right thing. I want to model what it looks like to live a life of integrity. You know, again, there's a lot of temptation to go the other direction. And I literally pray that I can just finish well, in this life, you know, that I can do the right thing that I can point people to an eternal hope. So that's, that's, that's how I try to be authentic in life simply trying to live what I believe. Yep. Again, I don't do it perfectly. But thank God for mercy. Yeah. So

Laura Arango Baier: 29:04

I mean, no one's perfect. So it's right. You do your best. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Everyone does the best they can with what they know what that moment. And then if it turns out that it wasn't the best. Well, you learned from that?

Unknown: 29:21

Hmm, true. Very good. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 29:26

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Unknown: 31:08

Um, I think just any, any added exposure helps, you know, and social media certainly has broadened everybody's exposure, if you, you know, if you're consistent, and if you try to do things, you know, the a lot of the FASO marketing tips are very good. You know, there's so many ideas on there. So, you know, the free content that you guys put out is really, you know, just good advice. And if you've follow that, generally, it's going to help a lot. And, you know, so that's, I think, what I just tried to do, you know, I, I'm not a slave to it, although it would probably help to be more diligent, I don't I do it, myself, I don't have somebody hired to do it. So when I'm commenting, it's me who's commenting, and, you know, so, and a lot of the little teaching videos that I do, just on social media, I enjoy doing, you know, they're one of the guys that I listened to, in terms of some marketing things, one of his big sticks is just be generous. You know, don't be afraid to give away for free your knowledge. And when you do that, people will begin to trust you. And then when they trust you enough, they will, you know, ultimately, you know, in the end often buy into kind of really what you're in, quote, selling. So, plus, it's fun, it's easy. And it's you know, it's it's, it just feels good to share something that that you learned what people saw. All that is great.

Laura Arango Baier: 33:05

Absolutely. Yeah, it feels good to help people, especially when they don't have the opportunity to attend certain schools or to even have exposure to museums or to the old masters, for example. So it does feel good to, you know, maybe like someone's lightbulb over their head like, Oh, hi, God. Yeah, you know,

Unknown: 33:32

exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, Richard was so generous with us, he was, you know, had the enthusiasm of a child and shared it. Didn't ask for anything in return. It was, you know, just he modeled it beautifully. And so I'm trying to do some of the same.

Laura Arango Baier: 34:00

Yeah, yeah. It's, you're like, you're passing it forward, which is nice.

Unknown: 34:06

Yes, exactly. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 34:08

And, you know, I've read his book, alla prima the second one, where he included even more stuff and just from reading the way he writes, he did seem like he was a very genuine kind and open person.

Unknown: 34:22

That, that you read that correctly?

Laura Arango Baier: 34:27

Yeah. And I wish I wish I had gotten the opportunity to meet him because he, he in his book, he puts in so much information and it is so eternally helpful to anyone who's attempting alla prima that, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, my God. I always recommend it when someone asked me about all the premium like Richard Schmid. Yeah, just read this, but it's literally everything you need to know.

Unknown: 34:52

He was so comprehensive and winsome in his approach, you know, so,

Laura Arango Baier: 34:58

yeah, and it makes it entertaining, which, just really nice, too, huh? Yeah, no doubt. So what advice would you give to young artists who are just starting out on the journey of living from their work,

Unknown: 35:16

you know, kind of what I say to everybody paint from life as often as you possibly can, your work will grow exponentially. If you do that. Now, a lot of people you know, with the advent of digital photography, and everything is so easy and quick and really high quality, it's so tempting to just take a picture and sit in front of the thing, and you can adjust it and you know, get it pretty close. But you never, there's so much that you miss when you don't paint from life. So, get in, if you can't do the whole thing from life, just do like, like I said earlier, just do studies from life, do something, that you're relaying what you see and feel, and you feel the atmosphere, and you see the light, permeating the air and surrounding the figure. And so, you know, paid from like, it's paid from life as often as you possibly can. At first, it's a little difficult, you know, you've got to you overcome some of the obstacles of just the clumsiness of the easel you're outside or your the winds blowing or the lights changing. Once you do that, a half a dozen times or a dozen times. You will, it'll start getting easier. And then it things just really begin to, you know, as I said, exponentially grow. So,

Laura Arango Baier: 36:55

yeah, yeah, I've had that experience, too. And, you know, you also said earlier that, you know, maybe the first time isn't the best, even though you were referring to finding your voice or, you know, finding your your truth, you know, the first time might not be the best, but keep going.

Unknown: 37:17

Right? Yes, keep a stick with it. Yeah, be persistent.

Laura Arango Baier: 37:21

Yes, Persistence is key, you know,

Unknown: 37:23

it helps to have somebody to do it with Laura to, you know, to, you know, when you're when you're, if it's a struggle, god, dude, paint with somebody, you know, have somebody to your studio, do you know, just make it a community event? And that will force you and then say, and after you're done with that one, say, When are we gonna do the next one? Just, you're continually, you know, forcing yourself to paint from life. So because there's so many excuses, it's so easy to come up with excuses to, to just not do it. Right. So yes.

Laura Arango Baier: 37:57

Oh, yeah. My current excuses. i My studio is not set up yet, like, so just moved here. Excuses. Well, it'll have lights. Yeah. But you know, I, I understand, I understand, you know, a lot of people, we procrastinate. And procrastination, interestingly, isn't necessarily laziness. It's actually your evading a negative feeling. So, a lot of people when they do one thing, and it doesn't really go great, they're less likely to do it, but it's because maybe they felt bad about it, you know? Despite the bad feelings, it's still worth doing it again. Right? Yeah. Yeah, mine is mostly just I'm I have a bunch of ideas. And I don't know which one to pick. So I'm like, I'm just gonna not pick yet.

Unknown: 39:02

Yeah, that is that is hard thing. You know, sometimes it's good. You know, sometimes, my wife Jennifer just says, hire a model and do something, just just hire a model get. So then that way, I'm forced to do something, you know, so then I'll have to have him in the studio, I'll have to set something up. I'll have to design something. And so just force yourself or one thing, another thing I used to do is schedule an exhibition, you know, if I'm with a gallery, and they say, or just promise them that I'll get them three works in a month, or seven works and four months, whatever it might be, whatever is realistic, but will push you you know, and gives you some external pressure to get something done rather than well, I'll maybe get something done sometime. You know, but but if you have a goal, and you if you've committed your Self and you are now bound. Do it. That helps. So

Laura Arango Baier: 40:05

yes, yeah. And it's also a form of like you said earlier, you know, that integrity, and its integrity with yourself, you know, setting goals for yourself and meeting them. It's the best way to also maintain that relationship with yourself and your, you know, the good work that you put in.

Unknown: 40:24

Right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 40:29

This has been so inspiring.

Unknown: 40:33

Good, excellent. Laura. That's great. Yes.

Laura Arango Baier: 40:37

Um, so do you have any upcoming shows that you're pressuring yourself to pay for? Or?

Unknown: 40:44

Yeah, it's funny, I should say that. No, I don't, what I one pressure that I do have is I, I'm developing a new teaching video. And I'd like to get it out within a month. So I've been working on this for the last several months. So that's been one of the things that I've forced myself to do. I'm B, but a year or two ago, I came up with a series that has been really well received. And I am doing another component to that on composition and the art of picture making. And I am excited to have that almost done and ready to go in the next hopefully by the end of this year. Oh, that's great.

Laura Arango Baier: 41:33

Yeah, yeah. So how can people find the studio?

Unknown: 41:40

You can go to I have two websites. One is the Daniel Garrett's dot com, you can find it on there, or quickest way is to go to my other website, which is Daniel Gearheart. teaches that calm. And it's all we'll all be right there in probably about a month. So probably end of November. Hopefully, it'll be ready to go.

Laura Arango Baier: 42:01

So awesome. Yeah. And I'll include your links in the show notes, too. So if anyone wants to go check this out, even your previous videos, or if they really want to learn about composition, which I think we all I mean, we all definitely need to learn more about composition, because it's such an endless and wonderful topic. They can go check it out on your other link.

Unknown: 42:23

Right. So there's so you know, so that and then just continuing to try to refine, you know, my work in terms of design in terms of subtlety, in terms of contrast and relationships. So, yeah, just kind of moving ahead. And, but setting goals is so important. You know, I have to do that. I've got to write things down. I've got to hire models. I've got to schedule things. Because if I don't, they don't get done. Yeah, just be be proactive about scheduling things. Yes. If it's just a model, or yeah, just just get it on the calendar, and then it'll hopefully happen.

Laura Arango Baier: 43:07

Yeah, yeah. There's a saying that I really like, which is do without doing and everything gets done. So it's like, Just do it. Don't think about it. Just do it.

Unknown: 43:19

Right. Just get it done. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 43:22

Yeah. Once you start overthinking it, I find that sometimes I'm in front of my canvas, and I'm like, Oh,

Unknown: 43:34

right. Yeah, it can. It can be. It can be kind of paralyzing. But if I, again, if I have a model that I that I'm paying, compensating, somehow, I need to get something done. I can't just sit here and think about it. I've got to move. So again, that helps.

Laura Arango Baier: 43:57

True, true. I mean, I'll see if I can find any models. It's a salmon lake in a small town of like, 2600 people. So

Unknown: 44:06

that's about exactly the size of my town. I just, you know, I bought some of my best people I found at the gas station. Oh. Yeah, this is yeah. Hey, will you model for me? You know, it's kind of awkward. But yeah. Work.

Laura Arango Baier: 44:25

Yeah, I think once you show them the website, then they're like, Okay, you're not some scalps?

Unknown: 44:30

Yes. Yes, it does.

Laura Arango Baier: 44:32

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Well, thank you so much, Dan, for all of your wonderful information. This has been a very relaxing conversation. You are welcome. It's been a pleasure to work with you too. So I wish you the best. Thank you so much. You too.