62 Aaron Schuerr — Capture Your Initial Sensation

Aaron Schuerr: 0:00

So you start to develop some familiarity, but you're still being very, very specific to observe a moment as though you've never seen it before. And I think that's the balancing act. You don't ever want to get to a point where you're like, oh, you know, lights over here, waves, wave actions coming this way. So this is how I paint a wave. Because then you're, you're a recipe. You don't want to be, you know, it's like difference between being a cook and a chef. You know, anybody can follow a recipe. You want to be the chef who's inventing a new dish.

Laura Arango Baier: 0:35

Welcome to BoldBrush show, where we believe that fortune favors old crush. My name is Laura Arango Baier, and I'm your host. But 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 Aaron shirt, a plein air artist based in the United States, who was fascinated with capturing the beauty and the essence of the initial sensation of the places he paints. Aaron emphasizes the importance of sharing your unique experience through your work, while also keeping yourself just outside of your comfort zone in order to help you push forward and grow as an artist. We also talk about his somewhat accidental jump from student to full time artist, why storytelling is just as important in marketing as it is in your paintings. And he gives us some excellent advice about networking and using social media and your newsletter to help you sell more work. Finally, we talk about his new video, winter sunset and pestle and his upcoming workshops. Welcome Aaron to the BoldBrush show. How are you today?

Aaron Schuerr: 1:44

I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. Excited. Yes,

Laura Arango Baier: 1:48

this is wonderful to have you. Because I discovered your work when I was browsing through some Ephesos I guess when it was some of FASO signature artists and other best artists and I saw your work. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this is so beautiful. And then to top it off, when I found out that half of it is pastel, I was I couldn't believe it was pastel because it's first of all such an uncommon medium to come across, especially with more mainstream, I guess, realist painters. And also because it's a, the way that you handle the medium is so I don't know, it just it's so reminiscent of oil painting that it gosh, I was like taken aback at how you can handle the medium. So I guess so I don't want to say perfectly because I don't believe in perfection. But you handle it with such dexterity and such awe, like in such a way where you really feel it. And it's so vibrant to which is amazing. But before we dive into that, do you mind telling us a bit about you and who you are and what you do?

Aaron Schuerr: 2:55

Yes, I'm Erin. Sure. As you know, I live in Montana little town called Livingston, Montana. It's about an hour north of Yellowstone National Park. And I'm primarily focused on plein air painting. More often than not, I will be out somewhere. Whether it's near Livingston, paradise valley along the Yellowstone River, I have my favorite haunts around here, or you know, traveling to different places. So and I work in oil. And in pastel, I kind of go back and forth between the two mediums.

Laura Arango Baier: 3:38

Great, yeah. And also, the other thing that I really liked, when I was reading your about is how you mentioned how two people can be looking at the same sunset and experience it in a, I guess in a completely different way, but still be together in that experience anyway, which, knowing that you live so close to such beautiful places in nature, that it makes a lot of sense that you would have this reverence, you know, for those experiences and that you'd be out there. Like as much as possible.

Aaron Schuerr: 4:09

Absolutely, yeah, it's, um, I think that what I what I focus on in my work, it's not about the replicating the place, it's about sharing your experience. And, you know, and trying to be honest and open to the surprise of experience, and finding a way to to translate that. So I think of being responsive. And in plein air painting being improvisational to a degree. And so basically, I think as artists, we're just we're sharing stories. And you know, I kind of start the story and you as the viewer finish it. And it's that experience that I'm trying to convey. I in the work?

Laura Arango Baier: 5:02

Yeah, yeah, and I can definitely see it. Because as you just mentioned, you know, there's a little bit of improvisation with plein air specifically because I mean, the sun moves, we're actually we move, but the sun in our sky was seemingly moves really fast. So it's like, you got to be on it, you got to really catch it before you know, the light hitting that specific, you know, part of a tree or that rock, and it has to be, you know, you have to catch it before it's gone. Because sometimes, you know, the ambiance can just shift so much with just 1015 minutes of being outside. So capturing it is a challenge, when I teach, I

Aaron Schuerr: 5:43

call it the initial sensation. And I think I think I steal that term from Saison. Painting is realizing when sensation, I think is quote, but it got me thinking about, you know, when I, when I go out whether it's on foot, or I'm just driving, to try to find a spot. There's something within the larger scope of things that catches my eye, I call it the, the initial sensation. So like when I'm teaching workshops. You know, sometimes though, I'll take the group and we'll just walk, because they want people to get that idea of when you're going out to paint can't just say, Oh, my goodness, that's so beautiful. There's something about your response that makes your response unique. And so trying to catch that and define it, what is that maybe it's the light on the creek, or the bend in the creek or the silhouette of a cottonwood. And so just really trying to hold on to that idea. And articulate that idea rather than chasing the sense the you know, chasing the landscape, I think is kind of key to finding a personal voice over the landscape. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 7:06

that's a very good point. I guess, you know, I'm personally not a plein air painter. I haven't tried it yet. I'm a little bit afraid, you know, a little bit like, ooh, Should I do it? This is really intimidating. But I think you know, one day when I do, I will think back on what you're saying, right now, because it's a good point. You know, it's like, it's a little bit like when you have like a figure model, and you're trying to sometimes, you know, they move around a bit. It's not fun to just chase the pose, it's really important to just capture that gesture, as they say. So it seems like you capture that gesture of the environment that you're in, which is it's very similar how and interesting how it, you know, transfers itself in that way. And actually, speaking of you know, that first sensation, when was your first sensation, when did you think oh, my gosh, I have to do this? I want to capture this and painting. When was that first moment.

Aaron Schuerr: 8:01

There was a day when I was eight years old. That changed everything. So this woman, I still remember her name had their bourbon. If you're out there, find me. Heather Berman, live down the street from us. And for some reason, and I don't know why she was at my house. She was designing our elementary school mascot the East few wild cats. So she had a stack of library books of big cats, and some paper and pencils. And she was doing a drawing of a lynx is what I recall. And I've watched her I've never seen someone draw representations only before. My school was an underfunded school, we didn't have our teacher. And so I watched her for a while and I was mesmerized. And I snuck off with one of the books and paper. I don't think I asked her. I think it was too embarrassed to ask her but I snuck away. And I did a drawing of a mountain lion on a cliff, you know from from the book. And it fulfilled everything an eight year old wants one it was it was interesting. It got my attention. And second, it got other people's attention. So, you know, like when you're eight years old? Well, it's still it's pretty much the same thing. Now. The interested keeps me interested and hopefully it gets other people interested because otherwise I can't keep doing it. But from that day forward. I knew I wanted to be an artist. And there was a few little diversions along the way but essentially that was a where I started my path. And then another key day. Fast forward to college. I went to the The Art Institute in Chicago, I was doing more abstract work, I was doing low performance art, really enamored with data and the early 20th century abstraction. Which I still think is interesting work. Anyway, I went on an exchange program to an art school in Scotland called Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. I loved it there. It was a place I felt more at home than anywhere I'd ever been, funnily enough, another country. So I ended up transferring, spent two years in Scotland got my degree over there, the start of my would have been my last year there. Some friends invited me to go sketch at the beach at St. Andrews. So on the east coast of Scotland, you kind of walk across the, the the world's first golf course out to the beach. And then there's this beautiful profile of St. Andrews. So I took a big board and satirical paper, because that's what seemed to make sense. And I did a landscape in charcoal. And it was like meeting myself for the first time. I had never felt such pure joy as doing that landscape. And so in my final year, we're supposed to be preparing for a degree show, the whole degree is ranked on your final shots, not like American schools. There's no GPA, there's no accumulated credit, you have a show at the end. And it's your degree is ranked. So I'm supposed to be doing big finished frameable work. And all of a sudden, I just started taking the bus or the train out of town. And doing at that point, just charcoal drawings. And just trying to figure it out. And there was no one like I had some good instructors, but there was no one that did landscape. So there was no, you know, I didn't know what plein air painting, I don't think there was the term in white use at that point. And so it's just figuring it out. So by the time I got my degree show, I got a fairly poor degree, like my mark for my degree, but I sold almost every painting in the show. That works. And the other key moment and that one the other funny, I guess the third key moment and in my trajectory was I came home for Christmas break. So home being Illinois. And I was in the basement looking for something. And I found a pesto set. My mother had taken one art class in her entire life. And it was when she was pregnant with me, which I think is funny. And a friend of hers had gifted her a pastel set. And it was an old set of Grumbach set of grown Buckers. Which back then they made some great pastels. And so I brought it upstairs and I will say, Mom, what is this? Can I have it? She said, Yeah, I haven't touched it since she was pregnant with me. So I brought that back with me for my final semester in Scotland. And that gave me the transition from charcoal into pastel. And, you know, because before that I was doing basically charcoal drawings with a little bit of color. So that gave me enough ammunition to to kind of make them more pastel paintings, rather than drawings. And yeah, so those, those are the few of the key many key moments. But yes, and then I did pastel for a number of years. And then it was after, really after 911 When the whole art world just kind of shut down. And so I thought, well, I'm broke anyway, I might as well start learning oil. So I started doing oil landscapes. I knew I had the space to do a lot of bad paintings. And I did. And so now I go back and forth between the two mediums.

Laura Arango Baier: 14:28

Wow, I really love hearing about this key moments, because it's so funny. I was talking to a friend about this the other day, how sometimes we when we're in that moment, and we remember being in that moment, we don't really think about it, right? Like in that moment. We're like, Oh, this is just another moment in my life. But then when you look back, it's like, oh my god, this completely shifted my whole direction in my life. And I was aware enough in that moment to follow that lead. Right if you hadn't paid attention to those pastels, you know might have been complete really different reality that you'd be facing right now. So it's like really mind blowing to look back at those key moments and be like, Wow, these are real turning points in my life. And that's so beautiful. And speaking of beauty, because you seem to have a very keen eye and an, you know, an inner drive, to find and capture that beauty in nature and in landscapes. And I was wondering, you know, what role does that beauty play in your artwork? And how do you define that beauty within the context of your artistic practice?

Aaron Schuerr: 15:43

I think that's that's a difficult question. I think I can maybe talk around it, but I don't know if I can get right to the heart of it. I think beauty is it's a relationship. It's not a thing. It's not out there. It's kind of in here. Now, that sounds a little, maybe a little schmaltzy. But going back to what I said before about the relationship, and what you said about that statement, I have about sunset, how, you know, when you, when we see a sunset, we want to turn to the person next to us and say, Oh, my goodness, did you see that? It's funny, I was thinking, this is a little odd way of coming at it, but I was I was driving a few weeks ago. And the light was glistening off of the guardrail. And it was just, you know, late in the afternoon, curve on a hill. And, and so there's this bead of light that's just racing just ahead of the vehicle because of the angle of the sun. And it suddenly struck me that all the vehicles behind me and in front of me, were also getting a beat of light, but it wasn't my bead. You know, it's because it's through your, your lens, that you're getting that reflection. So like when we say we're out watching a, let's say, we're out watching a sunset on the West Coast, you know, I'm paying California a lot. And you know, you get sometimes, you know, we might have 100 people out there looking at sunset, and you get that glistening sunset light on the water? Well, it's a strange reality to think that each person is getting their own their own sunset, their own little bit of reflection. So if you have 100 people, there's 100 Different teardrop, two drops of light along the water. And I, I guess I had never thought of that. And it kind of blew me away that the relativity of the visual experience, in in nature anywhere. And And yet, when we finish, you know, when the sunsets done, it's not like you think Well, how was your sunset? My sunset was like this, you know, it's our sunset, we, we think of it as one thing we think of it collectively. So I think, as an artist, what's such a magical thing is that I can show you what my reality was, I can share that with you, I can show you that one singular view. And that's what I love about say, you know, you've gotten paired with a group of artists, and we're all painting what is most truthful, to our experience? And it's so different. And I think that's the magic. And I think that's what connects us to each other through art.

Laura Arango Baier: 18:53

Wow. I'm very mind blown. I see. So true, you know, we do each get like very different, as you say drops or photons of light hitting us and even the way that our own brains can, you know, perceive it. And then you know, because you don't really see with your eyes you see with your brain, which is kind of trippy to me. So that's also so dependent on your own brain. And I love that you mentioned this because you know a lot of people, I feel like they struggle to see their own voice and see their own vision precisely because they're under that assumption that they are collectively seeing the same thing, which is such a fantastic point to make. And I think anyone who listens to what you just said, should really take that into account that no one really sees in the same way. And that also that also reminds me of this ancient Greek quote, I can't remember who who said it, but and it's so funny because it's actually about the idea of atoms when they were trying to come up with the idea of atoms. But one of them said you never step in the same river twice. And I think that It is so true, when it comes to what you just said, right? You never see the same sunset twice. And no one sees the same exact sunset either. In the same way, so Wow, is so mind blowing. It's like the collective and the individual, you know, kind of like, ah, fantastic. Yeah. And then the other, it's so funny, because now we're going to switch over to something a little, a little less philosophical. But I think the other challenging thing is, you know, when you went from, you know, studying in Scotland and having, you know, these, this realization about what you really, really loved? How was it like for you to transition, you know, from student to, I'm living from my work, what was that like for you?

Aaron Schuerr: 20:49

Well, I, I worked full time by mistake. I always had this, I didn't know if this is a common kind of way of thinking about it. But I had this idea that there would be this this moment, like going from part time to full time artists that, and I always had this idea that we would have, I don't know, books with numbers in front of us, you know, where we'd be sitting that my wife and I would be sitting there and, and, you know, we really discussed it, make a plan and say, All right, you know, it's time to really go for it, and you got the pieces together. And it didn't happen like that at all. None of nothing in my life has happened in that deliberate way it feels like so when I finished art school, I had sold enough paintings. To move out to Montana, I moved up to Montana, because I had met a girl from Montana. And we had gotten engaged. And so my friends in Chicago thought I was absolutely insane. So you're gonna go out to Montana, which none of us can even find on a map. And you're gonna go be an artist? And I said, something like that? Yes. They thought I was absolutely bonkers. Because, you know, the idea is that if you're going to be an artist, you go to Chicago or New York, or LA, or, you know, some big city and I'm going out to Montana, where there's less than a million people in the whole state. And I got out to, initially to Bozeman, Montana, and there were more artists. I now live in Livingston. There are more painters, writers, musicians, filmmakers than I have met anywhere. Livingston, this little town I live in per capita has more professional writers than New York, or Chicago. It's, it's crazy. And it's what I loved about being out here is instead of people asking me, well, what are you going to do with that? When I told him I was going to be an artist, or had an art major? Well, what are you going to do with that? How are you going to make a living? When it came out? West people said, Well, what kind of work do you do? Oh, no one really cares how successful I am. Just want to know what you're creating. So that was refreshing. So anyway, I waited tables. I taught Lucas to cross country ski, I was a youth director point. I did home health care. Sometimes I did more than you know, I might have up to three jobs at one time. But I always worked as little as possible on those jobs, to try to focus on my artwork. So that I did that for about 10 years after after art school where I worked part time. My last job was as a youth director, and I can see that the program was growing. And I was going to have to ask for more hours. But I also realized that when I was working with the kids, I was thinking about painting I wanted to finish. When I was painting, I was thinking I really should get this next event planned. So I thought this is the way to get in trouble. You know, not being prepped, prepared. So I put in my notice, I assumed I would get an another job. And there was a number of handful of times that I went to restaurants stood outside, because I knew they were hiring. I knew I could get away during the job I I'm not for 10 years. And it stand there and I'd say I'm gonna do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. And I kept doing that. And then one day I realized wait a second. I think it might be a full time artist. Because I had kept putting off getting a job. And so that was 2005 so do the math at it for a while. So it It kind of took me by surprise. I think the hard thing about going from that transition from part time to full time is it is a leap. And it's scary, and it never stops being a little bit scary. Being an artist, you know, you just don't know when the next opportunity, the next paycheck is coming. And most of us are not, you know, raking it in every month. It's it's still feast and famine. But just having the faith that you can keep plugging away at it. And in my case, one of the real key elements is key support at a point in my case, my wife has been absolutely key to me being where I'm at. She has always encouraged and supported me. And there's there's points in the journey where if she had said, I can't handle the strain and stress of this, you need to go get a job. I said, Okay, I'll do it. But she never there's times when I was ready to give up and she's like, No, no, keep at it. Just don't let all the clutter and stress and strain get to you just keep painting. And, and that's not the world to me.

Laura Arango Baier: 26:33

Yeah, yeah, that's a port is really, it can be make or break. So often. So it is so wonderful to hear that you had that support system. Because I mean, I totally understand it. Especially with that it's working out this month, it's not working out next month, you know, it can be really stressful. So it's great to have someone there next year holding your hand like, you know, it's okay. Okay, we got this, we can do this. And they might not even fully believe that either. They might also be kind of freaking out, but just the feeling of like, okay, now we can pull through this. That's amazing. That's beautiful.

Aaron Schuerr: 27:11

Yeah, she's she's kind of the anchor, the rudder. I don't know. I'm a little bit all over the place. And I tend to get, you know, I tend to get stressed more easily. You know, I feel like over the years, I've unnecessarily lost way too much sleep. You know, wondering how things are going to work out and then somehow I don't know what they do. And, and then I think well, why did I stress out so much? And then I do it again?

Laura Arango Baier: 27:45

Oh, my God, dude, sir, my life.

Aaron Schuerr: 27:48

I feel that all of us in the art world, I mean, even artists that I artists that I look up to that are really successful, like, Wait, you're sweating it a little too sometimes. Oh, okay. Good to know.

Laura Arango Baier: 28:02

Yeah. It's a collective thing, I guess. Um, probably because of that, you know, how like, especially, for example, like you mentioned, you actually started what you said 2005. And then, you know, I can imagine it might have been a challenge once you know, the 2008 economic crash happened because I have heard from other artists who started around the same time, we're like, oh, my god, that was the hardest time.

Aaron Schuerr: 28:27

Well, the biggest tragedy that I had in my career was right at the height of the recession, the gallery, a gallery in Bozeman that I showed up, and it was my own gallery. It blew up in a gas line explosion. And the person who had basically had taped she had rescued my career at a key point where I was really thinking I needed to get a job. And I went in and showed her my work. And it turned out she had already followed my work. And I've always wanted to show your work. And she just really made things happen. And she was so personal with the way that she she ran things. And she came in early in the morning and flip the light switch and the whole half a block when disappeared, basically blew up. And so that was right at the height of the recession. So that was both, you know, financially crazy, and it was emotionally, you know, like nothing I've ever experienced. And so I don't know, I look back on that now know how we got through. I do know that there were people during that time that like I had someone call me and say hey, we want to commission you to do a painting, whenever we're going to just give You $2,000 down on that? No, it's unspoken. But they knew what we were going through. And, you know, was it really a commission? So I did have some people that just came, came out and like, hey, I want to buy one of your paintings because I couldn't come to your studio, or buy a couple of paintings. And I think that they knew that we were on the brink. During that time, so it's, um, yeah, the support over the years of just friends and collectors and fellow artists is so crucial to getting up and getting an easel every day.

Laura Arango Baier: 30:46

Absolutely. And that's, that's a very great point, too. Because I think a lot of artists, you know, since it's such a solo career, you know, we're always behind our easel, we're always in our studio or in our head, you know, thinking about the next painting or whatnot, it can be really easy to underestimate the importance of that support system and actually building those relationships. And, you know, making those friends and networking that can really, I mean, make the difference between literally, you know, being a starving artist, and, you know, making a living and, you know, when you do face that hardship of oh my gosh, like, I'm about to literally claim bankruptcy. You know, you can count on other people who appreciate your work and want to help you out. I can pull you out of that dark hole. I mean, it's so important. Yeah.

Aaron Schuerr: 31:39

Yeah, the friendships and then, you know, just the learning that, that I've done, that I've experienced just from not always just taking workshops, but just just being with other artists, I think of a trip that we see a year ago. Year and a half ago, I got together with another artists friend, we were talking after the Laguna plein air painting Invitational. And we started talking about why don't we just get a group of artists together and just do a trip. Because we're always painting for a show, you know, we're doing plein air painting shows. And so it's hard to be you know, that social when you're like, I've got to get these paintings done, get them in frames and get them in by this date. So we just called some of our artists friends, and we rented a vacation rental down at near Capitol Reef National Park. And we spent a week there, painting. And we set up a schedule so that each of us was cooking dinner for everyone one night, so I only had to worry about dinner one night. And then we would just go into the park and paint. And at night, we would lay out our half finished or finished paintings and see what everybody did. And we had a pile of art books, and we would just look at the art books. And what made me laugh is that we're not under the pressure of a plein air show for this thing. And there were so many nights that I painted till dark. I thought wow. I don't have any pressure on unpinning 12 hours a day, but I paid him twice a day because I'm painting with people that I love, and painting a landscape that is just so intriguing to me. So that you know, so finding ways to develop friendships that are not always strictly professional, I think is it's good for the soul.

Laura Arango Baier: 33:51

Yes, yeah. And good for inspiration, too. It's yeah, it's great to have, you know, collaborations with friends and talk to them and see their perspective. And as you were saying, you know, learn from them, they learn from you. And, you know, you share all these things. It's, it's wonderful. And, and I think one of the best places to especially today because of course in the early 2000s It wasn't really available. But now you know what social media, it has truly become, you know, a lot easier to communicate with people, especially, you know, other artists that you might never have known about who you connect with, and you're like, oh my gosh, you know, if the internet didn't exist, we don't have social media, I would never have had the opportunity to see this work and then get inspired in this specific way to go in this direction. You know, it really hasn't opened everything up. Yeah, yes.

Aaron Schuerr: 34:40

It's, that's definitely the good side of social media is just I get challenged to I mean, it's both, you know, there's that feeling of being inspired by what you see. And then there's that feeling of, oh my goodness. That's like so beyond that. where I'm at. So, like, I'm inspired right by it mostly. But I find it really fascinating. And it definitely is one of the elements of have grown in the past few years, just looking at what other people are doing, how they're solving the same kinds of problems, artistically?

Laura Arango Baier: 35:25

Yes, that's a great point to make. Yeah, because I also refer to painting as you know, as problem solving. And that's why, you know, studying others or studying, you know, in the past how they did it, they usually already have the answers, like, why would I reinvent the wheel when someone has already done this successfully, and I could just put a bit of a spin on it on my own end, you know, and like, create it in my own way, but without completely altering the entire process, which is really great. And one thing I wanted to ask you, too, about that leap that you made? Do you have any advice for someone who's wanting to make that leap into full time painting,

Aaron Schuerr: 36:07

I can share basically, I can only share what my journey is. And I just want to emphasize that your journey is different. I had this idea that when I was going into it, that everybody else had the manual, you know, the how to be the artist manual of some kind. And I always felt like I was the only one that didn't have it. And then you start talking to other artists and realize that everybody feels like that. So one, don't feel like you need to have everything figured out. And together. It's always learning process. I'm still, I've been at it a while. And I still feel like there's so many areas that I can streamline things learn whether it's on the financial side, or it's on the, the improving as an artist, I would say one really, really important thing that I would tell my younger self, is keep track of your collectors, and the people that you interact with. I was not good at doing that. You know, one of my early on, one of the the things that really helped my career was the SAM Russell exhibit. It was a week, up in Great Falls, Montana, that a hotel was converted into gallery spaces. And so it got my work out there in a way that I hadn't been out there before. And so I also got me direct sales, and I didn't really keep track of those people back then. And I think that was a major missed opportunity. I'm still struggling with this, I'm getting better. But so like for me now. My newsletter is gold. Because it's a place. So social media, you know, Instagram, Facebook, that's a great, it's like the gateway drug. Your work, it's out there. And it's fun to have that kind of instant response. Whether it's to painting or real, or but I I'm, I've only made sporadic sales through social media. But getting people over to my newsletter, where I people are choosing to open the emails. You know, it's their choice, I send out the email, it's their choice to open it versus Instagram where they're just, they're scrolling and maybe it catches their eye. And so they're choosing to read it. So that means they're actually following you. And so, since the pandemic, that kind of direct relationship has been really, really important to keeping its galleries are still very, very important. Having really good relationships with my galleries. Making sure that I'm communicating with my galleries, keeping them supplied with work is really, really important because for me, like the, the galleries are places where you know, like behind us a large painting. That's, that's something that would go in a gallery. They're better able to handle work like that. But you know, sometimes doing little, I've done a number of fun projects that I've shared with my newsletter subscribers, usually with smaller paintings that kind of augment the gal Sorry, sales make things a little bit more stable

Laura Arango Baier: 40:07

for me, yeah. 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 to sign up completely free at BoldBrush show.com. That's B O LDBRUSH 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 facile.com forward slash podcast, you can make that come true. And also get over 50% off your first year on your artists 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 ecommerce 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 s a s o.com. Forward slash podcast. Yeah, that's a good point. Because you know, as artists, especially, you know, it's having a gallery is really great. I know a lot of artists whose galleries exclusively and obviously pros and cons, right pros are, they handle everything, they can sell bigger pieces, they have collectors that they already have on a list. But you know, when you since you are the supply, right? If you don't paint, there's no money, right? So I think one of the great ways to survive and not really survive, but to thrive as an artist is to diversify income, which I think you're doing a really great job at because you recently actually had a release of a video, winter sunset in pastel on paint tube. So I think that's that's a really great way to supplement income. But can you tell us a little bit more about your video? Yes.

Aaron Schuerr: 42:42

So that this has been a really, really fun process. So this is what's streamline publishing paint, paint to TV, you know, the people that do plein air magazine and fine art connoisseur, and the plein air convention. So in May, I went down to Austin, and I spent a week filming two videos, one pastel one oil, the pastel video, winter sunset, and pastel has just come out. And I'm really excited about this one. Couple of reasons. One is I put a lot of preparation work into it. I wanted to make sure that the piece that I did, for the video would be something that I'm proud of, because I've done you know, I've done lots of demos for workshops, and sometimes sometimes they work and sometimes you're like, Oh, don't look too closely. You know, it's a little bit of a mess. So I thought you know, this is a great opportunity. So I did a lot of, of prep work. And I love that subject is very personal to me it's a it's a spot up in the, in the mountains that I found cross country skiing. So I went back and basically had to ski back in there and set up in the winter to do plein air paintings that were the basis of the piece that I did for the videos. So going back to that idea of relationship and experience, this is a place that you had to do some work to get to. I also just really enjoyed that. It's essentially, it's like long form storytelling. You know, this is a studio piece. So it's, it's, I'm not rushing like sometimes when I'm doing a demo, like you got an hour and a half and you gotta get this thing done. So this is I worked on it for over two days. The team was great to work with so yeah, I'm super excited. And the other part of that that's kind of fun. I just got a phone call. Literally 15 minutes before we got on here. If I'm going to do a pre convention workshop for the plein air convention next May in North Carolina. So that kind of ties into the video. So another another way to share what I've learned with pastel.

Laura Arango Baier: 45:24

So what? Congratulations. That's so exciting. Thank you. Yeah. And I think you bring up another really interesting point, which is storytelling. And I think that's something else that I don't think a lot of artists really take into consideration, especially in terms of tying it into marketing. Because of course, if you want to sell you, you know, you have to market it's impossible to live as an artist without good marketing. I think that also makes make some breaks a good career. So I wanted to ask you, how you, you know, use storytelling, both in your work and to help market your work?

Aaron Schuerr: 46:05

That's a great question. I, I'm also an actor, I do a lot of acting. And so storytelling is at the heart of everything I do. And I'm finding more and more that there are, there's a cross pollination between acting writing, painting. In fact, I, I do some work with an acting group called Insight theater. And we do site specific theater events, usually based on Shakespeare. And usually, the director has to be out painting. So it'll be out plein air painting, and one of these locations, and you'd have these tour groups that come through, and it will stop and it will perform. And usually I'm performing something from Shakespeare, but she has been right around to break something about the artistic experience and tie it into Shakespeare monologues. And so that has been a just a beautiful convergence of everything that I love the interaction with people through acting, writing, painting. So that's kind of at my heart of, of what I do, even though painting is a very solitary endeavor. I think storytelling, the story of your experience is so key, both in terms of creating richer work, but also creating those relationships that you need in order to pay bills. So the two fronts, I think of the storytelling on storytelling, is, what is the you know, social media, gallery, website, newsletter, all of those, and then the other side of it, is going out and having those solitary experiences that create the stories. So one of the things that, you know, looking at the social media side of things, you know, early on, I started noticing that, if I put paintings, you know, I sometimes photograph my paintings in the landscape, you know, sometimes it just works out, but they slot in, and it looks like a window, you know, with the larger landscape. And I started putting those on Facebook and Instagram, because they're just kind of fun. And I thought this is the way of letting people into the creative process a little bit, showing the setting. And, you know, those get way more interested in tracking them. And if I just put a painting, there's something here. And what I realized is that part of what we do enjoy about social media is that we get to have some kind of relationship to the creative process through that, you know, so on social media, I can show you know, maybe I do a reel and I have been doing a lot of time lapse videos. When I got pain, I just set up a second tripod and I put the put my phone on it and I just do time lapse. And so they share those reels people really enjoy that because they get to see that the magic of the process. So I feel like that's letting people in on what your experiences in a way. And I think it's good for not everybody can go and collect your work. Not everybody can come in into the gallery and see your work in person. So giving them that experience is just a good thing to give to the world. So there's that side of things, my newsletters and other one where I always try to share a Um, a little bit of the story behind the paintings. I don't just try to make it this professional bullet point, you know, newsletter, like I just sent went out yesterday, where I shared a painting the Yellowstone River. And I told a little story about my son. And I find a canoe last summer, and how we spent the whole summer trying to figure out how to navigate the Yellowstone River and dump that canoe so many times, and my wife, but she would not get the canoe until we had a a accident free run. And it wasn't until the end of the summer. So I share that story. Because that painting got me thinking about that experience. So rather than just being like, Hey, I've got this painting, and you should use to collect it. And it's this, it's a great painting. And here's what it costs. Just saying had this painting. And here's a little nugget of what the process meant to me. And then trust that, hopefully they will, someone will be like, Wow, I have that I have a similar experience. And so I really want that painting. So that's the one side. For me the experience side is I'm a little bit extreme maybe in this in seeking out experience. It's why I plein air paint. But I've done a number of trips, solo backpacking painting trips, I did one six day trip track across the Grand Canyon from the North Rim to the South Rim. That one was with pastel. And basically did about two paintings per day, as I trekked along, I've done, I've done on across the Beartooth mountains and Spanish peaks into that range in the Indian Peaks in Colorado. So these are solo trips into the high country, carrying everything on my back, which none of this makes any sense, really, I mean, I can do great, I can just paint roadside, and find a lifetime worth of stuff to paint. But for me, the thing of being in the in, in the mountains for you know, up to six days, six days is my limit of what I can carry between food and painting gear at this point. But, and the solitude to me is key being alone. And this is gonna sound a little bit odd. But I need to know that there are places that are bigger than me, there are places that could kill me. I know that sounds extreme, and I'm very, I, I will put this caveat that I am very experienced in the mountains. I do a lot of planning. These are not these trips are not done casually. But to know that there's a world out there that's wild that I have to have, you know, I'm in the bear tooth, I have that bear spray, I have to be aware of what's happening around me. I can't just get completely lost and is what I'm painting I have to be aware of what's happening with the weather of how many miles I need to go. Staying, not getting lost. And those I don't know. I can't say specifically how that works into the paintings other than getting out there to find the subject matter. But I I believe that somehow that solitude does work its way into the paintings in a way that's more personal to my experience. And for me, it's the way that I quiet the clutter. You know, I think we all walk around with a whole lot of clutter up here. You know, it's hard you might be out painting and thinking okay, what am I going to cook for dinner? And oh, shoot, I gotta I forgot to answer that email. You know, it's it's hard not to get distracted. I'll be in the studio and suddenly like wait, I just checked Why did I just check Instagram on my phone? I wasn't going to do that. Like I just wasted 10 minutes, you know, so there's all of that stuff. So for me these these trips into the mountains or into the Grand Canyon with our way of just having a singular moment of being in theater we say acting truthfully and A moment, being fully in the moment. And it's the same thing in painting, that the best times are when I forget myself. And I'm being completely carried along by the subject by what's happening around me. And that's the place that I can do it in the most purest form.

Laura Arango Baier: 55:22

Oh, my gosh, you are hitting on some very fascinating things. Because I'm a huge fan of Buddhism. And a lot of what you're saying is very much is very Buddhist, the idea of meditation, of that egolessness, of seeing yourself as part of the whole, right, you are literally immersing yourself in an environment. And experiencing it from a primordial sense, right, a life or death, of course, in a safe manner, because you study these places ahead of time. But you are also, like you said, you're getting out of your head, because you have to, right, you have to be outside of your head, to be aware of what's going on around you. And it makes you definitely live more in the moment, which is another Buddhist ideal of experiencing life and accepting it as it is. And remembering that you are a part of the all, even though you're an individual. So I definitely think it bleeds into your work. Because imagine, like, yeah, you could go on the roadside, but anyone else can go on the roadside, right, you are literally going into places that very rarely see a human being, you know, you're going to these pretty isolated spots that you're capturing that who knows in the future, they might not even exist. Um, you never know what can happen. So you're also documenting, not just your experience in these places, but you're also documenting these places that are rarely ever seen, which I think adds even more value to the work and the narrative. And the experience is like mind blowing.

Aaron Schuerr: 57:05

Yes, that's been good for, for me as an artist. It's funny, I was thinking about not not to diffuse the theory of beauty of this idea. So I did this trip across the bear twos, two summers ago. And I hiked west to east across the Beartooth mountains. And I was painting by this lake. Second day, and a couple of hikers came by on the trail but where it was, they came walking down to see what I was doing and saw the ease lot there. And the woman sees sees me and sees the salon. She goes. Oh my god, you're Aaron. Sure. She says, I follow you on Instagram. Oh, just cracks me up. I am. I'm like, at this point. I'm probably 10 miles into the wilderness. This woman like okay, yeah, that's funny. Like, okay, now it comes together somewhere.

Laura Arango Baier: 58:17

I mean, yeah, she probably also notices that, you know, you paint those places that she liked. So, wow, that's like, catching, I don't know, catching your favorite person in the act. You know, it's like, oh, my gosh, you're

Aaron Schuerr: 58:31

way out in the middle of the most remote mountain range in Montana.

Laura Arango Baier: 58:37

Oh, my God, that's like, one a million. You know, that's crazy. Yeah. But that, you know, that also brings another because we touched upon this earlier, another interesting part, which is, you know, those connections, you know, like, the networking aspect of, not just, you know, making friends with other artists and collectors, but also, you know, connecting with your audience. And really having that rapport that makes, you know, that shows your authentic side and also, you know, in a way, you know, keeps you a little bit protected because no one really knows anyone, but you know, you're still expressing a side of you that's authentic, that people will respond to and see themselves reflected and how important do you find that networking to be and what strategies do you use to network even more? Right?

Aaron Schuerr: 59:32

Well, like I said before, the newsletters is one of the key key areas and then I can add to that a couple of occasionally I'll do just fun projects and these really started during the pandemic, you know, because everything was all the gods are closing and I thought it was going to be like 2008 all over again. You know, we're you know, galleries are closed shows are closed all my workshops are canceled, what am I going to do? And so I started off, I just did a video sale and marketed it first to the news newsletter subscribers. And that did well, because I was just thinking about, like, let's put together some projects that just get me through, if I can just get through a month, you know, keep us from getting kicked out of our house or whatever. And then I did. I called it a plein air marathon. And so that one I did a painting a day, or every weekday, I took the weekends off eight by 10 until I got to 26 paintings. And so I would go out in the morning and do the painting, come back. And then I'd write something up the newsletter, and then and that was something where it was just the newsletter subscribers had the first chance of buying it. So I saw them all unframed at that point, and then I sold them off for $400 Each, which is way under retail, but they're just unframed, you know, on the spot paintings. But each one, you know, I have a little story with it, about what happened that day. And then what I could do is then I put on Instagram, and Facebook, hey, this is the painting I did, it sold. But if you want to have a crack at the next one, you got to sign up for my newsletter. And so that kind of brought people to the newsletter. And again, I like when I started this project that well, one, it'll get me out painting will be a good discipline. It'll get me out painting every day. And then to that if I just sell a handful of them, you know, get through another month. And I ended up selling all of them. And I ended up having to I did some extras, because there were people that were like, Hey, I tried three times or four times to get one of your paintings. And someone was always there first. So I was like, alright, I'll do you know, I'll do another one for you. So that was like a big aha moment. You know, creating a fun project. One that I'm just about to do that I've done the last three years, I call it the 12 paintings of Christmas. And it's six by eight, six by eight or eight by eight paintings, I'll start December 1, go through December 12. And they're still their little ones. And I frame them, because I figured it's Christmas. So then it'd be nice for people to frame their nicely framed, but they're there. You know, they're, they're at a price that's lower than than my normal retail. So I'm really careful, though about like with projects like that, where something is less than, you know, it's less than a gallery price, that it is a specific project. You know, like the this, I did the plein air marathon, I ended up only doing it once and keep meaning to do it again. But this is for this specific project. So it's different than my other work. I think that's important. Because one, you don't want to start undervaluing your work by, you know, seeming like you're desperate. And, and then also to have the good relationships with the galleries. Because if a gallery finds out like, Wait, you're selling stuff out of your studio for half the price. No, I'm doing you know, I'm doing a project, it's very different. I don't end up putting six by eight paintings and galleries. And it's the set project. So for me, I the nice surprise with those projects is that they were good from a marketing standpoint, but they're also really good. from an artistic standpoint. Like the 12 pins the Christmas helps me plan what studio paintings I want to do in the next year. Because like it's, you know, I try them out in this small format. And there's a few of them that I'm like, oh, that's an idea I want to go back to. So it's a nice transition sometimes between plein air and planning studio paintings. So it helps me out that way. But yeah, finding fun projects like that, and making them I think making an exclusive for like, Hey, this is going out to your, your newsletter subscriber. That means you you've chosen to follow what I'm doing. So I want to reward that with, you know, a project like this.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:04:49

Yeah, and that's a very important point too. You know, if if someone does take the time and you said this to if someone takes the time to actually open your email and actually sign up you know, like that. means that they are more than likely what I guess what marketing people would call a lead, which is a possible collector or possible person who will buy your work. Maybe not now, but maybe they will definitely in the future, because you know, a lot of people, especially when buying paintings, it's sometimes it's like a very tough decision for them, or it's a decision that takes some time. So it's very good to one, you know, have those newsletters coming in to remind them like, Hey, I still exist. And if you have some extra money, and you see one of my paintings that you like, you know, here I am, you got to remind people I exist exist. And that's such a key thing too.

Aaron Schuerr: 1:05:38

And there's one other one other aspect of that, that was nicely surprising is that, with those little projects that I've done, it's given people an opportunity to collect my work that never thought they would be able to own my work. And those emails that I've gotten back from people, you know, that are like, Oh, I, I never thought I'd be able to I followed your work, I never thought I'd be able to own something. And I'm kind of by an original, you know, and I really feel for that, because the only way I can get artwork myself is to do a trade. I don't have I got three boys. You know, they're hungry. So I don't, I don't have an art budget myself. So I get that people are not everybody can go out and drop, you know, five grand on a painting. So you're finding like with those, I've realized I found a different market than say necessarily like my gallery collectors. And so I feel like it's, it's it's good financially, but it's also fun to hear the stories. I had one guy who had bought one who had, he had gone he emailed me and told me that he had gone blind. And he said, it's funny, the two things that he that bugged him the most about going blind was not being able to fully remember his wife's face. And then the other one was, there was this painting that he had that was his. And he said, it's funny, I have it hanging in the bathroom. I know that seems weird, but at this, like where you spend a lot of time so. And he said, I hated not being able to see that painting. And he said he had a number of surgeries. And he got sight back in one of his eyes. And he said, I haven't had that feeling that I had until I saw your painting. And so he you know, the one that he purchased from that the plein air marathon, so I got a bunch of stories like that, where people were telling me like what this meant to them. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 1:08:10

it is. You never really know who's watching your work and who's paying attention and how it touches them. I mean, every person has their own little world. And, you know, again, that's that whole Oh, I'm stuck in my studio all day, and I'm so disconnected, which is why it's so good to hear those stories, because then you realize, like, wow, you know, my art isn't really complete until it has that observer that how you said at the very, very beginning of the podcast, that observer that completes the narrative of the painting and really breathe that life into it, which is so poetic and beautiful. That's like the lifestyle

Aaron Schuerr: 1:08:47

with the you know, with the, for a lot of for most of my paintings. I don't, I don't know who owns them. I don't know if it's just an interior decorator who's supplying a house and maybe someone doesn't barely looks at the painting or something like the story I just told you, where you know, someone is really connected on a deep level to the painting or anything in between. So finding out every once in a while that people do connect on a deeper level is really encouraging because you can start to feel kind of isolated and I I find it funny that I think sometimes people assume that you have you the artists have the same reaction to your work that they have to it. So if they love your paintings, then you must love that that painting. Right? And as an artist, I'm like, Oh my God, you have no idea that I can't someone's asked me and I'm like, this isn't hard to get them up. No, I don't want to see them again. Please get them out of here. Because every painting is has failure baked into it. On some level, you just can't. I mean, that's the process you can't quite get to the ideal that you're looking for. And so having that kind of response occasionally from people's like, Okay, keep going. I find that for myself, it's funny, sometimes I will see a painting, say maybe a couple years later in someone's house, or that I did. And it's always the strange reaction like, Oh, that looks like a real artist did that. Like, that's not what I remember. I just remembered the struggle. And then I see it later. Sometimes, if you see a nice context, well lit, or you know, you could finally get to go to a gallery show, and you see it amongst other paintings. That looks like real art.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:11:08

That's a great point. Oh, my God. Yeah, it's like, right, when you finish a painting, and all you see is everything that went wrong, and everything you couldn't figure out. And then after some time that you forget about those things, and you see it, you know, again, it's almost like you see it objectively, you know, you can't remember what it was that you struggled with, probably because you overcame it in a subsequent painting. But still, it's like, seeing your own work for the first time. Like, whoa, why?

Aaron Schuerr: 1:11:38

Yeah, I think it's important as artists, you know, because it's easy to get, it's easy to go negative. And to feel like, Oh, I'm not good. You know, and also, I think that's, that can be the poison of Instagram and social media is that you get on get on social media, and you start looking at all these other artists, you're like, Oh, my goodness, like, it's, you know, everyone's fall, it scares me, because I'm like, there's all these great artists out there, and they're gonna figure out that I'm an imposter. And, you know, I'm gonna get kicked out of the club. No, I, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it can get, you can look at other artwork and look at that stuff and feel like, oh, no, I'm not. I'm not up to that level. So I really try to focus on what did I learn? What decisions did I make? What experience that I have in the process? And sometimes it's, you know, there are paintings that I worked and reworked and reworked and finally went, you know, what, it's time to move on that. That was a failed relationship, we're breaking up. And, and so, rather than feeling bad about myself, I think it's really important just to find a way to step back, you know, get out of your own head and say, All right, where did I? Where did I lose my way? On that one? And what did I learn from that, because it's not a failed painting, it's a learning experience. And it's gonna make you a better painter. And to me, if you're failing, if you have, I'm going to call it failed paintings. It means that you're, you're, you're putting it out there, that you're, you're trying, you're not playing it safe. And that is so key. To always be taking a risk. And that's how I say like, I love going back, there are places that I will pay over and over and over and over again. There's these deep relationships that I have with with specific places near my home, but at the same time trying something where you step up to the easel and you're like, I don't know how this is going to work out. You should have a little bit of that sense of bogies. Here we go. jumping off a cliff. And otherwise, something's wrong.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:14:22

Yeah, yeah, it's that little bit of discomfort, you know, you really need that to really push your work to the next level. I mean, it's, it can be a little bit easy and very self gratifying to always paint the same thing over and over just because people like it or maybe because galleries like it, and I totally get that because you know, you need money right? And galleries know what they can sell. But at the same time, you know, you aren't just this thing that's producing work right? You're still a person who by their own right first and foremost, you know, you're an artist for yourself. And I love that you point that out, you know, the the importance of, hey, you know, find that One thing that's a little bit harder than normal and just like, settle into it, and it'll get easier over time. Not Not that the thing gets easier. But the doing it gets a little easier because you're less afraid of tackling it, which is so important

Aaron Schuerr: 1:15:18

to think of like, a specific example would be, for me would be over the past few years getting more and more opportunities to go out and paint the coast, both in Maui and California, and trying to paint plein air wave action, which is, you know, I always feel like my head is gonna explode. But it's been really, it's been a really rewarding process that every time i i do it, you know, I've got a lot of failed experiments with trying to pick late action from life. But as I've gone on, I've started to develop a process of here's the things to look out for, you know, making clear decisions about say, is, are you going to paint it where the water's coming in onto the sand? Or where it's coming? Whether it's coming back out? Because it's a completely different thing? Like, which moment are you going to pick Are you going to pick the wave when it's hitting that rock, or after or before So finding those specific moments, and then keeping the visual mental discipline to try to get those, you know, that that specific moment, and, you know, I started to learn to look for is okay, when let's say a wave hits the rock, I'm looking at this time, I'm looking at the light, the light side of the wave. And then five minutes later, the waves coming in, and okay, it's gonna hit the rock again, because after the wait a while, this time I'm looking at the shadow. The next time I'm looking at the cast shadow. And it split seconds, but you start to the more I've done it, the more I've been able to identify the different elements, okay, the lights coming from here, this direction, it's angling down here, it's gonna shine through the wave, or it's gonna go. So you start to develop some familiarity. But you're still being very, very specific to observe a moment as though you've never seen it before. And I think that's the balancing act, you don't ever want to get to a point where you're like, oh, you know, lights over here, waves, wave actions coming this way. So this is how I paint a wave. Because then you're in your recipe. You don't want to be, you know, it's like difference between being a cook and a chef. You know, anybody can follow a recipe. You want to be the chef who's inventing a new dish.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:18:02

Oh, that's a great analogy. I love that. Oh, that's a good point. And you also made it sound like a Rubik's Cube. Honestly, the whole just like putting it together little by little. And you know, I guess it is a little bit like a Rubik's Cube think about it, because usually solve it the same exact way every time. With the same exact techniques. You could say, it won't be exactly the same, but same techniques. So it kind of reminds me of that. That is, wow. That sounds like

Aaron Schuerr: 1:18:28

it's always funny. Like to have a place like that where there's the people around. I always seem to have someone that walks up and go, and then we'll say something like, Oh, that looks so fun. It looks so relaxing. Okay. Oh my god. Okay.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:18:52

Yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, little do they know. I mean, I feel like, you know, when you're really in that moment, it's probably the moment for your brain, like you were saying, my brain is on fire. Like, you look like you're relaxed on the outside, but brains on fire.

Aaron Schuerr: 1:19:08

Because that's the series of you know, there is the intuition is one side of it. But then painting is a series of decisions. And it's a series of reactions that put down a color. I react to that color by putting another color next to it. And it's making those constant evaluations between what's on the canvas. It's out there. I mean, this is the basics, but that can be mentally exhausting. It's wonderful, though, that like I think if you're really in it, though, it's that, that, that work, that mental work, is what makes you forget yourself, and lose yourself to it. So it's that weirdly, I think it's that mental work that brings you to a place of spontaneity and intuition. Not the other people. But I think had it wrong where they think that, you know, artists can just be intuitive and, you know, improvisational. No, it's that work. That leads me to that. It's like enacting you put, you put massive amounts of work into every nuance of the character and how you react to the other characters. And you do all this work and work and work. And then you have these moments, you know, these transcendent moments where you lose yourself in the character and something different is happening. And because you've done all that work, you can go there you can, I think the same thing is true in painting, you do all that work so that you can have those surprises. So,

Laura Arango Baier: 1:20:51

yes. And that again, you know, it's like you said, it's that intuition that it's, it's built up over time over, you know, experiencing, I feel like, because I think Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book about it. It was called, My God, I can't remember his color now. But he blink was called Blink, he actually talks about how intuition is experience. But like on steroids, basically, it's like your brain has already taken these processes, processes that you've experienced again, and again, and just streamline them in a way that you don't need to think about them necessarily. It's just reaction, immediate impulse, which is so cool. But you still obviously have to be aware. So you know, you can't just be full on intuition. I think that's impossible. So have to have that balance of awareness, and intuition, just so important to creating a beautiful painting to wow, this has been such a wonderful conversation. Um, so I wanted to ask you, do you have any upcoming workshops or any upcoming shows or anything else that you'd like to promote? And also, where can people see more of your work?

Aaron Schuerr: 1:22:08

Okay, so workshops for this next year. I have one in May, would be island in Washington. So that's gonna be a plein air and studio workshop. That will be on my website very soon. Soon as then within the next week or so. And then I'm teaching in June I'm teaching another workshop in New Mexico. It will it is that one is already on my on my website. And then I am doing the pre convention. For the plein air convention. I'm teaching on pastel, a one day pesto course. Leading up to the plein air convention. Yeah, and then I have my video that we talked about, that just came out that's it for the workshop realm. So, you know, obviously there's my my website and sign up for my newsletter and keep playing. And that's just Aaron shirt.com. So the galleries that show up right now are mountain trails gallery in Bozeman, Montana, the Houston gallery gallery in Davao Island, and Elin gallery West. And that is in Phillipsburg, Montana. Stay tuned, I am going to start showing with a gallery in Salt Lake. So check back on my website. So putting that together. So that'll be a new one. And then and then there's just my studio and the work I do there.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:23:59

Yeah, and what about your Instagram?

Aaron Schuerr: 1:24:02

My Instagram is at Aaron. Sure. Just my name spelled out. And Facebook is just Aaron sure, as well. Perfect.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:24:12

Well, thank you so much, Aaron, for all of your amazing, wise advice. I'm definitely going to apply a lot of that to my own work and to my own marketing side. So thanks again for being here.

Aaron Schuerr: 1:24:26

Thank you for having me. It was a lovely conversation. Really appreciate it.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:24:31

Absolutely.