Stacey Peterson: 0:00

If you have a recognizable style that's all your own, it's a lot easier to sell your work, especially to get into galleries and shows, because you're not automatically competing with five other people who look like you. So I think that spending the time, and I guess this goes back to the like being a little bit of a hermit, and putting in all those hours, is when you go do that. That's that's how you develop your style. So putting in the time to develop your own voice is very important if you want to sell your work.

Laura Arango Baier: 0:31

Welcome to the BoldBrush show, where we believe that fortune favors the bold brush. My name is Laura Baier, and I'm your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast. We are a podcast that covers art marketing techniques and all sorts of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages of their careers, as well as others who are in careers tied to the art world, in order to hear their advice and insights. For today's episode, we sat down with Stacy Peterson, a Colorado landscape painter and former chemical engineer, Stacey discusses her lifelong love of art early influences from her creative mother and inspiring high school teachers, and how she eventually transitioned from engineering to full time painting. She explains how problem solving skills and professionalism from engineering transferred directly into her art career and helped her manage the business side of being a self employed artist, Stacey shares major artistic influences, including the Canadian Group of Seven California Impressionists and several contemporary landscape painters, as well as a pivotal member for today's episode, we sat down with Stacey Peterson, a Colorado landscape painter and Former chemical engineer. Stacey discusses her lifelong love of art, early influences from her creative mother and inspiring high school teachers, and how she eventually transitioned from engineering to full time painting. She explains how problem solving skills and professionalism from engineering transferred directly into her art career and helped her manage the business side of being a self employed artist, Stacy shares major artistic influences, including the Canadian Group of Seven California Impressionists and several contemporary landscape painters, as well as a pivotal mentorship with J Moore that encouraged her to paint what she truly loves, the outdoors. She describes her attraction to strong light effects and color in the landscape, her process for narrowing each painting to a single primary idea and the different roles plein air studies and studio work play in her practice. On the business side, she emphasizes relying heavily on strong gallery relationships, staying active on social media for visibility and connection and the long term networking value of juried shows, while also advising artists to keep putting in the hours since that allows one to develop a recognizable personal style. Stacey also talks about teaching recovering from a serious leg injury, while keeping up her practice with acrylic wash studies. And finally, shares her current focus on restocking galleries and her upcoming participation in plein air painters of America and oil painters of America. Shows, welcome Stacy to the BoldBrush show. How are you today? Good.

Stacey Peterson: 3:05

Thank you. How are you? I'm really good. I am

Laura Arango Baier: 3:08

so excited to have you because your paintings are absolutely beautiful. They just feel like this, the scenery that just envelops you, and it's, it's just, it's pretty to look at. It is eye candy for just the shapes and the abstract forms, like I was just observing them and like, this is eye candy for the artist. So I'm excited to pick your brain about it for many, many reasons. But before we dive into your gorgeous work, do you mind telling us a bit about who you are and what you do?

Stacey Peterson: 3:41

Of course, Thanks for the kind words. I am a Colorado landscape painter. I live in Evergreen Colorado, which is up in the mountains, outside of Denver, and I paint 99.9% landscapes. Love being outside, and that is just like what I'm really passionate about. So I've been doing this for about 18 years as my job, and it's the best job ever. I love it so, so,

Laura Arango Baier: 4:09

yeah, awesome. Yes, it is the best job ever, because you get, hopefully, a really nice boss that doesn't control your hours too, too much, and gives you a break sometimes. But you know, it's, it's one of those things, but that's awesome 18 years and before that, of course, you were actually in a different career path. But I wanted to ask you, before you tell us about this really interesting, cool career path you had before that evolved into something even cooler. When did you begin to follow the path of the artist?

Stacey Peterson: 4:44

Um, I think that I've always been an artist as long as I can remember. Um, my mom is not an artist, per se, but she's very creative. Has a great eye for design, and had always done crafty type things. So I grew up in a house where I had a mom who was doing flower arranging one week or stained glass another week, and she actually worked in an art gallery where I spent a lot of time as a child and actually took my first steps. So I feel like I've been surrounded by art forever, and I have just always loved painting and drawing ever since I was a little kid, and as I got older and got into high school, I had some amazing, really inspiring art teachers in high school that were really impactful on me. So I feel like I've loved art as long as I can remember, and I've just kind of evolved along the way and gotten more and more into it as time went by.

Laura Arango Baier: 5:42

Yes, and you also mentioned a couple things there that are. I think I've noticed with a lot of artists, which is support in some sense, whether it's a teacher, family member, you know, like your parent, for example, like being exposed to some of it. It isn't always the case. Of course, some people are like, no one in my family's artistic at all, but it does help a lot to have that family support, or like the just like someone in your life who sees it and, you know, supports you through it. Because I think there could be some really good artists out there who unfortunately were forced into a different path. But actually, that's the next part, which is, so you were originally an engineer, which I think is really phenomenal, amazing, challenging, crazy. Can you tell us a bit about you know, how you went from artist, wanting to be artist, to engineer and then

Stacey Peterson: 6:41

back to artist. Sure thing, I always loved art, as I said, but I've also always loved science. Did well in school and when it was time to figure out where to go to college and what to do for my career, I think I had a very supportive family as far as my art goes, but I think that they were also very logical and encouraged me to consider all of my options. And I felt like I should probably go get a degree in something that was going to be something that would be easier to support myself with, or something that was a little bit more stable. And so I ended up going to the Colorado School of Mines, which is an engineering school here in Colorado, and I majored in chemical engineering and minored in environmental science. So I worked as an engineer after I graduated for about six years before I switched to being an artist full time. So really big change, but I did do art the whole time, and I don't know, I don't regret it, like I learned a lot in my engineering school and my engineering work that I think still applies to what I do now. So I think I wouldn't change it.

Laura Arango Baier: 7:55

Yes, yeah, I agree. I think sometimes things happen in a specific order for a reason, or, you know, just things. Life has its way of working out in mysterious ways. And I think it's, it's fascinating, you know, to have gone into a very, very rational career, into a what a lot of people consider to not be a very rational career, which is being a creative person, you know, like we mentioned earlier about, you're your own boss. You have very, you know, free range in terms of what hours you can work and whatnot. So it feels a little bit more loosey goosey compared to very strict linear like work. Time starts, this time ends, this time, which you can also maintain as an artist, of course. But also, I wanted to ask you, too, do you find that there has been any transference, per se, of skills that you've noticed from engineering that went into your paintings?

Stacey Peterson: 8:56

For sure, I think there's a lot people have a misconception that engineering is not creative, that it's this very left brain type, type activity where you're just crunching numbers all day. But at the end of the day, when you study engineering, and when you work in engineering, it's all about problem solving, they teach you how to take all of these inputs that you have and you have this problem, and you have to be really creative. You're often in a room with a bunch of people trying to figure out, okay, this is what we have, but we have to get from A to B, and how do we how do we solve that problem? How do we get there? And there's a lot of creativity involved in that, and I think that that applies to everything. I laugh that a lot of my friends from engineering school, hardly any of them are still doing engineering. They've all gone on to very different careers, not quite as different as mine. But I just think that the skills you learn prepare you to do just about anything that you want to tackle. Um, so I think there's that, there's problem solving. I can look at a painting, or when I was learning how to paint, and I can say, oh my gosh, this isn't working. How can I get there? What are some resources I can use? So there's a lot of creativity in approaching a problem in the same way. And the other thing I would say is that I personally think that being successful working for yourself is actually pretty difficult, and I'm not sure had I gone to art school and then tried to make a living as an artist when I was 21 or 22 years old, that I would have had the professional skills or business skills or even maturity to tackle that at the time, I wonder if it like you said, it's very loosey goosey. I worry that had I been 22 when I tried to make this work, I wouldn't have had the maturity or the business skills to figure out how to make it work. So I think having a career beforehand can really help, because you come at it with a lot of business skills that you might not have otherwise, and I do see that with a lot of my professional artist friends, most of us had some sort of professional career before we did this, and theirs might not be as different. They might have been doing illustration or graphic design, but I think that having a boss, having deliverables, having a job like it, teaches you a lot of skills that you need to use to be a successful fine artist.

Laura Arango Baier: 11:25

Yes, I totally agree. And also the aspect of lived life as well life experience, because as an artist, right? There's especially if you start early, like you said, if you were like 22 it's very unlikely that a 22 year old has the social skills of, say, for example, 30 year old, right? Because they haven't had to experience that, especially when it's, for example, sales Right? Definitely not unless they've worked really hard on a summer mall job and they've had to deal with customer service, right? But from what I've seen, most artists are very reserved or introverted, or tend to mostly just talk with other artists. So I think in that sense, I totally agree. I mean having the lived experience skills of dealing with other people, dealing with a boss who, like you said, has, you know, they demand deliverables. They tell you, Okay, this is how things should do, should work. So that you know how to do them as well is really good as, like, a practice for like, okay, that means that, you know, when I'm with my own stuff, I really need to be on my game to know exactly what I need to do so that my lights don't get shut off next month. You know, because it's all on you. And I think that's the like, like you said, that's a challenging part about being your own boss, your own everything, lot of responsibility. But of course, as the saying goes, you know, with a lot of freedom comes a lot of responsibility. And I think as artists, I've it's so funny, because you would think it's it's so difficult that someone would give up. But every artist I've met has been like, this is the best job in the world. I would never give it up, even though it can get really hard, and sometimes you don't sell for a while, but then suddenly you do, and then you just want to keep going, because it's just, even just the mental exercise of the problem solving of paintings, or being excited for your next painting, and it just seems to roll forward in a really natural way that makes you be like, Huh? I mean, as long as I keep paying my bills, that's totally fine, you know? Yeah. And then I wanted to ask you also, because since you did go into engineering prior to painting, I wanted to ask you in terms of your influences your paintings, because, of course, landscape beautiful, and you have mentioned to me before that you absolutely love being outdoors. You are an Outdoors Woman. Who would you say have been your greatest influences in your work?

Stacey Peterson: 14:07

I have been in love with art for a long time, so I've always followed art, and I have probably too many artist influences to mention, but when I was younger, I really fell in love with the Canadian Group of Seven that was probably like the first group of artists that I really followed that weren't just, you know, the ones you would know in grade school, like Monet or Picasso. I was just really drawn to the design and the color choices. They're not strictly representational, and I just got really excited about that, probably around the time I was in high school. Once I got more into landscape painting in my 20s, I really fell in love with the California impressionists, very inspired by their work, especially. Usually, like William went just love his brushwork and color Edgar pain, his sense of design, you know, his use of big, big, simple shapes, really speaks to me. Yeah, so I think that. And then there's a lot of amazing contemporary artists, like I can't even begin to mention how many contemporary artists have inspired me. You know, Clyde, aspevig, Len schmeal, George, Carlson, just too many to even think of. But there's just so many amazing artists alive right now to follow. So I think that's a big thing. And then I would say one person who's really affected me in person, I I've taken a lot of workshops with different artists to learn how to landscape paint and learn some of the basics. But I had done a mentorship with Jay Moore, who lives here in Colorado. And prior to doing the mentorship with him, I took my very first plein air workshop with him, and at the time, I was painting all portraits and still lives and things that felt like very organized, like I could figure out how the forms work on a well lit face, whereas the landscape, to me, feels a little bit more ambiguous. It's a little harder to organize to me, or at least at the time, and I remember talking to Jay, and him just asking me, like, Oh, you're doing portraits. Like, well, what do you really love? And I was like, Well, I love being outside, like the outdoors, like, that's my passion. I, you know, live in Colorado. I love the Rocky Mountains. I hike, I bike. And he just looked at me and was like, Well, that's what you need to paint. So I think that that was a big inspiration for me deciding to even pursue this path. Was someone just telling me, You know what, this might not be the easiest for you, but this is what you should do.

Laura Arango Baier: 16:54

So, yes, yeah. And that's interesting, because oftentimes I've heard also, you know, the advice of, oh, well, paint, paint what you're good at, because you'll enjoy that, of course. But it's so challenging when the thing you enjoy is the thing you're not so good at, right? And it's good to push through it. And I totally relate with you on that, because for me, it was I really want to get good at portraits because I suck at them, because I love portraits. And then I decided to do a bunch of master copies. And I think, you know, as you develop skill, it becomes even more enjoyable. It's so difficult at first though, because it's like, oh man, I really don't know what I'm doing. And this really sucks. And I can only imagine with landscape too, and plein air being like the Marathon of painting. You know, it's like the sprinting marathon, because you got to catch the light and you got to, you know, do all of these complex things that, you know, once you insert color in there, that's really challenging. What was that like for you when you were learning plein air and learning landscape, how did you feel, you know, when you started doing it, knowing that this is something you love, did you find that it was really difficult for you at first to land in it, or did you still get pretty excited to move forward with it?

Stacey Peterson: 18:19

I was excited to do it from the get go. I really leaned into plein air from the beginning, because I do like being outdoors, and so I could go hike and paint outdoors. And so even if my painting was terrible, I was enjoying being out there, and I think that helped. I was really bad at painting landscapes at the beginning. Like when I have taught workshops, I keep a couple of my beginning landscapes in my studio, and I will show them to my students. Like, look you guys where I started, and I've come a long way through a lot of practice, so it is definitely not something that came easy to me. Like, I definitely was a much better portrait painter or still life painter, before I tried to do landscapes, but I think that the fact that I wasn't very good at it is what made it really interesting to me. I think when I was doing engineering, I had gotten to a point in my job where I was sort of doing the same type of tasks over and over, like I might be doing a different task for a different client, but it was the same work, and that got really difficult for me to enjoy doing over and over. And so I think that's exactly what I love about doing this, is that there's always something new to learn or a new challenge, a new thing to work on, a new medium I can try. There's always something and I think that that is part of what I love about what I do, is that I'm always working on something new. I'm always getting excited about something different. And if I get to a point where things are feeling a little bit stagnant, that's when I'm going to be like, Okay, what can I do different right now? Should I start working on paintings of a different size? Should I try out a different medium for a little while? I really like to depend on mixing things up and learning new things. So I think that that, although it was hard, it was exactly what kept me engaged.

Laura Arango Baier: 20:12

Yeah, and I think that's a really great logical step right, which is, if the same things are happening over and over again and it gets too monotonous, you got to throw something new in there, no matter what it is, right? And that's really great that you were able to overcome your maybe that self criticism that a lot of artists tend to have of like, oh, this is terrible. How could you you know that I think a lot of artists carry within themselves because we're so hard on ourselves, we really want to get the thing and make it look how we envision it and how we want to, you know, describe it to the world that is so challenging, but it's really great when you overcome that. I think that makes it even more of a gosh, like a really great victory. We say, ha, I pushed through all of those terrible paintings so that I can come up with something even better. Oh, man. And then I actually want to ask you as well, since you do love hiking, and you know you've been out, you've looked at spots, what is it that makes you stop and say, I want to paint this. How do you select an area? And then what is your process like after that?

Stacey Peterson: 21:25

I it's hard to pick just one thing, but I definitely just always loved going hiking and mountain biking camping, and I'm the kind of girl that if there's a beautiful sunset, I'm going to walk outside and take a picture of it, or make sure that I go enjoy it. And I think that that's really impacted my painting a little bit. I really am drawn to strong light effects more than anything, and color. And so those are usually the things, when it comes down to it, that draw me to a scene. I love painting big mountains and aspen trees and rivers and whatnot, but usually what draws me to a scene is going to be really strong light hitting it, or really beautiful color. I really, I really try to, you know, I'll obviously be outside and have an emotional connection to a scene. But when I get back to the studio and I start thinking about doing a painting, I usually go through a process of thinking about, what was it that made me have an emotional reaction to that scene? Was it the mountains? Was it the trees? Was it the way the light was hitting? I try to pick out one thing that really stood out to me, because I think that was one of the things that was difficult when I learned how to landscape paint, was that I would go out there and there would be, like this amazing scene that would have mountains and a river and beautiful clouds and trees with light, and I would do, like a really big painting, and I would try to paint it all. And my paintings were just not good, and I couldn't figure out why. And I think, over the years, what I've really landed on is that I need to pick the one thing that really jumped out at me, and then all of the other things kind of need to take a backseat. And that's part of I think the difference between plein air painting and studio painting, to me is, when I do a plein air painting, it's I'm just trying to kind of get the shapes and the color and it's like immediate notes. It's not to me that's not a finished painting, but when I go into the studio, I'm taking that as a reference, but I'm making a lot of decisions in the studio about what's important and what's not important, and then kind of moving things around and working with edges and working with values to actually make my painting say what I want it to say.

Laura Arango Baier: 23:49

Yes, exactly. And I think that's the other really wonderful thing that planet artists do as well, which is, you know, that initial note taking, right is like, it's so important, because, like you said, it's like, oh, maybe it's the trees, maybe it's the mountains, maybe it's, you know, the light that I'm trying to capture. And I think having that reference of the study, even though plein air can also make a really beautiful finished piece as well, if someone has the extreme skill to pull that off, because I have so much respect for plein air artists. I think it's so hardcore, first to be out of your studio, and second to go paint really, really fast before the light changes. But yeah, that's awesome. And of course, if you add to that, like you said earlier, the experimentation aspect, right? If you find like, Oh, I've never painted this one tree before. I think that also makes it really, really interesting, because then you're able to use like you mentioned, like different components to be the narrative, the main storyteller of the painting, like the color, the light, the actual tree that you're painting, like you have this gorgeous. Snow covered tree is like your main focus in one of your paintings. And I, I am sucker. I'm a sucker for snow covered trees. So I love those because it's just, I think snow is one of those really versatile things to paint, because it's just, once you get it, it looks so beautiful. Yeah, yeah. And then I wanted to ask you also, because, as you mentioned earlier, you did have a job in engineering for a while, but you were still painting while you were doing that, what was it like for you when you went from your job engineering to tapering off into painting? What was that process like for you?

Stacey Peterson: 25:40

Yeah, I I painted the entire time that I worked as an engineer. It started as a hobby, for sure, even in college, I took some painting classes at the local community college. And then after college, I moved to Texas for an engineering job, and being very outdoorsy and moving to Houston, I was a little bit like a fish out of water. I didn't quite know what to do with myself on the weekends now that I couldn't go hiking or camping as much, and so I really started leaning on art classes then as like something to do to keep myself happy and well rounded. And so I was painting the whole time I was working as an engineer. It wasn't until I moved back to Colorado that I really got into landscape painting and started doing that. But after a couple of years of that, I did get into a gallery in Denver, and they were selling my work really well, even while I was still doing engineering. So I kind of knew it was my end goal to quit my job and become an artist, but at the time, I didn't want to do that, until I knew that, like I actually had clients and interest in my work, where people going to buy my work. So I think getting into a gallery that sold my work well really gave me that confidence to make the leap. And when I had my daughter, I kind of had planned to go back to work part time, but it didn't work out the way I wanted it to. They wanted me to be traveling a lot, and I didn't want to be doing that. And so I was like, You know what? This is the time. And so I cut the cord completely with engineering at the time and quit to become an artist. And I will say, because I had just had my first kid, my whole life had just changed, like, all of a sudden, I also had this, like, human being that I had to keep alive and take care of, but, yeah, I just haven't looked back. Like, ever since then, I've loved it. It's a great job, always challenging, always something new to be working on. And as I've raised my kids, it's also been a fantastic career as a mom, because it's 100% flexible, like, if I need to go pick up a kid and hold the day because they're sick, I can, if I need to work at 10pm because I didn't get stuff done earlier, I can. So I've really just loved the flexibility of it, as well as the fact that I'm doing what I love now

Laura Arango Baier: 28:09

at BoldBrush, we inspire artists to inspire the world, because creating art creates magic, and the world is currently in desperate need of magic. BoldBrush provides artists with free art marketing, creativity and business ideas and information. This show is an example. We also offer written resources, articles and a free monthly art contest open to all visual artists. We believe that fortune favors the bold brush, and if you believe that too, sign up completely free at BoldBrush show.com, that's B, O, L, d, b, r, U, S, H show.com. The BoldBrush Show is sponsored by Faso. Now, more than ever, it's crucial to have a website when you're an artist, especially if you want to be a professional in your career. Thankfully, with our special link faso.com, forward slash podcast, you can make that come true, and also get over 50% off your first year on your artist website. Yes, that's basically the price of 12 lattes in one year, which I think is a really great deal, considering that you get sleek and beautiful website templates that are also mobile friendly, e commerce, print on demand in certain countries, as well as access to our marketing center that has our brand new art marketing calendar. And the art marketing calendar is something that you won't get with our competitor. The art marketing calendar gives you, day by day, step by step, guides on what you should be doing today right now in order to get your artwork out there and seen by the right eyes so that you can make more sales this year. So if you want to change your life and actually meet your sales goal this year. Then start now by going to our special link, faso.com, forward slash podcast. That's F, A, S, o.com, forward slash podcast, yes, yeah. I think that's, I agree. I think that's one of the best parts about it. It's the I know some artists have like, a studio outside of their house, which is also really nice, but it is also very. Lenient when you're a parent, to be available, like, yeah, you know, painting can take a long time and a lot of hours of focus, but I think there's a really good balance that can happen. I've met so many artists who, have, you know, raised kids and have been artists and have made a living from it, and I think it's amazing time management, which is really awesome. But then, speaking also, a little bit more on, you know, galleries and marketing. Have you found that there's, like, one really lucrative marketing tactic, or one very lucrative way that you've been able to sell more work? Has it just been galleries? Has it been also, you know, maintaining a newsletter, social media, like what, or painting societies, for example, what? What has been like your combination of eggs, I should say, in your basket,

Stacey Peterson: 30:54

I would say, I would say, there's, there's three things that I've really focused on the first that has been pretty much my everything, and my constant since I started, is that I have amazing galleries selling my work. And there's always, like, a lot of talk, like my friends are always surprised when I tell them what a gallery commission is, but I when I say it's worth every penny I like, mean it with 100% of my art, because I am not a salesperson. Like, I am super introverted. I almost AM, like, apologetic when I'm trying to sell my work, like, I don't know my husband makes fun of me. I just like, I am not if you start talking to me about a painting, I'm not going to talk you into buying it. It's just is not something that I'm good at. I could probably work at it more. But my galleries have been amazing, and I have a few that I have some really long term relationships with, and a few that are newer to me in the past few years, but they've all been amazing. And so I make, I would say, 99.9% of my income through gallery sell sales. I don't sell through my studio. I don't like to do it. Usually, if somebody contacts me through my website, I'm saying, where'd you see my work? Did you see it at such and such a gallery? And then I'm going to pound them off on that gallery to deal with the sale, because that's just, it's it's not my thing, and I really value my galleries. So that's the first thing, the second. I do like to keep my social media updated. I find that I don't sell a lot through social media, per se, but I just think it's it's fun. It's a good way to get a buzz out there about yourself as an artist, if, if you post paintings and people get excited about them, I find that it's just kind of a good way for people to start to know who you are if you have a big following. And I also find that I like to post a lot about process. I love posting like a work in progress or a video or, you know, just like some words about what I've been doing. And I find that people really respond to that, and even if it's artists who are more interested in learning how to paint than buying art, I just find that that that buzz does a lot to like. It keeps me motivated. I guess it keeps me excited. So whether it's helping me sell paintings or not, I'm not even sure to tell you the truth, but it keeps me engaged and excited about art, and so I think it's really important for my career. And then the third thing that I would say has really helped me career wise over the years is just doing shows. When I started, I tried to do like little jury local shows. And I did get into like a gallery up in Breckenridge, because the owner saw one of my paintings at a show in Denver that I did that was real small. And then I started doing the national shows, like oil painters of America, American impressionist society, that sort of thing. And I just found that doing shows like that is kind of like rolling a snowball, like you start doing it, and it's real small, and it feels like you're not doing much. But as you get into the bigger and bigger shows, you go to them, you meet a lot of people, and all of the sudden it's like you don't even know when it happened, but when I started, I was having to beg galleries to carry my work. I was having to send them a packet and talk them into it and give them like a trial group of paintings. Whereas once I started doing the shows, and I bigger and bigger shows, and I met more and more people, I just feel like things got a little bit easier because people knew me, like a lot of the galleries I'm in now, I met at shows, and so they were either they invited me because a collector recommended me, or we met at a show and got along so I wouldn't count out those juried shows. As far as making an impact, sometimes you feel like, Oh, it's so expensive. I had to enter the show. I had to mail my painting. I had to travel to the show. I had to my painting didn't sell, and then I had to ship it back to myself. And you can look at that and be like, Oh my gosh, I just spent hundreds of dollars, and it wasn't worth it. But in the end, I feel like those have been worth their weight in gold to me because because of the networking opportunities that they gave me. So I think that they are. I think now that I look back at my career, they were, they made a bigger impact than I even thought at the time.

Laura Arango Baier: 35:27

So nice. Yeah, no. And I love that you described it as like a snowball effect also, because that makes, you know, it makes a lot of sense. You know, it's, I think a lot of artists, myself included. I could just be speaking for myself, though, but I think a lot of us are very excited right when it's like, oh, I have my work and I really want to sell it and I want to get it out there. And then, like you said, you know, it can be very disappointing when you ship it out to a show, it doesn't sell, and then you ship it back to yourself, and you're a poor student or a poor artist at that point, maybe you have your day job, and it hurts. But like you said, the networking, the having done it in the first place, it means you've gained experience, right? You know how to ship a painting out now. You know how to send it, maybe to a framer, and then your framer ships it out to the other person. You can pay for the invoice. There's a whole process that goes in, and it makes it a lot easier for the future in future shows or bigger ones, and then eventually it leads to a sale. Or you meet a person, even if you didn't sell anything, Hey, you made a really great friend, or you met a future collector or a future gallery representative. And there's so many more possibilities that open up. And I love that you also mentioned that over time, it feels like it gets a little easier, which makes perfect sense, because the more you put yourself out there, the more people see you, and then the more they recognize you, and then suddenly you're part of it, right? You're not just like hiding in your studio, like a lot of us, like to do, so it's pretty great,

Stacey Peterson: 37:07

yeah, for sure. And I will say, I guess also, the big benefit of the social media and the shows, which you touched on a little bit with what you just said, is meeting other people. I've made so many amazing artist friends through both of those things, and having friends who are artists is also such a big inspiration just going on a trip together and painting, or when I used to do plein air shows, and having a group of people to go paint with and share ideas with for the week, I can't underestimate having artist friends. Like, what a big because my friends where I live, like everyone thinks it's really weird that I'm an artist. I don't have any artist friends that are local, but I love all the artists that I've met across the country that are just huge inspiration.

Laura Arango Baier: 37:53

So, yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, that's the other underrated thing, right? Because you get to maybe go visit them on a trip, or you run into them at another like OPA event or another plein air event, and you get to see how they've grown as artists, how you've grown as artists. Or maybe they're like, Oh yeah, you know, I have this gallery, and they've been great. You know, I can recommend you vice versa, because in the art world, at least that I've noticed, word of mouth really is one of the best things that I've seen, because it's, in many ways, it feels like a very small world. Everyone kind of ends up hearing about everyone else, especially at OPA and like the plein air events. So it's very important, one, you know, to go out there, and two, to help others as well. I mean, I think, you know, making it a lively, happy community where everyone helps each other through all the tough parts. Because being an artist can be really difficult, is also, I think, the really great benefit of the career, for sure. Yeah, and then, do you happen to have any really good advice, maybe for someone out there who on one side right? So maybe two pieces of advice you might want to share on one side, really, really wants to get better at something they're not quite good at as an artist. And then, do you have any advice for someone who wants to make a living as an artist?

Stacey Peterson: 39:32

Okay, the first one I feel like painting with other people is a huge one when you're starting out, if you're struggling with something. I think that when I was beginning and I was really struggling, it was a huge help for me to go take a workshop, or even, you know, like oil painters of America, when they do their show every year, they have demos and workshops and. And I think that if you're struggling with anything, it's very helpful to go watch demos or listen to other artists talk about art and figure out how they're approaching things, and think about how that can help whatever you're struggling with. I will say, as I branched out and got a little bit better at art and a little bit more evolved in my career, I have also gone the complete opposite direction and done this slightly hermit like thing when I'm struggling, where I really feel like I need to just lock myself in the studio and work through it. So I feel like at the beginning, it was very helpful to go get other people to help me when I was struggling. But once I knew a bunch of basics about art, I had the tools I needed, but I needed to figure out on my own how to make those tools apply to making a painting look good. And so I definitely, I think, since covid on, I haven't been traveling for as many shows. I haven't done any plein air shows. I've really just been locked in the studio with myself and trying to work through developing my own style and the things that were bugging me about my paintings, like, How can I fix that using these tools that I got from all these great artists I've talked to? But how can I apply that in my own way? So it's it's it's not a very satisfying answer to the question of, like, what can you do when you're struggling with something? But there is a point where just being willing to, like, stubbornly work on it over and over and scrape the bad paintings and keep working on it is kind of just what you need to do to get there. So I do think there's a lot of just putting in the hours at some point as well. Like I had years where I was like, I'm just going to try and do 100 paintings, even if they're little studies. And I think putting in the time helps. The second question was marketing, that one is tough. I will say that like I think that, like a lot of artists, I think that the marketing and selling of my work is probably my weakest area. I will say what I tell most of my students, if they are wanting to get into selling their work and make this career is that they really do need to focus on having their own style in their work. I know a lot of people will go around and take a lot of workshops from the same person, or they'll like a certain style and so they'll emulate that. But I find that the most successful artists I know our artists who I can walk into a show and I can see their painting across the room and be like, Oh, that's so and so's painting. I don't have to go read the little sign to see who painted it. If you have a recognizable style that's all your own, it's a lot easier to sell your work, especially to get into galleries and shows because you're not automatically competing with five other people who look like you. So I think that spending the time, and I guess this goes back to the like being a little bit of a hermit, and putting in all those hours is when you go do that. That's that's how you develop your style. So putting in the time to develop your own voice is is very important if you want to sell your work,

Laura Arango Baier: 43:24

absolutely, yes, and that's, it's one of those funny things, you know, finding your style that it feels like, it's almost like, when you look at it directly, it disappears. You know what I mean? It's almost like, like a disappearing object, like you can only see it on, like your peripherals, but directly looking at it makes it disappear. And I think that's one of those challenges that that so many, especially early artists, have, because, one, they haven't put enough enough hours in, like you said, but also, I think because they're trying to chase after something that just takes time, right? Like, it's not, it's like your handwriting. We all learn how to, I mean, at least when I was in school, we did calligraphy, or, like, not cursive, right? When you try to do cursive, you have to learn the letters, and then over time, that becomes, you know, like your own handwriting, and suddenly it's not really like the same exact cursive that everyone else is writing, but that can only happen with so many hours of writing, right? And I think that's one of those comparisons that I've heard quite a bit. But yeah, it feels like this elusive sort of mythical thing. It's like, oh, my voice is an artist, but how? Right? And I think that's why it's such a common question to get. And actually, I have a bit of a follow up to that. How long would you say that you started to notice that you had a style in your work?

Stacey Peterson: 44:59

I think that when i. Started landscape painting, there are certain things that jump out at me about a given scene that I think have been constant, like even when I look at paintings of mine from 20 years ago, there are things that I was really excited about that I'm still excited about in my work. And so I do think when I look at my paintings from 20 years ago, and now I can still see a little bit of that voice back then. Like I love atmospheric effects, like I love the way the mountains turn blue when they're distant. I love that sort of thing. I love strong light, like the late evening or the early morning. That's my favorite thing. So I think that that's been a common thread in my paintings, when I look at things I was doing 15 years ago, that's what I was painting then, and that's what I'm painting now. But I think that probably, like 1015, years in, is kind of when I stopped worrying about my style and had done enough painting that it just sort of felt like it is what it is now. And when I see a grouping of my paintings at a show compared to everyone else, there came a point probably, like five, six years ago, where I was like, Okay, you can pick out my work compared to everyone else's. And it's kind of just because I've been doing this long enough, but now it's mine, whereas at the beginning, I would take a workshop and I would try and make my trees like so and so, or I would like the way, you know, this other guy painted water, and I would try that. I just don't do that anymore, now that I've been at this almost 20 years. So I think that the longer I've been at it, for sure, the more it's evolved into being just me, and it's not really something I've focused on. It just it's like, you said the handwriting, I feel like, at the beginning of being an artist, I was like, Oh, I really want my style to be like this. Like, I really like this about other people's works, and I want to emulate that, whereas now, like, I don't think about my style at all. I just paint. And there are things I look at in my paintings like, oh, I don't really like that. I've been doing this a lot, and I'm going to fix it, but I don't really think about it in terms of style. It's just in terms of technique. Or how can I better say what I want to say?

Laura Arango Baier: 47:15

Yes, yeah. And I love that also, because, like you mentioned, you know, maybe you tried to emulate the way someone else did, especially in the beginning, right? Because in the beginning, just like with handwriting, we learn by imitation, right, which I think is one of the most natural ways that humans learn. Even as children, we imitate what our parents are doing as kids, and I find that it's very similar with painting and just learning anything you have to imitate it in a repeated sort of fashion, and over time, as you you know, oh, maybe I'm going to try to paint this water the way that I want to paint it, or just using these tools that I've developed in my toolbox as an artist, just to see what comes out. And then you repeat the process again and again and again and again. I mean, it's very iterative process, which is so funny, because that actually reminds me a little bit of engineering, which it seems like it's a little bit of that, you know, it's like, it's so funny because I feel like painting is also very much like the scientific method. You know, you have your hypothesis and you have your variables, and then you have to go through your experiment and then see, oh, what was the result? What variables should I change for the next one? And, etc, etc. It feels like a very logical process for it being a creative process as well, which is very funny, since you also mentioned engineering being very creative. Yeah. It's the same I'm saying yes, it can be yes, but yeah, do you, by the way? Oh, I also wanted to ask you, because you mentioned that you've had students. Do you when did you find that you felt like ready, or that you started getting invited to teach workshops in your career.

Stacey Peterson: 49:03

I think once I've been painting, once I've been doing this professionally, like maybe five or six years, I had a lot of galleries that would have me come in and give a demo, or at a plein air show, I would give a demo, or they would have us all show up and paint somewhere one night, and the collectors would come around and ask questions, and I really enjoyed doing that, and really liked talking about process and meeting other artists too. So I really enjoyed the teaching aspect of giving a demo. So I started giving workshops. I was asked to do one by, like, some arts organizations, and did that, and then I did some at a local art center. And then for a while, I taught workshops out of my own studio, because I just really, I really did enjoy, like, bringing students into my studio, and just like sharing with each other all week about art. And I think it makes me a better artist to try and. Figure out how to verbalize what I'm doing, makes me really think about what through it what I'm doing as well. So I think it benefits both the student and me when I'm teaching. And it's not something I've been doing as much lately, because I just like, haven't been able to divvy up my time well enough to give a lot of energy to teaching, but I will definitely get back to it, because it's something I really enjoy doing,

Laura Arango Baier: 50:25

yeah, and I think also it really it's another form of networking as well that I've noticed, you know, you meet other students, and then sometimes you have returned students, which is really nice, or, you know, you just start building another community of support and care, and then you see how their work develops if they continue painting as well. So I think that's one of those almost passing it forward thing as an artist where, well, I was taught this, and now I want to teach it because I enjoy teaching, or because I think it will, you know, continue to forward this legacy of painting that we've all been holding on to since painting has been one of those very long held human traditions, which I think is also very poetic,

Unknown: 51:09

yeah for sure, yes.

Laura Arango Baier: 51:11

And then speaking of workshops or exhibitions, do you have any upcoming shows? Anything that you would like to promote?

Stacey Peterson: 51:19

Um, I will say I am laying a little bit low this year. I know I shared with you already, but I broke my leg very badly about three months ago. So I have been like, learning how to walk, and I was off of my I was out away from the easel for two full months. So I started out this winter realizing that none of my galleries have any artwork because I had two months off right when I needed to be like finishing and framing stuff for all my galleries. So I have said no to a lot of shows this summer because I really want to work on just getting my work done and getting my galleries stocked. So I'm really just looking forward to all of my galleries everywhere having fresh work for the rest of this year. But I am very much looking forward to I was just invited to join plein air painters of America a few months ago, and so I will be going to their show in southern Utah in May, which is a paint out and then a show. So I'll be doing a couple studio paintings for that. And really excited to get out there and paint with some amazing landscape painters who I'm really excited to learn from, and also be a part of the show, because it's just a big honor. And then the oil painters of America show is in Steamboat Springs this year, which is a few hours from here, and I have a gallery right across the street, so I will be going up there for that one as well, for sure, just because they're always so great to attend so but yeah, beyond those two, I am just really trying to, like, lock in and support my galleries this year, because I ended last year in an unconventional way.

Laura Arango Baier: 52:58

So, yes, yes, that sounds awful. You would think that you'll be able to paint, though, but it seems a little uncomfortable to try to paint with a giant cast on your leg.

Stacey Peterson: 53:10

I did, I will say, I will say, art got me through. I sat. I was kind of stuck on the couch for a couple months. I was completely non weight bearing, and I felt like I couldn't oil paint, because it was hard to figure out, like a setup that wasn't going to, like, destroy my couch in my living room or wherever I was sitting. But I did pick up. I started doing acrylic gouache, and so I did a ton of studies, like I did one a day almost the whole time that I was non weight bearing, and they're not something I would sell, but it was super inspiring, and got me really excited to get back in the studio. So I will say I did do art. It just wasn't what I give my galleries.

Laura Arango Baier: 53:50

So yes, yeah, it's good, because it keeps the practice going. And then, I mean, what else are you going to want to do when you were forced to sit

Stacey Peterson: 53:59

around exactly? I was so grateful. I was like, Oh my gosh. I am so glad I can do this.

Laura Arango Baier: 54:05

So yes, yeah, I think a lot of artists would be very happy to have a forced, forced time to paint. Yeah, oh man. But then if someone wants to see your gorgeous work, whether in person or virtually, where can they see your work?

Stacey Peterson: 54:24

Sure thing. Um, so my website is Stacy peterson.com as simple as it gets, make sure you spell my name right. It's S, T, A, C, E, y, I have work on Instagram, Facebook and tick tock all under Stacy Peterson art, if you just Google that. And then I have galleries throughout the Rocky Mountain West that show my work. I have sex galleries, which is here in Cherry Creek in Denver. I have wild horse Gallery, which is up in Steamboat Springs, Colorado for. F, O, R, fine art, which is up in white fish Montana and big fork Montana. And then Turner fine art, which is in Jackson Wyoming, and Ballard's fine art, which is in Sheridan Wyoming. I'm trying to think, am I forgetting, oh, OB, joyful Gallery, which is in Crested Butte, Colorado. So I think I don't think I missed anyone, but yeah, they're all mostly up in ski towns. But yeah, stop and do a gallery. That's where I sell all my work.

Laura Arango Baier: 55:32

So awesome. Well, thank you so much, Stacey, for the very inspiring, actually inspiring and interesting conversation, I definitely changed my perspective on engineering. It feels like we're engineering paintings now. Oh man. Well, thanks again for being on

Stacey Peterson: 55:53

the show. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. It was fun.

Laura Arango Baier: 55:58

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