Susan Borgas – Interview

As you know, it has been some time since I have been a regular reader of Susan’s blog ‘Art And Stuff‘. We have had some interaction and that let me do an interview.

You can keep yourselves updated on her work at her blog. Even more information can be found at her homepage – SusanBorgas.com.

Susan Borgas, tell us a bit of background about yourself. How long have you been involved in art? Are you a professional artist or do artwork as a hobby?

I have been involved visual art for the past fifteen years. My status as a professional artist took place in 2002 with a lot of promotional work towards my name. Since this time I have formed some significant customer relationships resulting in returning buyers.

I pride myself on attention to detail and my reputation to follow through on meeting deadlines. If I can’t deliver what my customer wants, I will not give false hopes by saying otherwise.

What I am looking for now is respect and acceptance from a wider audience, where it can only have a positive impact on my own productivity.

What mediums do you work on?

I am primary a pastelist followed closely by oil. Photography is a tool that I use for reference material for my paintings and consider it a hobby. This may change in the future if my photography becomes good enough.

Have you considered working on other medium?

For my own enjoyment, yes and I do! Watercolor is another medium that I use although many of my customers are not familiar with this. Why? Because I am promoted as a pastelist landscape; it is what I do. Those who come to see my work know to expect pastel landscapes, this is why they have come and would become confused if they don’t see what they expect to view.

What do you usually do, when you hit an artists block?

Have a nervous breakdown! No not really but it is a frightening experience and one that can be quite debilitating. Here are a few pointers that I find helpful.

• I am essentially a studio painter so to get the creative juices flowing once more it is vital that I do get outdoors to breath in the fresh air and study the landscape.
• Read and study other artists work.
• Sketching is essential to keep the eye and hand coordination in shape and often will lead to a spark of interest in starting a major project.
• Blogging about what I do is motivating to produce work or I won’t have anything to post about.
• Involvement with online art forums can get the artistic mind going.

It is best to avoid artistic block in the first place. What seems like an overwhelming amount of work over the period of a year can cause the mind to shut down. The best thing is to make a plan and stick to it. This can be a list of the major projects for a year then broken down into monthly, then weekly to daily jobs. No matter how small the job is, put it on the list. When the jobs are crossed off there is a great sense of achievement at the end of each day that you are going forward rather than backwards. Your mind is then allowed to flow without distractions from the more mundane aspects of our live.

What should be the attitude of aspiring artists? Do you have anything to say to them?

From my own experience I think the four following points would be what I would say to an up and coming artist.

• Learn to draw! I can’t say this enough because it will teach you the fundamentals of what you need to know to understand what will work and what won’t. Abstract, realism or whatever, you need to understand perspective, tonal values and design.
• Be true to yourself and your own style
• If you want to be a professional artist; be prepared that 50% of your working hours will go to making art and the other 50% to promoting your work.
• Make things happen yourself, don’t expect to be ‘discovered’.

Whether an artist is a hobbyist or a professional it is important to have fun with what you do. It doesn’t matter if you have failures because you will learn from them; I know I do!

Thanks for your views, Susan. Your views as an experienced artist would help other aspiring ones learn more, and it has provided a direction.