Guest Blog: Why I represent Paul Creedon, Fine Artist

In 2010 I started a freelance graphic and web design business called Pat Creedon Design, Inc. I came up with the name (mine) and had it incorporated. The plan was to market my extensive abilities at branding and creative concepts to help small businesses grow. I got quite a few clients once word got around. I designed a menu, several business cards, several websites, postcards, PowerPoint templates, Social Media graphics, and logos. I also signed up with a few creative staffing agencies that placed me at area corporations for onsite stints. And I worked freelance for my previous employer. I even did some work for non-profits. Overall it was a sucessful company and still is nice to have as a sideline and back up to the fulltime employment I was offered in May 2012.

So why did I change my business model to focus more on Paul Creedon, Fine Artist? First and foremost, he’s my husband! But beyond that I am a great fan of his work. I always have been. But his recent work in pastels is really fulfilling his potential in my opinion. I want everyone to see it. To see it is to love it. Though many art collectors are drawn to a more abstract style and Paul may never achieve trendiness, he produces consistent, high-quality art for the lover of colorful, recognizeable still lifes and landscapes. If you fit that bill then welcome. Paul has a wonderful personality that really comes through in his blog and his art. Get to know him here and on Twitter, @pecreedon. I will be designing his branding and promoting his art to galleries and by entering local art shows. So look for his work on a wall near you or better yet, purchase a Paul Creedon for your own wall! To do so, simply email me, Patricia Creedon. Samples and pricing will be sent away!

Capturing the complexity of a landscape

Field and trees in a nearby park.

Landscapes are never frozen in time the way a still life is. Nature is changing from one moment to the next, and somehow that has to be put across to the viewer. 

Besides, outdoors is a lot more complicated than indoors. Only God can make a tree and all that, and so much more is going on all at once in the great outdoors that I don't believe you can freeze a moment and have it seem anything like the reality of nature. 

A change of style to suit the landscape

So I work rather more loosely, using chalks, usually NuPastels, and trying to avoid patches of pure color. Pure color can be the dramatic highlight of a still life: think of the white reflections on a bottle or a blotch of bright red on an apple. Yet there doesn't seem to be anything resembling pure color outdoors. Usually something looks like a familiar color but if you look closely it is really a zillion colors combined that give the illusion, at first glance, of one color. 

The Art of the Landscape

House in the Distance by Paul Creedon

Finding one's way as an artist is a path fraught with difficulty. I take my Sheltie on walks (when the weather is favorable) to look for inspirations in the landscapes around my home here in Connecticut. I am looking for new approaches in my pastel landscapes that will please me as much as what I've achieved with still life. It's trial and error when I sit down in my studio with an array of new photos taken in the parks and woods on my dog walks. Frustrations are part of of the process. But I'm used to it and know that every artist goes through this if they are serious about achieving their aims.

The Best Drawings or Paintings

Usually the best drawings or paintings seem almost to draw or paint themselves. They pour out smoothly onto the paper and seem to fall into place. Pastel colors blend beautifully, the textures work together and there is a landscape or still life that has really come to life on the page. But this state of affairs is a culmination of a lengthy period of learning, trial and error, or   in other words, the best art is usually the result of a lot of frustrating failures that went before. I think one learns the most from the disasters, not the triumphs. The disasters tend to far out number the triumphs too, at least in my experience as a fine artist. So you could say, I'm able to learn a lot and often, but it's all worth it when a wonderful piece of art is sometimes the gratifying result!

What is your experience getting to the best in your work or your art? Was it worth the effort? Did you learn something?

The Need to Simplify or Abstract Art

Marble Quarry Pastel Landscape by Paul Creedon.

As a pastel artist I find that the most formidable challenge in the visual arts is the need to simplify (or abstract) the appearance of the object I intend to paint with my pastels or draw with sanguine chalks. My artist's instincts seem to resist the idea of leaving out some of what I see when I compose a new still life or create a landscape. But given my years of experience and training I know that I must in order to arrive at a better picture.

And it will be a better picture. That is because a lot of extraneous stuff will be left out that would only confuse the viewer and art lover. Even if they are someone who is used to looking at fine art. Knowing what to leave out also helps to convey the one major thought that I want a person to see and come away with. Perhaps it's the roundness of a fruit in a pastel still life or the light coming through the trees in a landscape drawing.  Either way I know the picture is enhanced when there are fewer distractions.

To see more of my pastel art and to make a purchase contact Patricia Creedon at 

pmcreedon@optonline.net.

Time Not Wasted

The years spent trying to make a career in commercial art were not altogether wasted. I learned how to draw, which seems to be something of an accomplishment nowadays. That meant learning anatomy for one thing, since a lot of what I did involved the human figure. I very rarely attack the figure nowadays, and instead concentrate on still lifes and landscapes. But I’m certain that knowing where the coracobrachialis is does improve my work in some indefinable way.

At least at the outset I will write more about the difficulties and challenges posed by landscapes. They have proven more difficult for me than the still lifes, so I have had to think a lot more about how to do them. One of my professors often remarked that we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. If so, I have learned an awful lot about painting and drawing landscapes.

At the present however, I know more about what not to do, than what I ought to do.

The pastel still life, "Three Apples" as well as 3 landscapes are currently on display at The Beardsley Gallery in Wilton, CT.