I took the prices back off the site. No one was buying and on the off chance I might, one day, get a gallery to represent me, maybe they wouldn't want me to be competing with them.

I've been subscribing to Pastel Journal and The Artist's Magazine since around 2004. Until about a year and a half ago, I had read exactly one issue of each.

I finally decided back in the fall of 2009 that I should either read them, or cancel the subscription. So I started reading starting with the old Pastel Journals. They only come out every other month, so there were fewer of them.

I got caught up with Pastel Journal about this time last year. I finished the November 2008 Artist's Magazine at lunch today. Only 26 issues to go!

Reading them all at once like this gives an interesting perspective. Early on they were opposed to taking digital photos of your work. They weren't too enthusiastic about artists having their own websites either. All competitions required slides. Now you can e-mail your entries.

All my reading also inspired me to change my artist statement on my front page. Almost every artist profile I read contains the phrases, "I always wanted to be an artist," or "I've been drawing since I was a kid." I didn't, and I wanted my profile to make that clear.

I hope some of my reading has helped make me a better artist. I still have trouble thinking about myself as an artist.

I have high hopes that I'll maintain my site better in the near future. I only get a limited time to paint. I'd much rather spend it painting than photographing my work, posting it on the site, and maintaining my database. But I can talk a blue streak when there's no one around to listen to me, so at least I hope to add some entries to this section.

Last month I did 4 paintings at the annual First Brush of Spring paintout in New Harmony, IN. Look for them coming soon.

I've just posted four paintings done at the First Brush of Spring, an annual paint-out event in and around New Harmony every April, and three paintings I did in Florida in late March.

Those paintings which are for sale now have prices. They are based on size, which may not be displayed, and my subjective view of the quality.

My prices are pretty cheap. But they're also negotiable.

I told my friend Melanie that a website was a winter project, so I decided I'd better get to work before it wasn't winter anymore.

Now that I've got the basics down, I think I'm done playing with the format. Artwork in each category is show in chonological order, but for a long time I didn't put dates on things, so we're working from a rather shaky memory. But you can see a little how my work has changed over the years.

Not that I expect to sell anything anytime soon, but the next major change will be to add prices and the ability to purchase through the site.

More later!