San Francisco based Artist Ann Rea, CEO of Ann Rea, Inc.

I still get this question!  The paintings that I paint are the paintings that I want to paint.  I can’t even imagine having it any other way and calling myself an artist.  Otherwise I would call myself an illustrator.  Who I have a great deal of respect for, by the way.

Now I am very mindful that if I want to exchange my creations for payment then I have to add value beyond selfish self-expression.  I’m not criticizing self-expression as selfish. I’m just saying that as an artist, interested in building a strong business and brand, clearly I have to think beyond me.

This Friday I was at a reception at an incredible contemporary estate in Napa Valley.  And ironically it was two “artists” who asked this question. “What other work do you do?  You know, for yourself?”
One a photographer and her husband, a sculptor, a retired physician.  So I’m assuming that their monetary concerns have been different from my own and that has shaped their perspective.

A former art director,  along with another guest, then asked if this was what I did “full time?” Another asked “Ann, are you here to show your work?”  “Actually, I’m here to develop a strategic partnership with the host.” I responded.

I can’t pretend that I’m not irked by these questions.  I’m a serious full time artist and entrepreneur.  Imagine that!  Is that not obvious?  Or are the stereotypes about artists just too strong for this to be as plain as the nose on your face?

But I accept the perspective of these relatively affluent people who, like many, see art making as an indulgence, maybe a career, and a business, “oh really?”

In my experience I’ve observed two distinct camps.  Those interested in art and music making in exchange for money and those that don’t believe this should happen or have enough confidence and skill to make that exchange.  Guess which camp I belong to?

I know that my brother, the former Dean of a business school, did not take my venture very seriously until my business was profiled by Fortune magazine.  Then suddenly I was a teaching moment, an example of how to live your passion and earn a living.

It’s not only possible, but given the opportunity, I believe that it’s our obligation to live our lives to the fullest, to be fully self expressed, and to provide value so that we can earn as much money as possible doing it.  Then we are in a better position to live a healthy, prosperous, life. And then to give back.

Oh please.  Those who know me know that’s not my plan.  Now does suffering inform an artist’s work?  Maybe. Art is not literal; it is emotive.  So feelings inform an artist’s work and they are central to the artist’s unique voice. And life experiences and a certain depth of emotion develop an emotional register that I think is necessary if an artist is going to have anything interesting to say or to express. The artist has to feel it if their audience is going to feel it.

I’m not actually a fan of most contemporary art because it expresses a very narrow band of emotions: irony, angst, and shock.  I’m bored with it.  And I don’t relate to these emotions.  Although I do believe that they reflect the broader contemporary culture. I can only express my voice, deepened by my life experiences.

Why is my tag line “Savor the colors of a moment?”  It’s catchy, but it actually goers deeper than that.  Because for most of my life, before I started painting for a living, I suffered from chronic anxiety and deep depression.  I was actually advised that I would suffer from these conditions for the rest of my life.  Thankfully, I told the doctor to stick it and I took charge.

And it’s been many years and I no longer suffer.  If I had to sum up the experience of anxiety I would say that it’s a preoccupation with the future.  And depression is a regret or a continuous review of the past.  I have a friend who had chronic anxiety and then developed stage four breast cancer.  She said the anxiety was harder to cope with than the cancer.  That’s suffering.

When I paint I am the most present that I can be.  So my subject is light expressed as color.  And this single focus gives me peace.  So my suffering did inform my work but I certainly don’t feel obligated to suffer.

I realized that most people never get to see what’s under the oil painting so I thought that I’d give you a quick peek, as it’s progressing.  As you can see, it starts with a charcoal drawing. Why charcoal?  Because it leaves a strong line that’s not too black. And it’s a medium that’s easy to shape.  It responds to subtle pressure, unlike a Sharpie pen.  It’s also a medium that doesn’t bleed through to the surface of the oil painting, like graphite can, if you used a pencil.

In its rawest form painting is a bit like cooking.  The ingredients are shapes, lines, masses of color layered over other masses of color.  And you have to assemble these ingredients in a certain order.  You can’t put the cherry on top of the cake before you’ve mixed the batter.  And each element is adjusted relative to how it exists in context to the whole image.

How do I decide what to do next or in what sequence?  The best analogy that I can offer here is that it’s a bit like dancing.  You have to learn the steps to a particular dance and master your technique.  It helps to be physically fit and have some rhythm.  It’s not good if you just can’t hear the beat.  After that you just feel it.  You follow the beat.  There’s really not that much thinking involved.  As a matter of fact, when I’m thinking or tensing, I step back or I leave the painting for days at a time and return with a fresh perspective.  Then I can really see it.

This month, January, marks my fifth year in business, my decision to paint full time.  What inspired me to do this?  A number of things led me down this extraordinary path.  But if I had to name a single person who inspired me to make this decision, it was a coworker I met when I was suffering from anxiety and working as a corporate consultant, her name was Angela.

Angela and I worked together on the same very politically charged government account as project management consultants.  When I think about it, I can’t even believe that I forced myself to work each day.  I found the work so incredibly boring and the management was dreadful.

Angela and I worked with a young, insecure, and power hungry consultant from New York. We were quite sure that she was sleeping with the boss. Ick!  And so we’d break the tension by laughing and making jokes.

Angela was one month older than me and she was recovering from stage four breast cancer treatments.  Her black hair framed her attractive face in a short-cropped curl.  I always wanted curly hair.  She told me that hers used to be straight too but that it was very common when women lost their hair from chemotherapy for it to grow back in curly.  This made me pause and I became thankful for my hair just the way it was.

Angela and I both were both deeply dissatisfied with our jobs.  I wanted to paint and I learned that Angela always wanted to be an interior designer. Unbeknownst to Angela, I looked at her one-day and thought, “why the hell don’t we just do it, why are we staying here?”

Angela and I moved on to different project management gigs. Hers to Hawaii and mine to San Francisco where I had an episode with a self proclaimed born again Christian manager.  One day he actually cornered me into my v-shaped cubicle at PG&E.  I woke up the next morning with a different resolve.

I could not again drive for 45 minutes, park, wait for the ferry, and sail into the financial district for yet another hour, one more day, not one more day of my remaining life.  I decided to quit, to find a way to paint, to live the life I was given, and to develop the talent that Wayne Thiebaud himself recognized.

I’m blessed to have another year ahead and I’m going to make it the very best that I can.  And I look forward to dedicating my first book to Angela.

Artist Ann Rea

A current large-scale private commission of the Mondavi Continuum vineyard is entering my next creative phase.  Over twenty field studies sit drying on the racks in my private San Francisco beach studio in The Presidio of San Francisco, an hour and a half away from their original inspiration.

Occasionally I do a wet test by gently touching the thickest paint on the most recently painted study.  If oil paint comes off on my finger then I know this painting is not ready to move.  It won’t actually be completely dry for about a year but I can transport them about 30 days after I paint them.  My fine art photographer just cringes when I deliver wet paintings to him so I’ll have to wait. But like always, I’m in a hurry to get to the next phase.

These field studies, measuring 16”x20”, will be photographed and then made available for sale on annrea.com.  I’ll offer my patron who commissioned the series the first opportunity to acquire these works, along with preliminary charcoal sketches that where created to compose the field studies. Then this newest series will be announced to all of my collectors.

Once these works have been photographed, I can edit and examine them from a different perspective and better select the field study that will serve as the basis for the larger and final 30”x 40” canvas.  This large canvas allows me to further evolve and explore the image I created in the vineyard, refining the color, composition, and proportions.

“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” I don’t know who originally said it maybe it was David Byrne of the “Talking Heads” or Frank Zappa, but I love the quote because I think it reflects common conversations had about art and wine.

And so what do art and wine have to do with one another?  In a literal sense, nothing really. But each can create a sensory and sensual experience and the wine maker and the artist share the enviable characteristic of passion.  And even though the market doesn’t need any more painters or winemakers we’ll always need art and wine that inspires.

A few months ago I attended a music and wine pairing sponsored by Rubicon Estate and the San Francisco Luxury Marketing Council. The winemaker paired each wine with a different piano solo.  This creative approach made the tasting so much more enjoyable and the wine that much more accessible.
I thought about why that was.  And I think it’s because people simply paused long enough to get in touch with their senses and perception and to just trust their preferences.
I met a sommelier who appreciated and insightfully discussed my paintings. It came as no surprise to me that he was a former music critic.
I’m very interested in this concept of creating a starting point of conversation.  Of opening up perception by tuning in to more sensory channels.
If you’re a wine writer and or sommelier interested in creating art and wine pairing at local events and or writing about the experience, please contact me to collaborate.

Artist Ann Rea

When I paint, in order to paint well, I have to be completely present. It’s very similar to practicing meditation except I’m moving. Focused only on my visual perception I’m scanning and comparing shapes, values, and the colors shaped by light in front of me.

People ask if they can watch me paint. It’s like asking if you can watch me pray.  No.  It’s not a performance. Although I will admit that I have performed for the camera, kind of like a cooking show.  The producer of NBC’s “In Wine Country” wanted me to paint an entire painting while be filmed, and interviewed, and adjusted, and during taking several stop and start takes.  “Are you kidding?  Sorry, I’m just not that talented.” I replied.

What I did do was create the same image in three stages of development.  During the first takes I whipped out the charcoal sketched canvas, the next takes I took out the half done piece, and then I left the final strokes of the most finished piece.  It looks like I did it all in one take.  But really I’ll paint several field studies and then I’ll edit them.  If they don’t make the cut they’re destroyed.

I’m painting this week in my studio, sketching and trying out new painting techniques and approaches.  I have to block out this sustained time to develop work.  There are very few emails or phone conversations.  I always feel more centered after I completed a painting that I’m satisfied with.  That’s the best word I can use to describe what it’s like being in the zone when I’m painting, centered and relaxed.

When is the book coming out?

I’m working on it!  Soon.  Very soon.
 My book was actually born out of an abandoned book project.  I completed over 100 paintings of Sonoma vineyards that were to be featured in a book for a major winery, a very BIG winery, maybe even the biggest. Wink. Wink.

It sure seemed like a wonderful opportunity at the start.  I even met with a top editor at Chronicle Books.  We had lunch, twice. But like with so many corporate sponsored projects, the priorities revolve.  I was handed to one brand manager and then another, and then I could hear the sound of crickets chirping.  They didn’t care about art, they cared about their reviews and the politics that threaten what little job security they have.  Can’t say I blame them.  The project lost momentum. Then it was just plain deserted.  Leaving me, holding the bag.

Based on the enthusiastic response to my work and continuous national media attention fueled by word of mouth I decided to redirect my creative energy.  I was still determined to create a book, one that I could control, one that I would be proud of, and one that would not be tainted with a tired marketing message from a major winery.

So I decided to take my lemons and make some damn lemonade, and the idea of “Colors of Terroir, and artist’s tour of Sonoma” was born.

Last year I was commissioned as a surprise birthday present to paint Bob Proctor’s garden, host of the move “The Secret” and author of “You Where Born Rich”.  I was flown to Toronto and hung out with the man who appears on “Larry King” and who coaches Ellen DeGeneres.  And while I was there he coached me a bit.  Through Bob I met very notable authors, including Mark Victor Hansen co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul Series” and Peggy Mc Coll author of “Your Destiny Switch”.  Last year Jonathan Fields profiled my business in his book “Career Renegade” published by Random House.  These authors, along my friend Leslie Harrington, an amazing book designer and art director in London, convinced me that the very best path to take was the rapidly evolving and exploding path of self-publishing.  Traditional publishing is in fact withering.  So really, it all turned out for the best.
The content for the book is now complete.  The layout and editing is underway. And this is my book.  Nobody’s book but mine.

Now I’m beginning the sequel, “Colors of Terroir, and artist’s tour of Napa.”  This book will feature the privately commissioned paintings I create in and of Napa, no more corporate involvement.  I already have two patrons whose paintings will be featured in this book.  Now I’m looking for the rest.  So if you own a Napa vineyard, or you simply enjoy wine from a Napa vineyard, and you would like to commission a painting, and help sponsor this project, I’m currently accepting applications for 2010.

Giving Thanks

I’m so thankful that my list of collectors is growing because of referrals from other enthusiastic collectors.

It’s time to review my business plan, particularly my marketing plan.  I’ve committed to doing this annually. I keep track of how I receive business and an overwhelming and increasing amount of my business is coming through referrals. My list of collectors is growing because of referrals from other enthusiastic collectors.  And several referrals are coming from people who are not yet collectors.

This of course is the very best, the absolutely the most enjoyable way to receive business. And who wouldn’t like more?  So I thought about how I could encourage referrals and yet demonstrate my sincere appreciation for referrals I do receive.

So as a gesture of sincere appreciation for referrals I decided that I would like to offer 10% credits.

Each time someone refers a new collector who purchases an original work of art that someone will receive a 10% credit towards his or her acquisition of an original work art.  So if someone buys an original painting for $3000, the person who refers him or her receives a $300 credit towards an acquisition of an original painting.

To make it easy, there’s actually a referral link on each detail page that says, “Love this? Send this to your friends.”

I also decided that if I wanted unlimited referrals that I would make the credits unlimited.

I can’t offer this forever, so I’ve decided it to offer it until the end of 2009.