What to do, what to do...

I've been visiting galleries more frequently lately and I'm seeing lots of encouraging work out there...and some not so much. I guess I hate the idea of trying to make my work commercial in some way. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just annoying.  The thing I'm really struggling with is having a body of work with a theme to it that every exhibition has. Every time I have an idea, I become uninterested after one or two paintings so I don't know what I'm going to do... Actually I do sort of have an idea but I don't want to jinx it by saying anything so I'll just leave it at that. 

Current Work, Thoughts

Welcome to my new blog. I love blogging but I haven't done it in a while. I guess I should start with introducing myself: I'm Crystal Brown (sometimes I write Crystal C. Brown for my art) from Toronto, Canada. I'm currently finishing off my BFA, just few more months to go. After that I plan on doing my MFA in New York but it could be awhile before that happens... Ultimately I want to be a full-time painter, and I think I knew that since grade 10. I was certainly interested in art all my life but that's when it became serious. My work is figurative and I think I can credit that to my personality and the great traditional skills I picked up in high school. I don't think that's going to change too much but you never know. 

Right now I'm really frustrated because I can draw pretty well but I can't paint nearly as well. It's tough to deal with. I expect a lot of myself and when a painting doesn't go right I get very impatient. I just hate mediocrity in my work, especially when I need to get my work out there. I've got some figure drawings going right now, which I love. Life drawing comes with ease for me, and I feel very comfortable with it. It's funny, I always wanted to be a portrait painter but now I'm better at drawing/painting faces within the context of the figure instead of on it's own. What I'm really trying to do is make my figure drawings more meaningful that just "a figure on a page", but I don't know how yet. 

Anyway here's what I'm working on right now: At the top right there's a drawing in progress. It's 18"x24", charcoal and carbon on newsprint. I'm enjoying it, but there's a lot more to go and I really hope it'll be one of my best. And last but not least, I've got a youtube video up, check it out here. That's it for now, be back soon.