Blog | Megan Coyle: Artist & Illustrator

June 20, 2018June 20, 2018

What to do with your Older Artwork

Over the years, artists can accumulate a lot of artwork. We make art when we take classes, experiment with different mediums, and create different bodies of work for a series or exhibit. And an artist might want to find ways to get rid of that older work since it can show visual inconsistencies with her or his inventory.

So if you’re an artist looking to get rid of older work, here are a few ideas of things you can do:

1. Sell it Online

Create a separate site or section of your site to market and sell your older artwork (especially if the style varies greatly from your current style).

2. Donate it

Donate your work to a charity art auction. If you’ve grown tired of your older pieces, and have no desire to market and sell them anymore, why not give them to an organization that can benefit from your art?

3. Run a Giveaway

I think giveaways are an excellent way to declutter your studio by removing artwork that is no longer relevant to your visual style or career. It also helps generate some excitement for your fans who follow your work. And people who are truly interested in a piece will enter, which is much better than giving away your work to just anyone.

4. Rework it

Try revisiting your older work to make it better. You can turn one of your older pieces into a newer work of art by working on it again. Who knows, you may even improve it in such a way that you’d want to proudly feature it in your portfolio.

When you’ve gotten tired of your older artwork, or want to clean up your studio a little bit, there are plenty of ways to find a new home for your work. Or if you don’t want to find a new home for it, you can always revisit and rework it.

June 17, 2018June 11, 2024

Cupcake Time

I’m having a sweet time making all these dessert collages. With this piece, I enjoyed incorporating more texture for the background, cupcake base, and the cherry on top. However, this collage was more of a struggle for me – I felt like I was overworking the surface for the frosting.

If you take a look at the collage in-person, you’ll notice that some parts are built up more with quite a few layers of paper. Whenever there’s more paper layered in a particular area for me, it means that I was struggling with getting a certain section looking the way I wanted it to. Although, that’s making me think that it could be interesting to build up different areas on purpose to see what happens.

May 24, 2018May 25, 2018

Indian Ink Drawing of Blocks from College

I was an art major in college, and part of our curriculum was to take a couple of studio drawing classes. This Indian ink drawing was a piece I completed for one of those courses.

Back in college, still life always seemed to be a bowl of the same plastic fruit that had been in the art department for years. Occasionally other objects were thrown in, although usually I was pretty bored with the subjects we tackled. For this piece, I thought it was pretty unique that we drew from a block arrangement. Using Indian ink made the composition even more interesting, since we had to focus closely on the variations in contrast for the highlights and shadows.

May 21, 2018May 21, 2018

Bosty goes to Chincoteague, VA

Bosty wanted to get away for the weekend, but didn’t feel like traveling too far away from DC, so he decided to visit Chincoteague in Virginia. Chincoteague Island is in Virginia’s Eastern Shore, and is known for its beaches and wild ponies.

Aside from bird watching by the shore, Bosty also did some strolling along the beach.

And when he grew tired of the sandy beaches, he decided to watch the kayakers before doing some kayaking of his own.

He was only able to see some of the wild ponies from a great distance away, so for all his touristy pictures, he had to pose alongside a horse at one of the local farms.

During Bosty’s last night in Chincoteague, it got really foggy outside. He thought it looked almost like an enchanted storybook when he wandered around the town.

May 20, 2018June 11, 2024

My Piece of the Pie (Lemon Meringue)

Lemon meringue pie is my favorite type of pie, so I just had to make a collage of it. Getting the texture for the top of the pie was the most challenging part of this piece. I had a lot of fun using different yellows for the filling, and of course creating some abstract shadows on the plate.

I’m really enjoying tackling different desserts for my new still life series. I suppose previously when I tried to approach still life, I often got bored since I kept tackling floral arrangements. When you try to approach different subjects, it can really change things up, and make something that you typical found too ordinary, much more exciting. I’m planning to create a few more pieces for this series before I tackle another type of food for my still life work.

May 17, 2018May 20, 2018

Conversational Pieces – Abstract Painting from College

Back when I was in college, I worked on collages made from magazine strips in my free time. I was studying painting at the time, but I still tried to make time for collage. I also often tried to work in collage with my paintings, and this piece is an excellent example of just that.

To make this piece, I used two different canvases. One of them was stretched, while the other wasn’t. I created two paintings on both canvases, and then cut up the canvas that wasn’t stretched and stitched the pieces of the painting onto the stretched canvas. Thus I created a collage of two paintings. The piece was made with acrylic paint, some magazine strips that were adhered to the canvas, and thread.

April 30, 2018April 30, 2018

No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man at the Renwick Gallery

Last weekend I stopped by the Renwick’s No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man. Since the exhibit opened earlier in the month, it wasn’t that crowded which was nice. Overall, I thought the exhibition was beautiful, filled with magnificent and large installations. Pictured above is Marco Cochrane’s Truth is Beauty, a beautiful, large sculpture.

Duane Flatmo’s Tin Pan Dragon was pretty fascinating. The artist used odds and ends to fashion together a dragon. From the picture above, you can make out a muffin tin used to construct part of the dragon’s face.

I was a little in awe when I saw David Best’s Temple. The intricate patterns of the wood that lined the walls and ceiling, were beautiful.

Here you can get a sense of the layout of the room.

Along the walls were bits of rectangular shaped pieces of wood that visitors wrote on and left wedged into the installation. I especially liked the message, “Soak in every single moment,” that a visitor had left behind.

One room contained large constructions of different shapes with intricate patterns cut out of them, with light shining through. Yelena Filipchuk and Serge Beaulieu’s work was definitely one of my favorites of the show.

I liked how the lights cast shadows that extended the patterns of the different objects.

A couple of them used regular light, while the largest shape had a light that changed color every few seconds.

Above is an image of the object with the changing light.

Another one of my favorites were the FoldHaus Art Collective’s Shrumen Lumen, which consisted of large mushroom-shaped sculptures with lights that changed colors after every few minutes.

Above is a close-up of the mushroom sculptures.

I thought Christopher Schardt’s Nova was a fun interactive piece. Visitors would lie on the ground, looking upward of the shifting, changing screen affixed to the ceiling.

My favorite interactive piece was a chalkboard room by Candy Chang, Before I Die. Visitors wrote on the walls different thoughts about what they wanted to do before they died.

No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man was a beautiful exhibit. Yet again, I enjoyed the installations that sprawled across the galleries of the Renwick.

April 29, 2018April 30, 2018

Bosty visits the Cherry Blossoms in DC

Earlier this month, Bosty had a chance to check out the cherry blossoms in Washington, DC during their peak bloom.

It was a dreary and cold day, but Bosty still had fun checking out the views of the Jefferson Memorial by the Tidal Basin.

He liked taking a few pictures in different angles before exploring other areas where the cherry blossoms were blooming.

He especially liked the trees by the Washington Monument, and how a few of them had kites caught in their branches from the Blossom Kite Festival.

Although it had been a chilly day, he thoroughly enjoyed getting to see those beautiful flowers while they were still in bloom.

April 18, 2018April 18, 2018

Bosty goes to Tampa, FL

Bosty wanted to take a break from the grind of city life, and spend some time lounging by the beach. So we jetted off to Tampa, Florida to do just that.

He had a lot of fun walking down the beach, searching for seashells and hoping to find shark teeth that had been washed ashore.

He was fascinated with the palm trees in the area since they are so different than any of the trees back home.

Bosty loved how beautiful the sky and water looked during different times of day, like early in the morning, and when the sun would set at the end of the day.

And after a relaxing trip of sunbathing and splashing in the ocean’s waves, Bosty wanted to end the trip by admiring one last vacation sunset.

April 17, 2018April 17, 2018

How to Give an Artist Talk

It’s important for artists to know how to talk about their artwork so they can promote it to the public. Giving talks helps others understand your process, technique, and the underlying meaning behind your work. If you have to give an artist talk, but are a little stuck on how to get started, here are some ideas to help you out:

1. Brainstorm

Take some time to brainstorm possible topics to cover. What sets your work apart from other artists? How does your artwork fit in with what’s currently available on the market? What projects are you most proud of? Or what projects or series are you hoping to complete in the future?

2. Write a rough draft of your talk

I generally like to create an outline first of what I want to talk about, and then I expand on the details later. I like to use the following format:

Brief overview of my background and studies
How I got started with being an artist
Who are my influences
A walkthrough of my process and technique
More details on the subject matter I cover
A look at the meaning behind some of my work
My plans for future projects or series to work on
Closing remarks

3. Expand on the topics in your rough draft

Think about the narrative you can write for each topic. What stories can you tell? Sharing anecdotes can help make your talk more engaging for listeners.

4. Rehearse your talk

I usually like to over-rehearse my talks, just to know for sure that I know everything I want to say by heart, and so I won’t stumble over my words. I’d recommend practicing in front of a mirror, as well as practicing while staring across the room, so you can have a couple of different ways of experiencing the artist talk delivery process.

5. Brainstorm other topics when talking to individuals after the talk

Think about talking points about your work that you don’t cover in your talk, that you can use when chatting with people in the crowd.

So there you have it – a few ideas to help get you started. And feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I’m always looking to improve on the resources I’m writing.