Dare to LOVE Monday

Sorry I'm late tonight but I am vacationing in the GREAT SMOKEY MOUNTAINS and really didn't think I'd get this post off. Thankfully I found this hour to sneak down to the pub for a post and a beer:) I couldn't wait to visit with you a bit and catch up. It's beautiful here and we are enjoying the mountains and family time. I really needed a break from the summer madness so this trip couldn't have come at a better time.

I am so excited to introduce you to this week's guest, the talented Jonathan Aller.

http://jonaller.blogspot.com/

As you can see from Jonathan's work he is an amazing realist and classic artist. Jonathan has a great blog in that he paints a picture a day. Talk about refining your craft! There's no "just not feeling it today" for him. I admire the discipline and commitment to his craft and it really shines through in his work. He also presents his blog posts in a tutorial format so he takes you through step by step so you can see the progression of his work. He just makes me want to paint in the lines!

Here's more about Jonathan...

1. Why did you decide to start a blog? I was painting for a while on my own as an "Artist" after finishing school and was also working as an art instructor for this big company, I started to see that blogs was the way to go for artist who were frequently painting and at the time I was not that frequent with my paintings. I started to follow other artist who were painting on a daily basis and saw that blogging was such a simple tool to use, they were jotting down there ideas to why they where painting and how. 2. Who is your favorite blogger? Please post their link. There's this artist called Jason Seiler (http://jasonseilerillustration.blogspot.com/) and he's an illustrator that does these amazing digital paintings, whats funny is that my work has nothing to do with illustrations or caricatures and Jason's work is all about that. What I love about it is the dedication he has towards is craft and obviously that he's amazing talented, more than anything its very inspirational to see his work it pushes me to become better artist. 3. As an artist, what has been the best way to promote your work? Leaving comments on other artist blogs helps a lot, it exposes your blog to other viewers. Being a part of several art organizations online that just market my paintings helps, I also like to get on art forums and put my work on there to show more people the more the better. I also use twitter I still do not know the use of that tool but I have it to reach a broader audience, I don't know if it works but I use it. Basically I try to expose my work as much as I can through different sites marketing is such art form in itself and I'm still learning a lot from it. 4. What art supply could you not live without? My brushes! 5. If you weren’t an artist, who would you be? An athlete! But I have always been drawing and doodling since I can remember so I really cannot imagine doing anything else than being an artist.

Isn't Jonathan's work yummy? Stop over and visit him. I hope you enjoy his blog as much as I do.

While I'm here in the Smokey's I'm gonna get in touch with my more traditional side and do some Plein Air painting. Maybe it's the mountain air, maybe it's Jonathan, maybe it's all the country music. Whatever it is, being here just makes me feel all sentimental inside. I'll share my Plein Air venture with you when I get back but in the meantime....

Dare to Love!

xo