Welcome

Welcome to the first Emerging Artist blog post. My name is Jennie Traill Schaeffer of Newton, NJ, owner of TraillWorks: Painting & Design Studio.

Through this blog I hope to share with you what it is like to be an artist, and to emerge as a successful artist. Success is a subjective term, for me it is three-pronged. Success is feeling the excitement when a painting clicks, my heart flutters like it did when I fell in love. There's an emotional connection that occurrs between me and a painting when it works. Success is finding the right audience for my work; if my paintings collect in my home then no one else can enjoy them and they don't exist except for myself. Success is making a living wage through creating and selling my art. The great Modernist sculptor Henry Moore said, "There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it."

I am now in my third year of painting for a living. My past got me where I am today, going to art school, getting my degree, teaching art in public schools, and then making the conscious decision to become an artist. I am not the stereotypical artist who knows nothing about business; I enjoy the business side of art as much as the process of painting. It's a thrill to make the painting, talk to the customer and make the sale.

In upcoming blogs I plan on sharing works in-progress, upcoming events that I'm involved in, and other tid-bits about becoming a known artist.

To view my in-progress web site click here.