My first professional art photoshoot

The drawback of submitting to a few calls for art at once is that you also increase the likelihood of rejection. Both calls for art I submitted to in March fit into that category—garnering two rejections within two days. But hey, I had a 50% chance of being accepted, and that is 100% more likely when you do submit your work instead of thinking about it. The letters are very gracious, and they encouraged me to try again next year.

The submitted photos were taken by me before I learned that having high-quality photos is crucial to entering juried submissions. While I have been taking photographs since my teens and did front-page photography for a newspaper years ago, art photography requires a different skillset. Not being alone in this challenge, I banded together with a few FUSEDChicago members for a joint photoshoot.

Art photographer Tom van Eynde was highly recommended for encaustic art, and on Saturday we met at his studio. Tom immediately sorted pieces by size and started snapping away. He is fast!

Bridgette Guerzon Mills and Elyse Martin made a few trips up and down the stairs to bring their pieces (larger than mine) in. Shortly thereafter, Michele Thrane and Gina Vanderreyden brought in their work. It was lovely to peruse the variety of work and see the new pieces everyone had been working on.

Bridgette has thick layers and and earthy color palette, and also brought an acrylic painting.

Elyse’s recent work uses a light palette.

Gina’s delicate paper paintings have ethereal hues.

Michele created “patchwork” circles with monoprints and photographs.

It was such a fun morning of catching up on life and encouraging each artistic endeavor. We each eagerly anticipate receiving our gallery-ready photos on CD.

I do hope to arrange my own photography set-up over time, and as I was looking for tutorials, I was charmed by the doll-size set up on this site (scroll down beyond the deer). This site about photographing for juried shows will be one to revisit when I have new pieces to photograph.

Meanwhile, my current art work will be on display June 2 at a small group show. Six Chicago Painters and Artists will bring their work to Paola’s Vinum for a one-evening pop-up. You can sip Spanish wines at the bar while perusing our work, and maybe taking some home (both art and wine) if you’re so inclined. More on that soon.