Stamina

[Michele Rushworth]

How long can you paint for?

I find that after four or five hours (with a ten minute break every hour-and-a-half or so) I no longer trust my ability to make good decisions and I stop painting. I'm brain dead and sometimes physically tired too.

I thought that I would be able to paint for longer sessions as I got used to doing it over the past couple of years, but it hasn't changed.

I can paint a bit longer if I'm doing a sit-down session (working on face details, for example) but today I was working on a large section of a 40" painting so I needed to stand up, squat down, adjust the easel, walk back and forth a lot, etc. I ran out of steam after less than five hours.

If I take a break and do something else for a few hours I might be able to paint again for two hours in the evening, but that's about it.

I paint typically four or five days a week so this equals an average of 20 hours of painting time. Not enough to get done what I want to do!

I have read some folks on this board can paint for 10 hours a day, and have heard others say that two to four hours should be one's maximum, so that an artist is always "working at the top of their form".

How long can you paint for?

[Carl Toboika]

Working as a subcontractor (freelance) at Billboard pictorials, due to the great driving distances (and no completed work, no money) I had to learn to stick my nose in it with a lunch break (no coffee breaks, no supper) up to 12-14 occasionally 16 hours. I'd hit the wall and have a slow week or two pooped out, but could do that 5 to 7 days a week for a couple of months before that happened. You get used to making competent decisions when tired eventually, though not optimal ones.

10 years ago I remember a stint of painting that went 32 hours at the easel sitting (with some breaks). I wouldn't do it now, I was just an obsessive sort at the time.

As I got older it got harder and harder. Since work at the easel is physically easier than BB work, if I can sit down, the same hours are not troubling though 8-10 is more comfortable.

I think everyone has a natural clock this way. Exercise, good shoes, and a comfortable chair when you can use it, goes a long way to extend that a bit.

[Kimberly Dow]

I paint 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sometimes if I am especially inspired I'll go down for a few hours in the evenings & weekends. Then I will bring stuff home from the studio and work. Today I had to stay home with a sick child so I sketched a couple of projects out today.

Michele, don't you find it depends on how excited you are about the project? I can work well without stopping all night long if I am very excited. If I am not, then it's my scheduled hours with lots of coffee breaks - then I drag myself home exhausted.

All I get is 5 hours if I am lucky, and I can make it all the way through. Occasionally everyone will go to the zoo or something, and I'll work 8 hours, though I've done 12 or more (whee). I'll paint for as long as you'll let me. I didn't buy a multi disc player so I would remember to take breaks. My husband ordered me to take 2 days off per week, and I find I really struggle not to be awfully cranky on those days.

I don't know if I make better decisions - now that you mention it I suppose there is an off-peak thing that happens. Uh oh. Something else to worry about.

It borders on the compulsive. On another thread someone mentioned how the time slips by. Maybe it's that right brain thing. We should do a brain study. Physically, just like you said, it's like working out which I need to do anyway. That's why I'm doing bigger paintings now; I have about 10 pounds to lose. Do you think we might be more fit than regular office job-holders?

[Scott Bartner]

While it normally takes me 4 to 5 weeks of 8-hour per day sessions to paint a portrait, I finished most of the Janine Jansen portrait in the first two weeks of August, but the circumstances were unusual: First, my wife and child were in the States with my parents so I had no familial distractions. Second, most of Western Europe was experiencing a fierce heat wave creating no incentive to frequent cafes let alone go outside. Fortunately I had a portable air conditioning unit in my studio enabling me to work 13-15 hour days.

The stamina came in largely from the subject matter, being a big classical music fan, and the knowledge the portrait would be exhibited.

When you do this kind of work for a living you soon realize only part of your time is spent applying paint to a canvas. There

[Scott Bartner]

Realizing my last comments directed at the artistic profession were rather harsh I

[Michele Rushworth]

When I'm too tired to paint I enjoy spending my time doing the administrative stuff. (Things related to my art career are frankly all I want to do -- I'd even rather stretch canvases and organize my studio than go on most vacations.) I just wish I could extend my hours actually at the easel.

Perhaps running out of painting energy is more due to the fact that before I start, I've been "working" at my other job of Mom for a few hours already.

[Kimberly Dow]

Michele,

I hear you, I am up & doing the mommy route 4 hours before I get to start painting, not to mention what comes after.

Not to leave the gentlemen out, but we should have a special thread on the particular challenges faced by wives/mothers who are working artists.

[Mike McCarty]

Not to leave the gentleman out, but we should have a special thread on the particular challenges faced by wives/mothers who are working artists.

Then we could have a section on fathers who double as mothers who are working artists.

I think I'm kinda like you Michele, I can go at it for four or five hours (+-), with a couple of walk around breaks, then I have to give it up. If I'm particularly excited I can have another go later on in the evening. I think it's more of a mental stamina (lack of) than anything else.

[Kimberly Dow]

Oh, my political incorrectness!

Ok, new thread idea: particular problems faced by working artists who are also the primary care-givers (or only caregivers) to the kids.