How Small Wins Impact Your Art Practice with Leslie Rae Cannon

Antrese Wood: Hey there, it's Antrese, and welcome to another episode of the Savvy Painter Podcast. If you have been listening for a while, welcome back and if you're new here, I am so glad that you have found the podcast. Savvy Painter is the podcast for artists who want practical tactical tips to create a meaningful art practice that is both fulfilling and supports you.

In today's episode, I am super excited to introduce you to the artist, Leslie Rae Cannon. Leslie is an artist from Atlanta, Georgia. She's also a member of Growth Studio, so we've known each other for quite a while now. In this episode, Leslie shares how she has grown as an artist from overcoming her fear of putting her work out there to get into the point where she's become really, really selective with what gallery she shows with and how she manages all of that.

Leslie shares with you the importance of developing a supportive community and how that has helped her recognize her own progress. What I loved about this conversation, honestly, is how Leslie talks about her wins and how even noticing the small wins has had such a big impact on her art practice. She shares all the details about that.

Throughout this conversation, Leslie offers valuable advice for other artists. She's very, very encouraging. She's just a delight to talk to. Without further ado, here is Leslie Rae Cannon.

Leslie, welcome to the Savvy Painter Podcast. Super excited to have you here.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Good to be here, very excited also.

Antrese Wood: Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you are, and what kind of work you create. Just give people a sense of who Leslie is.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Okay, I am Leslie Cannon. I go by Leslie Rae as my artist name and I am based out of Atlanta, Georgia, where I have lived my entire life. I am primarily an acrylic painter and I move in between subject matters. I would think that the commonality in my work is probably bright colors and texture. I've been a part of Growth Studio with you for a little over two years.

Antrese Wood: It's amazing. I'm always just amazed at how fast time flies. I was thinking about that the other day, like, “How long has Leslie been in Growth Studio?” It's been that long.

Leslie Rae Cannon: I've listened to your podcast though for many years so I feel like I was late joining the party. I remember when I decided where I remember where it was, when it was, when I thought, "Why have I not joined this yet?" I think about it every time I listen to the podcast but I was always out for a run so I couldn't join right there and by the time I'd get home I'd forget and I remember thinking, "I'm doing it right now," and I walked right over to my computer and joined.

Antrese Wood: Oh my gosh, I love that. I love that so much.

Leslie Rae Cannon: It's been great.

Antrese Wood: Thank you. Yeah, it's a special place.

Leslie Rae Cannon: It is. It really is. I could talk about that for the next hour.

Antrese Wood: Wait, you never know. Let's see where we go. But before we get into that, here's what I know is just the never-ending fascination. Tell us a little about your studio and your setup. How do you like to work? What's your process like?

Leslie Rae Cannon: I have a room in my home that gets great light when we bought this house 11 years ago. I knew immediately where my easel would go. I have a lot of energy in the morning. That seems to be my creative flow. I like to work as much as possible in the morning.

I work from just regular standard easels and I tend to move them around the studio and work on several things at once. I also sometimes work on paper depending on what the project is, but I do like to get in here. I like to light my sage. I always have candles and different music tracks depending on what I am working on.

Sometimes I listen to books or podcasts, but if I'm really concentrating, I tend to work better with music that's calmer with not as many words. If I'm doing something where I don't have to really concentrate, then I'll switch over to a podcast.

I get pretty messy when I work. You can tell if I'm in the middle of a creative flow or a collection because you can't walk through my studio. Then when I finish that project, it just drives me insane until my studio gets cleaned up. Then it starts all over again.

I would love to be more organized. I also have discovered that I work really well with a deadline. I really fought that for a long time, given myself a hard time for seemingly waiting until the last minute to do something when I knew when my deadline was. As I've matured and gotten older, I realized that it's my process, and my energy and a lot of creative flow come from knowing I have limited time.

Antrese Wood: When you're in that place of, “Okay, I need a deadline,” and you're starting to work on things, are you the type of person that's figuring it out in your head or are you just like, ”Okay, deadline. I know what I need to do and get to work”?

Leslie Rae Cannon: A little bit of both, actually. If I have a commission, so I know exactly what I'm painting, I just need to get to work. I have already done a sketch for the client and I've worked out a lot of the problems usually through that sketch, knowing hopefully how long it's going to take me, and what the problems might be that are going to be hard to work on, and so forth.

If it's a collection I'm coming up with for a show or a gallery, that's when I really make myself nervous because it's like, "I know I need to get some things done. What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?" Always looking around for inspiration until it comes down to the wire and it's like, "Just do it."

By then something has come to me, either through morning pages, we've talked about that a lot, or something that just keeps repeating itself in my brain. Then I just have to get in there and just put some paint on some canvas and get it done. I really would like to be the kind of person who has a set schedule in their studio.

“These are my studio hours. This is every day I paint from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock every single day,” that is just not how I work. I don't give myself a hard time anymore about it. I have learned to lean into it and try to trust, “This is just my process. This is what I do. The laundry doesn't get done, the dishes don't get done while I am in the middle of this,” and then it comes out.

Antrese Wood: How do you find yourself making those decisions? When you're deciding about a series, “I'm going to work on this topic or this subject matter,” and you're saying that you have all these ideas and then you just get to work, what is that like? Does one of them just start to stand out or what actually happens for you?

Leslie Rae Cannon: When I'm in between projects I try to work more in my sketchbook. I have a hard time with just creative play without an end product. I have found through Growth Studio that is something that I need to allow myself the freedom to create for nothing more than just the practice of creating.

It doesn't have to have an end product that can be sold or that is perfect or can be hung on a wall. I really lean into my sketchbooks when I'm not in the middle of a project. Sometimes something will happen there. The last collection I did was the hydrangeas and I was struggling—I knew I wanted one big collection for a summer show that I had and a gallery—I was really struggling with what did I want to do. I went on a house tour with my sister-in-laws and saw a beautiful painting of a flower, not a hydrangea, but it was very simple and very loose and I could not quit staring at it.

My sister-in-law was like, "Yeah, it's okay, but it’s so plain.” You could really see the charcoal still through it and I was just very inspired by it. About three or four weeks later, I came across a photo of it that I had taken and I was like, “Oh, wonder if I could do a hydrangea. My dad had brought me some hydrangeas from his garden. I wonder if I could do a hydrangea like that. I had painted hydrangeas before.”

It just flew out of me. I couldn't stop painting them. It was a very different way of me approaching the subject. I was not looking, constantly staring at my reference photo. I knew I wanted to keep it simple. I used a palette knife only. That was new and different. I think it was a month, I would start as soon as I was finishing up one, I couldn't quit. It was really a lot of fun.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, I love it. I love it so much because it's just this little spark that comes from another place and then that sense of just not being able to stop and really playing with it. I remember when you started those, it was just like, “Oh, I'm not sure about this.”

Leslie Rae Cannon: Yeah, it was great to bring it up for critique and just feel everybody going, “Oh, this is new and different. Keep going.” It was a very supportive feeling. It's like a little spark of an idea. If you can grab onto the tail of it and just hang on and see where it will take you. That doesn't happen all the time. I think that you can learn to be more open to catching those ideas.

I love Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Big Magic. She talks about ideas a lot in that, and I think it's fascinating. I am trying to be better at paying attention to those things, because it was, you're right, a little tiny spark of inspiration that I turned into something totally different, but it just took off and everyone I painted was different, and then I thought, "Well, maybe I should try a pink one. I should try a green one. Or maybe I should put it in this container," and just was really a lot of fun.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. In some ways, using the palette knife, doing that, you're always a fast painter, but doing them that kind of loose and letting it go, looking at them, there's a lot more freedom that you allowed yourself in those paintings than I had seen in the past. Now I see it, but it's a little click, it seems like for you.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Pretty much.

Antrese Wood: Did you notice that while you were painting them? Did you feel that or how was it?

Leslie Rae Cannon: Not instantaneously. At first, I remember almost a—fear is way too strong of a word—it's not fearful. It was a little timid about, "Oh, this is a lot of paint, and I'm making a mess, and this doesn't make sense, and it's not perfect.” A lot of “This isn't perfect,” and “This isn't exactly what it looks like.”

So I had to really keep telling myself, or that part of my brain, “Be quiet. We're doing something else today. Be quiet. It's okay. Be quiet.” It also was really different to make a really large body of work and have it just be sitting there, waiting. I could not wait to bring it out into the world. Then it was like, ”Oh, I think these are great. What's everybody else going to think?” Which is always the artist's trauma, “Oh, gosh, what's everybody else going to think? I think they're really cool.”

But then once I started painting more of them and I had a little pattern going a little routine with how I started it, then it felt so much easier and much more comfortable to try different things with it and to apply more paint. My palette knife's got bigger. It's basically with spatulas from the hardware store.

My substrates got bigger. I tried it on panels, and then I did two really large ones, and it's interesting of all the ones I've done, I have sold the two largest ones they sold right away during the shows, and then I've had a commission for a diptych with the two large sizes.

Antrese Wood: What are the large sizes?

Leslie Rae Cannon: The diptych was 24 by 60. Two of them. The large size that sold at the show was, I believe, 36 by 24. It might have been 30 by 40. I'm having trouble remembering, which is not large for me. I love to paint even bigger than that.

But they're not the easiest things to haul around and store. They have fewer customers I think because not everybody has a wall space for four feet by five feet, but I sure like it. It's a lot of fun.

Antrese Wood: Can you talk a little bit about just that process of getting to the point where you're like, “Okay, I want to show these.” There's this transition from “These are really exciting paintings” or, “I'm really excited by what I'm working on and now they need to be seen.” What was that like for you?

Leslie Rae Cannon: For that collection, I knew that they were going to be seen at a show in mobile that I had entered and been chosen to participate in so I knew they were going to be seen on a certain date. For other paintings, I don't mind showing people. I like the feedback.

I'm a more extroverted type of artist than I think a lot are. Anybody walks in the house I’m like, “Come see what I'm working on. What do you think about this?” I ask a lot of questions. My poor family, they're just like, "Oh, God, Mom. Yeah, it's good."

Antrese Wood: How is it good?

Leslie Rae Cannon: Right. “What do you think about this?” I really do value their opinions, but if there's something they really don't like and I like, I have gotten to the point now where I'm like, "Okay," then I just keep going with it. I'm proud of that.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. That is a big one because we work so hard on things and then when you have this bit of it that's very precious to you and somebody else doesn't like it, it’s like--

Leslie Rae Cannon: It's funny because my family is very supportive and my husband is, his office is right near my studio. A lot of times I'll say, "What do you take about this?" And he knows now he'll go, “Well, you know I don't like that kind of painting.” He's less a fan of the more abstract work. He likes more traditional, representational. He loves my golf courses, but he also loves golf.

They're really funny when I'm painting something that is sport-related, especially like a golf course. I've done several golf courses that are local here. The Masters at Augusta National is a big hit and they'll come through because my boys all play golf. “Mom, those Azaleas aren't quite that bright,” or, “Where are you going to put the pen?” I love that they have their opinions and I do value those because I want those to be right. They know if it looks right or not.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. It's so interesting. That whole thing is interesting to me, just how other people see art, and what I'm interested in a lot or most is how artists look at art one way so we tend to look at it from an emotional standpoint, maybe, a skill set standpoint, and just how things are put together.

Then when you get it out into the world, there are all these different interpretations of it. Everybody has to find their way into a painting somehow. I think it's interesting to think of it as it's this story that we're telling, and people will enter it from any point in the story.

This idea that maybe your husband and sons, of course, they're into art because they have an artist in the house, so there's that exposure to it, but there's also this entry point for them of the sports. It's like, “Okay, these ones I can really get into,” which is fun to think about when you think of all the different possibilities of people finding their way to a painting.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Right. I also find one of the ways people have been drawn to some of my paintings is by the titles. I love to name things. I have sold paintings based on the title, that was the deal clincher. I had a couple come up and they were looking at a painting I did of some oysters, and we have a local roll bar that we have gone to for years and years, and I named it after that.

They looked down at the title and said, "Is that Indian Path?" I said, "Yep." And they said, "We were just there at spring break.” They couldn't take that painting fast enough. I was like, "Oh, that was great."

But I just did a collection of angels, Vatican-inspired angels, and I had so much fun looking up old Roman names of gods and angels and popes and I've named all of them. It's just fun and I've had people ask me questions about the names and I think it's a good way into it.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. That whole series was inspired by your trip to Italy. But I loved these names that you came up with that are connected but not connected to the trip. It's just kind of like, “Are you learning about saints and angels as you're doing this?” Just like I could whitter all the possibilities and this one reminds me of that in some way, shape, or form.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Yes, somewhat. I pulled up another list and it was how the Romans renamed Greek gods and I was like, “Oh, that's a cool name.” I read what [inaudible] and was like, “Nope, not going to name an angel after that.” So a little bit, I just painted quite a few of them and I needed them when I was uploading them onto my website which by the way, my daughter has helped me totally revamp my website over the weekend. I have to give a shout-out to my new IT director.

Antrese Wood: Nice.

Leslie Rae Cannon: It’s helpful to have these smart adult children to help out with all these things. I didn't want to name them Angel One or Angel Two so I gave them all these different names and I do think some of them really fit the personality.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. I love them. I saw your website this morning, by the way.

Leslie Rae Cannon: I saw that you were on it. I only know one person in Argentina, so it was a good guess.

Antrese Wood: Who is it from Argentina checking out my sites?

Leslie Rae Cannon: I looked at Carolina and I was like, "Phew, glad that you fixed all that." It's amazing because it's just one of those things where you realize it's not our first language to be on the computer on this website, and we had talked about it in Growth Studio. It's been coming up in our chats a lot about our websites and things.

I was just feeling over, I was feeling overwhelmed with it. I do know that if I had sat there long enough, I would have figured it out, but it would have taken me an extraordinary amount of time and frustration. She sat down and in a couple hours I had changed it all up and figured a lot out, and it's just amazing. She goes, "Mom, it's not your fault. It's not your fault you didn't grow up on a computer." So, thank you.

Antrese Wood: The thing about that is making the choice not to sit in frustration. I do like to think about when we have something that we need to do in our studio, in our business, the job is to get it done, to make it happen. It doesn't necessarily mean that we have to do it ourselves. We just have to cause it to happen.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Right. I am a big fan of outsourcing things that someone could do quicker, better, and easily, and leaves more time for me to do the things that I can't outsource or wouldn't want to. I need to be painting.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. There are some things that you definitely could learn how to do.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Well, she's taught me all the things she changed and how to do things quicker. I've made a lot of notes to remember but her sitting there showing me how to do it was so much easier for me to learn than trying to click and oh, that one right.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. It reminds me of my mom. She's 90, about to turn 90, she’s not 90 yet. She listens to this. She lives in a town with a university. She brings college students in to help her do things. I was just sitting and thinking, “You could just hire somebody to design and build your website. That's one option. You can also either have an adult child or hire somebody who just comes and sits down with you and shows you how to get past all of the clunkiness of it.”

As you were saying that, I was thinking that there are a lot of people that maybe need something like that, don't want to hire somebody to do it, and can't figure out how to get it done. I'm just thinking, “Yeah, there's a million options.”

Leslie Rae Cannon: The feeling that I have afterward, I'm so proud of it and I'm excited to add more things to it instead of it being a drudgery like, “Oh, this isn't right.” Now it totally changed my perspective on it. It's worth it. We say getting that hard thing done, sitting down and getting through it, and then however way it needs to get done and then enjoying it.

Antrese Wood: Yes, so much. Let's talk about showing, selling, and pricing. We can talk about pricing/money, although we did do an episode where we talked about that quite a bit, so we don't have to spend a lot of time on that. But I'm just thinking people would really love to hear some of your insights on getting your work out there and getting it into a home.

One of the things that I've noticed and that I think we've all noticed about you in Growth Studio is, yes, you are extroverted and you've developed this—I don't know if you see this or not—but you've developed this habit of consistently just at least getting the toe in the water and getting something whether it's just a painting in front of somebody or a conversation or one exchange of phone numbers or what have you. Can you talk about that evolution for yourself and how you've shifted that?

Leslie Rae Cannon: It's a great topic. I do think I have evolved in that aspect. I think it really started happening when we did some goal-setting about a year and a half ago, I think, and I was just floored when you said, "A lot of us were trying to get into a gallery." That was a goal that we thought maybe we would try for.

You said, "Okay, I want a list of a hundred galleries that you're going to reach out to." I think my mouth was on the floor for about three hours, “A hundred?” Your logic was out of a hundred, you'll get one yes. But also you're going to get a lot of no's and you're going to get so used to hearing, “No, they're not right for us,” or, “We're not taking new artists at this time.” That it's not going to be earth-shattering and it's not going to be this painful, fearful thing that will happen. That made a lot of sense to me so I started on my list. I got to 50.

I did not reach out to any of them on my list because along the way I met somebody at a show who was opening up her own gallery and I said, "Hey, do you want some of my artwork?" And she said, "I'd love it." There I was. I was in a gallery. That's one of the ways to get in front of people at our shows.

I personally like shows because I don't have any problems talking to people. I'll talk about my art. I'll talk to you about the cute outfit you have on or where did you get that yummy-looking cookie? I just don't have a problem. I really liked that. I realized how much I liked doing shows and being in front of people when the pandemic hit and my shows were all canceled.

I learned how to do online virtual shows because my shows then switched over to that. I learned that it was a good skill to have, but I realized I really missed the interaction with people and that it was not just interaction with people who were handing over their money for my paintings. It was just interaction with people and talking to people.

I know that I've had clients call me months, years after seeing something in a show and they've called me and said, “I haven't forgotten this. Do you still have it? Could you make something similar to it?” or, “I've passed your name on to a friend, a relative.”

There are far-reaching benefits to that kind of exposure. So I like doing shows. I'm in the process now of really being choosy about my shows because they are a lot of energy and creative energy and resources to go to a show, and set up a show. If it's out of town, the money you spend on a hotel, it's just you're putting out a lot and don't know if you'll actually sell.

That's another lesson that you have to learn and build up that muscle and tough skin to go, “Well, but I met a lot of really nice people. Might not have covered my cost, but I met a lot of nice people.” I have a perfect example of that, a show that I did in August. I did sell quite a few paintings.

I did not sell as many as I wanted to, but I met so many people who had never seen my work because it was not an Atlanta area show. It was in mobile. That was exciting. Just three days ago, one of the people that I met owns a beautiful boutique in Fairhope and reached out and said, "Can I have some of your work for the shop?" So there's a perfect example of not instantaneously making a sale but making relationships and making connections. I really like that. I really like the connection.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, it's that whole thing, just as you said before when you're putting your work out there and you are making connections with people, a lot of times—and we talk about this in Growth Studio all the time—a lot of times paintings have sold, it's just they haven't told you about it yet.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Right.

Antrese Wood: It's like they've already decided in their head, "I'm buying that painting,” or, “I want that painting,” and we don't get to find out about it for maybe a couple of days or weeks or months or even years like the people who saw your work and were like, "Yeah, I want to commission now years afterward," yet is an important word in all of that when people have--

Leslie Rae Cannon: It is. Applying to the shows, and getting accepted is wonderful. Not getting accepted is not fun. I'm so glad I have a place to talk about that because that's something you have to get over, especially when you see others around you and your little circle of artists that are getting in.

That's one of those things that you just have to sit with, feel your feelings, as you say, and then move on. Because it just wasn't the right place for you at that time. Then you decide if you want to apply again or not.

Antrese Wood: I love it. Not the right place at that time.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Right. Just asking. I've gotten a lot better about asking. Just ask. What's the worst they can say?

Antrese Wood: Yeah.

Leslie Rae Cannon: So I asked to hang my artwork in my yoga studio two weeks ago. There were blank walls and I said, "Hey, what would you think?", “Sure, I'd love it.” I was like, "Well, that was easy."

Antrese Wood: You mean all I have to do is ask? That was amazing.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Yes.

Antrese Wood: Something that you said about making a list of 50 galleries and then meeting this person, I mean, I think part of the power of that is in just making the nose irrelevant because it is in some ways a numbers game. If you are applying to enough galleries, and I always like to preface that with, and you're doing your homework and you're actually applying to galleries that sell the type of work that you create and all of that, then nos are going to become irrelevant.

By applying to many, many galleries, you're going to get into at least one. But what I see over and over and over again is the people that really take that to heart, they end up in three or four galleries. Then they have different problems.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Right.

Antrese Wood: Which you've experienced.

Leslie Rae Cannon: I'm in too now. I didn't think about what that would entail keeping up the product for two people, two different places. It's like, “Oh, okay.” So I love it, but it's a whole ‘nother like you said, it's like, “Oh, gosh, I don't need anymore right now.”

Antrese Wood: Yeah. I have plenty.

Leslie Rae Cannon: I have plenty. I do. I am a big believer in the law of attraction and manifesting. I think even just sitting down and writing down galleries and thinking about what galleries I think would be a good fit for my work, where would I like to see my artwork, who would I like to work with, just even the physical act of writing it down and then thinking about it, I really believe that that just opens up the possibility for example, for me meeting that woman who just happened to be opening up a gallery, and then you put that on your website or your Instagram that you're in a gallery, and then you have a friend that says, "Oh, did you know so-and-so was opening up the street. You should go reach out.” I really think that what you think about and what you act on you attract.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, absolutely. It's basically saying, “Hey, I'm ready for this. I'm ready to receive this.” Then options start coming in and also there's a piece of it by the fact that you are thinking about it, by the fact that you are maybe journaling about it, writing it down, creating a space for your mind, you're mentally rehearsing getting into a gallery.

You're mentally rehearsing, “There's going to be a situation where this comes up and I'm going to get in.” Then when this person says, "Hey, I have a gallery," you've already rehearsed that enough in your head in some ways of like, “The obvious thing to do is to ask to get in.” The obvious thing to do is to say, "Hey, really? Because I'm an artist and I have paintings. I would love to be in your gallery."

Saying it, writing it, and then is this mental rehearsal so that when the universe does provide, you're prepared, and you recognize it, and you're not hiding from it, which we do sometimes. It's so good. Also, the other transition that you have made is this, going from a place of wanting something to now having it, which is an oversimplification, but it is a big deal to go from this space of, “I want this. I want this. I want this,” to, “Now I have it.”

As you said, having it, now you've got your first gallery and then your second gallery, and I've seen you navigate through like, “Do I want to be in this gallery now?” Then you start making choices about what you want, which is, when you're in that wanting stage, it's more of a lack mentality of, “Oh, I need to get into a gallery and there are so many artists,” the headspace that a lot of artists get into.

Then there's, “I'm in a gallery. I hadn't even considered that two galleries, three galleries, however, meant that adding up is now a totally different thing.” Will you talk about that transition? Do you have some thoughts? Your face is so expressive.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Yeah, that's what my lady who does my botox says, “You have a very expressive face.” I don't think she means it in a good way.

Antrese Wood: I do. I mean it absolutely in a good way.

Leslie Rae Cannon: It is my face. I have a lot of thoughts and I was just trying to organize them because the first thought that came to my mind, and I don't know if this applies to what you're asking, but talking about what you're open for, the practice that we've gotten into on Growth Studio about telling our wins, I think that has been so beneficial for me personally because it has gotten me into the practice of noticing my wins because I have somebody to share them with. I am much more aware of, not the big things, the big things are easy. I got into a show. I got into a gallery. I sold a painting. Those are easy.

Antrese Wood: When you say easy, do you mean easy to remember?

Leslie Rae Cannon: Easy to remember and recognize. Of course, do you have any wins? Yes, I got into this show. That one comes naturally. It's the smaller things that we're all starting to tell each other about that I think are really building up this practice of noticing all the positives and noticing our own growth and noticing struggles we've overcome and even though a lot of us would start out by saying, "Well, this isn't a really big one," or, "This might not sound like a win," and we all know, yes, that is a win.

Fixing my website, big win. But asking, “Could I hang my paintings here?” or hearing something negative about my work and realizing it didn't really bother me as it would have two years ago, because it's just the practice of recognizing positive things and remembering them to report on Monday or Wednesday or whenever I think has really facilitated that growth of being open and asking for what you want.

Now having a lot of things that a couple of years ago, I think I would be shocked if today me told a couple of years ago me, “By the way, you're going to be in two galleries and you're going to have people on your website that you've never met buying things, not just your friends and family, and painting murals and commissions,” I would be shocked.

Now that I'm in this space where I'm having to actually be very intentional about the jobs that I take and the shows that I enter into is a totally different shift because now I am really streamlining where do I want my art to be seen, what do I want to put my energy into, what are my goals for the future, and then allowing the other things to fall off, which means allowing myself to say no, not applying to shows that I would just because I felt that fear or that lack of, "Oh, I better do a show this month because I might not sell another painting, I might not have enough, or I might not be seen, or they're all doing it, or I've done it every year before, I better keep doing it."

It's a totally different shift from the beginning stages, “I need to get my artwork in front of everybody as many people as I can,” to, “Okay, now I get to pick and choose.”

Antrese Wood: Yeah. That's such a huge transition because there's so much packed into what you just said because at the beginning, in a lot of ways, you just want to learn how to get the work out there and experience that. Saying yes to a lot of things makes sense because, the way that I see it at least, it's very similar to how we learn how to paint and that when we're learning how to paint, we're just like, "Oh, this is fun. This is fun. This is fun."

We're doing a lot of different things, and we're exploring in so many different ways, and maybe there are several artists that you really admire, either historical artists or contemporary artists. You're learning from their paintings, taking some of their techniques or styles, and trying them on a little bit, saying if you like it, et cetera, et cetera.

It's a lot of reacting to what you're seeing. It's a lot of reacting basically. It's just there's a stimulus and you're reacting. Then you get to this place where you're at now where now there's a lot more discernment involved and it's more like, “Okay, so I've experienced all of these things and now I get to decide what is it that I actually like in both painting and in sharing the work and in selling the work.

It's like, “What are the types of galleries that I like to work with now that I've gotten over this big fear? This is a thing that I just do now.” Tell yourself that two years ago it’s like, “Yeah, when I go apply for galleries or I go apply to shows, I get my work out there.” So you've developed this muscle memory for it, but it's just a thing that you do. I've said this to you guys before, it's like when you're learning how to drive a car, everything is overwhelming because you're remembering how if you drive a stick shift, you're like, “How does this pedal work? What's the timing on that and all this stuff? And oh, my God, there's a car.”

Then all of a sudden, you're just driving along, or radios blasting, you're not even thinking about it. With the shows and with the art, it's such a similar pattern of, “Okay, now that I've got those pieces out of the way, now I can focus my attention on the things that the relationships that I want to have with the galleries or where I want to show, or who I want this work out in front of.” Yeah, more of a statement than a question, I know.

Leslie Rae Cannon: I agree.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. What I think is so wonderful for people to hear is that that is part of the transition and it is almost like you're just consistently learning all these new skills in a way. These things that seemed scary before. It's like, “Oh, okay, so here's how I approach galleries. Now I understand that. Here's how I do this. Now I've got that.”

Leslie Rae Cannon: It's also refreshing to be in our group because we're at all different levels of the process of our artistic journey. It's a great reminder for me when I hear another artist talking about just building up their Instagram or how to do reels or the first show.

It's so good for me to remember, “Oh, yeah, that used to be terrifying and there's something I have accomplished. I've already done that.” Then it's good to remember those things for when I'm about to try something new.

For me, it’s terrifying to think back and go, “Okay, you've done this, you've done that, you'll figure it out.” You can ask all your friends in Growth Studio, “How do I do this? Help.” They'll all have things to say.

Antrese Wood: We all have things to say, that's right. Because we all have experiences. For artists who are listening, it's almost as if you could give yourself Leslie/people who are listening to advice three years ago, four years ago Leslie, what would say?

Leslie Rae Cannon: I would tell myself/other artists to just keep trying all different things. Write down things you've tried and what the answers were and occasionally go back and look because you'll forget all the different things you've tried and all the things you've accomplished unless you're really mindful about it. If something doesn't work, let it go. Don't dwell. Try another avenue. There are all different roads. There's all different pathways to get to where we want to go. You'll find your people. It might take a little while to find the people who love and want your artwork.

Antrese Wood: That also has been a big transition for you.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Yeah. Not trying to please everybody.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, you've grown so much.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Well, it's because I'm in therapy at Growth Studio, you see. All of you people wondering about Growth Studio, just know it's really not about art, it's about all of your demons and wonderful things in your personality that we all need to learn to have our own back.

Antrese Wood: Yes.

Leslie Rae Cannon: It does turn into therapy sessions quite often. But I think that's why I've learned so much. I think that's why it's been so beneficial for me personally because it's in alignment with how I'm trying to grow as a person. I can find on YouTube how to mix a glaze to knock back the landscape, the mountains in the background, and how to bring my foreground up. I can figure that out. I can take classes on that.

But we go so much deeper. We go so much deeper into, “Why do you think you felt that way? What's that bringing up for you?” We talk about things that, for instance, for me talking about my people-pleasing perfectionist tendencies are probably interfering with some of the new ways I'm trying to paint. I'm trying to loosen up, trying to be more abstract, and not follow reference photos so much.

For me personally, that's really hard to not follow the rule book constantly because that's my personality. As you say all the time, recognizing it is such a big, important step. You can then say, “Oh, that's what's happening again.”

Antrese Wood: Yeah, or you can decide. Once the lights turn on, then you get to decide what you want to do with that, you can choose not to do anything with it. Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. Oh, my gosh. You guys tease me a lot because it is like a therapy session. You're like, “You didn't know but Antrese is not your therapist.” But it is true.

The thing that you hide from is the thing that's going to end up ruling you basically. The thing that you don't recognize is the thing that's going to be driving your art. The question is always who do you want driving your art?

Leslie Rae Cannon: Right. I think the first big change in my thinking, I guess, was talking about, “How do you talk to yourself while you're painting?” What's in your head is going to come out on your canvas. If you're unkind to yourself, if you're judging yourself, if you're criticizing yourself and critiquing your work as you're painting, you're just putting roadblocks in front of yourself the whole entire time.

That is true for anything in life. If you're judging yourself while you're in a yoga practice or training for a marathon or parenting and you're critiquing and judging and telling yourself how much you've screwed that up and, “Oh, you're not going to be able to figure that out. Well, you just messed that up, way to go,” then, of course, it's going to affect every outcome.

So recognizing that little voice in your head that's trying to protect you, keep you safe from that proverbial tiger hanging around the corner and just being able to say, "No, I'm not going to think that right now. I think I'm doing all right," and moving through that has been a game-changer for me.

When I find myself back in that spot where I'm really struggling with my inner critic and being really negative, if I take a minute, if I pause, I realize there's something else going on, usually in my life, in the situation, in the environment, that I need to take a break in the studio and go deal with.

Whether it be having a conversation with somebody or even if it's something simple as I need to go clean the house so that I can get in here and concentrate instead of thinking of the list of things I need to go do that's breaking up my thought process when I'm trying to paint something and make something beautiful and I'm thinking about the list of things I need to be doing, just noticing that has been a big game changer for me.

Antrese Wood: Amazing, amazing. Yeah, so much. Leslie, thank you so much for doing this.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Antrese, you're welcome. It was fun.

Antrese Wood: It was fun. I love it. I love hearing the stories. Where can people see your work?

Leslie Rae Cannon: I am most active on Instagram. That's @leslieraecannon_art. Then I have a website which is also Leslie Rae Cannon Art. I think that's it. Oh, except for my two galleries. You just shout out those at Julep Gallery, which is in St. Simon's, Georgia. It’s on the coast, it's beautiful. Then the Dunwoody Gallery, which is here in my town in Atlanta.

Antrese Wood: We'll link to all of those in the show notes so everybody can find it easily. Thank you so much, Leslie.

Leslie Rae Cannon: Thank you.

Antrese Wood: If you want to take what you are learning here on the Savvy Painter Podcast even further, join us in Growth Studio. Growth Studio is a unique community of artists. We meet multiple times a week for live coaching, critiques, and demos. Just go to savvypainter.com/join.