Drew’s been painting small originals, like he always does this time of year, so his collectors can purchase paintings for under $100.00 - framed!

We invite everyone to come to our open house to view new paintings and maybe even get in some Christmas shopping!

WHERE:  Drew Brophy Studio / 208 Calle de Los Molinos Suite D, San Clemente, CA 92672

WHEN:  From 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the following days:

Sat Nov 14 / Sun Nov 15

Sat Nov 21

Sat Dec 5 / Sun Dec 6

WHAT:  Have a cup o’ Joe on Drew and View his new paintings priced under $100, t-shirts, childrens books, art prints, giclees, water bottles, art folders, surfboards, and art supplies such as water based paint pens and DVD’s showing how to use them!

We accept MC/Visa and cash for payment.  Come in, drink some coffee, and have Drew sign whatever you’ve bought!

Heather, Drew, Maria

It’s been a busy month, but hey, when isn’t it?  The week after the Battle of the Paddle mural painting, Drew and I were at the Sacred Craft show giving seminars and painting demonstrations while manning our booth.

The highlight of the weekend was watching our son make $25.00 in tips by giving temporary tattoos to people.

An amazing thing that happened:

We had at least a couple dozen people come to tell us that they follow our blog and that Drew has helped them with their art business or getting into art.  It was such an honor to hear that.

Maria with Nia Peeples and Sam George

Heather Ritts came to help us.  We needed someone who could answer questions about paint pens for the customers buying our DVD and pens.  She’s an expert on that.

Cutting stencils for the painting demon

Drew did a painting demonstration with Spray Paints.  He first cut out the stencils, by hand, then used them to create a unique, easy painting.  The whole process was about 15 minutes.

Cecelia McDermott came and took most of the photos for us.

It was a fun weekend - Scott Bass, the show promoter, was stoked.  They had a packed house all weekend!

Spray paint Demo

Drew, Maria and Bill Stewart

Spray paint Demo

Our super busy booth - all weekend long

Dylan giving tattos for tips

Lunch Break at Sacred Craft

Signing prints

The mural is 8′ x 16′ and was constructed entirely of wood.  With a lot of help from Steve Inunza, also known as Stevie Wonder, the mural was built on-site and primed, ready to get painted the morning of the first day of the event.

At the end of the event, the clever design of the mural structure made it easy to disassemble into 3 separate pieces and neatly placed in our back studio.

The mural is for sale and is priced at a very affordable $5,500.00. You only need money and a LOT of space for it.  If interested in buying, please e-mail sales@drewbrophy.com

Here are photos of the progression of the mural, along with a few other images captured at the famed Battle of the Paddle:

Photo by Aaron Bickford

Join Drew Brophy at the Artist Lecture Series:

10 SUCCESS PRINCIPLES FOR ARTISTS

When: Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 6:00-7:30 pm

Where: San Clemente Center for the Arts 1531 N. El Camino Real, San Clemente, CA

Cost: $10.00

Sign up: Call 949-369-6603 Space is limited–call to reserve a spot

Drew Brophy has been a professional artist for 20 years. He will share the ten basic principles for success that helped him become the top licensed surf artist in history.

In this one and a half hour session, Drew will share the following principles for success:

• Decide what you want
• Networking
• Integrity and Reputation and Passion
• Time Management & Money Management
• Documenting your Artwork and Marketing
• Tenacity

Sign up today by calling 949-369-6603.  Be sure to bring your questions with you.

Visit www.scartsupply.com for the line up of all San Clemente Center for the Arts Artist Lecture Series.

Sign up for this 2-DAY WORKSHOP to paint just about anything with Drew Brophy’s Paint Pen Techniques!  Dec. 12 & 13, 2009 from 1-4 each day.

Bring your canvas, paper, surfboard, skateboard, helmet, just about anything to paint on in this hands-on workshop!

Drew will share his tried and true techniques on painting with water based paint markers.

In this hands-on workshop Drew will Demonstrate:

• Prepping your painting surface
• Composition – sketching out the best design for the surface you are painting on
• Color Schemes
• Blending colors
• Properly sealing your art
• Documenting your painting
• An open Question and Answer session with Drew during the workshop

Price:  $135.00 per person (includes 10 paint pens & other materials)

Location:  San Clemente Art Supply, San Clemente, CA

To Register:  Call 949-369-6603 or go to www.scartsupply.com

This workshop was created to inspire you to trick out your board, your shoes, your walls, anything, with killer paintings!

(c) Rick Rietveld

Rick and Natalie Rietveld were heroes to us.  We would visit their booth at trade shows where they marketed their clothing company.

Rick’s art was colorful and wild, like Drew’s but in a different style.  We envied their family owned business, one that printed Rick’s art on high-end men’s shirts, tees and board shorts.

I would call Natalie every now and again and ask art business advice.  She was a tough lady, and I admired that.  She taught me what to expect out of clients and how to get it.

In 2001 Drew left Lost, a company that he painted clothing designs for.  There was a large demand for Drew’s art, and now that it would no longer be available through Lost, we thought we’d follow the Rietveld’s influence and start our own label.

Son of the Sea, Inc. was born.  It allowed us to fill the requests for Drew’s art on a variety of products:  t-shirts, art prints and stickers.  We planned to add more items to the line, but this was a good start.

In the first two years, the financial growth of the business was magical. We were selling to over 250 of the surf shops in the U.S.  We hired sales reps and in-house employees.  We rented a large warehouse.  We took out advertising.  We sent Drew to tour surf shops around the U.S. to meet his fans at retail stores, grass-roots style.

By year three, it was wearing down on us. Running a wholesale operation was taxing on us, because we weren’t cut out for this type of business.

We found that instead of doing the things we loved, we were doing things we hated; like dealing with employees that didn’t want to work; fighting with vendors that screwed up our orders.   We lost money on surf shops that didn’t pay their bills.

And the worst result of it all – Drew wasn’t painting anymore.  His time was spent on quality control, employee control, and inventory control.

The second worst thing – we couldn’t take vacations.  You can’t leave for two weeks when you are growing a wholesale business.

We became grumpier and grumpier.  Looking back, I remember that time period as being the unhappiest years of my life.  I felt overwhelmed by all the weight on my shoulders of keeping the business growing and keep the employees happy.   I wasted hours dialing for dollars to get surf shops to pay their bills.

The business was bad on our marriage – Drew and I never fought much before, but during these years, we had vicious arguments.  We were stressed out and exhausted.

One day Drew came into the office looking somber.  “You won’t believe what I just found out.”  He said sadly.  “Rick and Natalie are getting divorced.”

He sat by my desk and grabbed my hand.  “If we don’t change what we’re doing, it could happen to us.”

Four years into the Son of the Sea, Inc., we shut down our wholesale division.  We had already started licensing Drew’s art with success, so we decided to go in that direction entirely.

We fired our employees, said goodbye to our sales reps, moved out of the big warehouse and cut down our expenses.

We found peace and happiness in a small studio about a mile from our home.  The space had an office for me and a showroom and a back room where Drew could paint.  And paint.  And paint!

Since then, we’ve focused entirely upon licensing and sales of original artwork, which frees us up to be able to travel and work wherever we are.  Or not work at all.

And we went back to taking 8 weeks of vacation a year.

Do we regret our biggest mistake ever? No, we don’t.  We learned valuable lessons during that time that we would never have learned otherwise.  We understand what it takes to run a wholesale business, and we know that we will never go down that road again.  We don’t care to have employees or to be chained to our business.

We prefer freedom.  And Drew, well, all he wants to do is paint.

Maria “Spunk” Brophy  (Follow me on Twitter)

Check out my other Art, Lifestyle, Inspiration Blog here.

Her speech inspired artists of all kinds, so much so that an outline of her speech has been circulated online.

(I don’t know where this outline originally came from.  If you know, please tell me and I’ll give proper credit.)

Camryn shares a philosophy that has enabled her to find success and happiness in her art.   I hope you enjoy it:

“TO ALL ARTISTS” by Camryn Manheim

1.   Don’t take “No” for an answer (know what you want, and look for another way to get it.)

2.   It’s good to Have A Plan (You can only get to a destination if you have a   route to follow.)

3.   Dream Big, but set realist goals (Design steps toward your Big Goal with smaller ones that you can actually measure and accomplish).

4.   Don’t confuse your life with your work (don’t spend all your time at it, don’t  equate your successes or rejections in work with your personality , avoid being emotionally overwhelmed by your “to-do” list).

5   Pay it forward (Serve your community: “You make a living by what you get,  you make a life by what you give.”)

6.   Break some rules once in awhile (this might be precisely the time to do

something that’s never been done before—then you’ll stand out from the  competition: but by all means, use your head!)

7.    See the Big Picture: your 20’s were designed for you to struggle a little.

Some mistakes will have to be made so you’ll know what you don’t want!)

8.    You ALWAYS have a choice, re. your attitude: live in a state of grace.   Be optimistic, determined and forgiving.

ENGAGE IN MEANINGFUL , FULFILLING WORK:  MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

YOUR GIFTS CAN CHANGE THE WAY WE LIVE: ART IS THE WAY MANKIND CONNECTS WITH ITS PAST, ITS PRESENT , AND ITS FUTURE.

The painting of a Helmet

Scylla wrote in that she bought the Paint Pen Techniques DVD but wants more detail on painting a helmet.  Here are her questions and my answers:

SELL-OUT.  The words make me cringe.  Usually uttered by uninformed or jealous people who don’t know what it means.

The accusation was on a blog that chooses one poor soul every week to be his “SELL-OUT OF THE WEEK.”  And every person he chooses for that column just happens to be successful.

It really irritated me.  (Drew, of course, laughed it off.)

The article implied that Drew is selling-out because he allows his art to go on boogie boards for kids.  But that’s always been a part of our plan – to make Drew’s art attainable to everyone, even those who can’t afford his originals.

Keith Haring Sigg Bottle

About 8 years ago we signed our first deal with Wham-O to use Drew’s art on boogie boards.  We questioned it back then – will this hurt Drew’s art career?  We decided to go with our gut, which was telling us that this was the best way to make the art available to kids, affordably.   And quite frankly, we don’t usually care what other people think.

The only opinions we care about are those of Drew’s fans; and his fans are excited for his art to be printed on things like skateboards, water bottles and t-shirts.

Keith Haring felt the same way – in his generous manner, he wanted his art to be available for most everyone, affordably.

Most people don’t know what selling out means. Here’s one of the formal definitions:

“SELLING OUT” REFERS TO THE COMPROMISING OF ONE’S INTEGRITY, MORALITY AND PRINCIPLES IN EXCHANGE FOR MONEY.”

In other words, if you do anything that goes against your personal principles just for money,  you are a sell-out.

If you sign on with a major record label and you agree to write music that you really dislike, you are a sell-out.  However, if you sign on with a major record label, and you agree to write new music that you actually like, you are NOT a sell-out.

It’s important to BE WHO YOU ARE, even if others don’t get it.  Stand firm on that.

Every now and again we’ll hear that someone somewhere thought Drew was too commercial.  But Drew is completely true to himself – HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN WHO HE IS.  He is a guy who wants everyone to be able to enjoy his art, regardless of their financial status.  And anyone who doesn’t get it, well, they just don’t get it. And that’s okay.

Drew Brophy has NEVER sold-out.  He never does anything he doesn’t believe in.  Ever. So don’t try to get him to paint something that he doesn’t want to paint, even if there’s a lot of money in it.

Many people wouldn’t turn down a six digit deal, but Drew did.  He was offered big bucks from Mattel to create the new Street Sharks.  Boy, we would have loved to have the money.  But we turned it down.  It didn’t fit in with what Drew wanted to paint.

• Are you a sell-out if you want to be a fine artist, but instead you wait tables in Laguna Beach?
• Was Michelangelo a sell-out because he created art as propaganda for the church?
• Are you a sell-out if you paint what the gallery owner tells you to paint?
• Did Shepard Fairey sell-out when he commercialized his operation?
• Are you a sell-out if you’re successful?

The answer is:  you are a sell-out if you do anything that goes against your personal values. Period.  And for every person, that is different.

I wrote this article to shed some on light on what “Sell-out” actually means.

If you use that phrase, use it wisely.

And please, recognize the artists that are being generous with their artwork; the artists that share their art and make it available for everyone.  Even if that means that it’s printed on a boogie board.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Maria “Spunk” Brophy  Follow me on Twitter!

Check out my other Art, Lifestyle, Inspiration Blog here.