We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Todd Saal a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Todd thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I never intended to do this for a living. I took up painting as a way to create to create some balance from the stresses while working in the technology industry. When I moved to Nashville from NYC I decided to leave the tech biz. It was my wife’s idea to pursue art further. She saw something I didn’t. We agreed that I’d take a break, clear my head and decide what I wanted to do next. I took up painting outdoors (plein air) as a way to just get out of the house. Painting outdoors became very instrumental in how I work. When I’d meet people while painting outside they’d always ask where could they see and purchase my work. My response was always the same. That I wasn’t doing this professionally. I was just doing it for my own enjoyment. But it kept happening. So I thought I could sell a few pieces and pay for materials to support my hobby. To my amazement, people started purchasing piece through my website and social media. Shortly after that I started to enter shows and plein air competitions. I was also getting approached by a few other artists asking if I gave workshops. I love sharing what’s worked for me. Everything was initially all by accident. I’m very fortunate.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve had a few careers but I spent the majority of my working life in the technology field. Lot’s of different disciplines as well as starting up my own software development company. I’ve built and taught a lot of teams in a variety of industries on how to do create and enhance products with less. It was all about becoming more efficient. If I had to name the main things I took away from my time in the tech business is: 1- my ability to focus and turn off the noise around me. 2 – my hunger for learning. If you weren’t learning and reinventing yourself on a regular basis you were quickly left behind. From these I’ve developed ways to learn and apply things very quickly. It always clears the way for me to enjoy the process of the work.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Balance – I look at learning any craft as 2 paths. A technical path, where you learn the materials/tools and how to use them. The other is the creative path, being able to say something using those materials/tools. I instruct my students, including myself, is to create a better balance of performing and improving both of these. Technique is “how” we want to say something. Creativity is “what” we want to say. If we spend all our time just on technique, the result of our work may be technically outstanding but may lack saying something and not be able to grab someone’s attention. If we spend all our time experimenting and just letting things happen, which is just as important. We may not be able to look at some of the incredible “happy accidents” that will occur. And work on those developing those techniques to reproduce them.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Seeking out an in person workshop sooner. I primarily paint using watercolor. I’ve painted with oil and acrylic when I was younger. Having experience in these other mediums created a challenge moving over to watercolor. There are properties that oil and acrylic posses that are common in how they work. Some adjustments for sure but they’re a lot closer in how you work with them compared to going from either one of them to watercolor. Its the reason watercolor has this reputation of being incredibly difficult. You can’t think like an oil painter. Because of this difference, learning this in isolation created a lot of frustration for me as to why things weren’t working the way I expected. The first bit of advice I give someone looking to learn anything is get advice from someone else whose better you. I didn’t listen to my own advice. I feel I wasted a lot of time in the beginning. After spending time at my first workshop, I was able to see the process real time and ask questions

Contact Info:

• Website: https://toddsaal.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toddsaal/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/todd.saal