Hi Friends,
How do you get ready for shows? Or an open house? Do you have all these things that "must be done" until you feel like you're holding on with just the tips of fingers on one hand?
What would happen if you did some things a little differently?
My first show of the season is fast approaching, but the difference this time is letting some of my traditional "have to" things just go. Plenty of new wildlife and landscape art is already done......a few pieces need framing, price cards and brochures need to be printed, but it really is under control. And it left me with enough time to enter a few more shows and frame up a donation piece for a benefit auction.
Instead of painting the big "show stopper" piece (which I have several of anyway) using up precious weeks before the show, I am working on painting several
Art
Card
Editions &
Original paintings a day. If you have not gotten acquainted with ACEO cards, they are 2 1/2x 31/2" pieces of art. It doesn't take long to paint them and it distills your colors, ideas and brushstrokes down to an essence that is a great learning experience. Plus, it then leaves plenty of time for other things in the studio.
Like building blocks, I have come up with several uses for them. Reproductions will become notecards and small size art fair prints. The ACEO originals, in a more impressionistic style than my larger work, will be sold on Ebay.....about 5 per week. I can hear the groans out there.....Oh my god, she's not a
real artist, she's selling on Ebay. With tenacity and without fear, good money can be made in that venue and that's exactly what I plan to do. DIVERSIFY YOUR MARKET!
Small art works in this size can be marketed at art shows with some clever take off on the "30 paintings in 30 days for 30 dollars each" concept. I've only begun to think up ways to market them, and maybe create some new collectors along the way.
The best thing about ideas though, is if this one doesn't work, there are more! It's not life ending if something doesn't work out.....in our culture we are taught from the start to win at nearly any cost. You know what? Life doesn't end if you don't win and if you pay attention to yourself and advice that is available around you, you just might learn how to think for yourself and come up with some really outstanding ideas.
A good resource for learning how to develop new ideas is
ArtBizBlog by Alyson Stanfield. A wealth of information in one place.
There have been a couple of new oil colors added to my line up.....these may be old news to some, but several artists I've talked to recently, especially ones that paint sorrel or chesnut (any shade of red) horses and other reddish animals, had not heard of these.
Transparent Oxide Red and
Transparent Oxide Orange, both by Rembrandt, are great ways to achieve what can be very difficult shades to create in a painting. I endorse these only because they work.....let me know what you think if you try them.
Thank you for stopping by, and keep Coloring Outside The Lines,
Sandra
