Art Biz Blog

From the studio tour

Hello from the I'd Rather Be in the Studio! studio book tour--live from Texas. Yesterday we had a great group in Fort Worth and I'm gearing up right now to head to Deanna Wood's studio in Sanger. More on both of these later.

Here are some fun pics from last Wednesday's book party at Jan Carson's Moon-Lily Studio and Gallery in Fort Collins, CO. Jan makes gorgeous silk mobiles that can be found in galleries around the country. She made the centerpiece red "stabiles" just for this event. I was honored and thrilled to buy one at the end of the night to take home as a memento (you know, I like my red!).

Jan also made these darling "flags" that were stuck in brownie bites and each contained an excuse from the book's Table of Excuses.

And we had to take a fun picture to end the evening.

Best of all, I'll now be donating $300 to Arts Alive Fort Collins, the beneficiary of this event.

Claudine Hellmuth wants to know . . .

It's another stop on the Blog Tour.

On her blog today, Claudine Hellmuth asks me about the pros and cons of sending "pretty" (my word) email newsletters vs. plain text ones using Yahoo Groups. I had a lot of questions for her, so we kind of had a dialogue about the philosophy behind and usability of email newsletters.

Read all about it in today's blog tour stop for I'd Rather Be in the Studio!

Don't forget, we're giving away free copies of the book on the blog tour stops. Email newsletters have an entire chapter (Action 8) devoted to them in the book.

Podcast: Snap some action shots for your artist Web site

We want to see you in action!

If you're using old, boring studio pictures on your site, it's time to rethink them. This week's podcast gives you ideas for getting some new photos taken.

[4 min. 2 sec.]

Another resource for you:  Become an Online Art Magnet. Clint Watson shows you how in these 2 CDs.

Subscribe to the Art Marketing Action podcast at iTunes.

Instructions for subscribing to this podcast.

This podcast is an audio version of the Art Marketing Action newsletter.

Photo resizing with Picnik

Since we're talking about photos this week, here's a note from Pat Velte, my Web guru.

I thought it might be helpful for some of your artists to know they can edit their images online at Picnik, a great site that's free. There's no need for any software and they can crop, resize (yes, image some of them finally learning how to resize!), adjust and use filters. No need for Photoshop--all they have to be able to do is upload the file and then download it when they're done.

It's really a lot of fun and even Time magazine recommended it as an alternative to Photoshop in their recent article about how free software is gaining ground.

Win a free copy of my book

The blog tour begins today!

My coach, Cynthia Morris, kicks off the blog tour for I'd Rather Be in the Studio! on her Original Impulse Blog. For the next two months, I'll appear on two blogs each week, where I respond to questions from the bloggers.

Cynthia decided to do a recorded audio interview with me. She asked me about the process of writing the book and also about what makes an artist go from a place where they are full of excuses to a place where they are excuse-less. (Great question!)

Listen to the interview with Cynthia Morris. When you visit, you'll find a link that shows you how you can win a free copy of my book. Look for it!
 

Check in later this week when I make another blog appearance.

Action shots for your art Web site

Harriete Estel Berman gave me the idea for today's Art Marketing Action newsletter about snapping action shots for your Web site. There are some terrific shots on Harriete's site. Be sure to click on all of the pictures of her studio (non-action shots). It's just fun to see what she has in there.

These aren't all action shots, but Michael Shane Neal has some nice photos of his studio on his site. And wouldn't you if your studio looked like that?! He also has tons of photos with VIPs, including these at his unveiling of Senator Robert C. Byrd's portrait.

Here are some pics of Anne Leuck Feldhaus in her studio. A nice shot of Daniel Sroka showing how he sets up a photo.

Photo of Harriete Estel Berman in her studio by Aryn Shelander.

Photoshop e-book for artists

Tomorrow's newsletter is about using images to promote yourself online--images of YOU. This reminded me of this email I received from Sherry Hutson, which might be of value . . .

My eBook, The Painter's Guide to Photoshop, is a great resource for artists who want to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements to resize images, save them as jpg files, set the correct DPI, learn about RGB and CMYK, and more.

For Easter

Image (c) Laura Nugent

My recent purchase is a painting by Laura Nugent entitled Bunny Circles. The iconography is special to me and I'm delighted it also got here in time for Easter.

Incidentally, I found this painting because I'm on  Laura's email newsletter list. Read about artist newsletters and how to improve yours in I'd Rather Be in the Studio!

Messing with a Hans Hofmann

Perhaps this is just for a chuckle, but what do you think this means?

I dreamed last night that I was still working as a curator and pulled out this Hans Hofmann work on paper that we had in the vault. Never mind that its muted colors didn’t look anything like Hofmann. That’s not the point. The point is that I decided that the work wasn’t as Hofmann had intended and I opted to rework sections of it.

I was painting on top of Hofmann painting! And I was doing a pretty poor job of it. I did it with such confidence that I’m frightened  thinking about it now.

After I was done reworking the painting, I didn’t gloat. I looked at it and thought “Man, I really screwed up this one. I hope no one notices.” It was bad. Even in my dream, I knew it was bad.

What a breech of curatorial ethics--not to mention a breech of intelligence!

The only reason I can even think I was dreaming about Hans Hofmann is that I have a totally cool Office Spa Day lined up for my subscribers (you) with Jennifer Hofmann of Inspired Home Office. 

By the way, this is a Hofmann painting that is in the collection of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, where I served as curator some years ago. I promise--I never laid a finger on it!

Hans Hofmann, Provincetown Number One, 1937
Collection Oklahoma City Museum of Art
© 2006 Estate of Hans Hofmann / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Artist breakthroughs

The first session of the Artist Breakthrough Program just ended. We were so sad to have our last call! But ecstatic over our successes.

Even I made a breakthrough. My breakthrough goal was to check in with myself every morning and every evening--5 days a week. That meant going over my task list and prioritizing what I had to do each day. I did it! And with all of the crazy stuff going on, like the blog tour and the studio tour, my breakthrough goal kept me sane.

The 12 artists in the first ABP group had breakthrough goals ranging from committing to studio time to creating marketing plans to developing new marketing materials. And I’m thrilled to say that everyone had at least one breakthrough.

Image (c) Lynne Oakes, Skyscape #1

On the day after our last call, Lynne Oakes posted this to the program blog:

I was talking to Pete [another ABP member] this morning, trying to decide if I was having withdrawal symptoms from this amazing past 4 weeks, and we were discussing the 'followup' to it.  Out of that came a joint analogy we developed...

It's like learning to swim, this program of Alyson's. We got out there where our feet no longer touched the bottom, but we had waterwings to support our learning efforts. Then off come the waterwings because we are doing so much better now with such a wonderful "swimming" coach.  And we can also see the other swimmers at their task of learning and all that made us more confident to try it without the 'wings'.

Now, Pete says, we will be like Lifeguards for each other.

I love it that many of the members will continue to support each other.

If you’re interested in making a breakthrough in your art career, consider joining the next session, which begins Monday, April 14. Get the details and apply.