I want to thank one of my new subscribers for suggesting the topic of this week’s blog. I appreciate it very much! Networking has been extremely valuable to me as an artist, I certainly would not be doing what I am doing without the help of a lot of people, some close, and some that I have never, and will likely never, meet in person. I have joined several local art groups and have gained friendship, support and knowledge from them all. I have also joined many online groups and have and continue to receive numerous tips and encouragement from them also. Other people come with their own sets of knowledge and experience, and learning from them can save you countless time, frustration and in many cases, money! And it's not one way! They will also learn from you! Locally, I have been lucky to find two groups of artists who meet to paint once a week (or at least they did before covid shut that down!) In addition to the painting discipline created by having regular meetings, it is wonderful to see how other artists work, what tools they use, or where they get their inspiration or reference material. You can bounce ideas off other group members. Some groups will do regular “critiques” of member’s works. Groups can often negotiate discounts with local art supply or framing shops. Groups will sometimes also organize exhibitions which are invaluable in getting your work in front of people and force you to "up your game". Some groups get together to draw with live models and share the cost! Others organize workshops and offer discounted registration fees to group members. Although art groups are likely to be easier to find in larger cities, even the small town near where I live has an artist group! Ask around, perhaps at an art supply store, if they are aware of any groups in your town. Maybe there is one at your Community Center. Google it! Facebook could also be a place to look for art groups, both locally or globally! Search for “‘your town’ art group”, or “‘your town’ painting group” or drawing group, and see what you find. Some groups might specialize in a medium or style, like urban sketching or plein air painting for example, while others may be more general. Try to join groups where the other members are better artists than you. It will be intimidating of course, but you will learn to push yourself to get better! Remember no one, them included, was born knowing how to paint! If you can’t find a group to match what you are looking for, why not create one! Put up some colorful flyers at a place where you think like minded people would see them, or use Meetup.com and see what happens! Contact your town office to see what support they could offer you and your group (space for painting, advertising, etc). The value you will get from a group is well worth the time and effort to create one! For global networking, there are numerous Associations and Societies for professional "career" artists, but for the rest of us, I would certainly recommend using Facebook Groups. There are hundreds of art groups, from ultra specialised to general. Again, use search terms to help narrow down the choices to match what you are looking for. I belong to several groups including some about watercolor, some about reference photographs, some about sketching, some about specialised techniques such as waxing watercolors, etc. Some are regional and some are worldwide. Some of these groups are small, but some have thousands of members. It really depends on what you are looking for. Many groups are private, meaning you have to ask to join; most will have you answer a few simple “qualifying” questions. In most cases, the group moderators do this not to be exclusive, but to avoid just anyone joining their group then spamming it with undesirable content. It happens. A lot! In any case, take the time to read what the group description is, how many members it has, and how many posts it has in an average day, to see if that fits what you are looking for. Once you have joined a group, take a look around to confirm it is what you expected. If not, you can always leave! Most groups have rules, so follow them if you don’t want to get kicked out. You may want to lay low and observe for a while, to get a feel for the group dynamics. Again, be prepared to be floored by some of the artwork group members may share. Remember, you want some of the members to be better than you are so you can learn. Participate! Ask questions! Share! You never know where it will take you! Again, thank you to my new subscriber for suggesting this topic! If you have a suggestion, write it in the comments below, message me or send me an email! I love doing this for you!
0 Comments
In my ongoing quest to reach more people with my art, I have learned that writing about the art is almost as important as doing the art in the first place! I have always liked writing, so I am happy to do this. But my perfectionist side requires me to do it right, of course, so I got a book to help me write about art. The book is called Art-Write, by Vicky Krohn Amorose. I just started the book, and I have already learned so much. Here is an excerpt from the introduction, explaining why writing about your art is important: “Truly “seeing” art is an accomplishment. It doesn't happen quickly. Your viewers need time and they may need some education. Language can help educate them.” Education here is not meant in the traditional sense, but rather as “guiding” or “informing” the viewer on what they are seeing, or why you painted it, helping them to connect with the painting on a deeper level. I had never really thought of that, especially as most of my paintings are pretty self-explanatory. Well, to me they are! When you visit a museum, do you usually read the “blurbs” about the artist, usually posted near the entrance to the exhibit, or next to each work? I do. I only thought it was because I wanted to know more about the artist or the art to improve my own. But I realize now that it really does help with the appreciation of the work. If it’s well done, of course. Nothing worse to me than the gobbledigook that too many artists statements are, seemingly created by stringing ‘artsy’ words randomly picked from a hat! This is likely why I have avoided writing much about myself or my art; I don’t want to sound like those artsy-fartsy statements that remind me way too much of The Emperor’s New Clothes! The Internet abounds with bad artist statements. Just google ‘bad artist statements” if you don't believe me. Someone has even created an online random “Artist Statement Generator”. You can try it here! https://www.artybollocks.com/ You may think the results are far fetched but trust me, many artists DO write like that! I don’t want to. So hopefully this book will help me craft the perfect messages to help my audience better understand what I do and why I do it. I have never been a “touchy-feely” kind of person, and getting in touch with my feelings and emotions has never been my strong suit. In fact, when I was in primary school (3rd grade I think), the teacher asked us to write about our feelings. I didn’t even know what the word meant!! So I sat there, in the grips of many things I didn’t know the word for, and tried writing the perfect ‘I-didn’t-read-the-book-hey-I-didn’t-even-know-there-was-a-book-but-I-will-try-to-make-you-believe-I-read-it book report’! But that’s another story! I have since found out what feelings are but I just don’t like talking about them. That was the way I was brought up, I guess. I don’t think it has hurt me, at least not enough to seek therapy! Another path I am exploring on this “writing about your art” journey involves the discovery of my artist’s ‘why?’, as in, ‘Why am I an artist?” Apparently, “Because I like it” isn’t an acceptable answer! I have to keep drilling to find the deep down “why”. The proponents of this technique suggest it usually is linked to some traumatic childhood experience….. Hmmmm….. I consider my childhood as pretty normal and uneventful. Of course there are events that any child would consider traumatic, like the death of a pet, or having a sibling break one of your toys, or not knowing the meaning of the word 'feelings'.... but really? I will let you know if I ever find the answer…. Back to reading! Oh, and painting! I have always prided myself on being organised. It fits perfectly with my “Type 4” nature (see my Feb 25 blog for more about “Type 4”). Two of the things I liked the most to teach in my previous career were Project Management and Spreadsheets. A few years ago, I organised a Christmas weekend sleepover for about 40 family members at a large inn, including room assignments and detailed meal planning/kitchen duty assignments for all for three days. I loved it!! Up until the firemen arrived that is .... but that's another story for another day..... Unfortunately, a trait shared by many creatives is curiosity, so I am constantly being pulled away from what I should be doing by things that look soooo interesting! So things don’t always get done! I mentioned in an earlier blog that I had found and started using a free online software called Airtable. Some people find it complicated, but as someone who also taught database design, I found it wonderful to use, because of its flexibility. You can put anything in there, and organize it any way you want! With age comes wisdom, they say, but also comes a less reliable memory, so Airtable has become the central repository for all the information about Claire Bureau Artiste! Just knowing I have all these lists available frees up my memory for more important things, like, did I remember to chill the wine for supper? In addition to painting, I have also been working very hard on building my Social Media presence, in an effort to get more people to see my work and possibly become collectors. I am inherently stingy, so I avoid expensive solutions (my costs would get passed on to you, so be grateful! 😉). I have found and read numerous free marketing books online, and have spent what I would consider reasonable sums of money to join select marketing courses or groups. They often start by telling you the first thing you need to do is set your goals. But because I am also impatient to get back to painting, I figure: "I know my goals, just show me how to meet them!" A few days ago, I came across two ideas that, I hope, will turn out to be life changers for me. The first was : “Art is sold one piece at a time”. That seemingly banal statement lit up a bulb for me! Although I always felt that there was something in all the marketing stuff I had been following that just didn’t fit, and even though I had been hearing variations of this idea for weeks, it took that simple sentence for the pieces to fall into place! Social Media is not going to sell my work, I am! I have been putting my energy in the wrong place! There is no point in me getting hundreds of followers if they are not looking to buy! Of course the flattering comments are nice and I am grateful for them, but I beleive there is no option for me but to get art physically in front of people so they can fall in love with it. Of course during covid this is not easy, but hopefully it will become easier in the near future! The other idea came from an Art Marketing Group I just joined. I have only been there for three days and already my gears have been switched! Being with people in the same “industry” is priceless! In the first chapter that we were asked to read, the group leader recommended, you guessed it, to “set my goals”. But this time, he suggested reading the following blog if we needed help with that step: https://chrisguillebeau.com/how-to-conduct-your-own-annual-review/ To my delight, this Chris Guillebeau used a spreadsheet to set his goals! Yay! I actually didn’t wind up using it, but it got me looking for software to help in setting and tracking goals. No paper and pencils for this computer geek!! After reading a few reviews of goal tracking software (free of course!), I got something called ClickUp. I watched a few tutorial videos and tried it out. I created Goals, then broke those down into Targets, then Tasks…. It was OK, but I kept thinking “Do I really want yet another tool to keep track of?” Plus, I already have a to-do list in Airtable ….. If only…. A quick search of YouTube led me to a short tutorial on how to use Airtable for Project Management! Voilà!! So now I have Goals (well, actually 1 Goal), which is broken up into Targets, which each have specific Strategies, to which I have linked all the tasks I already had in my To-Do list. So anything that doesn’t relate to a Strategy is now in the ‘not a priority’ list and I can feel better not doing it because I know it will not help me reach my Goal! Plus, now I can see all the Strategies that have NO associated To-Do list task, so I know where I need to put more effort if I want to see those things happen! All in one place!! Brilliant! And this means I can more easily identify and ignore the daily distractions that may look cool, but that won't help me attain my goal! So, are you curious what my single Goal is? "To be featured as an artist in a newspaper or magazine within 5 years"! Wish me luck! P.S. If you are also curious about the group I have joined, it is called ArtMarketingToolkit.com I realize it’s been quite a while since I last added some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (and answers!!) to my website, so today I will attempt to remedy that by answering a few more questions I often get. These will be added to the website shortly How long does a commission take? I guess I should start off explaining what a commission is. I have a much more complete answer on my “Custom Work” page, but basically a commission is a made-to-order painting. The collector and I will discuss what is wanted and when it is needed. Unless I am particularly busy or the commission is especially large or complicated, it will usually take no more than a few weeks from the time the details are agreed upon. Can you paint anything from a photograph? Some things are difficult to paint in watercolor, especially very bright light, simply because the white of the paper is the brightest or lightest color you can have. There is no white paint in watercolor. It is also difficult, but not impossible, to get tiny details in watercolor. Some artists believe it is impossible to get good paintings from using only photographs, but I don’t agree. I will use the good parts of the photograph, while dismissing its less desirable elements; because of this, people often say that the painting looks better than the photo! What are the modes of payment that you accept? For purchases made from my online store, the pay system I use accepts credit cards only. If you are picking the order up at the studio, you can pay cash, or by credit card with my Square reader, or you could also use Interac from your own phone (just don't complete the order online if you want to pay in person--contact me directly). I will accept checks from people I know. Do you only sell paintings? I have some greeting cards made from some of my paintings. You can see what is currently available on the Cards for Sale page. On that same page, I also have a link which you can use to send a free e-card! There is a limited quantity of these available per month, so first come first served! I also have a few reproductions and “derivative” products, including a beautiful, Canadian-made, decorative pillow cover, which are available to order directly from the ArtofWhere site. Check this page for details. Finally, I also offer Electronic Gift Cards which are automatically emailed to the recipient! Perfect for last minute gifts or when you want the recipient to choose their own gift! Gift Cards are available on both the Greetings Cards and ACEO pages. They could also be used to purchase an original painting (contact me for details) Is a watercolor painting hard to take care of? Watercolor has two mortal enemies: liquid and sunlight. Watercolor is rewettable, so water or any liquid can cause spotting or runs that can not be fixed. It could also cause the paper to buckle or mold. Watercolors are usually framed under an acid-free mat and protective glass, but dampness could still get in, so avoid hanging your painting in damp areas. The mat is to keep the paint surface from touching the glass, to which it could stick after a while. Just as it does to furniture or carpets, sunlight will fade the pigments in watercolor, slowly making parts of the image disappear, as not all pigments are equally affected. Avoid direct sun exposure and use UV (ultra-violet) protective glass if possible. Waxed watercolor is covered with a product called cold wax medium, which is mainly bee's wax, This protects it against water, but not against UV rays, so avoid direct sunlight or extreme heat. Both types of framing will require a light dusting of the frame. The glass can be wiped with a barely damp cloth, but avoid spraying glass cleaner which could seep behind the glass and stain the mat. Waxed watercolor can also be gently wiped clean if necessary, avoiding solvents. An occasional very light buffing of the waxed surface can also give it a soft sheen. If you have questions you would like answered, write them in the comments below! Thanks! |
AuthorMy name is Claire Bureau. Archives
March 2023
Categories
All
|