A few years ago, when my production started to get more serious, I looked for a way to catalog my art. I started writing things down in a notebook but soon realised this would be unwieldy. From my Computer Science days, I remember teaching students that computers were not always the solution, but in this case, it had to be. So I started looking for a simple tool that would allow me to create a database, and knowing me, it had to be free. I am a big Google fan and I use Sheets and Docs all the time, but they didn’t have a database app. Then I discovered ArtMoi. It is a Canadian-based online tool created by and for artists to do exactly what I needed, that is catalog my work. And the basic level, which is still perfect for my needs, is free! It even included a free webpage, to which I could link from my website, where I could publicly share a small number of paintings from my catalog, asking people to contact me if they were interested in a purchase. Perfect! Last week, I received a note from ArtMoi saying they will no longer be providing the free webpage. There is an option to keep it for a small monthly fee, but I would need to get my own domain name, just for that page! This does not make sense for me, so I looked at other options. I already have a website where I offer my Greeting Cards and ACEOs for sale. I also have a link to a site that offers print-on-demand products with some of my artwork. (And up until literally minutes ago, I had yet to make my first sale! But I just did! Yay me!) I could also put my full-sized original art on my website, but I have resisted so far, for two main reasons. The first is that most of my original watercolors are framed under glass, making them difficult and costly (but not impossible) to ship, especially internationally. The second, and much more important to me, is that I honestly don’t believe that regular people buy original art online without physically seeing it. And THAT is what I am talking about today. (By regular people, I mean not the super-rich who collect famous artists’ work for boasting and investment purposes, often not even seeing the artwork which will be stored in a vault anyway while its value hopefully goes up!) Much of what I have read about buying art speaks of a gut reaction of the viewer to the piece of art. They see it, and the image recalls a memory and evokes feelings that the viewer wants to feel again and again. And putting the piece of art in their home will do that for them! Sometimes the person can explain the feeling --- my grandmother’s house was just like that --- I loved going to the beach when I was a kid --- but sometimes they can’t. They just know they love it and the way it makes them feel. And they want to keep that feeling alive. On the other hand, I am also reading that online sales of art have skyrocketed in the last few years. Dozens of sites are popping up allowing artists to sell their work online, both as reproductions and originals. There is even speculation that physical art galleries will eventually disappear as online art buying goes more mainstream. I totally understand someone buying a reproduction (often wrongly called prints) online. The investment is minimal, usually less than $50. They know it isn’t a “forever piece”. They like it, but mainly it fits their current decor and will be replaced with the next set of furniture. There is little attachment to it, and that’s fine. That is decorative art. But I would like to believe that it is different for original art. The person buying it would take pride in it, placing it in a location where they could see it every day to get that feeling again. They would take care of it, and eventually, their children would do the same. Original art is a forever thing. Isn’t it? Or am I simply too romantic, stuck in the old ways? What about you? What do you think? Would you buy a piece of original art based on a photograph? Have you ever? Should I be putting my originals up for sale online? The solution I am leaning to right now is to put them up, but with “Pick up” as the only delivery option, asking a potential buyer to contact me to discuss shipping if they are interested. Would you do that? Or would you just continue looking for an artist who isn’t so “old fashioned” and where the process of buying their art isn’t so complicated? Where it's just "Add to cart", "Checkout", and that's it! I am really interested in what you think. Even if you have never commented, I would appreciate you doing so this time! Thanks! And thanks for reading!
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I am taking a few days off (well not really off!) this week so, in the spirit of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, here are a few select blogs from a few months ago. Enjoy! Why we need art Why Art? Why Paint? If you have been following me on my World Watercolor Month 31-paintings-in-31-days challenge on Facebook, you have seen me often mention “Pixabay” when identifying my reference material. I thought maybe some of my readers might not be familiar with Pixabay, so here is the low down. I only discovered Pixabay myself a little more than a year ago. I have my friend and fellow artist Marilyn Hobbs to thank for tuning me into this exceptional source of reference photos for artists. You may remember that I am very careful of respecting intellectual property rights. In summary, except in very few cases like parody or critique, it is simply not right, or legal, to take someone else’s work and create new work from it without permission. Some people think that if they make sufficient modifications that makes it OK, but that is entering a slippery area that I simply prefer to avoid. Call me pragmatic, but I would rather spend my time painting than dealing with possible copyright infringement lawsuits. That being said, like many other artists, I need reference material to paint in the realistic style that I have come to prefer. If I want a boat to look like a boat, I need a boat to serve as a "model". I have tried to paint from memory or imagination and, with a few exceptions, it usually comes out looking a bit cartoony or illustration-like. So I need photos. Not necessarily to copy verbatim, but to get the proportions, shapes, shadows, etc. These are called reference photos. Thanks to the Internet, there is an abundance of reference material available. Many sources charge for the use of their photos, which makes sense as the people who created those photos are entitled to earn a living! Thankfully for me and other frugal creatives, there are a lot of very generous photographers out there who offer their work for use as reference, sometimes for nothing, most times for the mere mention of them as the source. I belong to one such fabulous group on Facebook with the very unoriginal name “Photos for Artists”. There are many others. I have used a good number of the wonderful photos graciously placed there by their owners. I have to mention Joe Price, Arian Rana Adair Nichols, Dianne Hewitt, Keith Saint and Joan McDaniel as I have used more than one of their photographs to create paintings. One of the requirements of this particular group is to thank the donors once you have used their photo. I must say it is a special treat to be able to interact with the creators of such wonderful photos to thank them personally. As talented as these people are, the system for searching the photos is minimal at best, so I have come to rely on Pixabay, especially for the July Watercolor Challenge. Each day has its “prompt”, and sometimes it simply does not inspire me. So I enter it in Pixabay’s search window and we are, as they say, off to the races!! Often the photos it comes up with lead me in an entirely different direction than I had considered. For example, the prompt for July 13 was “abandoned”. Before searching I thought of children, animals, toys left on park benches, things like that…. Pixabay saw old factories, houses, etc, overgrown by time and vegetation! Although there were many photos I would have liked to paint, I chose one that I thought I could paint in an hour or two…. But it opened up an entire area of subject matter that I hadn’t considered seriously. Who knows where it may lead! So thank you Pixabay! Thank you for making it super easy to post a link back to the creator of the reference photo, and thank you to all the wonderfully generous photographers who put their material there for artists to use freely. If you have any talent in photography, you could consider becoming a contributor! I and many other artists thank you in advance! Well, dear reader, I tried it again. (See my previous blog on Plein Air painting) Even though the weather forecast was less than perfect, at least it wasn’t raining so I decided to be brave and take my plein air painting show on the road! As part of the Magog Art’M group that I joined a few months ago, I can set up my easel on the lovely promenade that runs along lake Memphremagog in Magog. I can also display a few small paintings for sale if I want. The only downside is that, unlike for painting at the Bleu Lavande site for which I can just show up, I have to book one of the limited lake spots a week ahead, not knowing of course what the weather will be! I had booked Sunday, July 4th, and Wednesday, July 7th. While it is not yet the highest rush of the tourist season, which in Quebec is the last 2 weeks of July, Magog is still pretty busy as it is a popular tourist destination, even for people living in surrounding towns, so I expected some success. Of course Sunday was a non-starter, as in addition to being much colder than normal, it was also quite windy and the clouds were menacing. Wednesday was a little better, with no wind to speak of, and forecast for the high teens, so I packed up (it took about an hour deciding what to bring and what to leave-- lack of habit of course) and went. On the 15 minute drive there, it started to sprinkle…. Thank goodness I also had grocery shopping to do, I thought, so my trip to town wouldn’t be a total waste of time (for those who don’t know, I live out in the country and have to drive anywhere for anything-- the only thing that is in comfortable walking distance is the group mailbox). But the sky was clearing as I got closer to Magog so I decided to have a look at least. Being a very popular spot, parking is not cheap (by country standards) at this location. I took a chance on just parking and walking over to see what the conditions were by the lake, hoping the parking meter goddesses wouldn’t pick just that time to survey the lot for squatters. There were a few people out walking and biking, and although the sky was overcast, the temperature was comfortable, so I decided to go for it and made my offering to the parking gods, which consisted not of a goat, but of all the change I had in my purse. I trudged my stuff over to the spot I chose carefully -- interesting view of the lake, mountains and boats, not blocking the path, trees for shade if the sun chose to come out (unlikely but I am ever the optimist!), and bench shaped cement wall to exhibit my wares. Once I set up my easel and decided on what I wanted to paint, I quickly realised that I needed a bigger brush than those I had brought. OK, I’ll make a note for next time and make do with what I have. Then I thought hmmmm, those white boats and white sails really need some masking fluid to make sure they stay crisp and white. No problem, I saw that I have a squeeze bottle in my backpack. Ooops, I guess I should have checked that, as the bottle is all gunked up and unuseable. Oh well, make another note ... All the time I am painting, I can’t help thinking …. This would be so much easier in the studio…. I could do this in the studio …. In the studio, I have that brush I could use for this. I finish the first painting and think OK, it’s not horrible, but it’s not good either…. I take a break and chat with a few people who stop and look at my paintings. One in particular is very nice and even says my work (the matted ones, not the plein air!) is better than that of two of her friends who are Art Teachers…. Well! Another is an artist who was born in Magog but now lives out in BC and is here visiting her mother for the first time in 2 years. And who could forget the man walking around with a Green-cheeked Parakeet on his shoulder!! So I set up for another painting, thinking this time to concentrate on the impressive grey sky and the distant mountains with their “textbook” aerial perspective … no boats, no water. Again, it turns out OK, but would have been much better and easier in the studio, if only because the water content, which is of critical importance in watercolor, is so much easier to control inside. My parking time is almost up so I pack up and head to the grocery store. At least it didn’t rain! And, wouldn’t you know it, the sky begins to show some blue as I exit the parking lot….. Conclusion? I don’t hate Plein Air painting, but I sure don’t love it. At this point, I am wondering if I just need more practice or if I should just give up on the idea. I really should give it another try… maybe I need to pack a bag and leave it in the car to be ready at a moment’s notice! What do you think? Have you ever painted “en plein air”? How long did it take you to like it? Tips? Recommendations? I appreciate them all! Have you ever heard of World Watercolor Month? If not, you are not alone! Created in 2016 by American blogger and self-proclaimed “doodler” Charlie O’Shields, the month-long challenge to paint 31 watercolors in 31 days was created to attract attention and raise funds for promoting art education. 5 years later, the Facebook group “World Watercolor Group” he founded has over 100,000 members from all over the world, and I am happy to say that I was one of the first few hundred members. Although there are monthly challenges year-round, the focus is on the month of July, when colorful” souvenir” merchandise is put on sale to raise funds, and watercolor artists are encouraged to use the hashtag #WorldWatercolorMonth to identify any work they post for the challenge on Social Media. It is not a competition, so there is no winner, except of course the International Child Art Foundation for which proceeds and donations are collected. Every year, a guest watercolor artist is asked to come up with a list of prompts, one for each of the 31 days in July. Artists are free to use this prompt or not as inspiration for their daily painting, and it is really interesting to see how a single word can be interpreted so differently! The first year, it was possible to see much of the artwork every day because the group was still small, but with so many artists participating now, you will be lucky to see a few pieces every day. You can always search for the hashtag to see just how popular this event has become. When I started, I was still pretty much a beginner, and I wondered how I would manage to complete one painting every single day. And during July of all months! I am proud to say that I did it, and of course, now I have to do it every year as long as I am able. In 2019, I even completed about a dozen paintings during our RV trip out to Minnesota! The first year, I decided to use a 7x10 inch watercolor sketchbook to keep all the creations together, and I am so glad I did! Some paintings are better than others, but keeping them together has given me a sense of how far I have come. And forcing oneself to paint every day, even if it's not a huge or very complex painting, is very eye opening! It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it! If you would like to see the paintings I did for 2016 to 2018, you will find them on my personal Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/claire.bureau1/photos_albums The photos from 2019 seem to only be on the World Watercolor Group page (but I still have the sketchbook), and the 2020 photos are on my Business page: https://www.facebook.com/ClaireBureauArt/photos/?tab=album&ref=page_internal . I am still trying to get those photos organised into Albums!! Although I have been asked, I will not sell any of the daily paintings as they are all attached in an album for each year. I have however made quite a few of them into greeting cards. If you see one you really like, let me know and we can possibly get you a print made! If you would like to find out more about World Watercolor Month or contribute to the charity, visit https://doodlewash.com/world-watercolor-month-july/ And don't forget to look for the hashtag #WorldWatercolorMonth to see what artists all over the world are doing! Now I am off to paint on today’s prompt: Reflection!! |
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