Last week, an artist friend of mine told me a sad story.
This artist felt very fortunate to have a consistent group of collectors who always bought at her monthly Open Studios. To document her work she was in the habit of simply taking a quick snapshot with her phone. She couldn’t see the point of spending a lot of time taking quality photographs and creating digital images in various formats since she doesn’t submit to galleries or competitions. Snapshots were good enough for her needs.

Well two weeks ago this sad artist realized how wrong she had been.
Late in the afternoon on a Monday she got a call from an interior designer who had an unexpected, important meeting with the owner of a hotel the next morning. He wanted to look at photos of various artists’ work and make his choices before he headed out of town. The art budget was $20,000.

Unfortunately, this artist wasn’t ready. She couldn’t possibly meet the needs and deadline of the designer or the client. She lost out on what would most likely have been a huge sale. She’s been kicking herself ever since.

Artists ! Don’t let this happen to you.  Make sure you’re ready for any unexpected opportunity.

➢    For photographs and print media opportunities, have a color-corrected large digital image in TIFF format ready for every artwork you ever hope to sell.

➢    For email requests and submissions on disc, have each image ready as a small JPG image file.

➢    For online submissions and free promo sites, be sure to compress your images especially for the web, so no one can copy or steal them.

➢    Create a naming / folder / filing system on your computer so you can find any image quickly.

If you’re an artist and are confused about how to create these files, don’t worry, I was too. 7 years ago, I spent a year researching the easiest, least expensive methods of documenting artwork.

Check out my  e-Book for a step-by step guide Stand out in a Crowd with Dazzling Photos.

Here’s my personal opinion on the current “Great Depression” and how I cope with it as an artist.

My observation is there’s just too much free-floating anxiety everywhere these days. That’s not to minimize the fact that some people are truly having serious problems. But the constant barrage of “the sky is falling” media coverage, and endless discussions everywhere about how bad things are, only makes things worse. People are paralyzed by fear.

We’re going through a worldwide attitude adjustment. For too long everyone, including me, has had the  unrealistic expectation of “bigger & better” every year. Perhaps we need to think in terms of a more peaceful acceptance of what is truly sustainable.

Here are my 7 ways to stay centered.

1. I turn down the volume. I limit my TV, newspaper and radio news to the bare minimum. I try and isolate the facts from the analysis which is mostly just exaggerated hype.
2. I stay away from online forums and discussions which focus on the negative. A “Woe is me” attitude is contagious. There’s a constructive approach to every problem and I always try to find people who think that way.
   
3. I look for something every day that makes me laugh, feel touched, or inspired. YouTube can always be counted on for something truly amazing. This example will have you smiling from ear to ear with their creative genius. Flash Mob in London
4. I keep reminding myself that as bad as things may seem, the simple fact that we’re sitting at a computer right now means we live better than 98% of the world’s population.
5. Opportunities are everywhere. My view is we all have to take responsibility for ourselves in finding them.
6. I meditate every day and focus on gratitude and peace.
7. I let nothing come between me and my studio time. It’s my refuge.

Speaking of my studio being my refuge, here’s a painting I’ve been working on for the past month and just finished. It’s acrylic on canvas and measures 48″ x 48″.

Green & Orange Horizon

An article in this morning’s Toronto Globe & Mail newspaper, made me chuckle.

It quoted choreographer, Liz Lerman from www.CommunityArts.net who wrote her proposal to solve some of our economic problems. She suggests a job swap, putting corporate executives to work as artists while the artists run Wall Street.

Here are the advantage of her tongue in cheek plan :

1. Artists work ridiculous hours for no pay. And most artists will keep working until they get it right.
2. Artists do not need fancy offices. In fact they usually work in the worst part of town.
3. Artists do not need financial incentives. They do the work because they love it.
4. Artists don’t expect to get paid when they do a bad job.
5. Artist know how to keep a very tight budget and make a little go a long way.

I would add a few here myself:

1. Artists are good at starting a project with a vision and a plan.
2. Artists are good at observing results and learning from their mistakes.
3. Artists don’t ask for government bailouts for more than they need.
4. Artists are extremely grateful to their supporters. It makes them work harder.

Where on earth does time fly to. It’s already been 2 weeks since getting back from Dallas. I’ve been immersed in studio work and fighting a cold, barely taking time to turn on my computer.

Several people mentioned they were curious to see the paintings which sold the night of my Opening Reception on February 12th at Alan Barnes Fine Art. Here are a few of them.

It seemed the most desirable pieces were the ones used for the front, back and inside covers of my  Exhibition Catalog

Yellow Green Colorscape, 20" x 20" USD $2,250.

Orange / Green Colorscape, 8" x 8" USD $800.

Blue / Green Colorscape, 12" x 12" USD $950.

Blue / Violet Colorscape, 20" x 16" USD $1,950

Blue / Green Colorscape, 9" x 7" USD $790.

My new re-designed website was launched yesterday. I just love the clean fresh look. The navigation bar is now laid out  to make it much easier to find what you’re looking for.

Patricia Velte my web designer and I are still tweaking a tiny bit. There are  a few links that aren’t working and a page that’s still being worked on. Also this Blog page  needs to be re-designed. But overall it’s 98 % done. Check it out.

I’m heading out to Texas Wednesday morning for my Champagne Opening in Dallas on Thursday night at  Alan Barnes Fine Art.  Dallas’ NBC 5 personality Brendan Higgins will be there to interview me so I think I’ll need an extra glass of bubbly to make it through the evening for sure.

The Opening is being generously hosted by local philanthropists Eric and Christine Brauss with a portion of the sales being donated to the Kidney Foundation, Renal Camp for Kids. Friday evening, my husband Jim and I have been invited to join Mr & Mrs Brauss along with gallery director Alan Barnes and his wife Belinda for a Post Opening dinner.

It’s going to be an action-packed few days and I’m very excited. We’ll be flying home on Saturday. and  I’ll post some photos as soon as I can.

Feedback on my website was one of the wonderful things that came to me as a result of my participation as a panelist  in the SmARTist Telesummit. First off, many people emailed to let me know the “Join My List” link isn’t working. Aha !!!! No wonder I wasn’t getting any response from people wanting to be on my mailing list. My apologies to those of you who have been frustrated by this bad link.

Secretly, I’m a little bit of a techie. SmARTist, ArtBiz and various Blogs which have been writing about me recently have resulted in a huge spike in traffic to my website. I’ve been studying the usage patterns of guests entering my site on Google Analytics. This has given me a really clear snapshot of what people generally find interesting and what they’re ignoring. Pretty valuable stuff.

This week, my studio is undergoing a little renovation with overhead lighting being changed for more energy efficiency. I’m doing the same thing at my house. It’s been a bit hard to get any painting in, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to re-design and update my website. I’m going for a fresh, clean look and less confusing navigation.

Stay tuned. It should be up and running within a week or so.

I’ve been a little preoccupied the past few weeks with being one of the 11 “experts” during the SmArtist Telesummit 2009. With the launch of my e-Book happening at the same time, my email box has been swamped with hundreds of comments and questions. Responding to each one individually has been a bit overwhelming.

Although I’ve had a fair amount of experience with public speaking, this was all new to me. It was especially important to offer valuable information to the 1000 or so artists who were paying good money to listen to me speak online. Preparing  my presentations took a lot more time and mental energy than I had expected.

Even though the presentations themselves were only an hour each, focusing on painting was a challenge. I did manage to spend some uninterrupted time in the studio, and actually finished 2 large 48″ x 48″ paintings I’d been working on for months. But mentally it’s been a right-brain / left brain struggle jumping from painting mode to public speaking mode.

Being invited to be a Panelist / Presenter at SmArtist Telesummit 2009  was a great honor. Ariane Goodwin Ed.D., founder of SmArtist, and her team are a wonderful group of professionals who offer an incredibly valuable service to emerging and mid-career artists around the world.

This was a fun and interesting experience which gave me the opportunity to share some of my hard-earned experience of the past 19 years. Hopefully it was helpful to artists out there who might save themselves the pain of making some of the mistakes I made early on.

I did learn something about myself though. I learned my calling in life is not to be an educator - it’s to be a visual artist. Period. Some artists can be both, but not me. Trying to do both dilutes the intense focus I need to create my best work. And ultimately, it’s my painting practice that not only gives me the most meaning in life, but also supplies my galleries with art that earns us all an income.

So my personal mantra is now Focus! Focus! Focus!

Well after much editing and fine-tuning, my E-Book for professional artists is finally launched  !!!!!!

Stand out in a Crowd with Dazzling Photos

It’s being published online by SmArtist. In it I share step-by step instructions and tips for artists to put their best foot forward through their portfolios and websites. 

Click This Link Below For More Information & Purchase Details

Stand out in a Crowd with Dazzling Photos

Three extra reports provide even more information!

Special Report #1: Your Guide to Digital Image Formats

Special Report #2: How to Organize Digital Image Art Files

Special Report #3: How to Archive Digital Images of your Art

I’m in my studio this morning bundled up like the Michelin Man trying to get warm. Even with the furnace full blast in the warehouse, I can still see my breath. There’s no insulation between the concrete block walls and the outside air and the big garage door leaks frigid air like a sieve.

Canada and much of the northern US states is in the middle of a deep freeze which seems to be lasting forever. Here at the Detroit / Canada border area our temperatures are hovering about 4°F with a windchill factor of about -25°F. brrrrrrrrrr

It would be lovely to go home and sit in front of a fire with a book today. I just have too much work to do at the moment, so I’ll just have to sit on top of my space heater.

Yesterday was the first day of the SmARTIST International Telesummit 2009. I was one of 5 panel “experts” conducting a round-table online discussion to about 1000 artist worldwide. Each one of us were given questions emailed in from seminar participants.

Here’s a 5 minute snippet of my answers to 2 of the questions.

SmARTIST Interview Just click to listen.

Yesterday, I received a wonderful surprise email from Alyson Stanfield at ArtBizCoach in Denver, Colorado. For any artist hoping to make a career in this most uncertain business, Alyson is the best professional coach out there. She’s worked in museums and commercial galleries and knows the art world inside out. Her Blog is always a goldmine. Even a veteran like me always finds some little nugget I hadn’t thought of before. I’ve added her Blog to my Blogroll over on the right, so you can check out her posts anytime.

To my delighted astonishment she wrote about me on her ArtBizBlog called “Great Photos of Your Studio”. In it she posted a photo of my studio along with the suggestion to artists to let the public see where the magic happens.

A large part of being successful at anything is about who you associate yourself with. Growth and opportunities come from freely sharing information and ideas. I feel especially privileged to be associated with an amazing network of professionals.

Alyson first came to my attention through SmArtist Telesummit an annual international internet symposium which I signed on for last year as a participant. Alyson Stanfield was one of the 11 panelist / presenters and she spoke about the need for artist to have a Marketing Plan to succeed. She knocked my socks off with her jam-packed session.

This year, through an interesting chain of events, I will be one of the panelist / presenters for SmArtist Telesummit 2009, which begins in about 2 weeks. I’ll be speaking about “Putting Together a Winning Portfolio” and will be sharing the panel with Alyson who is returning for her 3rd year.

If you are an artist and want to move your career forward, there’s still time to sign on. Go now to SmArtist Telesummit 2009. It will be the best investment in yourself you’ll ever make professionally.