I’m Now A Member of Lost Coast Daily Painters!

February 20, 2009March 4, 2010 | foxstudio

As some of you may remember, I blogged a for a few weeks on marketing and two items I discussed were “spend as little money to market your work as possible” and “strength in numbers”.

Today I’m proud to announce that Lost Coast Daily Painters is up and running and listing paintings on eBay. Here’s the press release that went out yesterday:

HUMBOLDT PAINTERS GET CREATIVE ABOUT SELLING ART BEYOND THE REDWOOD CURTAIN

If the economic slowdown has a bright side for artists, it is this: the opportunity to explore new ways to create and sell art. “My paintings range in size from quite large to very small, and for a long time I’ve wanted to find a format for showing and selling my small pieces.” said Eureka oil painter Kathy O’Leary. “This is a good time to take some chances and try something new.”

A group of five Humboldt County artists have joined together to take part in a growing international trend called daily painting. Painters complete one small work every day, post it on their blog, and sell it on eBay. The top-selling daily painters have cultivated large audiences and built a steady income selling paintings online.

Eureka author Amy Stewart is a student of oil painter Linda Mitchell. Last summer she went to Santa Fe to take a workshop from one of the most successful daily painters, Carol Marine. “Painting is really just a pastime for me,” Stewart said, “but I’m very interested in seeing what artists can do with technology and social networking. I’ve been blogging for years, and I was intrigued by the idea of selling paintings online and building an audience that way.” At the workshop she learned techniques for composing and finishing small, quick paintings, as well as eBay selling tips.

Now Stewart, Mitchell, and O’Leary have joined together with Dow’s Prairie artist Susan Fox and Eureka oil painter Rachel Schlueter to sell their paintings online through a group blog, Lost Coast Daily Painters. New paintings will go online every day, with bidding starting as low as $25 on eBay. A “Buy It Now” page lists paintings that are available for a fixed price directly from the artist.

Like most professional artists who participate in daily painting blogs, Mitchell plans to continue showing her work in galleries. “I’ll sell small paintings online, and work that I’ve shown before,” she said. “My larger paintings will continue to go to galleries. Most people want to see a larger piece in person before they buy it, and galleries are the place to go for that.”

Schlueter looks forward to the challenge of posting smaller works every week. “The idea is to do something fresh and spontaneous and put it out there, and then just move on to the next painting,” she said. “And it’s nice to be part of a group blog. That makes it easier to have something new up every day.”

Connecting with artists and art lovers around the world is another attraction, according to Fox. “I’ve been selling small paintings on eBay as an individual,” she said, “but I’m really looking forward to marketing my work with four of my colleagues and friends. Daily paintings are a great way to buy a single special piece or start a collection very affordably.”

Visit lostcoastdailypainters.blogspot.com for new work by each artist and links to other daily painting sites around the world.

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I still have two paintings listed, but time is running short. Scroll down to find them and click to bid.

Here’s a preview of one of two paintings that I’ll be listing on Monday. There are five of us and we each took one weekday, so there are new listings Monday through Friday. We’ve already had sales before the official publicity kick-off, which is very encouraging. I have multiple bids in on “Pismo Beach Sunrise” and “Wyoming Cottonwoods” is being watched.

Without further ado, here is “Morning Near Goose Lake”-

Paintings that don’t sell will move to our “Buy It Now” page and will be available for a set price.

UPDATE 3-4-10: Life brings change and I am no longer a member of Lost Coast Daily Painters. My career is taking a different path since last year and I find that I must concentrate on that. Three new artists have now joined the group and I encourage you to click on over and take a look at their work.

Marketing Our Art During the Financial Meltdown, Part 4 (That’s It For Now); New Paintings!

February 6, 2009February 8, 2009 | foxstudio

Take Care of Yourself!

Even in the best of times, and this ain’t them, it takes energy and decent health to put in the hours needed to paint and take care of all the other parts of having a career. It’s also easy to get down, if not depressed. You know you have to nurture your art, but you also have to nurture yourself. And that’s a guy thing, too.

I’ve learned this the hard way having dealt with chronic sinusitis for ten years. It manifests in a low grade fever that leaves me too fatigued to do much of anything. I generally have it under control, but always need to be vigilant about getting quality sleep, eating right and exercising. I also get a massage every three weeks to keep me tuned up. I accept that I’m going to have to work at staying healthy and that it is as much a part of my routine as getting to the studio in the morning.

Exercise is really important, especially if you sit or stand all day at an easel. “Studies have shown” that the two most effective forms of exercise are walking and gardening, so you don’t have to join a gym or run marathons. We walk our dog 30-40 minutes every morning unless it’s pouring rain. Longer walks on the weekend. Nighttime walks too, which are fun because sometimes a couple of the cats come along (Fortunately, we’re on a dead end street with very little traffic).

I do like to garden. I just planted some primroses, pansies and tigridia bulbs. This year we plan to do a serious vegetable garden and see how much of our own food we can grow. (Wish we could grow our own peanuts. What will they recall next?)

You need to find what works for you. But being physically active will make you feel less tired.

I do yoga at home, too. It feels so good to stretch, especially my shoulders.

Eating well seems challenging sometimes, but try to have good quality, quick to fix food around. Maybe popcorn for a snack instead of chips. We keep sugar-free pudding cups, Laughing Cow cheese, string cheese and nuts on hand. I have half a protein or energy bar in mid-morning and afternoon so I don’t crash. My evening treat is a few squares of 80% very dark chocolate. We usually have a glass of red wine with dinner. I stay low on the glycemic index to keep my blood sugar stable. We just made our first soup stock from a chicken carcass (new Joy of Cooking) and added wild rice, celery, mushrooms and carrots. We’re still putting raspberries and blueberries on our cereal from what we picked last year and put in the freezer and there are still three bags of apples in the frig for Waldorf salad, cobbler and just eating. As with exercise, see what will work for you.

Even if you don’t have space for regular vegetable garden, you might try salad greens on a sunny window sill or blueberry bushes in containers.

Feel free to post comments to share your own ideas and thoughts and what works for you.

NEW PAINTINGS!

Drawing and painting animals has come relatively easily for me. It’s what I seem to have a knack for, not that I haven’t put in a lot of work at it. But landscape, now that’s a whole other challenge. I finally decided that I was going to get this “tree thing” down. I’ve been hacking away for the last few months doing small studies of trees in interesting light with cast shadows and I believe there has been progress. More next week.