Archive for December, 2011
A Must-Have Magazine for the Landscape Painter
One of my favorite magazines is Professional Artist, formerly Art Calendar. In the December issue, on the cover are listed four articles, all very important to the landscape painter: Refine Your Artwork, Master the Art of Critique, Learn to Teach Workshops and Be More Productive.
Also within the magazine are three monthly columns: Coaching the Artist Within, The Photo Guy and Heart to Heart (Are you a 20% artist?) as well as three other interesting articles including Planning Your Art Business (Part 3: Tracking Cash Flow). In the back of the magazine are a bushel of contests, exhibition opportunities, calls to artists by galleries, grants and fellowships, juried shows, publishing opportunities and residencies, some with fees and some without. I find all these articles relevant to me, interesting and thought provoking and the contests interesting to contemplate. Professional Artist comes out ten times per year, costs $37/year and the web site is http://www.professionalartist.com. I wouldn’t be without it! Happy New Year, Everyone!
Nirvana for the Landscape Painter
A well known anthropologist, Robert Ardrey, wrote in the 1860s that living beings are driven by four factors that govern their performance: Security, Recognition, Reward and Stimulation. As a civil servant tends to be more driven to achieve security (stability), the creative soul of the landscape painter is more driven by stimulation rather than any of the others.
It is stimulation that makes us cut through the skin and get to the meat, simply to work harder, to surround oneself with like-minded people, to experiment, to push boundaries, to look at everything sideways, to levitate onto a more spiritual dimension and see life from an objectively focused vantage point. Our Nirvana is a far cry from the TV set or a pat on the back.
Robert Genn, Landscape Painter
Today I received the book Robert Genn’s Twice Weekly Letters from July 10, 1999 to September 25, 2009. It is a good 2” thick volume and was my gift for joining the Premium Artists on his website, The Painter’s Keys. I shall enjoy reading that for a long time to come.
I love receiving his twice weekly newsletters. They are witty, thoughtful and informational. Genn is a landscape painter who paints mostly in acrylics, sometimes in oils, as I understand it. He lives near Vancouver, BC, Canada. He doesn’t teach, but conducts occasional workshops with his daughter. Examples of his current work, galleries and art dealers can be found at www.robertgenn.com.
The Claus Factor for Landscape Painters
Robert Genn, Canadian landscape painter, in his twice weekly newsletter reminds us that Santa urges his followers to go forth and be generous. “An artist gives,” said Veronica Roth. “He gives visually, through courses, with free advice, through generosity of spirit and through a need to share.”
It’s not surprising that most charity fund raisers are near the Santa Season. We love to donate – a fine way to help a children’s hospital, a dance center, a small village in Africa, or further research toward a cure for cancer.
Of course, there are little gifts we give on our own. A gift that is personally crafted by the giver is most likely to be a treasure by the receiver. It seems that Santa’s up-north workshop, once hands-on and all abuzz with creative elves has now been transmogrified into a Chinese factory – all the more reason to get out your brushes. “It is when you give of yourself,” said Kahlil Gibran, “that you truly give.”
Facebook Fan Pages for the Landscape Painter
Every landscape painter should have a fan page to drive traffic to his/her website and blog. The books I ordered last week regarding how to do this have not had time to arrive, but sometime this week I’m looking forward to getting my fan page up and running. At any rate, in the article by Lori McNee in the January issue of The Artist’s Magazine, she lists more fan page tips.
First, choose a page name that reflects your brand. Note that once you have 100 connections you won’t be able to change your fan page name so make the initial decision a good one. Secondly, to gain more fans and followers, add a Facebook widget to your blog. By adding a fan box or “like” button to your blog, you’ll encourage visitors to join your page. Third, you should always post your blog links to your fan page wall. You can choose to use a blogging network such as NetworkedBlogs or Blogged to automatically integrate a feed to your latest posts. Fourth, post Facebook profile updates at least 4 times a week but no more than 5 times a day with the postings preferably spaced apart. You might start to get complaints if you flood your followers’ feeds with too many updates.
Holiday Greetings
The holidays are here. There is only a little time left to do the last minute preparation – to share gifts and thoughts with those who are dear to us.
I want to thank all of you for reading and subscribing to my blog – for being passionate about creating and willing to put yourself “out there” for the world to see and judge – for your great desire to become better, not just as an artist but as a person – to trust yourself enough to go deep and find the artist that resides within your soul. It is you that makes the world a brighter place to live, and I thank you. Wishing you a happy Holiday Season and best wishes for the New Year.
Resources for This Landscape Painter
As you all know, being popular with Google and the other search engines is a good thing. The more popular you are, the higher the ranking is that Google gives you and your business could jump from page 150 to page 2 on any appropriate search.
There are many ways to become popular with Google – use keywords strategically in your web site, have lots of links and have a fan page on Facebook are only a few. Recently I have been reading about how to set up a fan page on Facebook and with a few books, downloads and perhaps friends, I’m hoping to accomplish this. Then perhaps Google will reward this landscape painter with a higher ranking. So today I’m ordering Facebook for Dummies, ED 4 (For Dummies, 2011) by Leah Pearlman and Carolyn Abram and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Facebook (Alpha, 2010) by Joe Kraynak and Mikal E. Belicove.
Tracking Cash Flow for the Oil Painter
In the December 2011 issue of the Professional Artist, Robert Reed, PH.D., wrote an article entitled, Planning Your Art Business Part 3: Tracking Cash Flow. Oil painters as well as others could use it. Two versions are built on Microsoft Excel (an earlier and a later version) and a third version for the Mac is built on Numbers. All are downloadable and free from www.yourartisyourbusiness.com.
In the magazine article, Dr. Reed discussed three of the worksheets available: The Income Worksheet, The Expenses Worksheet, and the Depreciation Worksheet. After I downloaded my copy, I found other worksheets are also available. The discussion seemed pretty straight forward so I’m looking forward to keeping better track of my income and expenses – and it’s just in time for the new year!
Art Walk Night
The third Thursday of the month is Art Walk night in Bonita Springs, FL. Tonight was the night and I decided to attend. Besides, my Abstract Art teacher has a studio there and I wanted to see where she works.
The Promenade in Bonita Springs is an uptown area that is part of a mall. Part of the mall is still open but many shops have been closed, mostly because of the economy of the times, and are being used by artists to display their works and use as a studio. What a wonderful use for those unused spaces.
During my walk, I saw beautiful paintings, some in acrylic, some in oils. There was also stunning fabric art like no other I had ever seen, by a lady whose mother and grandmother were also fabric artists. A lady who formerly did fashion design had absolutely beautiful jewelry. She also made the most delightful wall art from found objects like dresser handles and other antiques. Someone else had created large mobiles out of plastic of some kind – very colorful and amazing. I finally found my teacher’s studio and the art she had to display and had a wonderful time walking through the Promenade for December Art Walk.
My Abstract Art Class #4
Last week, the lesson in my Abstract Art class was about symbols. We thought of a bunch of symbols, some of which were heart, $, #, hand, star, @, !, yin yang, cross, +, =, fish, x o. An artist could make one or more paintings with each of these in mind.
Teacher then showed us photos which she had collected with some of these symbols in mind. Most of us used one of her photos as inspiration to make our own painting. This is the painting I made from one of her photos because my son was in a band for several years and that photo reminded me of him. I might even send it out to him as a gift!