Business

Dealing with the Distasteful aspects of Self Promotion

Hodges Soileau · Jan 21, 2013 · 10 Comments

"In The Sunlight" by Hodges Soileau OPA, 17x13 — “In The Sunlight” by Hodges Soileau OPA, 17×13

The issue of successfully promoting one’s efforts is one that has always given me great pause. I know the importance of not being out of sight for to long….out of sight out of mind. Unfortunately, things move so quickly now that any effort made is fleeing at best. That being said, one still must make the effort. It is not only the self conscious part of it, but the time required to put email ads and newsletters together, face book, etc., that I have the most difficulty with. All of that is time consuming and not much fun. That is time that I personally would prefer spending with brush in hand.

"A Little Rest" by Hodges Soileau OPA, 12 x 16 — “A Little Rest” by Hodges Soileau OPA, 12 x 16

I have always had difficulty with this, as I’m sure many artists do. There is something about tooting one’s own horn that is somehow distasteful to me. In my early years as an illustrator, it never was much of an issue for me, because I never had to deal with it. I always had a rep/agent that took care of this type of stuff for me….of course, this came with a price. Reps/agents take a commission, and deservedly so. It was always worth it to not have to deal with this type of minutia, with the work loads and deadlines we had at the time.

"Info for Repairs (The Issac Hayes)" by Hodges Soileau OPA, 12x16 — “Info for Repairs (The Issac Hayes)” by Hodges Soileau OPA, 12×16

I have been giving this much thought lately as I seem to be spending more time on the computer than I really want to. The more I try to do, or involve myself with, the less time I have to do the important one….which is painting. I try to help the Galleries that represent me as much as possible by sending out announcements, newsletters to my mailing lists, and postings on Face Book and my blog. Even though it is a drop in the bucket, compared to the audience that can be reached by spending a lot of money on expensive ads in major art magazines, I feel like I am contributing somewhat to our partnership. There is after all only so much time in one day or week….using it efficiently is extremely important. These are the areas in my business that I find myself wanting to take shortcuts, or become more efficient at……leaving more quality time for painting.

"Early Morning" by Hodges Soileau OPA, 9x15 — “Early Morning” by Hodges Soileau OPA, 9×15

"The Curious Bay Mare" by Hodges Soileau OPA, 6x6 — “The Curious Bay Mare” by Hodges Soileau OPA, 6×6

I can only speak for myself when it comes to this discussion. Some folks may like this part of the business, so this is not necessarily a universal opinion held by everyone. The one thing I am sure of is the absolute need to not neglect this part of the art business. As far as answers to solving the problem, or the best solution….I do not have a solution, except to try and find what seems to work for me personally. Again, as in most things, one size does not fit all. What works for me might not be a suitable solution for someone else. Unfortunately the learning process as it relates to this requires making mistakes, and wasting time and sometimes money, with things that really do not advance your career or cause.
Again, thanks for listening to my Cajun Ramblings.

It’s Just Paint and Canvas

Rick Delanty · Jan 14, 2013 · 4 Comments

"Perihelion" by Rick Delanty, 24x24 — “Perihelion” by Rick Delanty, 24×24

What is the true “market value” of a painting? How does a potential collector know that a fair price is being offered? After all, the price can be negotiated… It’s not like a car, a stereo system, or a suit jacket that contains technical components and can be shopped between stores. It’s only paint and canvas, right?
Lines, colors, shapes, usually on a flat rectangular surface: that’s how we most often define “a painting.” As an objet d’art it has perceived value, both inside and out of the marketplace. Often paintings contain little or no moving parts. Precious metals may be employed, but not usually — it’s simply canvas by-the-yard and pigment. The materials of which a painting is made today are not much different than they were thousands of years ago, when early man painted and engraved shapes of animals on cave walls, with crushed plants and vegetable matter for paint, and animal-fat crayons and fingertips for brushes. The technology of paint-making and the variety of painting surfaces have significantly improved since then, but paint is still made of pigments and the surface of a painting is still usually flat. Doesn’t sound that impressive, does it?

“The synthesis of truth and beauty…is the highest and deepest reality.”Ovid

"Point Glow" by Rick Delanty, 16x20 — “Point Glow” by Rick Delanty, 16×20

Let’s consider the work of those early artists, at places like Lascaux and Altamira: they were the agents of man’s first recorded history. Their wall paintings speak to us through the millennia, even though their materials were elemental. Those artworks still communicate human ideas, perceptions, the very milieu in which early men and women lived. Those paintings today give us an insight into a culture, basal psychology, and the soul of early man. Those artworks were — as all artworks have been since those first paintings were created—visions, thoughts, dreams and an exploration of what it means to be human. Those paintings in sedimentary sanctuaries were not — and are not now — simply colored dirt on stone: they are the reality of a time gone by.

“ We keep our eyes on the things we cannot see: for the things which we can see are temporal; the things that are unseen are eternal.”2 Corinthians 4:18

"Sunset Billows" by Rick Delanty, 16x20 — “Sunset Billows” by Rick Delanty, 16×20

It’s the vision encapsulated in those ancient artworks that give them their true value, not the materials with which they are made. Then as now, it is the material that gives the immaterial form and meaning, and which gives any painting its value. How well a contemporary artwork does that for each viewer or potential collector in today’s marketplace, how deeply the painting establishes a personal connection, is what gives the work its significance and worth. Paintings enable us to see more than the obvious, to break free of our prejudices, to elevate our thoughts. The author Charlotte Bronte expressed this ability of the artist to help us “see” on a higher plane: “I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward.”
The artist is the catalyst in this process of Imagineering and revelation. It is through the artist’s eye that new possibilities can be discovered, and comprehended. In fact, former President John F. Kennedy underlined that creative significance: “I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” The painter does what the director does for a film, or the composer for a symphony. He or she draws unrelated concepts together, instills pattern, variety and unity, and discloses the essence of an idea. If we look through the painter’s lens, we are treated to a new perspective on reality. The visionary artist is a conductor on the journey to an exotic destination. We begin to understand that here is something higher in that artwork, than just paint and canvas.

“An artist is not paid for his labor, but for his vision.”James Abbot McNeill Whistler

For a painting, it is the experience of the artist expressed therein that is of utmost value. The material nature of the work is quite secondary. A painting that conveys the power of emotion to the viewer is more than “just paint and canvas.” It is the description of a heartfelt concept that has been forged into tangible excellence through a creative process of envisioning and technical facility. It even has the power to change lives. “(Art) has the capacity to penetrate even the most callous skin and to ignite a revolution from within,” as musician Benjamin Moore so eloquently reminds us. Pursuing art with our whole hearts and minds is probably the most civilizing undertaking we can do as artists. “What a privilege it is to be able to take brush in hand and put paint on paper in this troubled world,” is our encouragement from artist Veronica Stensby.
A painting’s value is not in its material nature, as “just paint and canvas.” Rather, it is the vision an artist expresses with those materials that is of value: that slice of heaven, the best of the Best, that idea of the Ideal, that is the central core of both the material and spiritual worth of an artwork.

Important Website Considerations for Artists: Part 3 of 3

Brian Steck · Nov 5, 2012 · 1 Comment

This article is part 3 of a 3-part series discussing important website considerations for artists. The first part laid out some general thoughts to keep in mind during the initial stages of creating your art website. The second piece attempted to put complex website elements into simple terms.

Part 3: Implementation – Putting it all together

In today’s world, your website is likened to a business card, giving you credibility, basic details about yourself and a way for others to contact you. If you’ve read the past two parts of this series, you know it must reflect the excellence and perfection of your artwork, as well as be inexpensive to maintain and easy to edit, which is why WordPress may be your best bet. Assuming you’ve read my tips on setting up your website in Part 2, you may be asking, “So, how do I design a great website?”

Navigation

When designing a website or choosing a theme, I believe that it is much more important to design through the lenses of usability than esthetics. Sure, your website should be beautiful and pleasing to the eye because it reflects your excellent artwork, but the colors and layout is much less important than your visitors ability to move around the site.
If a visitor comes to your site, but cannot navigate easily, it is very unlikely that they will hang around long. So it’s essential that your site navigation be blatantly obvious, intuitive and consistent.

Blatantly obvious navigation
Make your links easy to see. A usable website will incorporate vertical or horizontal links that are either shaped as buttons, tabs or use colors to distinguish them as links. If your site navigation uses the same font, size and color as the rest of the text on your site, it will be very difficult for a user to discern between text and links.

Intuitive navigation
Your links should describe with simplicity what the user is being linked to. Terms such as “store”, “portfolio”, “contact us” and “home” are widely used and understood. If you get too creative in the titles for your web pages, it will only succeed in confusing your guests. It’s like being at a restaurant where they get too creative in theming the names to the Men’s and Women’s restrooms… using a different language or some ancient hieroglyphic symbol can leave you feeling real embarrassed when you wind up choosing the wrong door.

Consistent navigation
This is a common mistake for most beginners. For example, when you visit the home page, the navigation is on the top, but then it’s on the bottom on the next page. Later on, it may move over to the side, or change verbiage. Even for a familiar web-user, this can be confusing and cause them frustration — even to the point of finding another site to browse. Do yourself and your visitors a favor: keep your navigation consistent on every page.

Connecting with your visitors

There are a few methods of connecting with your visitors. Because of SPAM-bots that scan websites for e-mail addresses and then bombard your inbox with junk mail, it’s recommended that you avoid listing your e-mail address on your website. If you must share your e-mail address, I recommend using the following code to help throw the SPAM-bots off the trail:

<a href=”mailto:name&#64;domain&#46;com”>name&#64;domain&#46;com</a>

Replacing the @ symbol with @ and period with . is a method of protecting your e-mail address from being hunted down and mercilessly overwhelmed with SPAM e-mail.

Contact Forms
Another excellent way of letting your visitors connect with you, and my preferred method, is using a contact form. WordPress offers a number of superb form options, with my favorite being Gravity Forms, allowing you to easily create a form that can be used for contacting you, taking polls or making purchases. The benefit to the contact form is that it doesn’t require your visitors to use their default e-mail program. Have you ever clicked an e-mail address on a website and all of a sudden the website disappears and a program you never use opens up? This is the default effect of linking to an e-mail address. Instead, I recommend linking either the text “Contact Us” or, if you must, your e-mail address to a contact form. The contact form, when submitted, will safely send you an e-mail and return a confirmation such as “Thank you for contacting us! We’ll reply shortly.”
Social Media
Social Media is the general term for tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, MySpace and other platforms that allow you to create a profile and use their features while connecting with others. Depending on your business, different platforms may be more useful than others. Let me explain a few of them:
Facebook is the most widely used social media platform. It originally started with college users, but has since grown to welcome children, grandparents, businesses and celebrities. By posting photos, videos, links and comments, Facebook users can keep in touch with a wide range of friends, family and coworkers easily. Facebook is an excellent resource for artists who want to feature artwork and keep their collectors and potential followers updated. Facebook provides some great tools, such as the “Like Box” and “Activity Feed” to help you easily integrate Facebook with your website.
Twitter seems to strike the most fear in people’s eyes when it is mentioned. And, other than fear of the unknown, there is little reason for this. Twitter is a social media platform allowing you to post short (140-characters or less) status updates, called “tweets”. Other Twitter users can “follow” you, which allows them to receive regular updates on your status updates. Twitter appeals to quick-paced hipsters and executives alike who prefer to get straight to business, cutting away the clutter of videos and long-winded Facebook status updates. Twitter uses a few symbols to help users shorten their tweets:

The “@” symbol is used refer to someone’s username
The “#” symbol, or hashtag, denotes a subject or keyword, making it easy to search for or join in a conversation
“DM” means direct message and is used to send a private message
“RT” means “retweet” and is used to forward someone else’s tweet
URLs are frequently shortened to save space. Twitter will do this for you automatically.

A great Twitter example for an artist would be:

@OilPaintAmerica Check out my artwork being featured at the #OPANationalShow this year! //bit.ly/uxHSPX

Pinterest is a newcomer but has quickly taken the social media world by surprise. Pinterest is a digital pin-board of creative ideas. Thousands of creative crafts, recipes, outfits, haircuts, architecture designs and cute quips are posted daily. As an artist, I believe this is a great opportunity to share your paintings with the world. Simply post your paintings, linking them to your website or blog, and Pinterest users will “pin” your paintings if they like them. They may even begin to follow you on Pinterest, in which case their friends would see your artwork and could lead to more artwork sales.
LinkedIn is the serious side of social networking. Geared towards the executive or businessperson, LinkedIn has become the generally-accepted digital resume. As you connect to others in LinkedIn, your network of connections grows, giving you credibility and potential job opportunities. This would be a great option for an artist wishing to connect with publishers, businesses looking for artwork or portraiture, as well as side-jobs or a way to stay connected with others in the business world.

Keeping it all organized
There are many more social networking options coming out every year. My word of advice is to pick one or two that you feel comfortable engaging with and then focus on those alone. Do not feel the need to master every new trick the internet throws at you.
For those of you who want to try your hand at a few social networks, I recommend using a desktop program such as TweetDeck, which allows you to post to multiple platforms with a single click.

Search Engine Optimization

I’m going to keep this section short, because there is a lot of information about Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, on the web. SEO is the process of creating websites that are simple for search engines to understand, making it easy for search engines such as Google and Bing to present your site to visitors.
A few things to know about SEO:

It’s not an overnight job. It’s a process. Count on it taking longer if you have a lot of competition who is actively pursuing high search engine rankings.
Focus on content before tricks. Similar to “If you build it, they will come.” in SEO, “If you provide valuable information, your ranking will improve.”
Proper coding matters. Use a web designer that knows what they are doing and a search engine-friendly platform like WordPress.

Strategy

Begin with the end in mind. We talked about this a bit in the first part. Begin with a clearly defined goal so that you can focus on achieving it. If your goal is to collect a large list of subscribers to your blog or newsletter, then make your sign-up form obvious and the sign-up process simple. If you’re goal is to increase the amount of people seeing your artwork, integrate social media with your website and be active on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. If you want to sell artwork at all costs, make your online store flawless and offer to mail artwork out to buyers to inspect, giving them 72 hours to send back the artwork or purchase it. There are many strategies. Choose one that fits your personality and goals and stick to it.
Don’t be afraid to have a simple website. Your website can be very simple and doesn’t need to be updated often. But make it professional so that it reflects your product. Though, I recommend that at the very least, use a Facebook or Twitter feed as a way to provide fresh content on your site.
Try something new. Give blogging a try. Tweet. Give something away for free on your website… you’re an artist! You’re supposed to be the crazy type! 😉 Do something fun and take a risk!
Learn from some of the great minds of our day. Read the writings of Seth Godin, John C. Maxwell, Dave Ramsey or Michael Hyatt. These thinkers are shaking the way marketers sell, leaders stir and people spend.

In Summary

Part 1 spoke about adapting to a digital world as an artist, as well as general goal-setting. Part 2 detailed the backbones of a website and a few steps to getting a website set up. This article gave some next steps after you have a site up and running: easy-to-use navigation, connecting with your visitors, and additional strategic tips. We at OPA hope this has been helpful and welcome your thoughts, criticism and questions. Thanks for reading the OPA Blog!
If you have questions, feel free to visit www.steckinsights.com for consulting or website advice.

Important Website Considerations for Artists: Part 2 of 3

Brian Steck · Aug 6, 2012 · Leave a Comment

This article is part 2 of a 3-part series discussing important website considerations for artists. The first part laid out some general thoughts to keep in mind during the initial stages of creating your art website.

Important Considerations – Part 2: Basic Website Elements

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Okay you twisted my arm. Now what?”
There are a number of questions that inevitably should be going through your head: what will this cost me? can I do it myself or should I hire a professional? I’m an artist, not a nerd – how the heck am I supposed to build a website?!
As the resident “nerd” at OPA, let me help you along. I’ll walk through some basics that you should know about, even if you hire a professional.
Terminology
“Gigabytes? Hard drives? Ugh… That megahertz my brain just to think about!”
In order to have your own website, you need two things working together: a domain name and a web host.
The “domain name” is what people type in to find you.
“OilPaintersOfAmerica.com” is a domain name. This is purchased from a “domain registrar”, such as NameCheap, Verio or GoDaddy.
Then the domain name is pointed to your “web host”. A web host, like HostGator, BlueHost or GoDaddy for example, holds onto the files of your website and presents them to people when they arrive.
Before you get too confused, think of your “web host” as a gallery that holds your artwork and the “domain name” is the address collectors use to get to the art gallery.

In summary, you purchase a domain name and a web hosting package. The domain name points to your web host.
Congratulations! You passed our terminology section! (Well done. You did great!)

What will this cost me?
Typically a domain name costs between $9-14 per year (sometimes the first year is cheaper when you purchase in conjunction with a web hosting package) and a web hosting package normally runs between $50-80 per year.*
For most users, the starter packages will do the trick. HostGator has excellent prices, so any of their webhosting packages will work. I recommend their “baby plan” if you would like to have more than one domain name (like myawesomeartwork.com and myawesomeartwork.org) or their “business plan” if you would like to sell products directly from your site.

Where does the “website” part come in?
Next, you actually need the files that make up your website. Some web hosting packages provide simple templates for you to fill in your information. There are some companies, such as Fine Art Studio Online, that provide slightly more advanced templates specifically for artists. Then there are web developers like myself, Steck Insights Web Design, that design custom hand-crafted websites for anybody and everybody.
Each of the options listed provides more customization than it’s predecessor, but will generally cost more.
The generic site that comes with your hosting package is usually not what you want. I recommend, at the very least, having someone set up a “WordPress” site for you.**
WordPress, which was originally a blogging platform, has become a leader in web design — in fact, everyone from small start-ups to multi-million dollar corporations use it, including OPA! The WordPress platform makes it easy for someone with little to no technical savvy, to easily update the content of their website. That way, you don’t have to pay someone each time you want to share your latest painting with the world. For extra credit, this is known as a “Content Management System (CMS)”.

Web Design Costs
Having someone design a website by hand can be expensive. A typical custom designed, WordPress-based, “brochure website” will cost between $1,000-1,500. A brochure website will contain 3-5 pages and provide most of the basic information about you that a handheld brochure might. When you add in the need for an online shopping cart or custom features, it can be even more expensive.
So what I would suggest for someone just getting started, is to hire a web designer to set up the free WordPress install, do some slight configurations and walk you through the basics. This could be completed for between $150-300 and it would give you a starting place to get your feet wet.
Feel free to contact me if you have questions about WordPress or how to set up a basic website.

Time vs. Money

“Do you want to be an artist or a web designer?”
We all know that you want to be in the studio painting or scoping out your next plein air location, not pulling your hair out in front of a computer.
This is the main reason why I point people to using a Content Management System (CMS), which enables you to make simple changes, add pages or move links with a few clicks. If you can send an e-mail or create a Microsoft Word document, you can handle WordPress.
The starving artist out there may be tempted to try to do it all himself. There are many great resources available that can help you with this, but I would urge you to seek the help of a professional, so your website showcases your work in the best light and you can get back to the canvas.
If you’re on the other end of the spectrum, you may prefer to stay as far away from a keyboard as you can get and hire a web developer to manage your website for you. When you want to make a change, just give them a call and they’ll take care of it for you — but keep in mind, this is a more expensive option. But when you consider the additional cost of lost business (and extra gray hairs), a trained professional may be the way to go.

Lesson 2 Summary

Option 1:

Purchase a domain name – “myawesomeartwork.com” for example – (currently available, by the way)

Purchase a web hosting package

Set up WordPress

Option 2:

Hire a web developer to do it for you

*Both domain names and hosting packages can be much more expensive, depending on the demand for the domain name and the features of the web hosting package, but for most people’s needs, these are typical prices.

There are two versions of WordPress: a paid and free version. The paid version makes the setup simple for you, but is very limiting. I recommend finding a web designer to set you up with the free version.

Paints, Brushes and Facebook Supports

Cathy Dietrich · Jul 9, 2012 · 1 Comment

Facebook could be as important to artists as their favorite supplies. I sensed this when the general manager of a prestigious Scottsdale gallery told me that when all else failed, Facebook helped him locate an artist he wanted to invite into the gallery to exhibit. He believed if an artist had a web address, they would also have a Facebook page as part of their marketing plan. This seems an incredible story unique to our times and I frequently relay it to artists who profess they don’t have time for Facebook.
In addition to finding the perfect oils, brushes and supports to create your art, an untapped audience could be waiting on the other side of your screen, so to speak, to connect with you and your art. Recently, a prolific plein air artist and popular instructor posted local scenes and paintings created on his trip east and photos of Sargeant’s works from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I “traveled” with him and anticipated his daily posts. He posted “Thanks so much everyone for your congratulations and encouragement. It really means a lot to me.” Art is emotional and unsolicited constructive feedback is a gift.
When a quick critique is needed to save a piece gone awry a Facebook post of “what do you think this painting needs?” can bring every imaginable solution. I enjoy artist’s posts of “just finished, still on the easel” paintings in the studio or plein air works still on outdoor easels positioned to show the view of the painted scene. Posts of paintings sold right off the easel and paintings juried into prestigious shows send an immediate thrill throughout the art community. The sharing of friends’ achievements becomes the community’s collective success.
Artists like to share supplies they love. I was unaware of Vasari oil paints until an artist posted that the company sent her entire palette as a gift. Comments immediately appeared from artists who swore by that brand. So Facebook not only informs, but teaches. CW Mundy posted a painting with a glazing technique and when queried offered steps to achieve the effect. An artist commented “the mark of a great instructor is one who uses every opportunity to teach”. I was impressed and surprised to consider Facebook as the art community’s personal arts “channel” and discussion forum.

Jeff Legg OPAM with "The Provisions" — Jeff Legg OPAM with “The Provisions”

It is a high honor for an artist to have their work juried into the national OPA exhibit and artists shared their stellar news of acceptance on Facebook. Later posts appeared of artists alongside their award winning paintings to connect with a broader audience. I enjoyed seeing Jeff Legg next to his painting and award, offered my congratulations and thanked him for posting it. I also sent a private message to Melissa Gann who won our RayMar award. She responded with “Thank you for creating the memorial award. I am so honored to be the recipient. You and Emily do so much for the art community through RayMar.” Comments like Melissa’s are humbling and create excitement among sponsors and ultimately collectors to become more involved.
So after some solo time in the studio artists can tap into the Facebook art world for the latest news and even the possibility of a sale without ever leaving the studio. I know because I just concluded my first facebook sale. I saw a posted painting I loved, contacted the artist and made the purchase. It was immediate and I could send a message directly to the artist to express my emotional connection with the painting.
Facebook can be a waste of time if you are undisciplined, but as a fresh way to connect with collectors, gallery directors, workshop instructors and art buddies to build friendships it is unsurpassed. Facebook is an exciting part of my day and I’m happy to have the opportunity to share my thoughts about some of its advantages with you as OPA’s guest blogger.