I'm wired to create things and love doing it and get up each morning to do it! Anyone who reads this blog knows my focus for the last 7 or 8 years is oil painting. Lately a bit more about passing it on, coaching like minded artists weekends at Crossroads Art Center under the banner Swimming-in-Paint.
After I got comfortable with my tool box and painting....the fun part of making art, I soon discovered my time going forward would be compromised by important juried exhibits and marketing; done to establish credibility and value for my paintings. In all honesty, either can be a full-time job. Anyone would be much happier without the hassle of it. However, if I expected to have any success as an oil painter these two things were paramount to it.
Making art for many is a livelihood and therefore a business. Every business needs a product and services.... that, hopefully, others need too. It also takes some peer credibility and perhaps an award or two. However, our peers only help us understand and establish where we fit in the herd and ultimately not our target market audience.... the public. You can take a lifetime and muddle through it hoping some great discovery of your art alone will do it. Or you can be proactive and force feed the issue, like I did, and many other artists do daily.
Artists have a valuable commodity, a limited lifetime production of handmade art. That is unless you are entrepreneurial in nature and a Jeff Koons or the other guy Warhol and mass produce. In my mind all of it works.
After I got comfortable with my tool box and painting....the fun part of making art, I soon discovered my time going forward would be compromised by important juried exhibits and marketing; done to establish credibility and value for my paintings. In all honesty, either can be a full-time job. Anyone would be much happier without the hassle of it. However, if I expected to have any success as an oil painter these two things were paramount to it.
Making art for many is a livelihood and therefore a business. Every business needs a product and services.... that, hopefully, others need too. It also takes some peer credibility and perhaps an award or two. However, our peers only help us understand and establish where we fit in the herd and ultimately not our target market audience.... the public. You can take a lifetime and muddle through it hoping some great discovery of your art alone will do it. Or you can be proactive and force feed the issue, like I did, and many other artists do daily.
Artists have a valuable commodity, a limited lifetime production of handmade art. That is unless you are entrepreneurial in nature and a Jeff Koons or the other guy Warhol and mass produce. In my mind all of it works.
"The key to any plan is executing in the right sequence"
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| Side by Side 30x30 oil on linen |
ART FOR ARTS SAKE
- Settle on a medium like oil painting.
- Learn or relearn how to paint (paint quality & good punctuation)
- Develop a good signature and signature style
- Explore and develop paint-able subjects
- Web site/blog/social media related to art (name recognition and branding)
- Establish credibility as a painter - join professional trade organizations (peer recognition)
- Enter paintings and get accepted into juried national trade shows held in prestigious galleries (exposure)
Art for arts sake often leads to a PRODUCT!
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| Fleeting Abstractions 30x30 oil on linen |
THE BUSINESS of MAKING & SELLING ART
Regional or National or Global
- Product development (paintings with commercial value)
- Product testing (marketing and pricing)
- Marketing platform - direct/internet or gallery representation as in the system (wholesale or retail)
- National advertising - name recognition/branding. (attract galleries or direct sales)
- Live demo capability - entertainment value - (powerful tool painting in less than 3-hours)
- Develop after market value using copyright (fine art reproduction - )
- Passing it on... a new bullet
I don't profess to be an expert here. I just followed my (business) nose and it worked for me. It becomes very clear there are two camps when it comes to art. Art for art’s sake and the business of making and selling art. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Artists can easily be successful in one and fail in the other. Each of these bullets takes time and choices are made as to how we merge the two camps or not.
"WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY"
In my mind, the binder to the whole
thing is what makes you happy, day in and day out. I think that's what
makes art so fascinating, everyone can be involved. Finding how we fit
in is the key to the "HAPPY" part.
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| Evening 30x30 oil on linen |
Remember, its only paint and canvas until you as an artist give it life! Because of that “I think making art is the closest thing to immortality any artist could hope for."
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