Selling art online..

Just wondering if anyone might have some info.  on inquiries I have received regarding purchasing art work on line.  What puzzles me is that they ask to use their own shipping companies...paying by check or money order.  It sounds like a scam.... I just can't figure out how it works... any info?  Elizabeth Chapman

Diptychs and triptychs

Any tips on bracketing these on the back? What kind of hardware do you use? I would like to put 3 canvases in a floater frame and wonder if I should bracket them together first. Thanks.

Using Oil Pastels

I just bought myself some oil pastels to try for the first time and was wondering if anyone would like to share some techniques with me as I'm pretty much clueless here!  I love experimenting but don't want to frustrate myself :} Thanks! 
Amy Tuso

BoldBrush Art Monthly Art Competition

Surrender

36"x36"x1.5"

Acrylic on canvas

My painting, "Surrender", is the finalist in the Outstanding Abstract category of the July 2010

 BoldBrush Art Competition.

Equine Art Website

Good morning! I came upon this equine site and thought I would pass it on. Of course, many of you are probably already aware of it. Beautiful realistic, impressionistic and abstract equine art from this group based in the UK: www.equestrianartists.co.uk/ 

Carol Engles

Sketchbook Project by Nancy Standlee

I am teaching an art journaling workshop and have ordered this journal and it will be digitized with the student's entries.. thought it might be a fun project in addition to our regular work and I have painted on the first page and the paper worked ok.. pretty thin but it took a watercolor light wash.
http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject
I will post the entry on my blog sometime this morning
http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

ARTISTS' BRUSHES

I am thinking to renew my collection of brushes and I had ordered catalog from Rosemery&Co. The diversity of brushes give me a dilemma which one to choose. For example, they have a good collection of Nylon brushes, then bristles, or combination Nylon plus Hog Bristle etc. Mainly I work with acrylics and that narrow my choices, but regardless of that I still have a lot to decide.
I would love to hear from you which one is your favorite brushes?
What sizes do you use?
Do you prefer rounds or flats or some special effects brushes?

Food for thought about FB~Repost of Jarom Adair Article on FB Business Page ~

I coach a lot of business owners on internet marketing strategies, and many have asked me about "Facebook Business Pages" and whether they should create one for their business or promote the one they've already got. For the record, I do not recommend you spend any significant time right now on Facebook Business Pages. Here's why:
The whole idea behind internet marketing is that you can find people who are interested in what you offer and sell something to them. If someone is not ready to buy right then and there, you want to get their permission to keep in touch with them so that when they are ready to buy they'll buy from you.
This is why email marketing has been the mainstay of any successful business online--it's a cost-effective and easy way to keep in touch with a lot of people.
The Dead Sea of internet marketing
The Dead Sea is called "dead" because water flows into it but does not flow out. The water just kind of accumulates and stagnates and eventually evaporates. Right now, a Facebook Business Page is a lot like that.
When someone comes to your business page, and they click the "Like" button, that's where your interaction with them ends. Once they leave your business page, there's no good way to get in touch with them again.
You can't send them a message (like you could if you were a Facebook Group owner) and you can't post something on their walls.
It's like having a large email list that you can't send email to. Your fans just accumulate and sit there.
Don't business posts go to fan's News Feed?
Your business posts are supposedly going to show up on your fan's news feeds. That would be GREAT--if it ever actually ever happened.
But in my long history of surfing Facebook I've only once (1 time) seen a business post make it to my "Top News" feed. It had received quite a few comments before it had become important enough to make it on to my news feed.
So every other post of every business page I've ever been a fan of has never gotten that "critical mass" of comments to make it newsworthy.
That's not encouraging.So like the tree that falls in the forest, the question is "If you post something on your business page and nobody's there to see it, does it make a noise?"
And the answer is "not enough noise to actually help your business".
The future of FB Business Pages
I am sure things will get better. I'm hoping in the future that if you post something on your business page wall it will show up on your fan's news feeds as readily as their regular friend's posts do. It's so easy to "unlike" a business page that any business that abused this power would lose fans quickly.
I would hope Facebook would give businesses the ability to send messages directly to their fans.
I would hope Facebook will create a message autoresponder of of some kind (this is what makes email marketing so great--see "(email tutorial)" if you're not sure what autoresponders are).
Final analysis...
The Facebook people are very smart and I'm sure they've thought of these things. I assume that these things will happen eventually.
So maybe this means you should start and promote a Facebook Business Page based on the future possibility that Facebook will get it right?
At this time I wouldn't recommend it. It might take months or it might take years for Facebook to implement these things, if they do at all.
I hope this has been useful. You see, my job in internet marketing is to go out and study up on this kind of thing so you don't have to. You've probably got a lot of internet marketing questions I can answer for you.
Learn more about my Daily Coaching Call where I make myself available every day so you can ask me questions like this any time they pop up, so you don't have to waste hours of your time on things that won't benefit your business.
Facebook Business Pages will not give you a return on your efforts at this time. There are other Facebook strategies I recommend that will give you a much better ROI for your business.
Yours in success,
-Jarom Adair

Canvas Resource

Hi everybody!  I finally had a chance to sit down and read "Art Chat" and would like to share that Aaron Brothers just began their 1 cent sale.  They hold this sale twice a year where you buy 1 canvas at regular price and get another one for 1 cent.  Same is true for frames. Luckily there is an Aaron Brothers in Scottsdale as you can't order on line.  Check out their website for locations as they do have several. 

Very COOL

Filomena....I went to Empty easel..VERY COOL....:):)k

Empty Easel Feature Article

I am so excited and proud that Empty Easel, an online art magazine

offering practical advice, tips, and tutorials for creating and selling art, has published an article featuring my work.

Hi -- This is my first entry, but I find the blog invaluable.

Does anyone know how some artist are able to photograph their work in a room setting with colored walls and furniture, which best shows off large pieces?
Pat

Empty Easel

You may already know about Empty Easel

http://emptyeasel.com/

If not, check it out for art tips, advice on selling art and art tutorials

Nancy

Art Journal ~ Strathmore Visual Journal

This is a two page spread from a book I'm altering for an art journaling workshop the last of July at a ranch near Marble Falls. You can read about this on my blog. I will discuss different types of journals and weights of paper for different media and the class is geared toward beginner and non-artists. I've been contacted by Strathmore Visual Journals with information on their journals coming out in July that sound fabulous with heavier paper. The journals will be in several different sizes and for different media. So if you like to journal like I do you might want to check these journals out. I will receive some samples in the next few weeks so I can report back. Thanks for inviting me to chat.
Here is the link to read more about the journals:
http://www.strathmoreartist.com/visual-journal.html
and here is the link to Dena's ranch if you want an art journaling retreat:
http://www.wenmohsranch.com/

Nancy

Mediums - to speed drying of oils

Nora - thank you. I may have to try the Windsor Newton paints. I've also heard that Chroma Archival paints and mediums were good for their drying times - has anyone used these?

I do use the Chroma Archival Smooth Gel Medium mixed into my whites and really notice that it speeds up drying times, but have never tried their paints.

Hope you're all enjoying the weekend and Happy Father's Day.

Nora Kasten About Painting Supports/Canvas

Many thanks to Laurie and Elizabeth for the info about Canvas Place .   I'm looking forward to making my next canvas purchase there.
Nora

Nora Kasten on Painting Mediums

 Until last November I have routinely added Weber's Resin-Gel to my oil paints to speed up the drying time and for nice thick paint.  I watched C.W. Mundy do a demonstration painting at a Jacksonville gallery and he was using Winsor-Newton's alkyd paints, getting the same results that I was getting when adding the Resin-Gel.  The alkyd paints seem to dry almost too quickly but they are my paints of choice now.
Nora

I had a commission that I did last summer in which I had to have a special order for two large canvases.  I used www.canvasplace.com which I saw recommended on Laurie's blog.  It is was a palette knife painting(s) and I noticed the difference right away working with this canvas.  Smooth and tight as a drum!  It's true, best canvases ever and Ruben is wonderful to work with.   Thanks Laurie!

Elizabeth Chapman

It is 3:27 a.m....Just finished 4 hours of painting...the next few days will be crazy..trying to get ahead....loving reading all of your posts....will have to read them again later after some much needed sleep!!:) Kimberly

Raymor vs Canvasplace.com

I have used the Raymor canvas boards..I know I probably did not spell that correctly...but you get the point. They are well made,  I am not as much of a realist but more of an impressionist. I have been happy with them, but not singing their praises as many artists do. It has to be trial and error...but for regular canvas do www.canvasplace.com... he has textured reg canvas and his smooth is lovely. Rupen hand makes it all.  Take a look at the construction....

Laurie

Hi Everyone!
Thank you for starting this chat blog, Kimberly, and thanks for inviting me. I thought I would add something under the "see anything cool" category. An artist in England named Jake Winkle has recently caught my eye with his beautiful contemporary watercolors. I thought you all may enjoy checking out his work. His site is: www.jakewinkle.co.uk
Carol Engles

Ampersand

For anyone in the Austin area, the Ampersand factory has seconds available at a VERY reduced rate. So far I haven't been able to see the flaws. It's definitely worth the trip.

BTW ... You can't order from them, but you can go by and pick what you want from a big bin. Call first to make sure someone is there to help you. This is a small, but fab, business.

Acrylic on Yupo

Has anyone ever varnished it? I planned to affix it to a canvas and varnish over all. Will it be stable enough, you think?

Pouring Resin

Thanks, Kim, for this terrific chat forum. What a great idea.

Saturday evening I did my first resin pour over 8x8 canvas. It looked great until I lightly touched it at the end of day three, and now I have a tiny fingerprint and it's still tacky to the touch.

Does anyone have tips to share about using resin?

Connie Michael
www.canvasbycanvas.com

Canvas, Wood etc

This is a wonderful idea Kimberly , thank you for starting this - I've enjoyed reading the posts on what everyone paints on.

Does anyone use Raymar Canvas Boards - any opinions on that?

I paint a lot of my smaller paintings on Ampersand Gessoed Boards too - I like that they do seem to dry quickly. I paint with Oils and a palette knife.

But this past few weeks, I'm noticing that my paintings aren't drying as fast as they were when I was in Dallas. It has been raining off and on here for a week, but I leave the A/C on, even so I suppose the humidity is a factor.

I do add faster drying mediums to my oil - but I'll ask all of you who paint with oil - do you use mediums to speed drying and what do you use?

Thanks, Judy

Wood panels

I have only painted on canvas once, and i happen to have a piece i am working on now on a nice wrapped canvas. But truth be told, i LOVE painting on wood, well primed of course. Just have gotten so acquainted and enamored of the smoothness of wood.

And I have learned to make cradles for each of my paintings, so I avoid the matting and framing thing. Just a nice cradle, painted black, and voila....ready to hang.

I use mostly Golden Open Acrylics these days.....

Blessings,
Joanie
www.ARTfortheSOULofit.com

I have just ordered some ampersand....I am going to mount some of my poured acrylic paintings on paper to it.I tried it on an 8x8 and it looks really good...just another option for the 100's ..of paintings that I have on paper. Not everyone likes to mat a frame:) Thanks Laurie, I am going to try canvasplace.com....Dick Blick is out of everything!!Kimberly

canvasplace.com

I usually buy canvas from here. Rupen makes the best canvas I have ever painted on.  I always request the smoothest surface or he will build it toothy.  I know Diane Whitehead uses Rupen's canvas too... it is AWESOME.

Other than that if I am doing small things I like the ampersand smooth surface gesso board for very detailed things.. and yes, I do those too!

Laurie

Nora...I like....

Nora... I have oil painted on lots of surfaces, but when I am doing heavily textured palette knife paintings...I prefer 1/4 inch gessoed masonite...it is strong, and for some reason the paint dries faster than on canvas, and it can be framed in an open wood frame, or in a regular frame with the glass out. When I am doing small 5x7-11x14 expressionistic palette knife pieces with thinner paint, I LOVE, believe it or not....watercolor paper. I love the way it looks with the grain of the paper, I can't get that look with canvas...and it dries even faster that masonite.
Kimberly

And....THANKS DEE:)

Nora Kasten, Question on Painting Supports

I have a question for all the oil painters out there.
What is your favorite canvas, board, paper etc. that you prefer to use for your paintings . .  . and why?


I prefer oil primed linen most of the time because the oil paint doesn't sink in like it does with acrylic primed canvas.  I like the way the paint strokes sit on top and hold their shape.


My last painting, (8"x8"xl") was painted on textured gallery wrapped canvas I'm experimenting with but it's not really to my liking.  
What are you artists out there using?  Nora Kasten

Kimberly, What a nice idea - a place to vent, offer support, and encouragement, etc. I love it!
Dee Sanchez

Okay...I will start.....I just found out today that I had all of my images on Fine Art America sized wrong...ugh....I will spend tonight taking them all off, and reloading them!!!!! Mistakes seem to eat up a lot of my time...:)