I Can Ride My Bike With No Handle Bars

Posted on October 8, 2008 by Emma

  

Photo by Mokolabs

Well actually I can’t, but what I am referring to is the insanely catchy song ‘Handlebars‘ by Denver hip hop band the Flobots.

What made this song get so much airplay in the UK was that it is unlike other songs out there in the commercial sphere at the moment.  It’s not run of the mill.  It’s like a mantra starting off quite banal moving to strong political imagery. 

The song catches you off guard, and you can’t help but notice it.  People seem to either love it or hate it. It inspires discussion and has qualities that most other songs don’t have.   It is original.

What’s this got to do with the visual arts?  Continue reading →

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Kate Moss ‘Siren’ – Friday Inspiration

Posted on October 3, 2008 by Emma

Surprise and delight…that’s what I felt seeing the unveiling of the sculpture of supermodel Kate Moss at the British Museum by sculptor Mark Quinn.

Life size, contorted into some crazy ‘feet behind the head’ yoga position, the 18 Carat Gold Kate Moss sits serene, all 50Kg of her.  

When the news article started I expected a kind of Madame Tussauds standing rendition in Gold, however the stunning position the sculptor has chosen really was a lovely surprise.  Continue reading →

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Should Artists Blog or have a Website?

Posted on October 1, 2008 by Emma

Photo by Davic

What to choose….? The ideal, I think, is probably both.  A blog for posting artwork as it becomes available for sale, or showing work in progress, and an art website for displaying your art professionally and coherently.

I’ve been looking at what artists who are successfully selling online are doing.  One strong trend is posting your art as it becomes available for sale onto your blog, with a link to an online auction of that same piece. Continue reading →

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Friday Inspiration – Women in Art

Posted on September 26, 2008 by Emma

I know it may seem like I’ve become a YouTube-aholic, due to the amount of video’s I’ve posted in recent blog posts, but this clever video by Phillip Scott Johnson is simply a treat to watch.

The faces of women in art morph in and out of each other in skillful transistions that seem like they are alive and moving around towards the camera.  Enjoy….

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Afremov Selling Art Like Crazy!

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Emma

If you want to sell your art you’ve got to look at who’s selling a lot of art and work out their ‘secrets’, then use your findings for your own art practise.

Israeli born, Afremov creates unique landscapes, cityscapes and figures using a palette knife rather than a brush to paint.  His paintings are vivid and textural and he is obviously very prolific.

Definitely Leonid Afremov is consistently selling his art, with at least 2 original oil paintings finishing daily on eBay along with ‘Buy it Now’ Giclees selling regularly.  The originals on eBay are selling for £160 – £375 ($270 – $639) with the textured Giclees selling for £134 ($230) upwards. Continue reading →

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Who’s Still Buying Art?

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Emma

Corine by Daniel Peci

Well some people are despite the current economic melt down.

Art is a luxury item, so of course the majority of people will rein in their spending of luxury goods as the stream of bad news on the economy continues. 

However “people with money, always have money”, so says Dick Harrison in his excellent Podcast When the going gets tough, the tough get going .  They are not affected by the economic turmoil to the same degree as the average person, and it makes sense to focus your marketing efforts to attract these buyers to your art. 

How can you introduce your art to more of these art buyers?  How can you make it easy for these buyers to buy from you?  Continue reading →

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The Subtle Sell of Social Media

Posted on September 23, 2008 by Emma

Since my post about how artist Jason Baalman uses YouTube to promote and sell his art, I’ve been pondering over the interesting concepts of how the Subtle Sell is the key with Social Media. 

On the WetCanvas forum, when queried why he didn’t have a very obvious sales pitch, Jason discussed the fact that viewers go to YouTube to be entertained and that “blatant salesmanship would hamper what is needed to reach a level of success on YouTube”. Continue reading →

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Small Art Shows for Big Profits

Posted on September 22, 2008 by Emma

Just wanted to throw into the ‘How to Sell Your Art’ mix a recent experience of an Artist friend of mine. 

She exhibited three paintings at a local RNLI (lifeboat charity) exhibition recently, that was held during a local festival for two days only + an opening evening.  From this she sold one painting, however after the exhibition she was contacted by two further buyers.  Continue reading →

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YouTube to Market and Sell Your Art – Jason Baalman Style

Posted on September 19, 2008 by Emma

I first stumbled across the artist Jason Baalman via the Wetcanvas Forum as he did a post about Being successful on eBay…year long study and I found him to be very informative in his analysis of what worked and what didn’t work with selling art on eBay. 

 

However since then he has discovered YouTube as the best way to market his art, with novel portrait competitions that really pull in the YouTube crowds.  His user name is EclecticAsylumArt and from starting with YouTube back in February 2007, he now has 73 videos of him producing his portrait art, some in crazy materials. He has a massive 39,259 subscribers to his videos, with his profile page having been viewed 1,255,180 times (each video also having huge viewing figures). Continue reading →

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To Tweet or Not to Tweet, that is Question?

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Emma

Too Much Info! Woman holding her fingers in her earsNot posted in quite some time…been extremely busy dealing with another priority but I read a great post on Clint Watson’s blog about artists using  Twitter entitled ‘A Spectacular Way to Avoid Doing What Really Matters’ , and it re-energised me to get blogging again.

In a post in response to Clint’s article, one artist suggested he might be being short sighted about the benefits for artists in using social media.  Here’s my response, which pretty much sums up my thoughts on Twitter: Continue reading →

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