a work in progress

Moondance: Celebrating Creative Women is a quarterly online magazine published by Women Artists and Writers International. This edition’s theme is Identify. The editor puts it to us this way: “Learning to sacrifice what is superficial for the essential. When we are open about our needs whether filled or unfulfilled we are able to achieve internal awareness and opening the mind to positive achievements.” The authors in this edition include Ursula K. LeGuin, Valerie Wilkinson, Kay Sexton, and Lucinda Nelson Dhavan, whose story my collage accompanies on the page above. Great reading. Click on the image to be taken to Moondance. Click here to view a larger image of Coming Apart.

The website for the Eureka Springs Artists Studio Tour is up! Click on the arrow above to find information on all the participating artists, including, moi, in what will be my fabulous new studio. I’ll post more info as the event approaches, but I though a little preview was in order, as I’m now devoting much of my time to creating my new studio. I’d like to have it completed by August so I can have a little private party for my collectors and friends and then get busy working in the wonderful new space before opening the doors to the masses the tour will bring the last weekend in September. Hope to see you there! My only regret is that I won’t be able to make the rounds myself. Oh, wait, there is party the Thursday before where you can meet all the artists and pick up a map. That should be fun.

While I was the Bentonville Art Walk on Saturday, my friend who is a wonderful carpenter installed the first window in the garage. This window is over 6 feet long and allows in plenty of light. It faces the back of the property and I love looking out and seeing the trees and vines. There is one more window to install and then the sliding glass door will make it feel more like a construction site and less like a garage. I am so excited to see this project come to life. I spent most of Sunday resting up from the Art Walk, did a little bookkeeping and made a list of materials I need for the new studio. I’m thinking of using the self-leveling concrete, although my inexperience with that makes me a little nervous. Please leave a comment  if you have any tips on using it.

The Bentonville Art Walk was a blast! I can’t say enough nice things about the event organizers’ artist hospitality or about the recent developments on the downtown Bentonville square. This little town is becoming very hip, it even offers free wireless internet! I met the owner of the coffee house who is now looking into offering my favorite cold brewed coffee and I got to browse through a teacher’s supply store that was incredible. The old buildings are in great condition and the charm is through the roof. Thanks to the phenomenal success of Bill Walton’s five and dime, lots of people have been moving into Bentonville over the past decade and the town is taking on a new cosmopolitan feel. I met people from all over the world and I noticed that many new small business are setting up shop, including a decidedly hip bike shop. The arts are booming as well, and with the development of the new Crystal Bridges Museum everyone is excited about becoming more involved in art. I enjoyed being in Bentonville and was happy with the sales of my prints as well as the new connections I made to galleries and artists. It was a really fun and successful show for me and I am enjoying the results of focusing my efforts into devloping as a painter. Who knew being focused could be this much fun! I don’t even miss doing the paper, furniture, or polymer clay work, although I am sure it helps to know that I will get to bring out all sorts of supplies for the creativity workshops I will hold in my new studio. Next post, I’ll get a photo of the new window that went in while I was at the show.

I will be exhibiting at the Bentonville Art Walk, Saturday, June 16th. In addition to original paintings, I will be offering my new prints and colorful square greeting cards. I hope you will come out and stop by to say hello. This year’s Art Walk on the downtown Bentonville Square promises to be the best yet, with many participating artists and extended hours from 10am-8pm. In addition to fine art, there will be a Kid’s Art Park with activities and music provided by nine diverse bands. Now I’m back to brainstorming a new display system. I’m getting close to the elegant solution I want.

Here’s the second set of painted faux windows done for the Oak Crest Cottages in Eureka Springs. It was like a paint by number, really, given that the client drew out just what she wanted done. Scroll way down if you want to see her diagram. Not too much artistic involvement on my part other than choosing just the right blue and red to go together and such. They must be nearing completion of their new cottages and I bet the themed decor will be a big hit with the tourists. For my part, I’m glad this project is behind me so I can get back to preparing for the next art show. It’s been rough working round the clock while trying to sqeeze in a little time to take the kids to the lake. I will definitely need some rest before the Bentonville Art Walk, but it won’t happen today.

Today, if the weather holds out long enough, I’ll be working on my display booth, assembling the brand new canopy, waterproofing it, and figuring out how I want the pretty display walls arranged. I also need to package some prints, as well as make some more. Somewhere in there, I’ll be sure to get in touch with all the folks on my mailing list to let them know about the show. Another day in the life of an artist! I wish I could just paint!

This story ends well. This morning, no baby raccoons were wandering around the area where my friends found them unattended in broad daylight. Momma must not have been the one in the ditch or perhaps they’ve been adopted. Whatever the outcome, it is good they are not in the care of humans and are far from the highway again. They probably live by the creek in that area which is loaded with crawfish.

That was a pleasant little distraction for me. Now, I’m up late catching up on printing I should have been doing while enjoying the lake with the kiddos today. Tomorrow will be busy, but I’m trying to get photos of the faux windows I finshed before they’re picked up so I can post them. Then I’ll have to begin to work on the display a bit. The new canopy needs waterproofing. I need sleep! Good night.

Another wonderful reason to live in the Ozark Mountains- wildlife. Everyday I get to see pileated woodpeckers, spotted fawns, chipmunks, armadillos, and other critters just by looking out the window. I tried to get a photo of the mother deer and her tiny baby the other day, but that baby was impossible to get a shot at. Mom sure was good at hiding it. The spots and coloring helped, too. This evening, just after I gleefully finished painting those faux windows I was lucky to see these three little raccoons and get some photos to share. One last picture offered in hope that the momma was not the raccoon spied in the ditch earlier. We’ll find out in the morning.

All together now, AAAWWWW!

Summer’s here and I am thinking a lot about how and when I can go see my family. My sister goes on a fishing trip each year and I had hoped to take my godson down to join her in the fun at sea, but it fell on the same weekend as EVERYTHING up here, including the White Street Art Walk. This year I’m putting business first so we really missed out and I’m having a hard time finding the right time to be able to get away. That’s not slowing down my sister. Yesterday my mom took her to a camp she’s been attending each summer for over half her life. She’ll spend a week with old friends doing cool things like horesback riding and the ropes course. Amazing! The photo shows my sister and mom and aunt along with George the pelican who regularly visits the fishing boat for handouts.

Professional artists must price their work the same everywhere they sell. There is a cost of selling whether a dealer or gallery handles the sale for you, you jury into a show and pay for a 10′ x 10′ space, or you sell in an online venue. The only difference is WHO spends the time and effort to sell the paintings or prints, you or your representative. Price is best determined by formulas and customers are most comfortable when there is some transparency to the pricing structure.

Some people will always price their work at hobby rates because art is their hobby. As a professional, that should not be a factor in how you price your art. My guideline for thinking about the competitive nature of selling art is to always remember that by remaining true to my values, honing my craft, and providing excellent communication I provide my best service to my clients.

What is your strategy or philosophy?

There has been some discussion among the members of the Visual Artist Street Team at Etsy regarding the decision to offer prints. I was writing the group a really long letter about my decision to offer and create my own prints when I realized that I have learned quite a few things about the world of fine art printing that may be helpful to others. So here is a list of things for artists to consider as they venture into the world of fine art prints.

• Many artists offer prints up to 80% of the size of the original to preserve the uniqueness of the original and justify its higher price. This seems like a good principle to me in light of the demand for prints on canvas and the quality of those prints. I’ve adopted this rule for myself.
• The retail cost of a fine art print is typically determined by multiplying the artist’s cost by five or six. This works especially well for open editions, which require much less bookkeeping and time tending to stock. I offer open edition prints for some of my paintings and limited editions for others. Initially I will print some proofs and offer them to see what items others are interested in-it doesn’t always match with what I like best. Then I select which items will run in a limited edition and determine the breakdown of sizes for that print. Because I want everyone to enjoy the same price, I do not increase the cost of limited edition prints until I reach the last five prints in a run. This allows me to slow down sales and keep a larger selection in stock. I also choose to allow people to order prints on demand of paintings which are not in a limited edition. That is to say, if I have created a painting, a print of it will be available to anyone who asks. I want my images to find their way to the places they belong. Pricing is always determined by a formula and there are never any surpise this way. Not to say prices will never increase, but they will only increase across the board as my costs of selling increase.
• Your cost includes a lot of materials you may not have considered, since you will have to package your prints. I use acid-free foam core and clear bags. I cut most of my foam core myself, but it can also be ordered pre-cut. There are less expensive ways to package prints, but the difference in quality is far greater than the difference in price. I decided my customers will get the best available for print conservation because that is a big factor in my choice of inks and papers. I also enclose a business card and apply a printed label for indicating the size and price to the back of the bag. Small cost for a professional touch.
• Prints are typically signed in pencil just below the image. Title aligned with left edge of print, signature to right. If it’s a limited edition the number goes to the right of the title.
• Most prints will be framed with a white border showing around all sides such that the title and signature will be seen. Make sure to account for this when you order your prints.
• Unframed and unmatted prints seem to sell better. A friend of mine who owns an art gallery has noticed that if a print is offered with a matte in one color, some people have a difficult time imagining it in a different color. Too many color choices can be daunting and halt a sale as well. Like many artists today, I do not matte my prints. They look great with their white border showing in their clear bags. I do frame some of my square prints, however, and while they are for sale, I do this more as an example of the types of off the shelf frames which are available for square images.
• When deciding which sizes to offer (and maybe even to paint in) it’s a good idea to take into consideration the standard sizes of mattes and frames. It’s a good selling point if the gallery staff can say “That will fit a standard 16″ x 20″ frame.” I’ll post a list of standard sizes later.
• Photographic papers offer phenomenal quality and longevity, but unless your paintings are truly off-beat, an off-beat paper can hinder your sales. Although most art buyers do not handle the packaged print, matte paper with some weight to it is preferred. I have posted an entry with a photo about some of the papers I’ve been experimenting with and you can read that here.
• Good prints require excellent scans or photographs. The best printer in the world can only print the information it is given. You must start with a very high quality image to get a very high quality print. 72dpi works great for the web but printed image should have 150- 300 depending on the size of the print. So much has been written about resolution, dpi, ppi, cmyk, sRGB that I don’t see a need to go into it here. If this a foreign language to you, your foray into creating fine art prints will begin with photographing your work. Tripods are good, sometimes I even use mine! I use natural light, fill the frame with the image, highest res setting possible and shoot bracketed images.I don’t want to alter my work digitally, I’m funny like that. I don’t like doing this part of my job at all, but I LOVE that we’re digital now and when I resent the photo shoots I remind myself of the days when waiting for slides to come back made the task even more trying.
• Prints, reproductions, giclees…giclee is just french for spraying a liquid! It’s a high resolution ink jet print. It can be on paper, canvas, or even silk and linen. Not just any ink jet printer can produce the resolution demanded by fine artists, but many of the desktop photo printers can produce the resolution. The newest technologies are further defined by the size of the droplets of ink being sprayed (expressed in picoliters) and the main thing to consider when ordering your prints is the quality and compatibility of the inks and papers. I suggest pigment inks for their permanence and at least a six color process. You may notice that the large format printers used to produce huge prints offer a lower resolution and larger droplets than the Epson R1800 that I use. They are still excellent quality and probably the best available for their size. The printer I use prints up to 13″ x 44″. I chose it on the advice of professional photographers who said the quality of the output far surpassed their (former) photo labs. This is more than you need to know if you are ordering prints and keeping things as simple as possible.

That’s it for now, but there may be more in my head! So if you have any questions you can ask them here and I will try to answer. I’m still learning lots about turning paintings into fine art reproductions.