6 Great Reasons Why You Should Self-Publish Your Art

The decision to jump into the world of art publishing requires some research and a close look at your business and marketing goals. You might say “I don’t have time” or “I can’t afford it”.

I’m here to tell you, that you can’t afford not to. I hope that once you read this post you’ll learn how easy it is to get started publishing your art; and get excited about the new markets, added revenue and marketing opportunities that self-publishing can bring to your brand. …Read more

6 Great Ways to Make Your Sales Letter Memorable

Make a truly personal introduction to your new artworks and your art business by creating a dynamic sales letter.

In this post, find out how you can create a memorable sales letter that reflects your professionalism and most importantly, successfully promotes and sells your art to your target market. …Read more

How to avoid becoming overwhelmed by the Internet, so you can get back to creating art.

This post was inspired by a recent thread at Robert Genn’s www.painterskeys.com, where an artist wrote to Robert asking how he and other artists are coping with overwhelming visual content and the distraction of the internet.

Are you overwhelmed by the internet? How do artists cope with visual over-stimulation and not find themselves distracted when they are working online?

As an art professional, I earn my income from art so there is an important need to be productive, sell art and get paid. I’ll be honest and say that I have logged many hours on the internet. So much so, that there was a time you could call me an internet junkie. It’s an ongoing challenge to stay focused and not become distracted while working online. To make sure I stayed focussed on my work, I put these simple online rules in place for myself.

In this post I’d like to share my tips to help you stay focused on your art business, be more productive and get back to creating art. …Read more

6 Simple Tips for Marketing and Selling Your Art: Learn why you need to start marketing BEFORE your artwork is complete.

It’s one thing to create beautiful art, it’s another thing to produce art that is selling in the marketplace. Selling, marketing and P.R. all need to be in place before you finish that large artwork or body of work.

Take control of your future art sales, by following these 6 simple tips for marketing and selling your art.

…Read more

How to send big image files? 4 Solutions for getting your art files to your printmaker

The steady upgrade in megapixels for digital cameras is making it very difficult to move large photographic files around.

As a fine artist your immediate need lies with finding a way to get your artwork to your specialty service provider—your fine art printmaker, who may live out of your home town.

How do you send your big files off for printing?

In this post, learn about how you can transfer big image files, cost effectively, fast and on-the-move. …Read more

Creating Art that is Inspirational. How this photograph of Terry Fox changed a nation.

Photo journalist, Peter Martin didn’t go out that day to “make art”. What he did was create an image that tells an important story and continues to inspire us.

I am reminded a lot this week about fellow Canadian, Terry Fox and his courageous cross-Canada journey to raise money and awareness for Cancer. Seen in this photograph by Peter Martin. Terry is running in the early morning, the dramatic light of the headlights, his recognizable silhouette all tell a story of determination.

This photograph changed a nation.

Over 30 years later, my children along with many other Canadian school age kids ran for Terry—they were inspired to continue his fight for Cancer.

Many of us are on a continuous quest to “be inspired” or “find creative inspiration”. Instead of “looking for inspiration” how about we try-on creating something that is inspirational? …Read more

iphoneography: New Artform, Artist Tool or Fad?

Can (or should) you use your iphone for creating art? Is it a tool or just a phone? Tell us what you think after you read this post.

In this post, learn why artists are embracing the iphone. Get some great links to iphoneography galleries and applications (apps), See why this tiny device is soon to become a must-have for every artist. …Read more

The Stigma around the term Giclée

The term giclée was originally designed to separate non-archival (sign-quality) inkjet prints from archival art prints, created by a digital printmaking Master. (Learn the history of the giclee).

There is a stigma around the term “giclée”, largely due to its sorted past.

Shortly after inkjet art pioneer (aka Nash Editions, who coined the name “giclée) introduced the idea of using an inkjet printer for art (including photographs), big brands like Epson and HP jumped into the market with consumer-level printers aimed at amateur photographers—this was where the big money was.

Excited and enthusiastic, artists and professional photographers saw the possibilities for reproducing their work—everyone became fine art printmakers overnight.

Commercial photo-labs jumped on board (seeing inkjet as a future replacement for the wet/chemical process of photographic paper prints). Photo-labs had the resources to train staff in Photoshop and to purchase the high quality scanners and calibration tools, needed to produce exhibition quality artworks—it was a good fit.

At the same time, artists—with no digital training or high-resolution equipment—also purchased small format inkjet printers. These early users began to saturate the art market with low resolution and non-calibrated artworks. They used the term giclée to describe their reproduced artworks.

We need to remember that in the late 1990’s digital cameras did not produce high-resolution files. In order to create quality art, high resolution input was needed by way of very expensive flatbed or drum scanners. The difference in the scan (or input) dramatically affected the print quality and often did not truly match the original artwork. Lots of great art was being turned into the market as junk, called “giclée”.

Then things turned really bad for inkjet.

Unknown to everyone, many of the inks on the market were not archival! Longevity lab-testing was backlogged and instead of waiting for results, ink and paper manufacturers released inkjet products into the market prematurely. In their rush to gain market share, they exposed many early users (primarily those in the art community) to liability, huge expense and embarrassment.

To protect themselves from liability most commercial galleries created a no-giclée policy—which still stands today.

Since these dark days, longevity ratings have been performed on most inks and paper in the marketplace. Experts in the field have reinstated consumer confidence and inkjet is the lead method for reproducing fine art photographs and limited edition artworks. However, the tainted history of the “giclée” has not fully recovered—and artworks bearing that name may not ever be accepted by commercial galleries (art academics and collectors).

Tips for Describing Your Inkjet Printed Art

Hot Links and Tips for Submitting Your Art to Contests

If you think contests are for amateurs you are sadly mistaken.

The fact is that winning a contest means your work gets published. Getting published is good publicity, publicity is good marketing, good marketing leads to selling your artwork.

In this post, find hot links to sites that compile contests for artists and photographers. Learn why you should participate in this form of marketing and how it will benefit your art business. …Read more