Do you price your art on your website / blog? (Poll Results)

More than half of you price your art when it is displayed on your website or blog.

The Making A Mark Poll for May looked at where you priced your art - specifically whether you priced your art on your website or blog.

Having just surfaced from an enormous art materials order, I'm not tangling with Excel to try and produce a chart as I know how long that takes!

However I have copied the results across - see below

Do you price your art on your website / blog? (Poll Results) 

Yes - website and blog	14 (18%)
Yes - website only	24 (32%)
Yes - blog only	4 (5%)
No - online auction site only	1 (1%)
No - other online sites only	6 (8%)
No - B&M galleries only	5 (6%)
No - studio only	8 (10%)
No - I do not price my art	12 (16%)

I only realised after the poll had started that I hadn't provided for an option which is "various places" since all the other options artists only price their art in one place.

Analysis

From the 74 people who responded to the poll, we can see that:

• 55% priced on website or blog
• the majority - 32% - prefer to price on their website only, in what is a more gallery-like environment.  Traditionally, this is where we have been more used to seeing prices.  
• 18% price on both website and blog
• while only 5% price on their blog alone
• 16% never price their art at all - online or attached to the real thing.
• 10% of you only price your art when selling from your own studio
• 9% price on other online sites only.  
• 6% have prices on their art in bricks and mortar galleries only

Pricing on your website or blog:  I think we can safely say that's not a result that would have applied ten years ago - or even five years ago.  As artists have got more used to using websites and blogs to showcase their art, people have become more relaxed about attaching price information.

Notwithstanding this, there's a decided preference for only pricing your art on your own website or blog.  

I was actually quite surprised that the percentage of people who are not pricing their art at all was as low as 16%.  I think I expected there to be more people who were painting for the fun of it without making any attempt to sell.  That suggests to me that more and more artists have grown used to seeing artists marketing their art and more and more are joining in.  However that's pure speculation on my part - even if it fits the poll results!

The studio is obviously a place where people also feel more comfortable about pricing their art.

It's very apparent that other online sites and galleries have not played a major part in capturing artists as clients.  However I do wonder, since people were only allowed one answer, whether those people using some of the daily painting sites maybe said they priced on their website or blog only.  

Which are the best books about oil painting?

I wonder how many would-be oil painters start, like me, by buying books and trying to get to grips with the basics before actually starting to grapple with the paint?

I've been a long time coming to oil painting.  It's not for the want of buying books about it!  I do like to read around a topic before jumping in!

Today over on Four Go Painting in Provence, I will be lisitng the oil painting books I've bought and why - some of which will travel to France.  

Take a look below if you want to see some of the books I've bought.

Books about oil painting and oil painters

Working out which are the best books about oil painting

I'm a huge believer in the wisdom of crowds - when they are speaking from their own personal experience - and I'm very interested in your personal views about which are the best books about oil painting.   

I did a similar exercise on this blog in relation to water colour painting last year - see Which are the best art books about watercolour painting?  It was absolutely fascinating what that threw up as books people raved about (eg Making Colour Sing by Jeanne Dobie - which has just been republished) and ones which people recommended very highly - and yet were ones which could not be found in the shops.

I'd also emphasise that this is about the best books which are available and is NOT about which books are in print.  Many excellent books are available online as used books and are well worth purchasing for their content.

With your help I'm aiming to develop a "resources for artists" listing of:

• 'The Best Books' of instruction in oil painting - for all types of abilities
• 'The Best Books' about artists painting in oils - past and present 

If your recommendation is used, you and your website and/or blog will be accredited with a link which should generate repeat traffic to your site.

Which oil painting books do you recommend?
 

I know I've bought books on the basis of recommendations by other artists when doing similar exercises on this blog.  I'd like you too to be able to share those recommendations - both in terms of giving and receiving

Identifying the best oil painting instruction books

If you would like to share your views, please TELL ME and the readers of this blog the answers to the following questions about books which have taught you about painting in oils and/or helped you to improve your knowledge and skills in painting in oils.

If it helps you, try giving them marks out of 10 to indicate how good they are and how you rank them in terms of value.

1. Personal preference: Which are your personal top three (or five or ten!) books about oil painting.  Ranking is good and reasons for your choice are most helpful
2. Beginners:  Which is the best book for somebody starting to learn to paint in oils - and why?
3. Improvers:  Which is the best book for somebody looking to improve their painting in oils - and why?
4. Advanced:  Which is the best book for a more experienced artist looking to refine their work - and why?

Identifying the best books about oil painters

Please share the book or books about oil painters which you have found most stimulating and helpful

29th May 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

"Self-Portrait - taking in the sun"
by Ohla Pryymak
selected for BP Portrait 2011
© Olha Pryymak

Many congratulations to Olha Pryymak (Olha Pryymak) who has had her self-portrait selected for the 2011 Exhibition of the BP Portrait Award - see BP Portrait award competition 2011 – shortlisted! on her blog.

That means that Olha is among the 55
selected artists to show out of 2,732 record applicants this year.  That's 0.02% of the entry.

This painting has also been chosen as one of the ones used to advertise the exhibition - and is currently being displayed on the Visit page of the NPG website.  It's also the feature portrait on the front cover of the NPG booklet about exhibitions and events at the National Portrait Gallery over the summer.

I was particularly pleased to hear this news as I've been encouraging Olha in her endeavours for some time.

Last Autumn we translated that into a formal mentoring relationship.  I took a look at her marketing activities and provided her with a report providing specific advice and action points relating to what I thought she needed to do next. Looks like it's working! :)

Maybe I need to think about doing a bit more of this?

That'll be something to mull over while I'm away - and you need to read the message at the end to find out why this is the last "who's made a mark this week" for a few weeks

In the meantime I'm still waiting to hear about the rest of the selected artists and I'm hoping to post the list before I leave for France next week.

Art Blogs

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Happy 30th Birthday to The Pencil Museum in Keswick which has been celebrating its 30th birthday this weekend.  Tweets indicate everybody has had a great time!  You can follow the Pencil Museum on Twitter  @pencilmuseum
• Casey Klahn (Pastel) writes about My Palette.  Some really good suggestions for different ways to collect pastel.  (It's a requirement - if you want to be a pastel artist - you have to have this deep-seated urge to collect colour aka pastels!)
• Contemporary Abstract Pastels
• I am so jealous of Vivien Blackburn.  She opened her door to the postman this week to find she had won a complete set of Lyra Rembrandt coloured Pencils! Read Second Prize - Lyra Polycolor set to find out why.
• Which is the most popular brand of Color Pencils?  This is your chance to have your say.  I created the site on Wizzley which is a new information webware site.  

Landscape

• Martin Stankewitz (How to draw a tree) 
• has published The new edition of “How to draw a tree”  I've got the first edition and it comes highly recommended by me.  
• You can also see in this post how he tackles Apple tree foliage – outdoor sketch in gouache colors
• Thanks to Deborah Paris for altering me to the post by Christopher Volpe (Christopher Volpe) on Corot's palette revealed! & notes on the ethereal colors of spring
• I wrote about A view of Box Hill, Surrey and English landscape painting on my landscape blog - and then posted the sketch I did of it at Tate Britain on my sketchbook blog Sketching the First Landscape

After George Lambert - A View of Box Hill, Surrey (1733) by George Lambert (1700 – 30 Nov. 1765)
pencil and coloured pencils in large Folio Sketchbook

 Painting

• Ruo Li is a Chinese artist whose painting “California Autumn” won the Gold Medal Award for Master Signature Members at the 19th National Juried Exhibition of Oil Painters of America.  Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) has reviewed his work - in Ruo Li.  I took at his website and it seems to me he's a master of perspective and tone.  Some paintings very much reminded me of Singer Sargent.
• Nancy Reyner (Nancy Reyner) author of Acrylic Innovation Styles & Techniques Featuring 64 Visionary Artists wrote a post last year about Transparent Layers - Glazing vs. Washes
• Keith Bond (Keith Bond Fine Art) - also writing last year - comments on the process he adopts for Creating a Studio Work From a Plein Air Study 

Plein Air Painting

I've had a major focus on plein air painting this week.  Naturally that has resulted in a few link being dropped into this post.

• Adebanji Alade has written about the Highlights of Peter Browns Solo Exhibition, "Bath Between the Snows"
• David Pilgrim (David Pilgrim Paintings and Drawings) is a p/t landscape artist based in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire and Valerie Pirlot (Valerie Pirlot - oil painter), a Belgian artist who lives in Bath and works in oil and pastels, have recently been part of a painting party which visited Cornwall.  Here are their respective posts: 
• Plein air adventures from Cornwall
• Cornwall Trip Part 1
• After lots of questions from me re oil paints, Vivien Blackburn (Painting Prints and Stuff) wrote yesterday about what materials and kit she packs for a plein air painting trip .  She also has a few tips - particularly for those of like Vivien and me who mobility difficulties.  Which is why I said she should share her excellent advice



Sketching Artists - P in Spain by Katherine Tyrrell

• Plein Air Painter - the relaunched plein air painting magazine - has a number of articles about intrepid plein air painters
• Artist profile: Joyce Lee which includes commentary on a plein air expendition to Yellowstone in winter
• Going to Extremes is an invitation for artists to send in photos of themselves in extreme plein air painting situations
• Paint the painter is an invitation from Steve Doherty to send in images of paintings done of plein air painters.  I've done a few drawings in my time (see ) but never a painting.  Maybe now is the time to start?

Next time you are participating in a plein air event, include one of the other plein air artists in your painting and send a photograph of the completed work to PleinAir™ Magazine.

• Charley Parker highlighted the blog, titled Judsons Plein Air Journal, inclides short profiles of the featured artists, along with sample images and links to their websites.

Printmaking

• Another new print blog this month - and thanks to Belinda who highlighted it to me.  This one is called Adventures in the Print Trade.  I was sold as soon as a I spotted the post Eric Ravilious: High Street variants

Art Business & Marketing

• Stapleton Kearns (Stapleton Kearns The demand surge and buy switch phenomenon - this is a Highly RECOMMENDED post.  As I commented, it just goes to show there's more to being an artist than painting and there's more to getting people to buy than painting a good painting. 

Art Competitions

• This week I posted the
• 2011 International Print Awards - Entries Deadline 6th June
• ING Discerning Eye 2011 - Call for Entries
• The Plein Air Journal also announced an art competition

Art Education

Tips & Techniques

• A post by Robert Dance about Painting Atmospheric Effects
• Deborah Secor wrote up pointers from the Seascapes class results

Workshops

• It's Workshop Week at the Mall Galleries.  Some have already sold out but move fast and you can still find a place.
  
• Sally Strand, whose workshops I highly recommend has a series coming later this year 
• August 18-21 Richeson School of Art  Kimberly, WI 
• October 17-21 Southern Vermont Arts Center Manchester, VT
• November 9-12  Pastel Society of Southern CA Redondo Beach, CA

Art Exhibitions

Major galleries

• MOCA's 'Art in the Streets' gets the big picture wrong The stylish exhibition mainly showcases the commercial legacy of graffiti, ignoring much of the form's cultural influence and L.A.'s role.
• Rooms with a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until July 4, 2011.
• an enthusiastic review of it on his site

Art Societies

• Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Annual Exhibition 29 April 2011 - 4 June 2011
• Master Circle Exhibition June 1-5, 2011Hispanic Arts Gallery Albuquerque, NM
  

Art Bloggers

• Johnny Morant (Johnny Morant) has consistently exhibited with the New English Art Club and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.  His second solo exhibition with the Tryon Gallery in St James, London can be seen between 7-17th of June.  He also ahas an interview in Art Of England Magazine.  Johnny is a London based figurative artist concerned with how light and space can be represented in oil.  You can see his work on his website. 

Pizza Chef by Johnny Morant - Tryon Gallery ( 7-17th of June)

Art History

• Many of you like me were fascinated by the Drawings Of Georgia in 1736

Art Supplies

• Stapleton Kearns has a couple of posts about supports for oil painting, what not to do and what he recommends
• an untitled post with a bunch of bullet points and specific recommendations
• priming and sizingwhich talks about priming canvas and boards
• I came across some posts from the past by Nancy Reyner writing about 
• Making Your Artwork Last  and  
• Archival Practices: Keeping Art Looking Great Longer
• Continuing my theme of research around what to take with me to Provence I've written three  posts
• Are Alkyd paints like real oil paints?
• Places to buy Pochade Boxes in the UK  
• My Art Materials - or why it's a good idea to take a car!
• I came across the fact that Gamblin Colors have a table which locates colours in colour space when checking out their alkyd colours
• Just spotted the Paint on AlterEasel - as described by Karin Jurick in Painting New York, NY & Easels.  Looks interesting 
• Patchings Art, Craft and Design Festival is on between 9th and 12th Junr (daily 10am to 5pm; Sunday until 4.30pm).  This has lots of art suppliers there, although I didn't notice a particularly marked discount on prices when I was there last year.
  

Art Books

• I'm going to be doing a post about oil painting books tomorrow.  Get your recommendations lined up please!

Art Videos

I posted a couple of videos from 2008 to The Art of the Landscape blog this morning - see Wolf Kahn - on painting and being a landscape painter

Webware, websites and blogging

• I don't study Google Analytics much, but there are some recent posts about the new beta version of Google Analytics.  You can follow them via the New Google Analytics label  
• The New Google Analytics Available to Everyone
• Custom Reports in the new Google Analytics
• Measure Page Load Time with Site Speed Analytics Report 
• New Google Analytics - Overview Reports Overview.  
• What’s new about Analytics Intelligence?
• Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, reported on  iPad Usability: Year One
• Wordtracker identified 25 reasons why another site will link to yours
• A useful slideshow presentation by Phil Hollows, Founder and CEO of FeedBlitz on list building for bloggers

and finally......

This will be my last "who's made a mark this week?" until July. 

I'm off to France on the 9th June and not returning until the 4th July.  Next weekend involves taking my cats to their holiday destination (my mother's house and garden) so I have half a chance of actually being able to get packed up and ready to go.

However - for those of you interested in such things - you can follow what our painters' house party gets up to in France in Four Go Painting in Provence as we will be blogging while we're there.

• This was the post introducing it on this blog - Four Go Painting in Provence
• Plus here's my challenge for the time away - Learning how to paint with oils in Provence

You can already check out my deliberations about what to take with me as we all start to get seriously geared up (as in lots of art materials) for some very focused creativity!  Sarah tells me she's planning five paintings a day!

I certainly know from past painting holidays that there is nothing quite like a concentrated period without domestic interruptions to make some progress both in terms of creating art and developing skill and style.

Are Alkyd paints like real oil paints?

The challenge I've set myself is to learn how to paint in oils while in Provence in June.  The results will be documented on Four Go Painting in Provence (see Learning how to paint with oils in Provence).

I've spent today finding out more about Alkyd Paint.  The reason for this is I'd prefer to be using a medium which dries more quickly. This is a summary of what I've found out - and some links to some useful sites.

Are Alkyds like real oil paints?  The answer is Yes - they just dry faster.

Manufacturers of Alkyd Paint

• Winsor & Newton - Griffin Fast Drying Oil Colour  
• This is the product leaflet - pdf file
• This is the page devoted to frequently asked questions
• Gamblin Artists Colours - Fast Matte Alkyd Oil Colour

Read on to find out more about how these paints behave.

ING Discerning Eye 2011 - Call for Entries

The Call for Entries for submissions to the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2011 has been published. The deadline for entries is 2/3 September in London - and dates in August for regional pick-up points around the UK

The exhibition is in London on 2 and 3 September 2011.  It enables lesser known artists to be hung alongside the work of artists who have an international status.

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition is a show of small works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics. Work is selected from open submission and also from artists invited by the individual selectors. Each section is hung separately to emphasise its own distinctive identity. The impression emerges of six small exhibitions within the whole.

How to enter

You are eligible to enter if you are an artist born in or resident in the UK

There are two ways to have your work exhibited

• either through submitting work via the open submission (see below for a summary).
• or by being invited by show work by one of the selectors - an opportunity which has been used in very different ways by different selectors in the past.

Read on to find out what you have to do