Expanding an art gallery into new locations or markets is a thrilling venture that combines artistic passion with strategic business acumen. As a gallery owner, it’s important to approach this expansion thoughtfully to ensure success and sustainability. Here are key strategies that can guide you through this exciting journey.
Creating a mural is a labor of love, blending artistic vision with the practicalities of outdoor execution. One of the most unpredictable challenges muralists face is the weather. Rain, wind, extreme temperatures—they all have the potential to disrupt timelines and affect the quality of the artwork. So, how do muralists keep their projects on track when Mother Nature has other plans? Let’s explore some tried-and-true strategies.
High-quality photographs of your canvas art are essential for showcasing your talent, attracting buyers, and building an online presence. Here’s a guide to help you capture and share your work effectively.
Collaborating with famous or emerging artists can elevate your artistic career, boost creativity, and expand your audience. Here are practical steps to establish these valuable partnerships, along with insights and strategies from experienced professionals.
Artists often face the challenge of feeling that their work goes unappreciated or misunderstood, which can be discouraging, especially in an industry that’s highly subjective. However, several strategies can help transform these feelings into positive momentum. Here’s how to handle underappreciation while maintaining a focus on growth and fulfillment.
As a muralist, balancing your artistic vision with client expectations can be a challenge. Whether you’re working on a public art commission or a private project, it’s crucial to maintain creative control while delivering a result that satisfies everyone involved. Here are some practical strategies to help you safeguard your artistic integrity without compromising on professionalism.
Gaining recognition in the art community is a goal for many artists, but it requires more than just producing excellent work. Building respect among peers, collectors, and critics involves consistent effort in self-promotion, networking, and personal development. Here are key strategies that can help you achieve acknowledgment and respect as an artist.
In the vibrant artistic community of Austin, TX, painters thrive on a diverse array of commission projects that fuel their creativity and sustain their livelihoods. From murals adorning city walls to personalized portraits capturing cherished memories, artists in Austin use various strategies to secure commission work and establish meaningful connections with clients.
Networking. Start locally. Connections within the local art scene is important in establishing your mark in the industry. Austin boasts a rich cultural landscape teeming with galleries, art festivals, and community events, providing ample opportunities for artists to showcase their work and forge connections with potential clients.
By actively participating in exhibitions and engaging with fellow artists and art enthusiasts, painters can expand their professional networks and attract the attention of individuals seeking commissioned artwork.
Networking is also a great way to discuss about canvas suppliers, paint brands, and painting tips and techniques.
Social media. Everybody uses social media for personal and professional needs. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok plays an essential role in connecting Austin’s painters with commission projects.
With social media, Austin artists share their portfolios, behind-the-scenes glimpses of their work in progress, and promote their services to a wide audience. Through strategic use of hashtags, targeted outreach, and engaging content, painters can cultivate an online presence that resonates with potential clients and generates inquiries for commission work.
Collaboration. Artists in Austin often collaborate with local businesses, organizations, and homeowners to bring their artistic visions to life through commissioned paintings and installations.
From coffee shops and restaurants to schools and community centers, establishments across Austin embrace the transformative power of art to enhance their spaces and engage with their patrons.
By proactively reaching out to businesses and pitching their ideas for custom artwork, painters can secure commission projects that not only showcase their talents but also contribute to the cultural fabric of the city.
Referrals. Satisfied clients serve as valuable source of commission projects for painters in Austin. They are often eager to recommend the artist to friends, family, and colleagues seeking similar services.
In addition to providing beautiful canvas art, artists maintain positive relationships with clients and provide good customer service since a sale of an artwork doesn’t end at the installation of the painting.
These are just a few ways how artists in Austin get commission work. In this thriving artistic hub, commission projects serve not only as opportunities for painters to showcase their talents but also as a tool for enriching the cultural tapestry of Austin.
Finger painting is an art activity usually associated with children. Kids love to play with paint, mix different colors, and put them on paper. You’ll get messy art, filled with an assortment of colors, which ends up on the refrigerator door. It may seem a childish endeavor but there is an artist who is creating a buzz in the art world for her beautiful finger paintings.
Iris Scott is an American professional painter who, by chance, realized the wonders of using fingers in applying paint on canvas. In 2009, after college, Iris decided to have a sabbatical to paint without distractions, without any worries. She rented a small studio apartment in Taiwan with a great view of the ocean. Taiwan, being a tropical country, experiences hot, humid weather. The communal sink of the building was located in an area where there was no air conditioning. She had to go out of her air conditioned room to be able to clean her paint brushes. It was such an inconvenience, having to leave her work in a cool place just to wash her brushes under the heat. Then, a serendipitous moment happened. Iris thought she could just use her fingertips to apply paints, without needing her brushes. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Iris admits that washing paint brushes has never been her strong point, so finger painting definitely is perfect for her. She uses surgical gloves when painting, achieving the correct color quickly. Instead of going out of her room to wash her brushes, she just wipes her gloved hands with paper towels and she can use another paint color in an instant. Once she starts painting, her fingers flawlessly dance across the canvas, like a pianist’s hands.
When she has inspiration to paint, she quickly sketches it out and paints immediately. Wearing her purple latex gloves, Iris applies paint directly from the tube. She keeps the paints thick and raw, preferring to use several shades and colors instead of mixing paints together.
Iris’ oeuvre is categorized as Post-Impressionist, with life as the main theme. She says that her paintings are similar to those of Edvard Munch, Vincent van Gogh, and Claude Monet.
For new artists, Iris advises that they should save enough money to take a year or two just painting everyday. Like her, leaving your comfort zone and living out of the country to focus on painting is best. Improve your skills and techniques, targeting to paint on a daily basis. This year-off is not for sight-seeing and pleasure only.
Image source: www.irisscottprints.com
W.M. Flinders Petrie, a British archaeologist has discovered the Fayum in the years between 1887 and 1889. Fayum is a sprawling oasis region 150 miles south of Alexandria wherein he excavated a vast cemetery from the first and second centuries A.D., when imperial Rome ruled Egypt, he found scores of exquisite portraits executed on wood panels by anonymous artists, each one associated with a mummified body. Petrie eventually uncovered 150.
Mummy portraits have been found across Egypt, but are most common in the Faiyum Basin, particularly from Hawara and Antinoopolis, hence the common name. “Faiyum Portraits” is generally thought of as a stylistic, rather than a geographic, description. While painted Cartonnage mummy cases date back to pharaonic times, the Faiyum mummy portraits were an innovation dating to the Coptic period on time of the Roman occupation of Egypt.
Most of the preserved mummy portraits were painted on boards or panels, made from different imported hardwoods, including oak, lime, sycamore, cedar, cypress, fig, and citrus. The wood was made smooth and cut into thin rectangular panels. The finished panels were set into layers of wrapping that enclosed the body, and were surrounded by bands of cloth giving the effect of a window-like opening through which the face of the deceased could be seen. Portraits were sometimes painted directly onto the canvas or rags of the mummy wrapping (cartonnage painting).
By now, nearly 1,000 Fayum paintings exist in collections in Egypt and at the Louvre, the British and Petrie museums in London, the Metropolitan and Brooklyn museums, the Getty in California and elsewhere.
For decades, the portraits lingered in a sort of classification limbo, considered Egyptian by Greco-Roman scholars and Greco-Roman by Egyptians. But scholars increasingly appreciate the startlingly penetrating works, and are even studying them with noninvasive high-tech tools.
At the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen, scientists recently used luminescence digital imaging to analyze one portrait of a woman. They documented extensive use of Egyptian blue, a copper-containing synthetic pigment, around the eyes, nose and mouth, perhaps to create shading, and mixed with red elsewhere on the skin, perhaps to enhance the illusion of flesh.
Stephen Quirke, an Egyptologist at the Petrie museum and a contributor to the museum’s 2007 catalog Living Images, says the Fayum paintings may be equated with those of an old master—only they’re about 1,500 years older.
Doxiadis has a similar view, saying the works’ artistic merit suggests that “the greats of the Renaissance and post-Renaissance, such as Titian and Rembrandt, had great predecessors in the ancient world.”
Image source: commons.wikimedia.org
