Popular Paintings to Sell Now!

                As an artist , and I mean a working artist and
successful artist,sometimes it's necessary to paint toward popular
trends.

    Artist can make a lot of money by painting and selling home décor trends and decorating art trends.

    This does not mean that you are selling out of your artist inner self. It just means you want to eat and pay some bills.


    You are an artist and artist create art . So create some art and make some money.


     The two hottest art trends today in paintings are:   The tree of life art works and the Abstract non objectionable paintings.



      My favorite thing to do, is to take the hottest trend and brand these into my painting style.

        Starting with the  tree of life  art works. Now these paintings

 are not a original art concept just recently created. This theme of

the tree of life with the swirls and colored circles originally came  from the Artist  Gustav Klimt. 

Look him up he was a early 20th century painter. 

So now your guilt is over.

You no longer have to worry about stealing someone else's idea or style.

Gustav Klimt is the artist that painted THE KISS and he also painted the Tree of Life.

So take some of your style and put it with his concept.

This concept can go any where and any way.

Offer these to your emailing customers or market them locally on your swap shops or craigslist.

You might even get request for these paintings in certain home

 décor color schemes. Or you can advertise  that you  can paint

these  in color schemes your customer  request.

And the last place is your online presence. Whether, that consists of your website , facebook, or Etsy store.


So , I hope I helped in helping you sell and make some Money. 

Next time we will talk about Abstract non objectionable paintings.

  Woo! Hoo!  Sell some art.
 

 

 

 

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How to make Garden-Yard Art from old tires!

 

 

 

 

Living the art life not only involves painting and marketing your art work.

  It also involves  creating in everything you do.

 

 I know when you love art , we find it popping up in every part of our lives that we touch.

 So as a true artist and I know you are the same ,

 I just had to do the  creative thing  in my garden/yard.

 

So this is one of my hobbies besides painting and my true artist colors ,LOL, came out in this yard art creation.

 

I decided to share it with ya'll , sorry for sharing my heritage as a true southerner,  and I am going to let you know what it cost me and how I did it for free.

 

 

So here goes, I had some old tires laying around our farm and instead of getting rid of them

 

 I decided to recycle them in the form of my yard art. LOL!

 

Finding your tires are the first step to creating this Bird feeder, old tire flower bed!

 

It takes four 15 inch tires.

If you do not have these at home call your local county  recycle resource or the county dump and ask if they have any tires in their resource facilities.

I don't know if they will donate them to you  or you can buy them ,but its worth a try.

 

Especially if you tell them you are recycling for a garden yard art projects.

 

 

So this is the free step.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, after you obtain your tires you will need a big drill bit.

Take your drill with bit and drill holes on the top side of the tires. All around the circumference or circle of the tire.

 

 

Gather your paint, four quarts of desired colors at Walmart.

 

 

These costs me about 8.00 to 10.00 dollars a piece.

I used a coral red, a yellow orange, and a green mint  color to paint my tires.

 

You will also need:

 

                                                                                                      

 8 bags of 2.00 dollar top soil.

Two bags for each tire.

 

And 8 of the 8 container  impatient flowers.

Two containers for each tire.

 

These cost about 1.84 and total of  16.00 dollars with tax.

 

Get a landscape timber, or two by four.

 

These usally cost about  2.00 to 3.00 each . you will only need one.

 

Make sure it is treated for the outdoors.

 

A sack of bird seed  about 3.00.

 

I began by drilling the holes in the tires.

 

I then ,cleaned them with dish washing detergent and a scrub brush.

 

This is easy if you place the tires on a wood palette.

 

 The wood palette helps you to let them dry and then paint them.

 

After they dried I painted each one their different colors  three coats.

 I let them dry and I just painted them on one side all the way down to the ground.

I left the bottom unpainted where they would sit on the ground.

 

I placed  three  on the ground where I wanted them .
Then I stacked one tire on top of the other in the middle.

Look at pick.

 

The tire that is not stacked and lays flat on the bottom of the ground doess not have a bottom.

 

 The tire on top of the other has a bottom.

I placed a 5 gallon bucket lid in the bottom  to keep the  dirt in the tire.

You could use  an old piece of wood inside the tire  or other.


 

Next, I poured the bags  of top soil and planted the flowers inside the tires.

 

After I planted the flowers I dug a whole behind the middle of the tires and packed  my two by four or landscape timber in the ground.

 

 

This Bird feeder I found at a yard sell for 3.00.

YOU can use all kinds of items to nail to your two by four: A water pitcher, A large painted tin can, an old wooden box.

Be creative and just paint what ever you find the color you desire of the four colors.


So, That's it  on the Yard -Art project .

This was very economical and only took one day to make, after I got my supplies.
Now sometimes  I can sit in the yard during our Bar-B -Ques and Enjoy mu creation .

Until it needs to be painted again in another 30 years. LOL.

 

Thanks for reading and good luck  arting! 

 

 

 

 

 

 P.S. This is one of my paintings!
You can go to my websites above and look at my art.


I also have  another project I would like to do !

Its the chair picture below!

                                 Possible Next yard art project!!!!

                            See Yah Next Time !

How to choose the right brand of Acrylic Paint!

     You know , we get into this nit pick about ,what brand  and type of Acrylic paints should we use on our paintings.

 And some artist suggest a real expensive brand while other artist will paint with very inexpensive brands.


  We'll not all of us are sure what to use. But this is what I know and this is how I figure the brand I will paint with  my paintings. 


 The facts are these:

       1. Some acrylic paints will dry fast and  some will dry slower.
 Many Acrylic brands come in what they call, soft body, medium body and heavy body. This is some of the reasons why the acrylic paints will dry faster than others.

This means  if the paint is soft bodied it is more likely to be  thin paint ,translucent or near translucent. It is basically used to glaze or create a shadow effect over your paintings ,where you need shading. It will not be thick enough to cover another color .  And it will not leave a texture that you might want to create with a brush or  a painting knife.  This type paint will have  a pretty light fast drying time. Some artist like that and some don't.

The acrylic paint that is ,medium body paint is a little bit thicker . It can be used to mix with other  colors and it dries fast but not lightfast.  It can be used in different techniques but will not have very much texture and not recommended for knife painting. And it will be able to be mixed with another color to create a different .

The  heavy body acrylic paints are very thick. They are usually used to paint knife paintings and used  in  specific painting .most artist that  want to create a texture to their painting will use the heavy body paints.  Some artist that do not paint with paint knives or do not  want a texture , will use this type of paint for coverage. I mean they will use this thick paint to cover over existing paint in the picture because that is their style .However, if they are not trying to cover another color they will use an acrylic liquid mix called a medium with this paint to thin it  and make it more flowing.  Some of  these heavy acrylic paints will set up fast, but still take a long time to permanently dry.  So the style of painting that you  do  ,will depend on whether you will like using the heavy body paints.

A lot of artist will use heavy  bodies acrylics , thinking  they will thin them with water or an acrylic medium and last longer . Economically  this is a good idea, but  they some times do not use them up and sitting for a long time will dry them out.





2  Another thing we know about acrylic is that  sometimes the colors will yellow over time.




Acrylic brands of paint will  tell you they have a longer lasting use and will not yellow.

These are the paints to buy. The brand that grantees the non yellowing paint are sympathetic to professional artist needs.


Artist don't want their names tarnished with  customers complaining about yellowed paintings after a couple months.

3.    Acrylic paint is sometimes inter- mixable or sometimes not.


Whether its the intense color or whether it is to translucent . Always look at the description of the brand to see if it is capable of mixing  or not, with other colors.  And sometimes once again this will depend on if it is a soft body, medium body, or heavy body.


What is most important  is to  choose the type of body of  paint  that is perfect for your style, technique and for your needs to create your paintings.

Do you need a soft body paint?

Do you need a medium body paint?

Do you need a hard body paint?

Remember soft body is for glazes or painting acrylic like a watercolor.

Medium is for a traditional artist that wants to cover other colors on their canvas ,but have no texture or very little texture on the canvas

 Heavy body paint is for artist who like texture in their art work and  or  create with paint knives.

 Always consider your intensity and hue of the brands paint. If you love rich and bright intensity in your paintings , go for the brand that grantees this and grantees no yellowing after time.

If you are the artist that likes the painting to mellow out after painted then you will not use the high intensity brand. Go with the flow.

I have my own personal that meets most of these requirements.

I will not disclose this brand because I would like to get your feedback on your favorite brand and why.

Go ahead tell us.








 

Selling Art Smarter and Better!

Are you a Smart Seller?  Are you a Better Seller?

Do you Have the Know How to sell your art?

Do You have the know how to market your art

 Are you frustrated? Are you searching for some kind of strategy?
Are you worried your a good artist or just a flop?

Can you see a solve  your problems to  Have a successful career in art .

Well , lets just step back a minute, look and what your doing and see what you can do to be better and smarter?.

The Best way to understand if you are marketing your self smart  and selling better is to ask your self a couple of questions?

 1.What has been my income in the past six months? 

2. What have I been selling in the last six months?

3. Do I sell more seasonal Items ,at seasonal times ?

4. What months are my highest sales?

5. What items by subject or technique ,am I selling most?



How do you come up with these answers?

 Tracking and Record keeping?

Ughhhhhhhh! and AHHHHHH!


I know , I know!  This is time consuming and sometimes we think we need to spend more times making our art!


If you are not recording what you are selling, through an online sales website or just writing  down  your sales in a notebook, especially local sales . Then you need to.


Record keeping will help you decide what you are selling and what you are not selling.


It can even tell you when to sell certain paintings or not to sell certain paintings.


And it is an outstanding marketing answer to your survival of your business.




So , Let me give you a few steps to getting a answer to your business questions by recording your sales.



You will need to list your Sales by these Categories:


Description

Style or technique


Date /Especially month


Buyer /Email and Address


Reason : Christmas, Fathers day, mothers day,
 Valentine,   Discount Sale,
Football ,Fourth of July, NA,  Back to school

Season : Winter, Fall , Spring, Summer


Price/Size


medium:  Acrylic, Watercolor, Etc.




                                                       Smart ART
                                  TEMPLATE/CHART



Below I have a blank template for  recording your sales .

And another for summarizing your  records.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These categories will help you understand what your selling and also build your clientele.


                                   DESCRIPTIONS


Descriptions of what you sell, what style , medium, and size will

 tell you art work  your customers are wanting. This will also


almost determine your target market group. Once you get an

 overall  record of at least six months, you will be able to identify

 who you are selling to and what they like to buy.


If you are starting out or starting back to marketing, and business is slow, research the first six months and then go onto a 12 month record.

                                       PRICE

The Price  you sell your art ,will tell you what your market is willing to pay for your art. 

  Okay , I know that we all want to make a lot of money on our paintings , NO longer are there artist that paint a picture and wake up to sell it for a million dollars.

 It takes time and a lot of ,one on one mingling ,through galleries and High class consumers , before you become a millionaire artist. 

 You can make a descent income and a good income if you offer the public good prices for your art.

  There are so many artist out there selling these days. So the competition is high.

  And the ones that are successful are the ones that are the smart marketers tracking their sales.

                              Buyer Info

Not only will this give you an opportunity to have  repeat buyers. It

 gives you the chance to make newsletter, email lists, and discount

 sales event flyers.

Your buyer info will  tell you what your target group likes to buy .

And you can come up with all kinds of  marketing strategies of what to paint and that  sales.

    Even  ,when to paint and sell, where to paint and sell, and why.

 You can even ask for a survey form your customers and offer

a free painting for their info.


Later I will discuss in another blog post surveys and what to ask  to

get all the marketing ideas you need.


                               SEASON , DATE, REASON

Tracking the date and season  of your sale , will help to build inventory for your seasonal sale such as Christmas , fathers day, Mothers day,etc.
 
Even tracking the date will tell you when to have your specific  art

 ready. When will they start buying. When do you need to send

flyers to your customers about placing orders.  Or when to launch

 your Newsletters informing your customers of  what you are 

 offering for the holidays: Halloween, Christmas,  Easter, Fathers day, Mothers Day.
 etc.

Why I use the reason category is to let me know , if there is any other kind of  marketing opportunities I need to address.


Such as ,the end of July  and First of August I sell a lot of College

Mascot paintings to college students  for dorm rooms.  And I sell to

 a lot of students  going to school for the first time or back to

school.  So I will list these sales as  back to school mascot under

 the reason.

Another reason category are weddings: Many people want wedding

 portraits, or just wedding tree paintings of their initials.

This lets me know of the possible popular month I might have

opportunities to sell wedding painting items.



                             Technique / Style


I list the items as Cow paintings, Truck paintings, Tree painting, Birds Paintings,Sunset paintings, Red barn paintings , Chicken paintings.

 A lot of times this helps me realize that some things I sell all year and I need to always have some painted on my website.


Then , Style is important too. If you have any special style you are

 painting , such as , abstract impressionism, sling painting, sponge

background , etc.

                               ------------------------------------

So , these are   my strategies on being a smarter and better marketer

of  your art .  Hope it helps and I am sure you will be able to

develop a perfect business plan  to make lots of art mula! Good

luck !! LOL

HOW TO PACKAGE AND MAIL YOUR ART ECONOMICALLY!



 

 

 

There is no big secret to  mailing your art work safely . Packaging and taking care of your work is a  practical idea for you and your customer. The better you package your art the more people appreciate it and you. It looks more professional and helps your art business to become reputable.

However, shipping and packing affordably, can sometimes  be  a little bit of a hassle.

I try to market and  sell my art economically by cutting my shipping cost . Shipping can be  expensive if you do not watch your cost of supplies. 

Cutting costs by being frugal and sometimes preparing can help from spending lots on your packaging.

 

So let me explain what I use and give you a list of materials I keep on hand for  packing and shipping.

 

 

Materials List

 

 

1. 1 inch masking tape

2. One jar rubber cement.

3. Business cards

4. Bubble wrap /a big roll

5.One large envelope

Preferably 17 x 19 inches

you can buy these at Walmart cheap.

 OR if the painting is larger get some

brown paper rolls.

6. Card board

you can find these as boxes and cut them up

with a box cutter and save them .

7. A box cutter.

8. 2 inch packing tape or clear tape

clear tape is cheaper.

9.Scissors of  Course. LOL

 

 

These are the  steps to creating  your shipping and packaging.

 

 

I categorize my paintings into two types : large and small paintings.

 

 

Large paintings: range from 16 x 20, 18 x 24,  22 x 28  ALL THE WAY TO 40 x 50.

 

Small paintings: 5 x 7, 8x 10 , up to 11 x 14.

 

 

 

Small paintings I usually buy large envelopes at Walmart to ship them.

And precede with the steps below.

 

Large paintings I use the brown paper rolls .

That means, after the process steps below, I wrap the painting with the brown paper .

I then place the

shipping label on the outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So lets begin

 

 

 Three good rules to shipping are:

 

Backing on painting

bubble wrap

card board

bubble wrap again

then envelope or brown paper

shipping label

 

 

 The shipping process:

 

 

Backing

 

 

It is always important to place a backing on the back of your painting.

You can use rubber cement to glue the brown paper on the back or construction paper . Depending on the size of the paper.

The smallest construction paper is 9 x 12

 

 

 

Cover each corner  with the brush full of rubber cement  and sides.

 

 Then Cut  your appropriate  size of paper to fit your back.
 
 





Place the cut paper on the back and remember to go back and glue the paper where it is not pasting to the painting.





When this is dry , place  rubber cement on the corners , sides and  on top of the paper you just glued. This will help the tape to stay on the paper

 

 

 

 

After you have placed the rubber cement on top of the backing or paper  ,place your tape on the edges of your painting.

Make sure you cover the paper and painting with the tape.

After taping,  cut  the ends off of the tape on each edge.

Please be sure that you have applied enough rubber cement to have the tape  adhere.

 

 
 

 

 
Last  step for backing , tape your business card on the back with 2 inch clear tape . This last for ever and is a marketing tool for your business.

 



                                  
                           Bubble Wrap

Take your bubble wrap and wrap your painting with  it once. Then tape it with masking tape.

 

 




                                                        
                                                               Card Board

With your Salvaged Card board , Cut two pieces the size of your painting.

Place one on the front  and tape it to the back. I always place a bigger one on the front to save the painting.

Then place one on the back and tape it around the front to the back in a circular motion. The back one can be smaller because it is not a bigger risk of damaging the painting

          Do this vertical taping  on both sides.





                               Bubble Wrap 2


                                 Next Bubble wrap again 
                     taping the middle.
 

View the picture . It is ready for your envelope or brown paper wrap.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Envelope or Brown Paper,

 

Remember , always  put this into an envelope or wrap with brown paper. Then tape  the brown paper with clear tape or packing tape.

 

 

 

This is the most effective and economical  way to package and ship your art work.

And it is the safest and most professional .

You will get a lot of great reviews from your customers using these safe professional steps.

 

 

 

Good luck shipping and packaging.

 Happy Arting from Belinda Lawson

 

Living the Art Life!

Hope I could help!

Changing your art style or brand !

   If you're  like me ,and you read everything there is to read about branding your art, why does it make you feel like your stuck in a rut.

     Well , I Think, changing your brand  or style is so broad!

     Is branding the technique  you use  while  you paint: the colors, the bush strokes, What?

      Or is branding, Painting a certain  subject matter of your art work.?      HMNNNNNN!  So what is it.



   Many artist are now painting what is popular and painting many things with the same style. Some are painting the popular painting, but with their own style or brand.

So, are you selling out when you paint the popular paintings in the same colors , techniques or brush strokes.


  My daughter says she can look at a painting and be able to know if it is painted by me through obvious colors ,brushstrokes  and style.

I was amazed with that statement ,because in art school we had to recognize famous art works by Van Gogh, Renoir,  Monet in the same way.



So , I am thinking that , the way you use color, the way you use your brush strokes, and the way  you have your technique is your brand.


I have always painted my way and even when I watch an artist painting and  teaching his technique , I find my self using his or her advice, but I can still can see  it  is my work.



This creates a lot of HMMMMMM!




So, what I have decided is : if I want to sell art work, sell  the popular paintings with a lot of competition at lower prices. Or , paint  popular images ,in my own style , make them  less available,
and sell them for higher prices.

This will be a lot of work in advertising and postings but you will have your clientele that will help.    Your clientele will   critique your decision by their  satisfaction as a customer.

What does it hurt to try?



What do you think ? Make a comment?   Love to hear from you?
That is my blog for the day .LOL