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"Advice for Artists"
With Thanksgiving coming up next week, it’s the time of year to be taking a moment to reflect and think about what we have to be thankful for in our lives. For many of us, it’s a wide-ranging list – from family, to friends, to hobbies, to chocolate! Everyone has a slightly different list, with varying priorities and concerns, and of course these change from year to year and month to month depending on what’s going on in our lives at any given time.
But there’s something all the readers of this blog share, and that’s a love for art. There is a particular value in the part of our lives that touches our artistic, creative side, and it’s worthwhile taking a little time to [...]
No one likes being criticized. And since most artists view their work as an integral part of who they are, criticism of that work can be particularly difficult to take. After all, if you’ve spent hours painting, photographing or sculpting a piece so that it finally reflects the image you had in mind at the beginning of the process, or you’ve just emerged from a fit of inspiration, having completed something you feel is just right, you’re not likely to take very kindly to someone pointing out its shortcomings. Moreover, there’s the time that goes into planning a work, consciously or unconsciously – it came sometimes be the result of years of thoughts, sketches and observations.
Artwork is enormously important to artists – and that’s just the way it [...]
Now that the summer vacation seems like a lifetime ago and we’ve all had a chance to get used to the same old routine again, it might seem like you never had a break at all. If that’s the case, you might be feeling a bit stuck in the grind, and worrying that your all-too-well-known timetable is cramping your style, and your creativity.
If any of this sounds familiar, you’ll want to read these top tips for shaking up your schedule. Sometimes, just moving things around a little and making minor alterations to what you’re used to can make the daily routine seem refreshed and new.
Have you ever been in the middle of happily creating a work of art when, in a fit of thoughtlessness or experimentation, you add something new and ten seconds later realize that you have ruined the piece? Many artists have experienced this at some point. Of course the natural immediate reaction is one of horror and disappointment – all that work, and suddenly disaster strikes! But after that, when you can think calmly again, you may come to see that it’s not such a problem after all.
In some cases, of course, the mistake can be rectified – a little bit of turpentine, the introduction of a new color, and suddenly you don’t notice that garish red streak after all. Or you may be able to incorporate it subtly into your [...]
Teaching relatively young children can be a daunting prospect. As artists, we have an advantage because it’s easy to work in audio-visual aids and to make the lesson engaging and exciting, but there are still a number of challenges to be faced. Some are the same as those we’ve discussed before on this blog when talking about mentoring in general, but others are specific to the age of those you’re teaching. Like any other task, it comes with its own unique set of problems. But none are insurmountable – you just need to have the right attitude and want to be working with the children.
I’ve heard a number of artists say how much they would like to be involved with helping youngsters [...]
Artists sometimes complain that they find it difficult to get a clear perspective on their own work. This can be especially true when you’ve been working in a particular style, or on a specific subject, for some time. You get so involved in the work, so deeply concerned in what you have been creating, that it’s hard to take any kind of step back. This is natural enough – sometimes the way inspiration works means that you feel as if you have been breathing a topic for a long time, either because it has been building up for a while and you have been working out how to approach it for weeks or even months or years, or because the process of creating the actual work was difficult and consumed all of your attention while it was going on.
‘Professional artist’ is not one of the things you commonly see on lists of professions or careers – except at schools which cater specifically to artistic children, career advisers, books and even computer programs that intend to help young people choose jobs for later in life rarely mention art as a possible path. Most people wouldn’t even find that surprising – art is well known for being a challenging career, even for those with talent and determination, and success is not assured. Yet none of that is going to put off a true artist who needs to create to express themselves, and for whom art is always a natural part of their lives. But what makes a professional artist?
It’s not business cards [...]
When people normally think or talk about places to buy or sell art, the first places to pop to mind are usually galleries, perhaps dealers, and maybe museums. But there’s another arena that’s well worth considering seriously as an artist, and that’s art fairs. Art fairs exist the world over, include immense diversity of art, and range from the small and local to the large and international. They retain great popularity with artists trying to reach a slightly different market and art-lovers looking for a fun day out, for a specific work of art, or to keep up with trends in the art world and seek out new talent.
You’ll have to consider which kind of art fair is best suited to you. Local fairs [...]
You’ve been accepted for representation, built a relationship with your gallery, arranged the date for an exhibition and carefully chosen the works that will be on show there. There’s a lot of work that goes into planning an exhibition, both from you and from the gallery, and it’s easy to get so caught up in that that you forget about the opening reception except as just another thing to be ticked off on your long list.
However, the truth is that an opening reception can be a great opportunity for you as an artist, and it’s important to approach it from that perspective. If you can take time out of thinking about all the other jobs or arrangements that need dealing with to concentrate on the reception, [...]
The importance of packing art properly is one of those factors in the art world which is vital but too often ignored. As a serious artist, being able to be confident that you will be able to transport your work safely to a buyer or a gallery which may be on the other side of the world is absolutely crucial. This is especially true if you work in the international market, and show your work in one of the centers of the art world. It doesn’t matter how marvelous the piece is; a buyer will not be happy if the piece does not arrive in good condition, justifiably so, given that the damaged piece would then not be what he had originally bought.
Likewise, your gallery will be placed in a very difficult [...]
