Are you an Artist?

Updated: 8-11-23

Are you a beginning artist? Or have you just started to dip your toe into trying to sell you artwork? Maybe you’ve found my website in a search, or this page specifically, because you are scouring the internet for ideas on how to get started selling your own artwork, yourself? That’s what I did, so I understand how overwhelming it all can be.

Today, everybody and their brother has turned into a coach of some sort offering their help for a price. Being a coach is a valid trade, but I believe that as artists, we should all share some information we’ve found when we can help, not guard it in secrecy. It’s all the Golden Rule… Karma and all that jazz.

Of course, I don’t mean give away copyrighted information or course documentation. They all have the right to make a living, too. Also, you have to respect an artist’s time. It’s not acceptable anymore to say hey let me buy you a cup of coffee while I pick your brain. Artists are busy people and the time you take away for that picking the brain cup of coffee means the artist is away from their studio making art that makes them money to live on or marketing it.

However, this page is dedicated to helping others in creating their dream of being a working artist, too. For Free! Almost all the information available, even info that is sold, can be found with persistence… and time. I’ve discovered, sometimes it is worth paying someone to save yourself time. But hey, I’m all about freebies, too. So enjoy what I’m sharing here, I hope you find it useful.

NEW FOR 2022!: I’m now offering phone and/or video coaching for artists just beginning to market their work. Book an hour with me if you’re wanting to have a little extra help from someone that’s been doing this now for several years. Hire me for an hour or however long you need me. I can help you make choices on a multitude of decisions that are to be made in this business of art. I can offer you a lot more details and information into what I’ve given here away for free. After having paid for many courses and classes myself, I can answer questions to a lot of marketing and getting started selling art questions you might have. I have a lot of ideas and I can help shorten your journey into making money with your art. If you’d like to schedule a call with me, just use the Book now button below to pay for an hour and we’ll get started. Have questions first? contact me via email and I’ll get back with you. My rate is $70/hour with just a one hour minimum. I’d love to help you!

 

Okay, now to the Free Information!

Neglect not the gift that is in you

First off whatever it is you do, do a lot of it. Practice your art. Seems funny to say that, but it’s essential. Painters paint, Illustrators draw, Sculptors sculpt, etc. We are all students of life and what do students do? They study. They practice. So do it, and do it a lot. That said, I am on my computer/tablet/phone a ton. It’s all about marketing baby. If no ones sees your art, how will you sell it?

With technology today, it’s so easy to just pull out your phone or tablet and sketch an idea or even write yourself a note about a layout that’s in your head. If you don’t capture it then, you run the risk of it being gone when you’re needing inspiration. I list some apps on this page I use to keep sketching anywhere I’m at even without a pad and pencil. While you’re online… promote yourself a little. Help promote others… what comes around goes around.

Document your work, even if it’s bad. If you don’t like it, that’s fine but you’ll see how you’ve progressed if you can look back. Learn from mistakes. If you don’t want to keep the work, photograph it and archive it that way. *warning* if you throw away a painting/sculpture/whatever in the trash make sure you destroy it first. You’ve seen those junkers and dumpster divers out there (I’m guilty of dumpster diving!). You don’t want that piece to come back to either haunt you or surprisingly show up someday when you are a famous artist or at least a much better one. We all have to start out and starting out means making some and even lots of bad art (even not just starting out!), it’s part of the process… it’s how you learn and grow and become a better artist. I’ve heard some stories of artists throwing canvases in the trash and years later for whatever reason, visiting a home only to see their “humble beginnings” being displayed on the wall. Awkward.

Keep your work inventoried and ID’d starting now! Develop a system for yourself so that you can easily locate a painting and know it’s whereabouts at any given time. A spreadsheet is a fine way to do this. I currently use Google Sheets for my painting inventory because I can access it anywhere, not just on my desktop computer. I have Google Drive on my ipad, desktop and my Android phone.

I ID and categorize my paintings by year and the order it was started consistently. In this example below, you see the columns each are labeled with something I felt was important. The rows hold individual paintings. I id each painting on the back using the year first, then number in sequence. For example let’s say it’s February 26th, 2015 and I’ve just begun a new painting. I will id it with 15-001. That way I have a record of everything in order and it’s title, size, medium, date completed, the price. Also, I can keep track of what all I’ve done with it, like signed it, photographed it, where it is currently – like sold or being in an exhibit or just in my studio.

That way when someone sees a painting on Facebook or my website or wherever and they ask me details about it, I can pull this up and have all the information at my fingertips in a flash. I can then get back with the potential buyer immediately and that’s good business. Of course you have to keep it up to date. But that is all part of running a business. And selling your art is a business. As of this writing, if you sell $400 or more of art in a year you are legally required to pay federal income tax on it. More about that later.

I may put a link here for a sample sheet that you can use yourself, so check back or better yet subscribe to my blog and I’ll always mention updating this page in a post the day I update.

Join. Join selective groups like artist forums, social media sites, local art groups, your local Art Council, etc. to see what you like, find useful and ethical and then weed out stuff you don’t. There’s not much more important than having a couple or more of like minded people on your side. They just get it. Being a creative is so much different than other professions, we’re often subject to the Starving Artist stereotype. Some people think we’re lazy, scatterbrained, bad business people and plain just don’t want to work. This couldn’t be further from the truth for most every artist I know. We’re a hard working bunch that juggle not only our studio practice but the business side of our art every single day. I work on my business every day.

Never give up.

This page will be a constant work in progress because I’m learning new things everyday myself. If you hear of a good website/program/book/idea and want to share, please do! (in the comments) Just watch the links, my spam filter might not like it and I do review all comments before they’re published.

To be completely transparent, I’m not selling anything (except my art!) but I may be an affiliate of some of the businesses I suggest. I’ll tell you when I am and there is never any pressure to buy. Trust me, if I didn’t believe in them, I wouldn’t give them any valuable space on my website. To be an affiliate means that if you were to click from my site and buy into a program that it leads you to, I get a small kickback in the form of money usually. I’m not getting rich, but hopefully a little mad money to chip into my plant/garden obsession. I do not accept advertising on my page, I am just sharing experiences, classes, books, programs, websites, blogs, podcasts, etc. that have worked for me or I feel are worth your time to look at.

---

Here’s a starting point:

Books

by Robert Roy Reed – Really helpful at getting all your ducks in a row on the business end in the beginning or even if you’ve already been flying by the seat of your pants for a while. Make sure to download the FREE ArtBooks spreadsheet he provides which is a pre-filled spreadsheet that you put in your own information in.

I’d Rather Be in the Studio! (Now in it’s 4th edition!) by Alyson B. Stanfield – All kinds of great information for artists including letters that you can use. She also has a great website which offers free and paid information. Sign up to receive her blog posts delivered to your email, FREE of course. Click here or on her book to buy it on her site or Amazon.

 Blogs/ Paid Classes / Podcasts / Websites

Mari Smith’s FBOMM – Facebook Organic Marketing Masterclass – (An affiliate as of 8-23-21) I’ve been following Mari for a couple of years now and I just love her happy, yet down to business approach. I’ve just joined the FBOMM 6 week course myself so I cannot say just yet my results. I’m hopeful they’ll be good. Because if you’ve been on FB for a long time like I have and you have a business page then you know how hard it is to get people to see your posts without paying. I’ve got an affiliate link if you’re willing to give her a try before her class skyrockets like the good ones do. Just use this link to sign up and learn more, I’d appreciate it! I get a little kick back. https://marismith.isrefer.com/go/fbomm/JaimeHaney/

The Abundant Artist – (An Affiliate) I started out with Cory Huff when I decided I was going to try to make a go of it with my art as a business. He has great courses offered as well as FREE content to keep you busy for a long time. He has a totally FREE podcasts on itunes once a week, plus videos interviewing successful artists and how they did it (mostly on Vimeo, I think). I highly recommend starting here when you decide you’re going to jump into this crazy fun world of be a working artist. Cory is a genuinely nice guy. He has that techie gene and also a patient way of explaining that techie stuff so it’s easy to understand and most importantly easy to apply to your particular situation. Cory offers learn at your own pace group classes which includes entry to a mastermind class on Facebook where his students share questions as well as great ideas. He also offers one on one coaching to get precise help with marketing your art business.

Art Career Academy – by Nastasha Wescoat. I paid for this course (The Artist’s Blueprint) and have really gotten so much out of it. Natasha is down to earth, very open and offers so much helpful advice. With my membership, I get to be in the private Facebook group for ACA and have made friends and we discuss all kinds of things about being in the art business. She has modules to follow as well as monthly videos for inspiration and help with your online business. This course isn’t open for enrollment all the time, so I suggest if you’re interested to sign up for the waiting list. Update: I’m not sure what’ happened to this class, but I don’t think it’s offered any longer sadly. But if you can find it, I liked it.

Artist’s Kiss- Artists Networking for Success – Created by Robin Maria Pedrero. I first saw Robin I think from a blog post I was reading. It could’ve been Facebook, I’m not sure it’s been a while. I was so drawn to her painting style and I have to admit I kinda became her online stalker. I loved her use of color, her art and the way she positioned herself as a prominent artist in Orlando Florida (at the time, she’s now in Texas) and her always upbeat and helpful comments she would leave me on her blog.

I learned so much from Robin just by pouring over her website and following her on Facebook. Happily, she was receptive to my stalkerish ways. Ha ha… She recognized a need in the online art community for fellowship and moral support so she started a group called Artist’s Kiss on Google+ (no longer around). First as a newsletter she prepared for a small group of artists exchanging ideas, talking shop and offering encouragement. Now it has grown to a group on Facebook “Artists Kiss” for the artists to keep the same G+ idea and now also Art Collectors and Artists – a place on Facebook where VISUAL artists can share artwork and art collectors can view and possibly connect and buy. She is literally giving us artists ways to connect to collectors! Exactly what we’re all trying for.

Robin has such a sweet disposition in life and is a successful artist helping lead the way for women all over as artists. Her strengths are in her character. She is one of the most talented and giving people I know. Update 2022: I still love Robin!

Linda Blondheim’s Art Notes Blog – I met Linda through Artist’s Kiss. She’s in Gainesville Florida. She paints what she calls her Florida, not your typical palm trees and ocean. Beautiful back country landscapes with exciting colors and strokes. We’ve become friends and I consider her my art business mentor. In fact, she did mentor me for one year through a granted scholarship. I believe she offers limited paid mentorships currently. She has the most fantastic blog offering ideas, tips and help for artists making a go of selling their art. She tells you how she does it, and all the little things that so many neglect to say to help you find collectors and sell your art. I wrote a blog post about a visit with Linda here.

AHA – Artist’s Helping Artist’s – By Leslie Saeta. A great place to get business ideas, inspiration and help keeping up with current business trends that help artists. Totally FREE podcast every Thursday full of information you need to hear. Plus, listen to the last 5 years worth of shows on itunes. I never miss an episode. UPDATE: Okay, this is still a great podcast but Leslie has moved on and away from paintings and the podcast. She’s an influencer now on Instagram. I still follow her feed, it’s entertaining. The podcast still has a lot of good information, but be aware as fast as technology changes, a lot of the tech stuff now is antiquated.

Maria Brophy – Maria has great advice for a multitude of situations especially involving contracts. She manages her artist husband, Drew Brophy and has a great informative blog with tons of free information. I think she is now offering some paid classes, too. I have also bought and recommend her book Art Money Success. She does coaching as well.

Robert Genn – The Painter’s Keys  Make sure you sign up for the FREE twice weekly letters. Sadly, Robert Genn has passed but his daughter, Sara, is keeping the site going with all it’s wisdom and she keeps the twice weekly letters coming. Robert had a special way of writing that makes me feel as though he really was writing to me. He shares everyday life and inspiration of a humble but talented artist. One of the best places I’ve found for artist’s quotes.

Nathalie Lussier’s brand blog – I can’t remember how I found Nathalie’s blog but I’m glad I did. I signed up to get her emails and she delivers short, to the point videos with good business sense and things you can do to grow your business. She does not cater to the art crowd, it’s a wider net… entrepreneurs. She comes across as a good friend offering advice. Her business positions her as a digital strategist. Nathalie offers her services as a mentor and she has many marketing products for sale as well. One in particular I’m interested in but haven’t gotten yet is a pop-up to entice visitors to sign up for my newsletter – a valuable resource you should be cultivating, too.

Alexis Fedor – Artists In Business- I’ve just finished watching the videos for this workshop called Craft an Offer That Sells by Alexis and it was pretty good. Alexis seems genuinely interested in helping artists. I’m on her mailing list and she gives free videos weekly on Facebook with juicy tidbits to help your art business. Of course this is to sell her courses. I bought this course for $99 and there were three extras she offered with it. To promote it there was a Facebook Live video that was about an hour long. After I bought it, that hour was the first half of the course. There was only about 2 hours of extra video (if that) and she gives you Exercises to do. It’s not live, it’s a pre-recorded call she’s already had with others (that paid to have one on one calls with her). Update: I haven’t bought anymore of her classes but I did get my money’s worth out of the one I took. By now, I do think there are even better courses out there to be had but if she resonates with you, go for it. Here’s a link to her courses https://courses.alexisfedor.com/  

Marie Forleo – The Copy Cure – You know the one… on Oprah and she says “The world needs your special gift that only you have” well her special gift is selling BS. Let me tell you, I can get wrapped up in a free webinar like nobody’s business. I watched a freebie by Marie and had no intention of buying the course but somehow I did. That was back in November of 2018 and now it’s February 2019 and I haven’t completed the course and I’m in debt up to my eyeballs (like $1500 in monthly installments). I’m just having a hard time relating what she’s teaching to being an artist. In the beginning, they (Marie & Laura Belgray) had all these live calls where you could write in your questions or send them your copy to get feedback but I didn’t do any of that. I was busy getting stuff ready for my Christmas shows and busy season. Big mistake. I took the course at the wrong time for sure in order to get the free limited time assistance. Not to diss her class, I just came upon it at the wrong time in my art career.

One time they had a live video call with Laura Belgray where she would have the person on the phone and talk with them (on a call where everyone taking the course could hear) about their specific problem. I was excited that it was an artist – I thought oh great! I can take what she offers to this artist and somehow translate it to my needs. Nope. They actually told this artist that art is a different animal. We have a luxury item and basically the call fell flat and was short and not very helpful as far as I was concerned. They said you have to tell your story, something I’ve already been doing, and ended the call really quickly. The people that would benefit most would be coaches, and those offering services which there were a lot of. Again, she’s not catering to the Artists even though you may think so by her videos.

So I feel that was a costly mistake on my part, but like I said I got wrapped up in the “infomercial”. It was one of those enticing deals with only an hour to make up your mind in order to get all the extra stuff and I fell for it.

I’m not giving up, I have lifetime access to the course and I plan to go back and watch every video and listen to each call again to somehow try to make it worthwhile. In the end, I feel like the course was so very expensive because it was Marie Forleo. To me the course seemed only worth about $300 not what I paid. To be fair, if you paid for it up front you can save $200. I’m on the payment plan. She also has B School, which I’ve heard is several thousand dollars. Yikes.

Apps & Services I use

WordPress.org – FREE, self hosted e-commerce theme by WooCommerce. That means I bought my web domain name (I advise you do the same and right away.) Here’s good place to begin if you need the basics, click here. I also purchased a one year subscription for an Elegant theme called Divi. I love the options it has added to my site and the control it has allowed me to have. For instance, in my last theme (MyStile by Woo) I had to use the category names that were give by the creator of that theme and one thing that has bugged to to no end was that I couldn’t change my ‘categories’ to ‘paintings’. Now I can and tons more, plus it looks much more sleek than before. UPDATE 2/10/19: After having WordPress for several years now, I still like it but it’s a ton of work. I’m the only one to turn to for problems. That means I look stuff up a lot on Youtube and plain old searches. That takes a whole bunch of time. Also, the fees for everything are really adding up. If an artist asked me now how to get a website, I think I’d tell them to look into something like Shopify or SquareSpace as I think the monthly cost would probably be comparable and your site would look more professional without all the hassle. UPDATE 4/4/22: Two artist friends of mine have bought into FASO and really like it. If I didn’t have so much invested in mine already, I might consider moving. Who knows, I still might. Update

8/11/23: I bought a FASO site! I’m using it and my WordPress site. I’m using the FASO site to sell my originals. It is really easy and I have to admit it’s so nice not having to check my site daily for updates to plugins and worrying about if they’re going to break my site if I update them. I have to say though, that my hits are terrible. I’m not getting many people to visit my site at all. I don’t know the reason why, possibly because my WordPress is just so old that I have links going to it from everywhere or what. I’ve played around with the SEO but it hasn’t helped any. I’m very disappointed about this. I think my yearly cost will be around $320 come this November when I have to renew. FASO offers all kinds of marketing help which is great. They have Zoom calls with artists to talk about marketing and the business. I am keeping my blog on WordPress simply because I’m too scared to move it over. I’ve thought of keeping two blogs but haven’t done that yet. That’s a lot of work. I’ll keep you updated on what I do or if I find a way to drive more traffic. It’s a shame, because I love the ease of FASO but if you’re not selling then is it worth it? Time will tell.

Blogging – A lot of people think blogging is dead but from what I read it’s great for ranking. So I still do it, plus I do like it. Here’s the thing. In order to get the traffic and ranking by Google, your blog needs to be attached to your website. That is why I moved my blog (which was on Blogger) over to my website (WordPress) a few years ago. When I did that my readership dropped to nearly nothing. It’s taken a long time to get people reading it again and the numbers are not nearly what they used to be. Each year I see it declining with my analytics. But I have found that most of all my organic reach is to my blog posts, so I’ll keep doing it until I’m convinced it doesn’t help.

HostGator – My web hosting site (who I pay for my web domain name and also they host my site for a fee) Fair pricing, not overblown like a lot of hosting sites. They’ve helped me quickly whenever I’ve had issues and I’ve been with them for years. UPDATE: I have dropped HostGator like a hot potato after they tried to gouge me for hosting. My prices skyrocketed for no reason (and I mean like the price went up by 800%). I think they assume people don’t want the hassle of moving their site. It was a bit of doing, but any good hosting site will be there to hold your hand and in a lot of cases they do it for you.

I ended up going with Fast Comet and they have been very helpful, not to mention the price is nice. One problem I’ve encountered and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m in the USA and they are not, but I cannot use Google Chrome to log in to my site any longer. I had to chase down that it has something to do with needing a VPN (Virtual Private Network). I called my internet provider about getting that and they (AT&T) wanted like $15 extra a month for it. Ugh… everyone has their hand out, don’t they? So I found a work around. You can get free VPN via apps. There are a lot and I don’t have one to recommend because I didn’t go that route. I luckily found I can log in using another browser (FireFox). However, I did use Hide.me for their free trial and it did work. But again, with the monthly fees… so Firefox it is until I have money to burn. UPDATE 4/22/22: The problems with Fast Comet have gotten better. One thing I found out that was slowing my site down was I was backing it up using a free plugin app and this was using my resources which in turn slowed everything down. I stopped the download and just rely on FastComet’s backup service. Also, the VPN thing has resolved itself as well. I can now login using Chrome or Firefox and even Safari so I’m very glad for that.

Update 2/10/19: I still am using FastComet, but have had issues with my website not loading in the night hours particularly from 9 pm on. Of course this is the time that I usually want to get on and do some work. It’s so bad I cannot even create a blog post or edit pages. It’s excruciatingly slow and I’m really afraid potential customers may think my site is down, as I have many times gotten an error while testing it. Also, I had to upgrade my services with them because they said I was using too many resources. I’ve read that it can be BS and there could be a glitch somewhere but I have no IT person, I’m it. So I was forced to pay. I’m hoping I won’t have to upgrade yet again to fix this problem with my site being extremely slow in the night. I have a ticket in to the tech people there and they said nothing was wrong as far as they could tell and to write back during the problem times, I just did again tonight.Time will tell and I’ll report back here if there’s problems. It goes to show no matter how good something sounds, it usually loses its luster and their true colors show eventually in the form of wanting more money.

Just so you know, moving your website to another host is kinda a big deal. Some hosting sites will migrate it for you. They tell you to get a testing site to try things out before going live, but you need to be fairly techy to do that.

 UPDATE 11/26/19: I’m not sure what’s happened to this program but it’s different and I don’t believe my link works any longer. It was helpful to me at the time but since I can’t access the new stuff, I am neutral to it. Brad is a nice guy though, so I wouldn’t be afraid to take his course. WooCamp – You need this in your life if you plan on using WooCommerce. I cannot tell you how much this has opened my eyes and has helped me and I’m not even finished with the course yet! Brad Griffin is the owner and teacher of this really great course on how you need to be setting up your e-commerce store using WooCommerce. He is to the point and I find him to be just a hilarious, helpful guy that truly wants to help you rank with the search engines. What is ranking? Well, you know when you Google something and usually the big guys like Amazon, Walmart, Macy’s, Target, etc come up? Wouldn’t you like to come up on that first page as well? I’ll answer that for you…. Yes you would. Brad shows you how. He’s taking me step by step and the price for learning this is unbelievably low. In fact, I jumped on it when I saw how much the course was. It seems good courses like this find their way of going up in price, so get in while you can before he realizes what a deal this is! Just for disclosure, Brad has offered me an affiliate deal so that means I get a little kick back if you join, but even if I didn’t I would still send people his way because I believe in his course and I happen to really like Brad and his way of teaching.

So go to this link and read the entrance page, then click up in the top right WooCommerce SEO Course then watch his short video, and read the reviews and further down (there are tidbits of good info just for free right there!) then go register, pay and start learning right away how to start making your site rank.

MailChimp – Free e-mailing management (for lists under 1,500)

If This Then That – This time saver is so easy to use I am just thrilled. I heard about this first from Artist’s Helping Artist’s podcast on BlogTalkRadio. IFTT is what I call a utility program. It does things. You link up all your social media and basically it sets off a sequence of events. If you do this, then that happens. For instance, I set it up so when I post something on my Facebook Art Page (JaimeHaneyArtist) then IFTTT takes action by automatically posting that same post to Tumblr, LinkedIn, Flickr if it’s a photo and Twitter. I only had to set up the free account, link all my social media, go through and give access to IFTTT just once and set up ‘recipes’ as they call them. You can make your own recipes very easily or you can pick out recipes others have already made and shared. I’ve done both. I see this saving me a ton of work and no more forgetting to share my latest photos and posts. UPDATE 4/4/22: With the new privacy laws especially with Facebook/Instagram, it has made it nearly impossible for this to work for me, I no longer use it.

OpenOffice.org – My answer to having to buy Microsoft Office. Apache OpenOffice is FREE productivity software that has spreadsheets, database, document, multi-media presentations, drawing

Evernote – Holy Cow this is so handy, I’m only just beginning to discover how powerful it really is even though I’ve had it for a couple years. I don’t even know how to explain what all this does, so just go check it out. Here’s what they say: “Organize your life. Workspace for daily projects • Keep everything together • Sync across all devices”  I have it on my desktop computer, my phone, my tablet and they are all synced. There is a paid version, but right now I’m using the FREE version. UPDATE: For a while now, Evernote made their multi-platform service a payable one. So I still can use it for free, but only on one device. I do use it on my computer, it’s handy. UPDATE 4/4/22: I’m looking for an alternative to Evernote. I think it’s slowing my computer down. One thing that is very annoying is I can’t get it to stop loading at startup and it takes forever.

One the best things I think is having all Apple products. I’m an Apple girl myself, although I hate their prices and unfair way of making you buy new instead of being able to upgrade for space on phones and tablets. But I do have an iMac, Iphone and iPad so they have the wonderful ability of syncing with one another. I use Notes and Calendar much more than Evernote now because of this (and b/c Evernote now charges monthly for that privilege)

Small Business Bodyguard – Legal advice for your small business. This is mostly a paid service, but there is free information to be had. I bought into it and have more peace of mind of what to do and how to handle legal stuff we’d all just not think about. Rachel Rodgers is a business lawyer and property strategist behind SBB. She delivers funny insight and plain and simple answers to what you need to have for your small business so as to not get your ass sued. Did you know that if you allow readers to comment on your blog or have a newsletter that you are doing something illegal if you don’t have this one thing… a privacy policy?! I didn’t know, but I do now and now I’ve got one. Learn more about what you’re doing wrong (everything – haha) at her website.

Prints of your work – I use a great family run business called iPrintFromHome.com. They have high-quality professional prints and giclees available in all sizes. They drop ship and are really great to work with. I’ve talked with the owner myself and am very impressed with their service and the way they treat their artists. They have a rewards program for sending them new clients, so if you’re interested I’d love for you to use my link by clicking their logo below and in exchange you get $10 worth of FREE prints to give them a try. I also get a little kickback in the form of reward dollars that gets put in my account when you make your first order. You’ll be surprised at what you can get for $10 there. I recommend trying their metallic prints, they are so cool and you’ll love them.

Social Media

I try to stay active in my Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram. UPDATE: 4/4/22 I’m not as active on Twitter but I hear it works well for some artists.

Tidbits & Misc.

Scams – I wanted to mention this because once you get any kind of presence out there you’re bound to get spam and some of it can be a scam. It disheartening to know there are people trying to steal from artists, it’s hard enough to make money and now there’s people trying to steal it. Don’t be so desperate for a sale that you end up paying someone to “buy” your work.

I myself have gotten many letters and even phone calls of both spam and scams. Someone will write you and it’s usually not written in very good English or it just feels odd and they’re interested in your work. They indicate issuing you a bank check or something similar and plan to pay you more than you’re asking for to ship it and then they want you to wire the extra money to them. They get your money and you just got scammed. Sad, and usually avoidable but the crooks are clever and people can be gullible when they want a sale badly enough. Here is a good blog post about a sample scan letter sent to this artist.

---

I’ll update this page as I remember things to put on here or if I find new and useful information for the artist and our business. I’ll put the updated date at the top of the page so you’ll know if you’ve already read the content that is here.

Of course, here is my shameless plug for myself!

If you’re new to my blog and website have a look at my ‘About’ page in the menu at the top. I’m an artist – a painter mostly. I paint a variety of subjects including cranes, ravens and crows, flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. If you’re interested in my art, I have a newsletter mailed about once a month that gives you special status for invitations, birthday greeting and more. Sign up here for it.

Check out some of my paintings. I sell originals, prints and notecards. Click on the strip below to see more. Thanks for visiting! Leave me a comment please.