Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Indian Pass Marshes
8x10 inches
oil on panel


See my paintings HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE

My Ebay Listings HERE



Painters Tip


The current trend in landscape painting seems to be fast and loose with emphasis on that being the better way. I am thinking just the opposite myself. I am slowing down a bit in my process, thinking a lot more about what I want to do. It is just as easy to have a nice loose look to your work with time spent in the process with deliberate steps. It is far better than throwing paint at a canvas with no thought, save for intuition, and hoping for the best. I know I am in the minority on this and that's ok with me.

Intuitive painting was my process for a good 20 years and I justified it to myself, saying that it was the creative way to paint. Looking back over that body of work, I find that I was extremely naive about the quality of that approach to painting.

Fast and loose without good bones is sloppy painting. I think it a disservice to beginning and intermediate painters to incourage them to paint intuitively, without good fundamentals and technical proficiency in painting.

If you are a beginner, slow down and study the elements of composition and design deliberately and with determination. Once you have proficiency with your brushwork, color mixing, an understanding of composition, values, and other elements that make a good painting, you can then paint fast and loose with confidence if you wish to.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Morning Marsh
12x16 inches
oil on panel
gold frame
800.00

Purchase HERE


Painters Tip

This painting involves several painting issues.

1. Atmospheric perspective- As the elements recede into the distance, the scene becomes more atmospheric and less refined. The color pales and becomes milky. You can also achieve this effect by uing transparent white in areas of your painting after it has dried a bit.

2. Back Lighting- This makes for almost a halo effect in a painting. The central area of objects remain dark and cool and the edges are lighter and warmer.

3. A limited palette- I am more amd more interested in working with various limited palettes. I have so much more control and harmony in my work now, and am able to create mood more successfully. For many years I used the standard palette with the red/yellow/blue combination. After a few years I found it to be somewhat predictable and limited. Over the summer I have been experimenting with other limited palettes and have found some success in creating a nice painting with excellent harmony, but not boring. This is what I'm looking for and have found it to be essential to use a variety of limited palettes, not just one all the time.

I like to study different methods of technique, breaking them down into smaller individual elements of painting.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Cypress Trees
8x10 inches
oil on panel
gold frame
500.00

Purchase HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip


Update your mailing list.

It's a good idea to update your postal and email list periodically. It allows you to cull old addresses that don't work and to make sure the people on your list are still interested in your work. It is also an opportunity to send out new information about your classes workshops, exhibitions, and so forth by putting those in your signature line.

I am going through the arduous task of updating right now because I have a new broadband service which will be hooked up soon. After having accumulated hundreds of emails over the last year or more, I am sending out address changes about 100 at a time and witing for responses. This is long overdue and I am ashamed of myself for procrastinating. I will set a time for myself each year to do this from now on.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Josh and John
12x16 inches
acrylic on panel

Commissioned painting

See my paintings HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE



Painters Tip



When is it finished?

I read all manner of discussions about how to finish paintings and how to know when one is finished. To me it is simple.

A painting is done when there is not one paint stroke which will improve it.

This may seem simplistic to you but it is not. The caveat to this is that we must understand that we are limited by our technical and esthetic ability. I'm not suggesting that our painting could not be improved by someone who is at a higher level in painting than we are; or that it could not be improved at some future time by us, when we have reached a higher level in our journey as a painter. I am saying that at any given time in our career, if we cannot improve the painting with one more stroke we have completed it.

We need to accept the fact that we are not perfect and that our paintings will not be either. I have learned to respect my work, flaws and all. I wake up each day with the intent of painting as well as I possibly can and so I do not beat myself up when my work is not a masterpiece. I believe there is an honesty and dignity about serious work.

I don't go around apologising for work I have completed years ago, which is indeed less than wonderful either. I remember that at that stage of my ability, the painting was the best I could do. The owner liked it enough to purchase it and so it would be disprespectful to myself and the owner to belittle it.

If you wake up each day and paint giving 100% of your emotion and knowledge to your work, it should and will be respected.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Lotus
8x10 inches
oil on panel
gold frame
500.00

Purchase HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip



Are you using your web site effectively?

If you have a web site you can use it as an electronic portfolio or as a selling location for your work. If you are using it as an electronic brochure, you will have little chance of selling. That is ok if showing your work to the public is your goal. I see hundreds of artist's web pages with thumbnail images on a gallery page, a bio/statement on a page a gallery list on a page and a contact page. This works great as a portfolio. If you expect to sell this way you will be disappointed. I had various versions of that style for years with almost no sales. I bought into the idea that art would not sell on the Internet. My webmaster finally convinced me to give a well designed web site a try.

She was right. It took about two years of tweaking and hard work to promote my current site but now I sell work from 500.00-3,000.00 directly from my web site. In fact, my web site and studio sales outsell my galleries substantially now.

1. You must add content. Content is king, not images. Of course you must show the paintings to sell them but you must give art lovers a reason to come back.

2. You must use key phrases in your content so that search engines will pick them up.

3. You must have a shopping system which buyers can click to purchase. Without that you will not be sucessful, unless you already have a strong following of clients. Art is a lot about impulse buying. You must make it very very easy for clients to purchase your work. They often are intimidated by the idea of contacting you to inquire about purchasing. With a shopping system they don't have to.

4. Get rid of the thumbnails and show larger images. It's not necessary to show 150 paintings. Just update frequently with fewer images. I hate thumbnails. I won't click on them to enlarge. Others wont either.

5. Don't use cutesy images like little palettes or paint brushes or flash. Keep it fast and easy to load and keep your site nice and clean, more professional looking. Art is a business,it should project you as a serious professional artist, not a hobbyist.


6. Keep your images rotated frequently so that visitors have new things to see.

7. Give them a Work In Progress to see or a newsletter. Give them an opt in sign up for your promotional materials. Offer professional guarantees for your work so that there is no risk for them to purchase.

There are many things you can do to make your web site a selling portal but the above will probably help.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Palms at Sand Lake
8x10 inches
oil on panel


See my paintings HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip


Thinking About Lines


Lines have a lot to do with our art.I was thinking about linear qualities in our drawings and paintings this morning.

We can combine calligraphy and representational characteristics of line in the same image. Lines vary according to their physical properties. Different line types can produce different expressive effects. Straight lines give the effect of rigidity. Diagonal lines produce energy and are dynamic. Vertical lines are dignified and produce the feeling of stability and horizontal lines are quite and restful. Lines describe the contours of object shapes. Textures are invented with lines.

Lines can be decorative or spatial in character. When line are the same thickness and don't cross they tend to be more decorative and surface oriented without depth. If lines vary in thickness, cross each other and are in different colors, a plastic or voluminous quality occurs, making the surface look more dimensional than flat.

Line creates representation on both realistic and abstract levels. It defines the limits of a subject's shape and inner dimension.

I use lines to create my cartoons and they have the surface decorative quality that my paintings don't have. I do use this linear method with paintings as well, but the paintings rely more on lost line and color variations butted up to each other; replacing the actual lines, rather than visible lines as separations of objects. The lines are still there, just not as obvious as a pencil or pen line would be.

In fact, I often use cartoon drawings to do my initial ideas for paintings, blocking in flat decorative style shapes and colors and then repeating this in the block in stage of my paintings. See example of the block in below.



Initial composition






Initial block in of the painting.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Sand Lake Palms
12x16 inches
oil on panel
SOLD

See my paintings HERE



Art Notes Blog HERE



Painters Tip


More About Values


You have many decisions to make in using values as a painter. A preponderance of very dark values will set a mood of gloom, mystery, and drama, while a very light painting will set an entirely different mood of intense light, with washed out colors.

Most painters do not try to duplicate the values they see exactly because that course will be monotonous. The shapes of highlights and shadows are often revised to create harmony, unity and contrast.

Lights and darks in nature exist as a result of physical laws. You must adjust and take some liberties with values to create your own visual statement.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

River Boater
5x7 inches
acrylic on panel

See my work HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip


Pictorial Depth

The simplest and most useful shape in pictorial forms of art is the plane. The surface that we work on is called the picture plane. It is also used as a way to simplify the shapes,masses and points in nature. Planes are used to create stabled and orderly units in painting. Planes vary from showing flat two dimensional shapes to shapes which look like they have volume. Painters use all kinds of shapes to achieve either decorative or realistic effects of space. Even simple intervals and overlapping shapes can make them look more three dimensional. That is why I tell my students to think of a painting as shapes,like puzzle pieces. Adding sizes, colors,values,textures and contrast will make those basic shapes start to come to life.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

North Carolina Mountains
12x16 inches
oil on panel
gold frame
800.00

Purchase HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip

Here is an exercise that never fails to improve a painting. I call it Progressive Painting.

This involves four paintings of the same subject so be sure that you like the scene you are going to paint. The first three paintings will be 5x7-6x8 inches. The final painting will be full sized an a completed painting.


Painting 1- will be a block in only of your composition. 15 minutes

Painting 2 - You will use the first block in as a guide to what you wish to improve in the second painting. The second painting will be painted to about midway. 30 minutes

Painting 3 - A completion of the first two paintings. In this painting you will use both of the earlier paintings to decide on the best composition, brushwork and palette for a small finished work.

Painting 4- This is the painting that you take your time on and refine into a completed painting, using the earlier studies as your guide for improvement.

I have done this exercise myself and with my students for years and it is amazing to see how much better painting four is than painting one.

Blondheim Art Oiginal Paintings

Fall Reflections
8x10 inches
acrylic on panel

See my paintings HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip

My tip today is about a new plein air panel. As most of you know, www.frenchcanvas.com is one of my sponsors. I do a lot of product testing for them and they have a new panel. I tested it for them and it is great for alla prima work. It does have drag for the brush and texture. I would not use it for portraits but it is ideal for location and studio landscape painting. Very well made, looks good and precisely cut.

The panel is available in a wide range of sizes. You can find out more by visiting French Canvas's website at www.frenchcanvas.com and clicking on Masonite Panels. If you place your order by phone (800) 934 3424 by September 15, 2007, and mention me, they will give you a special 10% discount.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Homosassa River
12x16 inches
oil on panel
gold frame
800.00


Purchase HERE

Art Notes Blog: HERE


Painters Tip


This is the year of the limited palette for me. I have been tweaking a couple of them over the last few months. The painting above was done with a limited palette. I like to use this palette for Florida rivers and wetlands paintings.

Here it is:

Cadmium Red Light (Utrecht)
Transparent Red Iron Oxide (Utrecht)
French Ultramarine Blue (Utrecht)
Thalo Blue( Utrecht)
Prussian Blue (Daniel Greene)
Sap Green ( Daniel Greene)
Cadmium Lemon Yellow (Utrecht)
Cadmium yellow Medium ( Daniel Greene)
Titanium White ( Daniel Green)
Flake White ( Daniel Greene)
Ivory Black ( Daniel Greene)

For winter I like the single primary palette:

Cad Red Light (Utrecht)
Cad Lemon Yellow (Utrecht)
French Ultramarine Blue (Utrecht)
Ivory Black (Daniel Greene)
Flake White ( Daniel Greene)

I sometimes add Red Oxide and Naples Yellow Light to this palette, both from Utrecht.

I do have some others, including a simple split primary palette with one each cool and warm of the primaries.

I also have an interesting limited palette for those moody days with little color:

Trans Red Iron Oxide (Daniel Greene)
Ivory Black (Daniel Greene)
Titanium White ( Daniel Greene)
Sap Green (Daniel Greene)
Prussian Blue (Daniel Greene)

I have learned quite a bit by using limited palettes for my work. Changing them seasonally and by the mood of the day makes for some interesting paintings that might never happen with a more conventional approach. Color is very hard to control, especially if you are inexperienced. I have learned that when my palette starts to get out of control, the bet thing to do is go back to a limited palette for awhile. It centers you, creates harmony in your work and keeps you from going off the deep end. it allows you to focus on other important elements of painting, like composition, value and so forth.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Red Brush
5x7 inches
acrylic on panel


See my paintings HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE



Painters Tip


Fun with Color Mixing

Here is a fun way to practice mixing with a limited palette. I take a sheet of card stock (index paper), and use the colors from my limited palette to make vertical stripes down the page, one of each color on the palette. Let's use the following as an example. Cad red light, French Ultramarine Blue, Cad Yellow Lemon,Titanium White, Ivory Black. This is a palette which will mix most things you need. You cannot get a true violet or the minty greens from it , but most everything else is possible. You will have a black,blue,red,and yellow stripe down the page.

You will then make the same stripes horizontally across the page. You will then proceed to mix the various combinations made by the stripes, putting your color swatch in the space between the stripes, using the stripe colors in each square to mix. You will use the white in the mix to do a strip of the tinted color under the color mixed for each square. Keep this sheet as a reference for your notebook and you will always know what can be mixed from any limited palette you may want to use. Easy to refer back to. Be sure to write the colors you chose in the margin.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Trees In Light
5x7 inches
acrylic on panel


See my paintings HERE


Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip

Preparing for Events

Yesterday I had a big Charity event. The artists donated a painting for an auction and we were allowed to set up a booth inside the building to sell our wares.

Sometimes sales are good and sometimes not. There is a big crowd, food, drink, a band playing and a lot of noise.

The main advantage to this sort of thing is PR. Hopefully enough people will see your work and remember you, so that they will come to your studio at another time to purchase. Of course most of the people who come to these things are looking for bargains, so you must have your browse bin paintings available as well a higher end work. Most of the people who attend these functions are well to do and want to look good in front of their wealthy friends, so it is never bad to do these events from the artist's perspective.

I recommend that you have a variety of items for sale at this sort of function. I had 10.00 miniatures,3.00 note cards, 10.00 art pins, 50.00 browse bin paintings and 500.00 framed paintings. Having a variety pulled lots of different people to my booth. I also had a give away. Free bookmarks with my contact info on them.

I had my studio assistant running around with my bookmarks, talking people up all night. If you do not have an assistant to help you, ask a friend to come or a relative. Offer to buy their dinner as a reward.

I would not recommend that you use children under 15 to help you because people will not take you seriously if you have your kids running around bugging people. That is often a turn off for patrons. Keep in mind that this is a social occasion for people and they have left their own kids at home to get out and enjoy themselves.

Be neatly dressed but don't wear fussy clothing. You want them to focus on your art. I wore my studio T- Shirt. Be friendly and charming at all times, even when you are bored to death. Be sure to have some kind of bag or wrapping paper for their purchases. I buy the flat bags to put cards and small unframed painting in. I order them in bulk and thy last a long time. I keep a roll of brown craft paper and masking tape to wrap larger framed painting. People will appreciate that extra effort and it looks more professional.

Follow up immediately after the event to send out thank you cards to patrons who purchased from you, and image post cards to anyone who signed your guest book.

I'm off to teach a workshop tomorrow in Orlando, FL, so I will be back to post here on Monday.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

See this painting on EBAY


Art Notes Blog HERE



Getting a Good Start


After dinner at night, I go back out to the studio to work for a bit before bed time. I'm too tired to do serious painting but not too tired to do block ins for new paintings. I use my leftover paint on the palette to do several block ins for new paintings. When the paint is gone, I clean my palette so it will be ready for the next day.

The next time I get out to the studio to paint, I have several starts to work with. they are dry and the composition is blocked in. I can jump right in with both feet.

Sometimes I will use this approach for drawings as well, or cartoons. I will start several drawings and go back to them the next time. It is a great way to get your day started with lots of possibilities to work on.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Roser Park
24x24 inches
oil on canvas
1800.00
champagne silver frame

Purchase HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE





Painters Tip


This is a fun little value exercise I do with my workshop students. I used pencil for my illustration here, but for the workshop we use paint.


Value Exercise

Painting One












Fill your painting with an arrangement of trees of various sizes, some single, some touching and overlapping.

Open space should be allowed between some of the trees. Create a mid tone value in the negative space.

Some of the trees will be black, some will be #8 gray , some #2 gray and some pure white.

Try to form patterns with the black or white trees which will pull the viewer through your painting and create balance.


Painting 2








This is a repeat of the above exercise using color.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

River Estuary
14x18 inches
oil on canvas


See my paintings HERE


Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip


When you are working from life or from a photo, take your time composing. Don't get in a rush. Think of your composition as the skeleton of your painting. If you don't build strong bones it will topple. If your composition is poor, all the color,texture, and pizazze you throw at it will do you no good at all. It will still be a poorly composed painting.

Try this method. Use a single color to do an initial placement of elements on the canvas. When you have that done, step back and think about it for a bit. Do you see mistakes or ways to improve the composition? if so, select another color and do your corrections. Now you will clearly see the two alternatives on the canvas. Decide which one you like. Now take a third color to tweak anything wrong with the first two. That will be your final block in for the painting. Keep in mind that the paint you have used for these corrections is very thin, just an ink stain.

I always start with a light color and go darker with the other two corrections. An example would be yellow as the initial block in, red as the first correction, and blue as the final tweaking of the composition.

Now you are ready to proceed with the painting, knowing that it is carefully composed.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Olives Stuffed with Feta Cheese
2 1/2x 3 1/2 inches
colored pencil on mat board

Purchase HERE



Painters Tip


Stimulating your creative process

The creative process revolves around your life. Every place you go and everything you do is a potential painting or series of paintings. Get in the habit of thinking this way and you will be filled with ideas. Yesterday I went to a gourmet food market in my town with my daughters. It was incredibly stimulating. The rows and rows of beautiful produce, breads of every shape and size, pastries to die for, and cheeses of every variety all made a kalidescope of beauty for the senses. In the same way the opposite can be stimulating. Driving around cities, seeing decay and despair may be another arist's cup of tea.

Learning to observe the world around you and to be open to all of it's beauty or despair is powerful. As I have said before, paint what you know and what fills your heart and you cannot go wrong. Get out and look around. look at some things that are part of your life and be filled with ideas.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Miniature Palms

2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches
mounted on 4x6 inch mat board
unframed

Look on EBAY

Art Notes Blog HERE




Painters Tip


Displaying Miniatures

Miniatures are lost on a large wall with normal sized paintings. I have found that it is better to feature them either salon style, which is wall to wall, floor to ceiling and close together
or on their own display board. The advantage to a display board is that it can be moved around or taken to events where you will sell the paintings.

The easiest way to create a display board is using a bulletin board that you purchase in big box stores. Try to by one that is in a standard size, like 16x20-18x24, etc. You can take a carpet scrap to glue to the surface of the board or use fabric to wrap around it and staple to the back. I like to use a neutral color like gray because the paintings show up nicely. After the fabric or carpet is secure, I buy a ready made frame to put over it, securing the back with frame clips and putting the d-rings and wiring on the frame. You can then attach lock and loop strips to the carpet or fabric, and then a piece to the back of the frames on the miniatures. Just hang them up.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Dune Palms
8x10 inches
oil on panel
gold frame
500.00

Purchase HERE


Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip


Promotion

This is for my friends who wish to sell their paintings


I've learned something valuable over the years as an artist. People often buy the artist rather than the art. By that, I mean that people are fascinated by our lives as artists as they well should be. We have more fun than most people. We are able to travel, deal with museums, galleries and thousands of interesting people that the normal person would never meet. We see beautiful places on a regular basis, especially if we are landscape painters. We go to all of the wild and secret places that others pass by unknowingly. We live with exuberance and passion for our work, driven to it. This is no mundane office job we are doing.

Shouldn't we be promoting that part of our career to the fullest to our potential patrons? I cannot tell you how many artist web sites I see that have all of the usual links at the top, Bio, Galleries, Paintings, Contact, with thumbnail images, and almost no content other than images. These sites are incredibly boring. They give no hint at all about process, adventure or the passion an artist feels. When I visit an artist's web site, I want to know what they are thinking about, what they love, their funny stories, their attitude about teaching art or their process. Who influenced them? I want them to be a real and whole person.

Even if you want the standard web site, how about writing a blog and linking it to your web site? people want to know the artists they buy paintings from.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Rum Island
18x24 inches
oil on canvas

Available HERE


Art Notes Blog HERE




Painters Tip



Using Grisaille on Location



Grisaille

Grisaille was originated in Renaissance times and was used intensively in the Baroque. It is a technique for figure compositions or still life with no prior preparations or very little. The artist sketches directly on the canvas with thin layers of paint washes. Few colors are used and basically fast drying ones. With these washes it is possible to create the whole composition without making the canvas over-loaded with paint. Corrections are easy to do and all changes are done on the canvas. Then under painting is used for final colors to be as sound as possible. I have found it to be an excellent study technique in the studio, particularly combined with glazing with transparent oil colors.


The above painting was started on location with the grisaille method. It is a great way to start a painting in the field. You can deal with the problems of composition and values, putting off color issues for later. It goes fairly quickly and teaches you a great deal about working in a high key palette. The reason being that as you scumble on thin layers of paint later in the process, the painting becomes darker with further layers, so the grisaille must be in high key unless you wish to highlight with opaque tints later in the painting. I often do that too. Sometimes I later come back to finish the paining on location, or I take it to the studio to finish at my leisure.

Think of this method as a good start for paintings.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Beach Dunes
8x10 inches
acrylic on panel
gold frame
500.00

Purchase HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE



Painters Tip


Re-Thinking


Now and then I have a painting that just beats the tar out of me. I simply cannot make it work. Thankfully that is not very often these days but for a long time it was a regular occurrence. I have learned to put it away for a few months in a drawer or behind the furniture, where I won't see it.

After a bit of time I take it back out and re-think it. I will usually see the error of my ways pretty quickly and go on to finish it. I will tell you from personal experience that to continue struggling with a painting gone wrong is futile. You have become emotionally attached to the situation and it will beat you. A far better idea is to put it out of sight and mind until you can look at it with objectivity.

When you look at it again, think before you pick up the brush. First you must discover what is wrong before you can right it. Is it the color harmony? That is usually the big problem for me. Is the brushwork too sloppy or in the opposite, to tight and illustrative? Are there compositional problems? Value problems? Contrast problems? Get an idea of here you want to go before you tackle it. Look for the simplest solutions first. You have a fair chance of getting a good painting out of it.

Like the carpenter's advice about measuring, think twice, then pick up the brush.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Cone and Lavender
8x10 inches
acrylic on panel

See my paintings HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE



Painters Tip


Shift Your Attitude


I know so many painters who feel that study is only for beginners. They have established careers and they feel comfortable with what they are doing. Or they are at an intermediate stage of their career and feel that because established artists are successful and comfortable,that is what they must do too.

I feel just the opposite. I think we all need more study time in our work. We must become students of our craft for life. I fully believe that we must continue to do warm ups, speed painting, studying parts and pieces of subjects, brushwork exercises, value studies and so forth, constantly learning new technique and researching in order to improve.

Doing refined finished paintings are of course our jobs. We must sell to eat, however, stop thinking that cranking out one painting after another is the way to become a better artist. Take some time in between to study a bit each day.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Orange Lake

18x24 inches

oil on canvas

Gold Frame

1500.00

Purchase HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE

Painters Tip

Here is a little research tip

Whenever I need visuals to help with painting I go to Google.com, and then type in Images up in the left top corner. http://images.google.com/imghp?tab=wi If I need to look at holding hands, I type that in and dozens of photos of holding hands come up. The same for clouds, water, trees, bicycles, bird feet, or any other bizarre thing I can think of.

It is a terrific way to see what you may need to paint and to break visual elements down.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Chickens
10x10 inches
oil on canvas

SOLD

See my paintings HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip

Separate yourself from what you see.


Remember that the viewer of your painting will not see what you saw as a reference whether painting from life or photos. This is very important to remember. Realism will only take you so far. If your composition is based on what you actually see, but it is a poor composition, you will not have a good painting. Since the viewer is only interested in a wonderful painting, you will fail. I always tell my students to look at their painting as if for the first time. If it doesn't read well to a first time viewer, it will fail. Your job is not to record what you see. Your job is to create an excellent painting.

For some reason, new painters feel like they are cheating if they add color that they don't actually see, or move things around in a composition, or leave things out. I give my students permission to do just that. All rules are off if you can do something that works.

Linda Blondheim Original Paintings

Dairy Cows
University of Florida
8x10 inches
oil on panel
gold frame
500.00



Painters Tip



Are you Building Your Mailing List?


I have mentioned this before but I cannot stress how important your connections are to your career as a painter. It's not just about selling paintings. Your mailing list allows you to share news, stories about your life as a painter, and your triumphs with all of the people who are interested in you and your art.

You probably meet people every day who should be on your mailing list. Friends from church, your business and office associates, other artists, art centers and museums and professionals you have business dealings with, are all worthy of your attention.

Have you thought about how lucky we are as artists to know so many people through our work? I have met fascinating people from all walks of life through my travels and painting trips. I have explored many hidden places in my travels and I think people enjoy reading about them. That has nothing to do with selling but instead with sharing my adventures with friends. Without my mailing list I could not do that.

I manage my mailing list through my Excel program on my computer. It allows me to sort through locations around the world and send regional messages to those who might be interested in various subjects and stories. I try to send out cards or news quarterly to my postal list and once a week to my email list.

Your mailing list is important. Don't put it off.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches

acrylic on card stock

Mounted on a 4x6 inch board

See My Paintings HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE

Painters Tip

Out Sourcing

I'm a big fan of using services from others to save time. I like to focus on my work as much as possible. I'm not particularly good at computer techie stuff and have no interest in it. I have a web master who runs my web site for me and I have a blog master who does the blogs. Most of the time I can do the updating myself, but for major coding, I need them. They always come in and fix it when I really screw up the blog or web site. It also gives them great satisfaction to laugh at me.

The same goes for materials and equipment. I'm not going to spend my time making paint or gessoing/stretching canvases. I use reliable companies like http://www.frenchcanvas.com/ for that. I also have a local master carpenter who does panels for me and builds some of my studio equipment. I have Judson Plein Air http://www.pochade.com/ make my paint boxes, I'm not a carpenter.

My printing is done by printing companies, not my home computer. That is their area of expertise, not mine.

Though I admire the folks I know who meticulously make gesso/ build their own paint boxes, cut their own panels, stretch their own canvas and so forth, I wonder if their focus is in the right place? Painters should paint.

When you consider that an 8x10 inch painting takes about an hour to hour and a half to do and brings in 200.00-700.00 depending on your market, shouldn't we be painting rather than making panels?

At some point I will be willing to turn my marketing over to someone else too but I like that part of my job and it allows me to make many friends.

The key to me is to keep doing what you really enjoy about your job as a painter, and turn the stuff you don't like about it over to someone else.

Blondheim Art Original Drawing

Hamburger and Fries

2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches

colored pencil and ink on mat board

Mounted to a 4x6 inch mat

Ebay HERE

Painters Tip

I do a lot of different mediums in my art process. I have set up working stations around my studio to make them all convenient and organized. I got the idea when I was teaching elementary school art for a couple of years, right out of art school, many moons ago.

I have an acrylic station, with spray bottle, gels, mediums, my paints , brushes and a table top easel at one table, I have a casein set up at another, a pencil, colored pencil, ink, and marker set up at another table, a paper cutting table, and finally, my big easel with an oils set up there.

I can simply move around the room and get to work immediately wherever I wish to paint or draw that day. It allows me to work quickly, with no down time at all in my schedule. I have a lot of plates spinning in the air all the time, and having a studio that is organized makes all the difference for me. The key here is not having to take the tie to set up for any medium. It is already done.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Shirred Island

24x36 inches

oil on canvas

2000.00

Gold Frame



Purchase HERE



Art Notes Blog HERE





Painters Tip

My favorite inventory system is Excel. If you have Microsoft Office you will have Excel. It is a spread sheet. The great thing about it is that you can insert small images of your paintings into the spread sheet. I use it for all of my inventories for galleries and they love it too. It is so much easier for them to keep up with my work that way.

I start with the name of the gallery and my contact info on the top left. I go down and skip a line and then insert my image in a box on the left. Under the image, I put the title and then move left to right with the size, medium, price.

Then I skip a row, drop down to the next row, insert the next image and so on, until I have them all listed. I then check the page break and adjust it so that they will all print correctly. I save a copy in a desktop folder for that gallery and print one out to take to the gallery with my work.

For a master inventory, I plug in the name of the gallery where that particular painting is for sale. It may be in an exhibition somewhere, or in the studio, or with my agent. I can put that information right into the master inventory file. That way I always know where a painting is located. When a painting sells I can type in sold.

The key to this is doing it every week. If you put it off it is just too large a task.

Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Jackson's Gap
6x8 inches
acrylic on panel

SOLD

See My Paintings HERE


Art Notes Blog HERE




I have my monthly Open Studio Class this Sunday August 5, from 2:00-6:00 PM A snack and drinks are included. Bring your painting project with you and let's paint together. I also have drawing students who come too. Studio Fee: $20.00



Painters Tip


Keeping up with your images


I take digital photos of all of my paintings. I am very prolific so it would quickly be a problem for me in terms of finding the right paintings when I need them, without some kind of system. I use a very simple method. I save them in a folder on my computer for each month and year. Right now I am using the folder August2007. My computer crashed in 2003 and I lost all of my photos prior to 2004 because I did not back up my files. You don't have to say it, I know I'm a dummy.

By saving all the images by month/year, I can usually find them without too much trouble. I usually remember the approximate time of year I was doing a painting, and looking through those month's folders produces the painting I'm looking for.

The other thing I do is make a Business folder for each year. This folder contains all of my art business information, including workshop, tutorials I write, etc. So now I am working in Biz2007. I also make the folders in advance, for future activities. I already have things going on in my Biz2008 folder.

There are lots of software programs too for running an art inventory and I'll talk about those next time.

Using the simple folders in your computer filing system works very well.