Marketing Trial on Etsy

I’ve been looking into opportunities for marketing my art for a while.  Some of them require a heavier commitment to activities other than painting.  They are bricks and mortar exhibits, markets, etc. that require physical attendance and, while I like that in limited amounts, I can’t afford the time to do much of it.  Since I have limited energy and time due to some health issues, I need to find a way to market that allows me to continue to make art at the same time.  What better way than a 24/7 store on the universal marketplace…  the WWW!!! 

After reading a few reviews and many adverts, I have decided to give Etsy a try.  Etsy.com is a company offering a platform connecting buyers and sellers of handmade products.  I like their mission and vision: 

Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.

Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice

It’s easy to set up and maintain and lots of other artists have had success selling there.  My own experiment is underway and will be for many months to come.  Check it out on Etsy…  see you at the mall!

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Sunset – transparently

The goal was to stay transparent with this painting.  I’ve done that but BOY do I miss the ability to add punch with the opaque.  This was a messy, complex sunset and the intriguing thing for me were the streaks in the clouds.  I’ve captured a bit of that here.  Enjoy!

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Night Prayer [acrylic on canvas, 9”x12”]

Happy Remembrance Day and Veteran’s day.  Tonight my night prayers will include a lot of thanksgiving for the safe homecoming of Captain Matthew Quist from Afghanistan.  I’m also thankful for the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice to keep Canada free. 

This canvas started out on November 4 as the monochromatic greens over heavy texture [Golden coarse pumice gel].  That surface is a challenge to paint…  acrylics tend to bubble when dragged over this rough stuff. The paint puddles and absorbs and runs and does all kinds of unexpected stuff – fun!  I’m not done this so stay tuned!

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Don’t Grouch, Just Wait [digital art]

It’s been another interesting week around here.  Yesterday I went to the curator’s tour of the Fernando Botero exhibit at the Glenbow Museum - good thing – yay!]  I really enjoyed seeing so much amazing art in one place!  He says so much with his art…  it’s hard to take it all in. 

However, recently our Grandson Ethan [6] has been feeling rough and the docs continue to try to figure out why – very bad thing – boo!  The next step is a biopsy on one of his lymph nodes next week.  Matthew [our Canadian Forces Captain son] is on his way home from Afghanistan to be with his family.  When I was a kid I had a benign tumor removed from the right side of my neck so I’m counting on this one being the same.  So we wait… and we pray…

Today I came across some copies of letters and postcards that my Great Grandpa Mac wrote home in 1918.  I did this simple remembrance day digital piece with a public domain poppy and part of a letter he wrote home. 

So let me set this up for you: Mac was in France recovering in hospital from wounds he sustained in the 2nd battle for Amiens and he’d been in Europe without a break since 1916!!!!  The hospital had no coal for warmth [it’s cold in late October] and few blankets and yet his words are inspiring! 

He says “…we went all last winter [in the trenches] without coal so that is a small matter.  Put on lots of clothes and the buildings are warm and not full of shell holes and there is no lice and mud and we have more than one blanket and lots of other comforts so our motto is DON’T GROUCH AND WAIT!”  I have so much more to be thankful for and I chose to do just that.  I shall not grouch and I will wait!

Happy Remembrance Day Canada!  Thank you to all the “great cloud of witnesses” that served our country and gave their lives.  And THANK YOU to those of you that are still serving!  A big hug out to my own special hero – Captain Matthew Victor Quist of 2 Regiment based in Petawawa, Ontario. 

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Sunset WIP [acrylic on w/c paper, 11”x15”]

Puttered on this today…  the goal of this exercise is to use acrylics like watercolor.  The most important thing is to save the white.  As you can see I’m in deep here with respect to the MOST important thing!!!  However, I do like some aspects of what is happening here…  I’ll repost after I’ve worked on it again.  It should only take me another 10 minutes to cover up ALL the rest of the white space [tongue firmly planted in cheek, eyes rolling].

Enjoy!

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Freedom [16”x12”, acrylic on canvas]

I revisited my July 13 painting and took it from warm and dark to cooler and lighter.  I took a cotton rag and alcohol to remove some of the dark bits.  I put a light veil of white over some of the more textured areas before glazing blue and blue-green in those areas. This canvas is heavily textured so any paint applied did interesting things…  I love the surprises that come from this.   I may play with this a bit more to get the warm/cool dynamic sorted out.  Hmmm…  just what I need – a good puzzle!

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If You Could See Me Now [acrylic, 14”x11”]

I took a painting that I was thoroughly disgusted with and covered it with white gesso [again!!!].  This one was “Good Jumpers” from October 19 in it’s most recent life. 

Today I glazed several layers of  acrylic paints over the heavily textured white surface and experimented with a few ideas.  But, in the end I couldn’t get Chuck off my mind.  I’m also thinking lots about my brother Harvey who is in Haiti right now.  Harv has a photo of Chuck as his Facebook profile picture from their trip to Haiti this past February.  I wondered what would happen if…  and the next thing I know I had contact paper over a blow up of that photo of Chuck and was cutting out a mask.  I used the mask and painted the landscape around that shape.  I kind of like it.  It reminds me that he is in my life still – just not how he was before.  Ciao!

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