In order to service my website visitors the best, I have my e-mail address at the bottom of all my pages. If someone is interested in my work I don't want them to have to "click around" to get in touch with me. I love to go to my inbox and correspond with other webmasters about link exchanges as well as questions from possible collectors about my artwork. The only bad thing is of course all of those people sending their spam. My favorite type has "Hi Pat" in the subject line being sent from what appears to be a "normal" first and last name. When you open [...]

Today I thought I would go over and share with you my thoughts on finding a sense of balance in life between work, family, and friends. I know that I'm still struggling with it in mine. For example, as a serious artist we are told to budget "X" amount of hours per day to paint and to block out outside distractions. Thats all well and good and I agree but, what if you live next to a friend going through hard times and they need to use your phone to talk to their sick father because their phone was disconnected for financial reasons? On one hand you feel your [...]

I recently added a new page on my website for people to submit their website to my links page. Adding links is important for your website to be ranked high on search engines so people know that you are out there. The other added touch is that they provide your visters with more information and choices that are related to what you do. For example, on my website I list other artists sites that offer artwork completely different from mine. I list interior designers, area rug retailers, gift basket sites, and home furnishing sites. My mandate is that links must be creative arts, gift, or home decor oriented. Some [...]

While I was learning how to paint as a boy I started becoming more and more aware of composition in paintings. I noticed each painting that I learned from had a certain "flow" that led to one area of the painting. I asked my teacher if I could try my own original painting next time. She said yes, and it was great putting my own work together as she kept an eye on me. My first few weren't the best, but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. Today I still combine two or three photos to put a nice painting together, but grew over the [...]

I recently spent some time working with my e-mail newsletter software to get used to what it can and can not do. I wanted to send my first few "efforts" to my mailbox only to see how it looked. I was pleased with the way it looked so I should be good to go for my first official one in early September. I plan on showing new work, talking about what I'm currently involved with, and sharing interesting content that I notice elsewhere on the web. It will be a work in progress like everything else and I'm looking forward to working on it. My mother had a [...]

I'm really looking forward to this weekend as my friend and number one collector comes in to town from Vermont for his annual visit. I can't wait to show him my latest work and to enjoy the Steeler game on Saturday (once a Pittsburgher, always a Pittsburgher). It wasn't long ago that I he invested in his first work off of me from the three ring binder with photos of my work that I used at the time. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have been introduced to two other collectors who each have more than one work. I guess the point is as artists we really [...]

For todays post I thought that I would talk about finishing paintings and how they are not "done" until the artist feels that they are. There are many things that go into an artists thought process when it comes to finishing a painting. Do I want the work more detailed or do I want to just "suggest" something, what kind of texture do I want, will it look overworked if I keep going in there. Sometimes you have to wrestle with adding things and taking things out in order to balance the painting and sometimes you change your mind about something at the last minute. What remains a constant [...]

It's Monday morning again and I'm feeling great going over the nice weekend I had in my head. I'm starting to plan some things for the week and thats when I realized that this is a good time to share with you a freeware program that is working great for me. EssentialPIM is a planner/organizer that has a contact list, notes with icons, a daily planner, and a "to do" list. The link page is here: http//:www.essentialpim.com/?r=download This program is simple but effective in what you can do. I've found that the "notes" area can be used as a database for information that you can you for your business [...]

As I've mentioned recently I have been focusing on the business side more then the painting side here in my studio. The good news is that now I have a nice routine that I've developed and I look forward to receiving e-mails from other "webmasters" who I'm exchanging links with and learning more about doing business online as well. The bad news is I've haven't painted as much as I would like to but things are back in order and I'll have new work posted soon starting next week with my latest commissioned work "Pittsburgh". Look for this next Wednesday or Friday. I plan on posting the photo along [...]

Today I thought I would share some of my ideas that go into putting frames on my oil paintings. When I was starting out, I went to local yard sales and flea markets and purchased large wooden frames. From there I would cut it down in a miter box down to the size of my painting. I would fill and sand the frame and then spray paint it to match the painting. I got great feedback from this at my local art center at shows so it became part of my process. Today I fabricate alot of my own frames from pine strips but still I love to [...]