How To Sell Your Art (pt3)

How To Sell Your Art (pt3)

Continuing the article on selling your art, comes the third part in this series. Outlining briefly some of the v2.0 websites that as an artist, you can utilise to get your art out there to achieve notoriety, and even earn you some dollar.

DevinatART

DeviantART is one of the biggest websites on the Internet, they've been going for a little over 8 years and as you maybe able to tell from their name, They specialise in art. Early on in 2008 they rocketed past the 50 Million deviation mark!(currently (October 2008) stand at a little over 66 Million) They regularly receive more than 20 Million Unique visitors each month and have over 7 million registered members. They often appear in Alexa top 100 websites for traffic and more importantly, reach between 0.5% and 1% of ALL Internet users! With traffic like that you can't afford to NOT have an account, after all, its free!

DeviantART also features a Print Shop where you can buy and sell art from the other users. Its a great feature of the site because it gives you an idea of how popular your art may become. The basic print shop account is free with a premium service on offer for a small fee. You do however get a wide range of media to sell on. Canvas prints, glossy photos and matte prints are all available and you can sell your art on any or all of them.

A premium Print account cost $30 (£15) for a year which may seem a lot, but you can make a lot more money. After base costs, you then take 50% of what's left for yourself.

Below is an example of the difference between a standard account and a premium print account.

Wrapped Canvas Image 40" x 30"

Standard account -

Base price - $167.93 (£70)

Cost to Buy - $285.50 (£145)

Your cut - $23.51 (£13)

Premium Account -

Base price - $167.93 (£70)

Cost to Buy - $285.50 (£145)

Difference - £117.57 (£60)

Your cut - $58.75 (£30)

You can't deny there is a huge difference in the amount you earn. There are other advantages to using the premium account, larger upload image for larger files, 3 months DeviantART subscription and the option to buy your own artwork at base costs make it an even better deal. Be cautious though, don't jump straight in with a premium account, start off with the standard account, make some friends, get some fans and watchers and when you get some sales invest in the premium account.

The Saatchi Gallery

The Saatchi gallery is one of the largest websites in the world (October 22nd 13:22 pm GMT – last 24 hours – 72,648,783 – Alexa ranked number 232) Even though its a .co.uk site, its open to all and its also free and very simple to use. There's no way of making money off the site, but its a great place to have an on-line portfolio especially with those kind of traffic figures. There's some very well known artists on there, as well as a large following of students who are trying to get some constructive criticism on their projects.

FlickR

This is another well known art and photography site. Originally designed to share photos around the world. Like the Saatchi Gallery, you can't sell through Flickr, but you can use it as a portfolio site or as an addition to a DeviantART account or your own web page or blog.

There are some great features including a slide show box you can mount on your own sight or blog. This allows the user to interact and scroll through your images easily, without taking up to much room. Flickr, like DeviantART gets on average 20 Million unique views a month so there's plenty of people out there to find your art, appreciate it and hopefully buy it!

Ebay

One of the most well known websites in the world. You can of course sell anything (within reason) on Ebay, its simple to set up and you may already have an account so selling could be really easy! There are of course drawbacks with Ebay.

Its not an art based site, this means that searching 'ART' in Ebay, you end up with over 400,000 individual auctions and obviously your art will get lost in there! You can attract people with more defined and specific key words, but that's a lot of art (and after spending 3 minutes looking, I do use that term "Art" loosely!) There's nothing against selling on Ebay, but if you plan to take this route, set up a portfolio site first, get some fans and find out if anyone would be interested in buying your work. If you get a strong "yes" from your fans, post the auction and let them know about it. If you have people who already know your work looking, the price could go up more than you thought.

This site is great if you already have a lot of one off canvas art work that you want to sell.Use the money from any sale to invest in your own site or more materials and supplies for any future products. You need to treat your art as a business and more often than not, most of the money in a new business goes straight back into the company to help it grow.

New Floral Canvas Art

Artwork Updates: [July 2008]

We have a brand spanking new selection of floral designs, and photographic prints which are now live and up on the site.

There is a beautiful selection of commission produced art, which are all brushed / painted on canvas, and produced as prints, followed by a number of subtle photographs of Flowers, some quite abstract in their composition.

"Coffee Rush" & "Pastel Pods" have been created for an obvious reason in mind. The browns, light tones and latte hints, mixed with other light pastel tones and bold mustard yellows are going to sit well in houses with those brown sofas, and earthy colours on the walls. "Concrete Devotion" is another of the brush painted prints, and is maybe a little more daring. Fitting in well with red accessories in a room, this is going to make a subtle statement.

The other prints all fall into the broad category of Macro Photography, all subtle close ups of flowers or leaves. "Vivid Marigolds" is very striking, the raspberry and peachy tones are going to brighten up any room, whereas "Feather Detail" is for the more minimal wall. A subtle, delicate piece of natural photography in black and white, which picks out the leafy veins on a feather.

Keep watching this space more art updates to come, in the form of new Street / Stencil Art coming up next.. Then we've got the long awaited BOYD section following. Plenty of great new art, all good!

Cans Festival 2008 Final Wrap Video

After the massive success of this years Cans Festival, the official video has been posted so you can have a look at the exhibition being constructed.

As you can see in the video, a lot of hard work was put in by a lot of people. Work I think you'll agree paid off, especially when you see the size of those cues! Proving street art, and specifically Stencil art is becoming the current must have art on your walls. Check out our ever expanding selection of stencil art over at WHoArtNow and some specials by Frazier Boyd.

20th Centuary Art Auction

On Friday (6th June 2008), Christies of London hosted the 20th Century Art Auction with a special few paintings hidden within the catalogue.

LS Lowry, the 'matchstick men' painter was featured, including 'An Old Church' (1943) which was estimated as £1m but sadly didn't sell. (See picture right)

Also failing to sell at the auction was Lowrys' 1938 painting 'Manchester City vs Sheffield United' (see picture below). The painting did however sell after the auction to a private collector for an unknown price.

The biggest seller of the day however was 'A Cricket Match' which went for its top of the estimate at £770,000. I also mentioned in my previous blog about this auction that the canvas 'Seascape' was estimated at £250,000 which looked like a better deal than a house. Well it sold for £313,000, still worth the money, and guaranteed to increase in value.

Christies 20th Century Art collection sold for a total of £11.5 million pounds a Christies spokeswoman said in a post auction press release.

ContainerArt lands in Italy

Exhibiting art in the centre of a city can be very hard, or very illegal. Taking a different approach to urban exhibits is the Container Art: Beauty Inside Project. "An urban, itinerant and adaptive art exhibit" travels the world compiling art and ideas to showcase in 22ft containers.

Mixing contemporary styles and concepts in each container around the chosen city. One of the projects key goals is interaction with one and other.

The latest project, "Ecosystems" in Genova, Italy started well on May 29th and will stay until June 8th 2008 and features Art, Nature and Spirituality from around the globe. Sculptures, installations, paintings, canvas art, you name it, there in these containers.

Events:
-Mechanical Art from Kaohsiung
(exhibition of recycled metal sculptures from Kaohsiung)
-Beauty Inside. Yoga among metal sculptures
and presentation
(taking the form of a guided meditation)
-Writer's Delight
(Writers' performance on two containers)
-Parole Spalancate sui Tetti
( Let the poets speak out.)
-Au revoir les Artiste
(when all is said and done, one last toast to celebrate artists and poets)

With Haifa and Venice on the coming soon list, this urban arts project looks set for a while longer, and hopefully will be announcing more dates and exhibitions soon.

We're giving away a canvas...

For all you budding digital photographers out there, Enjoy Warwickshire have launched a competition to find the best photos of Warwickshire & we are giving away a canvas to one of the winners. The competition is split into 4 categories, People and events, Landscapes and countryside, Landmarks and tourism attractions and
Junior/Young persons category.

If you are thinking of entering, there are some great prizes available, and if your the lucky winner of the Junior/Young persons category, your photo will be hand stretched into your own piece of Canvas Art.

The closing date for the competition id September the 30th, and if you'd like more info, head over to the Enjoy Warwickshire website.

Frazier Boyd Goes Live

With the recent success of joining the WHoArtNow team, the subversive stencil artist Frazier Boyd has finally launched his website www.frazierboyd.co.uk. Boyd is constantly working on new ideas and approaches to stencil art and as such is producing images both on and off the street all the time. With his news RSS feed, you can be the first to see whats current in his world, or subscribe to his Flickr Photostream to check his uploads as they occur.

If your a fan of his work and would like any of his images on Canvas, head over to WHoArtNow or if your in the market for something a little more unique, (See the Commissioned Rossi Canvas print above) , contact us to for a commission piece.

As a fan of street art I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with in the future. Its a great time for street art, and WHoArtNow are proud to be a part of it.

Tate Modern hits the "Streets"

This Morning the Tate Modern opened its doors on its first Street Art exhibition even though pictures have been floating around for a few days.

6 of the worlds most influential street artists have erected these monster pieces. In the picture right you can see the work by Sixeart (Spain), JR (France) and Faile (USA).

The free exhibition also features work from Nunca and Os Gemeos (Brazil) who previously worked together on the Graffiti Project at Kelburn Castle in Scotland


Italian Blu is also on display (see left) after a great few months for him. Some of you may have seen Blu's recent animation 'Muto' appearing on the internet over the last few weeks. I expect to be seeing more and more of Blu's amazing style of art and can't wait to get some on a canvas soon.

If your planning a trip this Bank Holiday weekend and fancy taking in some breathtaking art, pop down to the Tate Modern. If your lucky enough to be about on Monday, head on up to the level 2 Café and watch Graffiti Research Lab have a fun day with some kids of London. Stay till the evening when Graffiti Research Lab will be projecting the kids art work onto the side of the Tate Modern.

Kelburn Castle Garden Party

For all the aspiring Street Artists out there, Kelburn Castle, near Largs on Scotland's glorious West coast is hosting their first garden party on 4th - 6th of July 2008. Showing off some of Scotland's best Graffiti and street art talent mixed in with international guests and DJs. With music to suit almost any taste, you won't be disappointed, from folk, funk, gypsy and rockabilly to jazz, hip-hop, dub and afro beat. A huge line up of up and coming artists and some old veterans, and all at a weekend price of £55!

For those who aren't aware of Kelburn Castle and their amazing Graffiti Project.

"The idea is simple and original: take the vibrant and often transient art form of Brazilian graffiti out of its predominantly urban context and apply it to the ancient and permanent walls of an historic rural castle in Scotland."

Work on the Kelburn Castle Project was undertaken by Brazilian Twins Os Gemeos, Nina Pandolfo and Nunca, to see how amazing the art work is, check out the 3 day video below! For Street art and Graffiti art on canvas, check out out unique canvas art "Stencil" gallery.


Bands:

Bombskare
Orkestra Del Sol
Super Nashwan
James Yorkston
Underling
Found
A Band Called Quinn
Ash Grunwald
Amplifico
Candythief
Pip Burnet
The Stantons
Gecko 3
Digital Jones
Dave Donnelly
Monkey See Monkey Do
Asazi Space Funk Explosion
The Sorries
Joe Acheson Quartet
The Everything Treatment
Tom Champagne (stripped and unplugged)
Edinburgh Samba School
Das Contras
Mosa Funk Club

DJs:

Steve Cobby (Fila Brazilia DJ Set)

DJ Smoove (Acid Jazz / Wack Records)
Brian D'Souza (Pogo Vogue / Slabs of the Tabernacle)
Mungo's Hi-Fi
DJ Junior (Record Breakin' / Phillidelphia)
Boom Monk Ben + Hint (Ninja Tune / 4-deck set)
No Face
Astroboy (Departure Lounge)
Trouble DJ's
Mr Zimbabwe
Demdranger
Jiminez (Departure Lounge / Four Corners)
DJ Brazilia (Club Du Monde)
DJ Mungbean
DJ Nomad Soul
DJ Breadmark

2008 Interior Design Trends - Invidia

2008 Interior Design Trends
Invidia

Coming soon to a bachelor pad near you is one of this years must have colour schemes. Invidia is the use of blacks, whites and metallic colours such as gold to speak loudly. Such dark rooms are brought to life with simple additions of yellows and golds on the detail. The only draw back, is you can't do half the job, if your going to do it, your really have to go all out and be as brave as possible or you'll end up with a badly done 80's yuppie flat, and no matter how 'in' 80's is, that look most certainly isn't!

How would you furnish such a room though? would black leather be OK? well yes, leathers and velvets from the darker side of the spectrum work wonders. Small detailing in gold and bronze works well, and accessories need to be vast or understated. Go for huge retro wallpaper sections on canvas or mirrors over-the-top with gold frames. You could use a huge reading lamp in gold, or a small up-lighter in brushed aluminium, or if your feeling really brave, both! Small and large can work wonders together. Take the image above, a relatively small metal lamp, and a large, bronze rubbish bin.

The biggest drawback to this interior scheme is the space you use it in. Small ceilings are a no go area because you need vast rooms to make the black walls work. Original features and moulding are essential. So early 20th century boxes are a definite no-go area.

We have a brand new range of exclusive art on canvas to follow the Invidia range. It features heavily on retro, vintage wallpaper sections, contemporary gold and black abstract fades, white floral silhouettes, Gold Paisley Batiks, Manhattan skylines, Buddha gold statues & Black Oriental Abstract prints, all available on canvas. Check the Invidia range. and get inspired for 2008!

Sam 3 Hits huge outside Madrid

Local residents of Madrid will have seen this huge bull appear recently. its the latest project by Spanish artist Sam 3.

Check out his website featuring some really inspiring street art and some really big feet!

Street Art Animation: Blu's Muto

I don't think I need to say much about Blu's stunning piece of animation. Its simply stunning and I highly recommend you watch it all. the short was made in Buenos Aires and took several months to complete.

It is described as an "Ambiguous Animation shot on public walls" This sort of future thinking which fuses street art & animation has never really been done, certainly not to this level of complexity. Blu has always been a bit of a pioneer in the field, famous for his enormous wheat paste-ups of his fictitious trademark characters.




For those of you interested to see more of Blu's work, he's appearing in the Tate Moderns exhibition on street art starting Friday May 23rd.

Street Art - Tate Modern Style

London is to celebrate its first major show of street art at the end of this month. Opening its doors on Friday 23rd of May, the Tate Modern host a free to all exhibition of 6 of the finest street artists in the world.

The exhibition is to feature work from Blu from Bologna, Italy; the artist collective Faile from New York, USA; JR from Paris, France; Nunca and Os Gemeos, both from Sao Paulo, Brazil and Sixeart from Barcelona, Spain.

Also available from the gallery will be a map for the "Street Art Walking Tour". The idea of this is a group of 5 street artists from Madrid will place some location specific art in and around the surrounding area, and its your job, with the help of the map, to find them. I don't know if it will be any good, however, when I head down, I'll pick a copy up and have a browse. Its good to see the Tate Modern thinking on this one, and why not let people see street art on the streets, the name does imply a lot. 3TTMan, Spok, Nano 4814, El Tono and Nuria are the confirmed artists.

On the Monday after the exhibition opens (26th May) the Tate Modern holds a studio day for young people of South London. They get to spend the day working alongside New York artists Graffiti Research Lab. The event is to be held on the level 2 Café, and will also include live bands and music. Graffiti Research Lab have been invited to reface the Tate Modern with a 1 off light projection installation with help from the kids. I'm tempted to go down then just to see what they come up with.

The street art exhibition will carry on till the 25th August and is sponsored by Nissan Qashqai

Live Streetart in New York: Electric Windows

Any residents of New York into the street art scene will be pleased to know a free live painting event will be held on the weekend of 17th and 18th May.

510 Main Street is the location, were 24 street artist will install their own style of art on an 8ft x 12ft board to be housed in each of the windows of this 19th century building.



The list of artists involved are :-
Above, Chris Stain, Cycle , Dan Funderburgh , Daryll Pierce, Depoe, Elbow Toe, Jim Darling, ILOVEMYBOO, Lady Pink, Michael De Feo,
Mr Kiji, Peripheral Media Projects, Pete Wollenger, Rene Gagnon, Rick Price, Ripo, Ron English, Tes One, The Love Movement, Tina Darling, Ultra, UPSO, You Are Beautiful

All on lookers will also be treated to music from the likes of TAO, DJ Harvey Cliff and TheBig Takeover to name just a few. Sounds like a great weekend. I'll have to settle for some pics over the real thing though.

Claude Monet sells for $41m

"Le Pont Du Chemin De Fer A Argenteuil" (1873, see right) by Claude Monet sold yesterday for a record breaking $41,481,000 (£20.9m). Christies of New York ran the auction which set a new record for French impressionist artist.

The previous best for a Claude Monet was set last year when "1904 Nympheas" sold for $36.5m (£18.6m). Christies said the buyer wishes to remain anonymous, yet some sources are reporting the Nahmad family have purchased the painting.

The Blue Road "Water Is Leven"

So, you are the Mayor of Drachten in the Northwest of the Netherlands. Many years before a river running through your town was filled in and covered in tarmac. Fast forward to 2007 and you decide you want the river back.

The Mayor of Drachten seems like a friend of art, especially street art, and you can't get more "Street" than this! 1000m long, and 8m wide, its massive, and very, very blue! 4000 litres of blue paint to be exact.

Dutch artist Henk Hofstra is the brains behind the project and had this to say,
"Art has to touch, excite, amaze and surprise you, make you laugh, cry, angry or happy...because art is emotion. A look at all the comments makes clear that this art project has been successful. We look at it, but we don 't understand."

And to me,(see far left) this beats a "Warning, this road will be a canal in a year" sign any day of my week! Its a piece of art in its own rights. I wonder if the locals understand the point?

By the looks of this lot, yes they do! Is it just me, or would this never happen in England? Sad to think it, but its true! Were just not as open to street art as some of our European Brothers and Sisters!

Unseen 60 Year Old Lowry To Be Auctioned

In June Christies of London will see the sale of 4 Lowry canvases go up for auction with estimates at between £2m and £3m for the pieces.

Among these paintings is "An Old Church" (see left) Which hasn't been seen in public since 1940. The rare painting is expected to fetch £700,000 to £1m yet I expect it will go for a lot more. It may not sell as well as "Good Friday, Daisy Nook" (which sold last year for £3.8m) but £1m does seem a little low.

The second painting estimated at the same £1m mark is "Manchester City vs Sheffield United, 1938" whilst the 2 remaining paintings, "A Cricket Match" (not seen in the public for 10 years) could fetch £600,000 - £800,000. However, if your wallet won't stretch that far, "The Sea" is estimated at £250,000. Sounds like a better bet than a house at the moment!

An introduction into Street Art [Pt1]

Street Art is a growing trend in the 21st century. Wiki describes it as "art developed in public spaces". Yet I'd prefer to say its a modern artists means of creativeness. Yet its worth remembering, even as street art rises in popularity, the vast majority of work you see on the way to work is illegal.

Art, So what does "street Art" consist of? You maybe asking. Well, street art can be broken down in sub groups, Graffiti, Wheat-pasting, Stickers/Sticker Bombing, Poster Art, Video Projection and my favourite, Stencil Art.

"CeeThreePeeOhhhh" [right] by Frazier BOYD is a brand new piece, commissioned exclusively for WHoArtNow, due for release on the site in May 2008.

So why do people break the law for their artwork? Is it stupidity? or a true love for their art so strong their often willing to sacrifice their own freedom. Political opinions and moral objections are popular expressions on the streets. Going against the "system" is a big part of street art, so is humour.

The image on the left demonstrates the political and humorous side of street art, and also shows the use of a stencil. This image and many like it are fast and easy to post, making it a great way to get your work seen by more people and to limit the chance of getting caught.

Where are you likely to see street art? Well, due to the popularity of street art, you can see it everywhere. From capitol cities, to rural hamlets all over the world. If your in a city and looking for street art, there are some clues to the street art. Areas of increased foot traffic are key. Bridges, foot paths, train stations are all popular, but the best thing to do is keep your eyes open!

So how can I get some street art of my own? Well, many art supplies are picking up on the street art phenomenon and you can now get some great graffiti and stencil art on canvas, prints, even on 12" vinyl art!

If however you have a little bit of cash and want to splash out on something original, most graffiti artists can be commissioned for custom work. But as with all commission pieces, it can get very costly.