Some of you probably remember the theme I used for last September's Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge: Project Runway! I painted thirty paintings that were inspired by dresses created on one of my favorite shows, Project Runway. Fast forward five months and I get a call from a friend of mine who owns one of the nicest dress shops in our area. It's called Pearls and it's in San Marino. It turns out she had seen my abstract paintings on Facebook and wanted to add it to her store. Yesterday I spent three hours at the shop as I delivered ten abstract paintings and five oils. I think these pictures best show what an amazing job they did styling my art in the store! (Click on the image for a closer view.) It's amazing how well the abstracts and oils show together. And I love the colors. Stunning.
Isn't it great when you try something new, like designing paintings based on dresses from Project Runway, and it leads to a wonderful opportunity? I love my job.
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That is, the piece you are dying to find.)You have probably seen photos or hard me talk about my newest obsession with Rae Dunn pottery. Over the next few months I am going to have a drawing for some canisters, a teapot, Pour, mugs and much more. My first giveaway is the TEA canister.
I’ve been hunting for Rae Dunn for some time now and have cultivated quite the collection. And since so many of you said that there’s not a lot of Rae Dunn in your areas, I thought, why not share the love? So here are the details on how to enter this giveaway for the “Tea” canister! 1. Make sure you’re following me on Instagram @my100yearold home. 2. Like this photo on my Instagram feed. 3. Tag two friends in the same comment who would love this @RaeDunnClay piece 4. Comment in the same feed and tell us what your unicorn Rae Dunn piece is. That’s it. The contest has started and ends on Wednesday at 5:00pm PST. Just head on over to my feed on Instagram @my100yearoldhome to enter. It’s that simple! There is a part of me that gets a lot of joy from entertaining. I love to cook. But when I invite a few friends over, the meal takes on a whole new meaning. Suddenly I have a goal ... pick a theme, set a beautiful table, cook a fabulous meal and entertain our guests. It's interesting that entertaining is so much more fun that cooking. On Friday night we hosted our "local" dinner club. (I call this dinner club "local" because we belong to another dinner club that we have been part of for 25 years. And just in case one of them reads this post I didn't want them to think they missed something ...) Anyway, the dinner was for eight people and since I recently "kind of redecorated" our dining room I was excited to host the dinner in the room formerly known as "the room we never go in to". (I also feel at this time I should come clean. I didn't "kind of redecorate" our dining room, I completely redecorated our dining room. In my defense, our new table was a Christmas gift from my darling husband. And with my excellent shopping skills, aka "I am a cheapskate", I was able to return our four-month-delayed-table-and-chairs from Pottery Barn and buy them for one half the price at the Pottery Barn Outlet. And yes, they delivered them the next day.) Enough about that. Our dinner party was a huge hit. Let me explain why. I am a huge fan of the show "Chopped". The basic premise of the show is where chefs are given a "mystery box" with four ingredients and are required to prepare an item using these ingredients and any others found in the kitchen. As you might have guessed, we played Chopped at our dinner (for the appetizer course). Which was pretty brilliant of me as it was one less course I had to cook! The ingredients in Box A (which was randomly selected by the gals) were fresh salmon, avocado, parmesan cheese and fresh pasta. Box B had raw chicken, goat cheese, dried apricots and fresh pasta. Everyone had a blast and I think they were secretly relieved that I had cooked the rest of the meal for them. And the food? It was fabulous. It didn't take a lot to plan this and it was really fun. It just set the mood for the entire evening. Lots of laughter. Lots of wine.
I know you are wondering why I am posting about this. I just wanted to remind everyone how much fun it is to entertain. Even if it's family or friends next door, make a call and pick a date. It doesn't have to be formal. How about Tuesday Taco night? Or Sunday Potluck Supper? Just get a group of friends together. You will be happy you did. You might recall that in December we did an Artists Helping Artists show introducing a "Twelve Month Plan to Organize Your Art Business". The plan was that each month we would tackle one task to help organize your business. In January we did a show with tips on how to organize your “art office” which included creating a color coded filing system and new folders for 2017.
In February we did a show on how to get your photos organized on your computer. I don’t know about you, but this was a huge task for me! It took almost the entire month of February but I am happy to say I can now actually find a photo when needed. March is the month to organize your computer files. If your computer is a mess, you’re probably already aware of it. And the reason you need to organize your computer files is because it allows you to work a lot smarter and faster. It's pretty simple. And I call it spring cleaning. Join me, and my co-host Anne Needham as we discuss what you need to do to "Get Your Computer Organized". The show airs live today, Thursday, March 23rd, at 8:00am PST, 11:00 am EST. Of course every show is recorded and archived so you can always listen to it at a later date. Listen to the show here. Sometimes when something goes really well you are afraid it won't ever be that good again. But my Art Marketing Bootcamp #3 has been amazing. Boot Camp isn't easy (which is why I don't call it "Art Spa Camp"). But to watch these women go through a very intense "soul searching" few days and then see their expressions when they realize they have a brand and a plan is one of the best experiences I have ever had. I even shed a few tears today when I realized each of these six women were thrilled with their progress and success. They are just wonderful.
If you are interested in any of my upcoming boot camps I do have a few spots available. Just click here for all of the information. It's a pretty amazing experience and I would love to share it with you! I can't believe how exhausted I am after spending most of the day leading an Art Marketing boot camp! I am blessed to be able to share my marketing thoughts with six extremely talented artists. Thank you for making this week possible! Today we broke off early and went straight to the Magnolia Market and Silos. Fortunately the crowds from last weekend were gone and we had so much fun! The inside of the Magnolia Market is amazing! Look at those gorgeous fake "faux" tulips on display. Plus as you can see the wonderful kitchen in the store. It is a perfect setting to show and tell all of the amazing gadget and storage solutions available at MM. I can't help notice the brand of "Magnolia" everywhere in Waco. This is such a perfect place to host a workshop where we talk about branding and finding your audience because we have one of the best examples of a perfect brand right in front of us. Chip and Joanna Gaines have created an incredible experience here and I only hope we can all learn from the two of them! Thank for your confidence in me. I can't thank you enough for making this happen!
I am in Waco, Texas. And if you haven't seen the show Fixer Upper then you are wondering, "What's she doing in Waco?". But it's a great town and I love it here because I am huge fans of Chip and Joanna Gaines. I love their show Fixer Upper and one of my favorite places is the Magnolia Market and Silos. It's kind of like "my Disneyland". So this week I am taking you along on my fabulous trip. The first thing I need to mention is I am participating in an Instagram drawing for a $1000 gift certificate to Magnolia. That's $1000 dollars to spend in their magnificent store! If you want to be eligible you just ned to go to my new instagram account @my100yearoldhome and click on the photo seen above. Then follow the instructions. It will take you about three and a half minutes to complete the loop. But it's worth it because they have so many awesome thing to buy at their online store! Plus, I really want one of my friends to win! I arrived in Waco yesterday and went straight on over to the Magnolia Market and Silos. It was the last day of their Spring Silobration and I really wanted to check it out. Apparently, so did the entire state of Texas. As you can see from the photo the event was a huge success! I have been to Waco twice before and I can tell you that I have never seen this many people here. Never! After spending about an hour at the Silos, I spent the rest of the afternoon visiting all of the antique stores seen on the Fixer Upper Store (such as Junque in the Trunk and The Junkey Monkey). There were so many wonderful and inexpensive finds that next time I come here I need to plan on driving a uhaul truck home! Today I went back to Magnolia Market and Silos to take some photos so you could see how cool this place really is. And since it's closed on Sunday there weren't quite so many people! I also found the restaurant Chip and Joanna bought which will open this summer. I think it will only be open for breakfast! I am staying at the Harp House which is owned by Clint Harp (he is the amazing carpenter on the Fixer Upper Show) and its awesome! I will share photos tomorrow.
In case you are wondering why I am in Waco, I am here hosting six wonderful artists for my Art Marketing Boot Camp. It's an intense three and a half days but we sure got off to a great start and had a lot of fun today. I can't wait for the rest of the week! Leslie Lie #5 - Trying to sell your paintings online will take time away from creating your art so you will make less money in the long run.
In a business where you are responsible for not only selling the product but also creating it, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Most artists are small businesses and work alone. If you don’t have the opportunity to sell through galleries then you will have to do a lot of the marketing yourself. Of course this takes time but the good news is you won’t have to payout a commission if you sell the paintings yourself. When you first set out to market your art it does take a lot of time. It could be as much as 50% of your time. But if it’s done correctly, you will find your audience who will become repeat buyers. As you build your customer base you may need to spend less time marketing. A smart marketing plan focuses on buyers who will buy multiple paintings over and over again, such as interior designers. Once you have established relationships with these designers, the success is endless. I hope you have enjoyed my blog posts this week. If you want to sell your art online you will need good photographs of your art, a website or online site to sell your art and the ability to post your paintings online as soon as they are completed. With some effort and creativity, you can find tremendous success selling your art online. Lie #4 - You will never find the right audience if you sell your paintings online.
The internet is the gateway to finding your audience. We are so lucky to have the internet available to us with the amazing tools such as Facebook and Instagram to find our audience. In most cases the online tools are free (or almost free!) and they enable us to find people who might like our art thousands of miles away! I have done quite a few radio shows on “how to find you are buyers (i.e. audience) and about 95% of the solutions are found online. It is important to first understand who your audience is. Once you have identified your audience then you need to start interacting and getting to know them. There are so many online communities where your buyers can be found. And it’s not that hard to find them. I honestly can’t imagine how you would find them without the internet! Lie #3 - You are likely to get ripped off (or scammed) if you sell paintings online.
Unfortunately there are a lot of online scammers. But most people who fall in to this prey are not taking the necessary safeguards needed to make sure the sale is legit. Some of the sings that are a red flagged with a potential online sale are bad grammar in the email or an overseas buyer who wants to “overpay you and have you send the overpayment back to them in cash or wire transfer”. They key is to only take payment via paypal and don’t ship the painting until you have the payment in full. If your buyer is a repeat customer then you may ship or deliver the paintings with only a deposit collected. But I still don’t recommend it. And the reason to take paypal? If you have a problem (and file a claim right away) paypal will freeze the money in the buyers account until the situation is resolved. Never accept checks unless you have a strong history with the buyer. And be wary of cashier's checks and money orders as they may be fake. Only accept paypal. A buyer can even use their credit card with paypal. It's really that easy. |
Leslie
Mom. Wife. Artist. Marketer. Teacher. Radio Show Host. Archives
July 2017
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