Artists Archives - Page 21 of 25

Online Daily Deal Site for Independent Artisans

November 18, 2011

Budget-constrained shoppers who would prefer buying quality gifts from independent artisans are urged to visit CraftyAttic.com.The site offer daily deals on handmade goods including one-of-a-kind jewelry, bath and body products, greeting cards, art prints, and more. All vendors featured on the site are small, independent businesses, many of which are run by stay-at-home-moms and Etsy sellers.

Crafty Attic works closely with their vendors to come up with enticing deals for their customers. To be accepted as a “Featured Shop,” you must be willing to offer vouchers worth at least 50% off a gift item or shipping. Several jewelry items and 8 x 10 prints of a hand-drawn and colored birdhouse were featured on the site today.

According to the website, “Our mission is to give exposure to independent artisans regardless of where you choose to set up shop.”Although many vendors do come from Etsy, Crafty Attic also accepts independent sellers from Artfire and personal websites that are unaffiliated with handmade marketplace venues.

Crafty Attic is based in Asheville, North Carolina and has been open since September.

LINKS

Crafty Attic

How to Become a Vendor

Annenberg Space for Photography to Display Altered Realities

December 26, 2011November 10, 2011

If you will be in the Los Angeles area between December 17, 2011 and May 30, 2012, don’t miss the fascinating exhibit that will be on display at The Annenberg Space for Photography. Entitled “Digital Darkroom: An Exploration of Altered Realities,” the show will feature works by 17 artists from around the world who explore the intersection of art and technology.

Each artist has mastered different types of digital techniques: compositing highly layered imagery, working in 3D and lenticular imaging, meticulously stitching together images, using lighting in highly inventive ways, and so on. The artists come from a range of backgrounds, such as fine art, commercial art, portraiture, still life, fashion photography, architectural photography, or photographic and illustrative expression. But many of them freely cross genres and combine multiple techniques to create their art.

The artists featured in the show are:

Jean-François Rauzier

Martine Roch

Christopher Schneberger

The show will juxtapose the work of young artists immersed in digital work against that of Jerry Uelsmann, a master of darkroom compositing techniques. In addition to displaying 80 prints (2-6 images from each photographer), Digital Darkroom will showcase hundreds of additional images in vivid detail on the two 14 x 17-foot. high-resolution screens in the Digital Gallery of the Annenberg Space for Photography.

LhotkafoothillsFrost1 — Foothills Frost, ©Bonny Pierce Lhotka, pigment transfer on tempered glass, 30 x 40 in.

In a specially created screening room, you can view a 3D film shot in 5K resolution using RED Epic cameras. The film includes interviews with 3D experts and historians Ray Zone and David Kuntz and 3D artists Ted Grudowski and Christopher Schneberger. It also will show how how 3D artists Claudia Kunin and Mike Pucher photograph their subjects and alter them digitally to create 3D results.

The curatorial advisor for The Digital Darkroom exhibition is Russell Brown, a Senior Creative Director at Adobe and an Emmy-Award-winning instructor. Brown was instrumental in the introduction of Adobe Photoshop and has helped many of world’s leading photographers, publishers, art directors and artists master techniques that enable their digital creations.

The Annenberg Space for Photography is located at 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City, California. Admission is free.

LINKS

About The Annenberg Space for Photography

About “Digital Darkroom: An Exploration of Altered Realities”

Artist Converts Photographs into Limited-Edition Silk Scarves

October 31, 2011

In one of the first posts on this blog, I wondered how long it would take before designers started taking full advantage of some of the creative possibilities of the most recent advances in digital textile printing. Here’s a great example of a photographer who is not only creating beautiful products, but also appears to be marketing them with a carefully planned strategy.

BryonyMaxiScarf — Cherry Blossom Scarf by BryonyShearmur

Photographic artist Bryony Shearmur, who has been creating fine art images of Los Angeles for over a decade, has brought some of those images to life as limited-edition silk scarves.

Entitled “Really Beautiful Things,” the Los Angeles-themed scarves are part of her new “Silk” series. The scarves are described as “living photographs” and “cascades of color.” Each piece is individually printed on 100% Habatai silk using the most advanced technology in digital fabric printing. Then, each scarf and pocket-square is hand-finished and signed by the artist.

“I have wanted to create ‘Silk’ for many years but the technology was not there,” says Shearmur. “Finally it is and I can realize my vision”

In addition to scarves and pocket squares, Bryony Shearmur is developing silk tops and skirts, and a collection of cashmere-lined blankets that feature her most popular snow and water landscapes. She says the “Silk” collection seamlessly blends her passions for photography, conceptual art, and design.

The press release she developed to promote the scarves is accompanied by top-quality high-resolution photographs designed for use if magazines that promote luxury goods.

LINKS

Silk by Bryony Shearmur

About Bryony Shearmur

Are Designers Making the Most of Digital Textile Printing?

Be Prepared to Record Oral Statements about Your Art

October 24, 2011

ARTISTS. The next time you write a statement about your art, read it aloud to see how it sounds. If more exhibition organizers start making tour information available on mobile phones, you may be asked to submit oral commentary about your work along with your written statement.

For example, visitors to the “30 Americans” exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. can dial a provided number to take a self-guided audio tour of the Gallery on their cellphones.

The “30 Americans” exhibition is a wide-ranging survey of works by many of the most important African-American contemporary artists of the last three decades. The Corcoran Gallery of Art staff used technology supplied by OnCell to record audio clips of the artists’ personal commentaries on their paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and videos. Museum visitors follow prompts to hear the artists describe their work.

OnCell is a company of mobile-imaging experts who are passionate about the arts and education. Since the firm was founded in 2006, they have worked on more than 1,000 projects in the U.S. and internationally. OnCell’s mobile tour technology allows museums and historic sites to create powerful learning experiences using audio, images and video for visitors along with additional “edutainment” features such as quizzes and text messaging.

LINKS

The Corcoran Gallery of Art

About OnCell Systems

Digitally Paint on iPad, Replay Brushstrokes on Mac or PC

October 20, 2011

ARTISTS. ArtRage is a painting and drawing package that can be used to produce natural-looking artwork on your iPad, Mac, or PC. Developed by Ambient Software, ArtRage digitally simulates the experience of “painting” using your computer or tablet screen as the canvas. The “oil paints” smear and blend, and the “watercolors” flow together to create soft, wet gradations, just as they would in a traditional art studio.

ArtRage painting of Arielle Kogut by David Jon Kassan @StonehengeNYC

With the new iPad version (1.3) announced October 12, you can share the paintings you create on you iPad via Facebook, DropBox, and deviantArt, and export to a wider range of image formats via iTunes and email. For example, you can export your “paintings” as PNG or JPG files to the iTunes shared file space or send PNG, JPG, or native PTG files via email.

Also new is the ability to record your paint strokes. With this feature, you can playback your iPad painting in ArtRage 3.5 Studio on your Mac or PC for further editing, save your paintings for posterity, produce higher resolution output for large-format printing, or create tutorials to communicate the artistic process. In the tutorials, you can include annotations that explain certain techniques or add Note Bubbles or Spotlights that draw the viewer’s attention to certain areas of the canvas.

ArtRage painting of Screamy Screamy Night by Barbara Lietzow — "Screamy Screamy Night" Mashup of vanGogh and Munch recorded for playback by Barbara Lietzow

Ambient Design Ltd. is a New Zealand-based global software development and publishing firm, specializing in creative applications and user interfaces for artists of all ages and all levels of competency, including professionals, hobbyists and students.

LINKS

ArtRage 3.5 Studio

ArtRage for iPad

App Store: Art Rage 1.3

E-Book Suggests Ways to Price Fine Art Prints

October 13, 2011

ARTISTS. A new 46-page e-book from art-print expert Barney Davey can help you determine the “sweet spot” price range for your art prints. Once you find the “sweet spot,” you won’t lose sales because your work is overpriced or lose revenues because your work is underpriced. In other words, you will get fair value for each art print you sell.

Entitled “How to Price Digital Fine Art Prints: Tips from Top Art Marketing Minds,” the e-book offers useful information on how to price digital reproductions of original art (giclées) , fine-art photography prints, and digital fine-art prints (prints of digitally created art). The book offers insights, advice and experiences from a variety of experts in art marketing, digital printmaking, art-print publishing, and digital arts.

Their insights reinforce the fact that pricing giclees and digital fine art prints is a subjective undertaking. Although you won’t find a magic pricing formula that works equally well for all artists, you can read a range of viewpoints and ideas that can guide you in creating a pricing strategy that works for you. Below are some of the questions addressed in the book:

Is pricing by the square inch the best method?
What are some other ways to price prints besides per square inch?
How important is consistency in pricing art prints across different distribution channels? For instance, does it harm an artist to have different prices on an artist website or blog, galleries, juried shows, online venues, art fairs and so forth?
Should pricing for sale through galleries and dealer always be considered? In other words, if an artist is not in a gallery now, should her art prices include the markup to galleries? Or, only if there are plans to include galleries for distribution.
Is there a range or formula for pricing open edition prints versus limited edition prints? In other words, if an open edition print from an artist sells for $200, should a limited edition print of the same size sell for $500, or 25% more?
Does it do any harm for artists to create limited editions in different sizes?
Can an artist number open editions?
Should artists give galleries exclusives on certain images?

In the introduction to “How to Price Art Prints,” Davey admits that “Lining up your work and making decisions about what they are worth is a daunting task, especially at first.” But he says, it can become easier over time, especially when you start working with established criteria to facilitate the process.

“To be successful at pricing your work, you have to learn to remove your personal feelings about your work from your actual observations of its current market value,” states Davey. While this can be difficult to do, developing a system for pricing your prints can help you be more objective. Many of the ideas in the book can not only help you make smarter decisions about pricing your fine-art prints, but also your originals as well.

Barney Davey publishes the popular Art Print Issues blog and the online magazine Giclée Business News. A previous post on this blog discusses the recently updated version of Davey’s popular book: “How to Profit from the Art Print Market.”

LINKS

E-Book: How to Price Digital Fine Art Prints

Book: How to Profit from The Art Print Market

Learn How to Profit from the Art Print Market

Online VIP Art Fair 2.0 Scheduled for February 3-8, 2012

October 3, 2011

ARTISTS. VIP Art Fair, the world’s first contemporary art fair held exclusively online, has announced that its second fair, VIP2.0, will be held February 3-8, 2012. Top international galleries will offer artworks from $500 to over $1 million.

Launched in January 2011, VIP Art Fair leverages Internet technology to create a live, online marketplace to view, learn about and purchase artworks by leading artists from around the world.

Fair Director Noah Horowitz explains, “VIP takes the successful model of physical art fairs and opens it to a much broader audience, empowering the connection between the engaged art community and the world’s most prominent dealers.”

Already 100 galleries from 32 countries, including additions from Latin America and Middle East, have registered to exhibit. Galleries include Zwirner (NYC), White Cube (London), Pace (NYC, Beijing), Hetzler (Berlin), Ropac (Paris, Salzburg), Fraenkel (San Francisco), Goodman (NYC, Paris) and Hyundai (Seoul).

The company’s new VP of Engineering Severin Andrieu-Delille states, “At our inaugural fair, systems struggled with high traffic volume, and the site experienced technical issues. In response, we’ve completed major upgrades, adding substantial server and bandwidth resources. Significant load testing makes us confident we’ll meet peak demand, delivering a flawless, content-rich experience for our exhibitors and visitors.”

A new Museums and Editions Hall will enable visitors to purchase editions from top international institutions. Enhanced social media integration with Twitter and Facebook will invite visitors to join conversations and share favorites. The VIP Art Fair will support all web-browsers, iPad, and mobile devices.

Popular features such as interactive Booths and a VIP Lounge will be retained, with enhanced Chat functionality.

Demographics from the inaugural VIP Art Fair show that moving the art fair online is a welcome innovation. The week-long event in January, 2011 drew an audience of over 40,000 visitors from 196 countries who spent more than an hour on the site viewing over 200 unique artworks.

As a portal to the world’s premiere contemporary art galleries, VIP Art Fair enables dealers to connect with existing clients, would-be collectors to discover the art world, and students, educators, critics and curators to access contemporary artists.

LINK

VIPArtFair.com