Successful? Depends on Your Definition

"Hullo"
2 x 3 in. watercolor
Stephanie Allison

When I "retired" a month ago (has it really been that long?), the plan was to devote myself to developing and promoting my art business, because yes, art is my business.  For a long time I waffled between treating art as a hobby, along with gardening, writing, reading--well, you get the drift, and making a real go at it. That means marketing, promoting, developing contacts--as well as painting. When I talked with other artists, and read articles on the subject of running an art business, I scoffed at the idea that I would be spending at least 50% of my time on the marketing aspect of art. IF I want to succeed.

So that got me wondering what my definition of success as an artist really is.  Do I want to be famous?  Have my art hanging in high end museums, like MOMA and the Smithsonian?  Or will I be content to get a commission here and there and sell a few paintings now and then?  Well...I've been giving it a LOT of thought, and, for me, success is creating beautiful portraits that make people happy.  And sometimes their happiness means I make them cry.

I learned that over the holidays.  I had several portrait commissions--some portraying people, most depicting beloved pets.  And although the money was nice, what really mattered to me was capturing not just a likeness on the canvas, but getting the spirit and personality right, too.  So when I handed those commissions over to the clients, I gauged my success by their reaction. A big smile, a hug--and frequently tears.  Not that I wanted them to cry--but the fact that my work evoked such emotion validated what I'd hoped to accomplish.  Translation:  success.

Having said all that, don't get me wrong: I like making money too.  Which is why I've spent the last several days, make that weeks, scouring the Internet, checking out other artists' websites, Facebook pages, and blogs to see what they're doing to promote themselves. And it's a LOT of work.  So many tiny details to think of:  linking to your other pages, linking to other artists' pages, getting your blogs and sites noticed by all the big search engines.  My eyes blur and my head aches.  But I'm slogging through it.  So over the next couple of weeks, if anyone is actually reading this and visiting my Facebook page, you might see some changes.  And I'll probably screw things up too, since I'm not the most tech savvy person when it comes to all this. But it's worth a shot, and if it helps me get more clients, that's great, because it means I'll also get to know you and your loved ones--two and four-legged, and that's what really matters.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in learning more about promoting yourself as an artist, or want to learn more about the various things you can do with Facebook, here are a couple of links I found helpful:

ArtBizCoach: Lots of helpful information on running a successful art business from Alyson B.Stanfield.  I visit this site quite often.

Pagemodo. This site will help you create a new cover photo for your Facebook fan page.  It has a "free" option, which was sufficient for me, but if you want to go crazy, you can sign up for a paid account.  You can also create new tabs, but I had trouble with that--I may have to go back and take another look at that option.

So here's to success--however you define it!



 

Pet Portrait Special!!!

May is National Pet Month in the US, and in honor of that, I am running a special on Pet Portraits. Commission a portrait of your pet, any size, through the month of May and receive a 10% discount.  In addition, I will donate 10% of the proceeds from the commission to the Shelby County No-Kill Mission.  I hope you'll take advantage of this special and let me create a beautiful, lasting memory of your beloved pet.  Contact me at sallison@insightbb.com for more information.

Above is the finished portrait I started last week. This is an 8x10 acrylic painting, framed, and is available for purchase through my website (www.stephanieallison.com).  I managed to complete another painting this weekend, as well--one that I have been working on for quite awhile.  It's a cottage in Bunratty Village, Ireland.  This is a 16 x 20 acrylic, also available through my website.

Started another pet portrait commission yesterday, this one of a cat named Samson.  This is the first pass of color. I'll be adding more details and fine-tuning it this week, so check back later to see the progress. 

I have lots of plans in the works for my pet portraits, including a calendar. I'll be posting the details later. I'm really excited and I hope you all will be too!

Now...on to my mini-poems and photos-a-day:  Obviously, I have been way, way behind on both of these endeavors, but I'm working my way back into it. I did manage to write a little micro-poem last night. Here it is: 

Like the slow and steady turtle

Thunder lumbers east

unphased by Lightning's razzle-dazzle.

Tonight's goal:  a personal best.

So that's it for tonight! Be kind to your pets--their love for you is unconditional!  Paws up!

                           

Happy Memorial Day!

Hope it's been a pleasant one for all of you, and I hope everyone took a few minutes to say a prayer of thanks for those who gave their time and lives in service to our country--and that includes the thousands of K-9's who have been used in wartime since WWI, I believe.  Many of them didn't make it home either.

It's HOT here, and I've spent most of my weekend mowing. Ugh.  But I did manage to squeeze in a little painting time.  I finished one mini-painting, started months ago, and worked on a larger piece, also started awhile back.  I'm slowly re-motivating myself to write and paint at least for a few minutes a day.  Hard to do for someone like me, who wants instant gratification.  I'm not a very fast painter, although I am working on that. So here's a pic of the mini-painting.  This is a 4 x 4 acrylic.

Mini Kitty

  

Tomorrow I'll post another painting. Stay tuned!









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Paws Daily

Zora

9 x 12

Oil on Canvas Board

Contact Stephanie Allison to purchase

Website: http://www.stephanieallison.com/

"Paws Daily" is the name of my new shelter animal/art project. There are lots of these types of projects nationwide, where the artist or a group of artists creates animal portraits and a portion of the sales are donated to an animal shelter, humane society or some other animal welfare program. This is a personal project for me--something I'm doing to help the local animal shelter through the Shelby County No Kill Mission.  My hope is to create at least one portrait of a shelter animal daily (although at the rate I paint, it is more likely to be every two or three days....). I will eventually have notecards and prints available for purchase, too--but right now I'm concentrating on the paintings. This is a good project for me as it is keeping me motivated and it's good practice. Trying to complete a painting a day--even if I don't actually finish--forces me to paint more loosely and concentrate on the "essence" of the subject, so the finished piece has more of a "free" feeling to it.

This painting of Zora is fresh off the easel--the paint is still wet, so you can see a little reflection from the studio light.