When you get to a certain point in your career, you want to elevate your work. What are some ways that you can do this without having to rely on anyone else?
How can you elevate your work on your own? Is it possible?
Absolutely. Here are a few of my tips to elevate your work.
1. Context is everything! You should have a professional website with a white background and modern, simple fonts that mimics the look of a gallery. You don’t want anything distracting from your beautiful work! Get rid of any old work on your website, distracting logos, or “fancy” colors! Coco Chanel said it best: “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.”
2. Take anything that you aren’t really proud of out of your résumé. You just want to put your best foot forward. If you’ve been published in any press or one any awards those things should also be front and center! When exhibit in your work in public, make sure it is aligned with a gallery or institution that you are proud to be a part of. Also, when you go to the opening, always have your business cards on hand so that you can make connections with people who would possibly by your work. You could even schedule a studio visit with people who like your painting!
3. Do a social media audit. This is especially true for Instagram, go through your feed and delete anything that you are not extremely proud of. There’s also the option to archive the post so that you can still have it for later but it makes it private. Do you want a seamless, professional experience sprinkle through with some of your personal moments in the studio and inspiration!
4. Aggressively apply to opportunities. When you make time each week to apply to, say, five opportunities, some of those opportunities are bound to work out! I definitely suggest entering exhibitions in your area and even throughout the country as you build your art career. You can find these opportunities at sites like http://www.callforentry.org.
5. A very important thing to do is to take great photographs. You need to be able to document your work so that you’re able to have it for your own records, as well as make prints of it of a very high-quality if you would like to down the line. If you sell the piece, then you don’t want to be in a situation when all you have is an iPhone photo! You can buy or rent a good camera, hire an art photographer, OR take your pieces to be scanned at a printer!
6. Continue to improve your work and increase your consistency in quality and presentation. Do you want to be known for a recognizable style and theme. If this is a challenge for you you may consider my affordable course that targets this, Discovering Your Artistic Voice.
7. Revisit your artist statement, and rewrite it if necessary! Make sure it reflects the current body of work that you are working on and then it is clear and powerful.
These are just a few suggestions that you can use to start up leveling your online and in person artistic presence in the art world! The main idea is to elevate everything that your artwork touches… Make sure the way you document your work, present it, and talk about it reflect your love and honor for the work that you are presenting.
These are just a few suggestions that you can use to start up leveling your online and in person artistic presence in the art world! The main idea is to elevate everything that your artwork touches… Make sure the way you document your work, present it, and talk about it reflect your love and honor for the work that you are presenting.
I’m honored that my work has been featured recently in the March 11 issue of the Times Herald! I also wanted to encourage you that if you are an artist, YOU TOO can start to get press for your artwork. To start to get press, I like to guide artists to:
1. Proactively seek out press by cultivating relationships with publications and writers 2. Determine what you would like to get press for– an event, an exhibit, or a topic 3. Gather together into a press release for your news worthy topic, including pictures of your pieces, you, and your angle on the topic. 4. Address your press release to individual writers at the news outlets you’d like to be featured in! 5. Follow up twice.
In the comprehensive course I am creating for contemporary realist feminine artist, the Luminary Artist Academy, we go deep into this and the details of each step. To sign up for the waitlist, click here.
And now, the article from the Times Herald! Since it’s a little hard to read the scans, here is the article:
Artists found creative outlets and frustration during pandemic
By M. English
For MediaNews Group
PLYMOUTH >> As they look back from the one-year mark, local artists say COVID- 19 has affected their work in a variety of ways.
Plymouth Meeting painter Susannah Hart Thomer says art has allowed her to focus on “something positive and wonderful during this terrible time.”
“For me…it fills the time with the happiness and luxury of creating, developing and spending hours of time sitting on the floor doing my watercolor paintings…,” Thomer says. “Even if I…don’t quite like the way the painting’s developing, it doesn’t matter. I just start over. It’s a delight to go into my studio in the morning and be surrounded by art (and) discuss my paintings with friends by emailing my work to get their knowledgeable views and opinions of it.”
Ambler’s Lynn Hoffmann has found “more time to reflect” and experiment with new techniques and materials in her Hand and Wheel Pottery studio. For example, “materials other than clay to make larger outdoor sculptures that don’t require clay or a kiln.”
“It really has been kind of nice to think and dream way out of my normal box but sad to not see others as much in the beginning,” Hoffmann says. “After I experiment with new things, I bring them to my students, who love seeing new things. (It) feels really good to be so open to new ideas and let possibilities enter into existence. For me, nothing is worse than repeating the same things over and over. I love to experiment and learn.”
Despite her cheerful outlook, Thomer acknowledged “the seeming foreverness” of the pandemic, and others shared parallel sentiments.
Conshohocken Ar t League’s Eileen McDonnell recalls a quick visit to CAL’s studio at Mary Wood Park House last November as “truly surreal…something out of a dystopian novel.”
“The children’s paintings were still splayed on the tables… some chairs askew, some paint containers scattered near each student’s work,” McDonnell says. “Reference books for that project were still opened. Everything was covered in a light dust, some cobwebs here and there, some new water damage cracking the ceiling, insanely quiet. It was as if some bomb had dropped and left everything in suspended animation.”
Zoom picked up some of the slack, but the format wasn’t a universal remedy for CAL’s usual in-person classes, especially live model sessions when “the lighting and three dimensional quality of working from life was distorted by the lens and arbitrary camera angle of the instructor,” the local painter says.
One positive, McDonnell notes, “the pockets of adult artist groups who now meet each week online to share their personal projects…no pressure, just sharing inspiration, contacts, techniques, material sources (and) art news.”
Initially, the pandemic stopped Whitemarsh Art Center’s Charlotte Lindley Martin in her tracks.
“March 13, 2020 – Lockdown – I stopped making art,” Martin remembers.
She returned to “the studio energized and engaged” in May when she and fellow WAC staffer Matt Courtney began making ceramic hand-building videos for online tutorials.
“We were educating from afar, and the result was our students were creating art,” Martin says. “Inspired by my granddaughter, I made videos for children. Next came live Zoom classes. Planning a weekly lesson making templates, trying out forms, finding inspiration for them, putting them on Pinterest and testing underglazes using mason stains.”
All of which increased her “knowledge base” and allowed Martin to learn “alongside my students.” As part of that: “I am gratefully using the new-found knowledge garnered by teaching and experimenting… making small sculptures, taking risks and embracing the changes. In my isolation, I am making art that is for me.”
Fellow WAC ar tist Jeanine Pennell also learned to adjust after her “entire calendar of art fairs and shows was wiped clean.”
“I had nothing to look forward to, but I knew I needed to continue to create,” Pennell says. “I decided to focus on creating a single body of work that had its own theme, sort of my own thesis… (and) set out to create a minimum of seven pieces that at some future time would be shown together. I missed travel the most, so I aimed my focus in that direction and began a series I entitled ‘Absurd Travel.’ Long stretches in the studio have afforded me the freedom to try new techniques and create larger pieces.”
Pondering the pandemic’s “impact on millions of quarantined individuals” as well as the concept of “the selfie as a self-portrait” during physical isolation inspired Greater Norristown Art League painter Jessica Libor’s stylized portraits of women.
“I was particularly inspired to do this series because of the impact on millions of quarantined individuals,” Libor says. “With nowhere to go socially, how do we as individuals still express our creative personalities through our styling? Does it still matter to get dressed up if no one will see you? How does creating a selfie with your cell phone mimic the process of creating a work of art? Many things are the same: Choosing the elements, composition, lighting, colors and subject matter.”
In the end, “in many ways, the selfie and the self-portrait are the same thing: The artist’s version of themselves that they want to reveal to the world. Through blending fantasy and reality, they can be perceived as who they aspire to be. How does creating an idealized fantasy world surrounding you create relief psychologically? Is it escapism or creativity?”
At first, GNAL’s Betz Green viewed quarantine as “an unexpected treat to be able to spend endless hours in the studio.”
“Well, that sense of euphoria lasted a couple of weeks,” Green says. “Then, reality set in. I was working in a vacuum with no museums, no art shows, no art classes, no friends. Production fell off drastically for a few months until the world slowly began to once again open up, presenting opportunities and other people. The pandemic itself does not influence my work. I do not allow it to enter my studio space or my head space when in the studio.”
I’m honored to be a part of this thoughtful article about artists during the pandemic. This week, I am simply continuing to work on my new art for WILDLOVE, the upcoming exhibit in May! To register for that, click here.
Lastly, I am hosting a virtual Wine and Watercolor social instructed paint along this Sunday, and I’d love it if you joined me! Click here or the image below to register!
Self Portrait in a Staw Hat, by Elisabeth Vigee Labrun
Happy International Women’s Day! I am so happy that there is a day to celebrate courageous and wonderful women all around the world, regardless of what stage of their life that they are in. Let’s celebrate the women in our lives who are our mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, relatives, colleagues, and creative that we look up to! For this international women’s day, I wanted to honor the women who are part of our community of the visionary artist salon! If you haven’t yet joined our Facebook group, you can do so here! We’d love to see what you’re working on, be invited to your exhibitions, and hear your struggles and triumphs.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, I like to focus on one woman a preeminent artist who was a favorite portraitist of Marie Antoinette, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun. Elisabeth was an independent artist, mother, wife and world traveler, as well as frequent Salon host. Her subject matter and color palette can be classified as Rococo, but her style is aligned with the emergence of Neoclassicism.
Marie Antoniette, by Elisabeth Vigee Labrun
She enjoyed the patronage of European aristocrats, actors, and writers, and was elected to art academies in ten cities. As her career blossomed, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun was granted patronage by Marie Antoinette. She painted more than 30 portraits of the queen and her family, leading to the common perception that she was the official portraitist of Marie Antoinette. At the Salon of 1783, Vigée Le Brun exhibited Marie-Antoinette in a Muslin Dress (1783), sometimes called Marie-Antoinette en gaulle, in which the queen chose to be shown in a simple, informal white cotton garment.
She led a long and interesting life, escaping the French revolution when the tables turned on Marie Antoinette and making a home for herself in Russia for quite a long time before returning to her home country of France. And accomplished artist, she was known not only for her brilliant self portraits and masterful execution Color and form, but also subtly influenced the fashion of France. She was the one who, through her own style of wearing a simple white dress with a colored sash, influence Marie Antoinette to do the same, and when her portrait was done in that style, it became all the rage as the fashionable style.
Vigée Le Brun, Marie-Antoinette in a Muslin Dress
Vigée La Brun created some 660 portraits and 200 landscapes. In addition to many works in private collections, her paintings are owned by major museums, such as the Louvre, Hermitage Museum, National Gallery in London, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and many other collections in continental Europe and the United States. She lived 1755-1842.
There is a fabulous dramatized documentary on Netflix about Elisabeth you might enjoy, The Fabulous Life of Elisabeth Vigee La Brun, in honor of International Women’s Day!
Elisabeth lived during a time in France where salons, from which the Visionary Artist’s Salon is inspired by, were just gaining popularity. You will see in the film dramatizations of the salons that Elizabeth held within her own apartments, sometimes dramatic affairs with costumes, feasts, and artists, writers, and thinkers of the day present. The Parisian salons of the 18th century allowed women to play a positive role in the public sphere of French society. Salons provided a unique outlet where women’s ideas could be heard. Women, in addition to conversing with men at an academic level, had the power to influence the topics major philosophers studied. The cross-class communication that salons fostered also allowed social groups, which had never before interacted, to share ideas. Women’s contributions to the development of intellectual and scientific ideas through their role as salonierres marked a cultural shift in how women should be accepted and involved in society.
Above, Madam Grande, by Elisabeth Vigee Labrun
I hope this little history lesson has inspired you and empowered you to create your own epic story if you are a female artist! Speaking of which, the luminary or the salon will be opening in a few weeks, and if you are a female contemporary realist artist, this may be the program to ship to you into a higher plan that you have been looking for. In this program, I am sharing how to build a profitable, authentic art career while embracing your own feminine spirit. You can get on the waitlist to learn more about it by clicking here! Thank you so much for shining bright, and happy International Women’s Day!
You’re also invited to my Sunday watercolor paint along! Register for the event here, held from 3-5pm on Sunday, March 21.
In my last post, I talked about the challenges that a feminine artist might face as she builds her art career and life. If you missed that, you can read it here on my blog.
However, the feminine artist also has so many strengths and advantages! First of all, what is a feminine artist? We all have masculine and feminine aspects within us, but if you have predominantly feminine energy in your artwork you might feel:
1. Sensitive to your environment 2. Feel your emotions deeply 3. Make art that means a lot to you, and reflects your heart 4. Are drawn to depicting “soft” subjects in your art, like florals, fashion, love, and beauty 5. You are more drawn to being absorbed in your art and creation, and marketing, numbers and strategy is something you avoid or overwhelms you 6. What is going on in your life and the world affects you and your artwork
If that’s you, you’re in good company! I believe the advantages outweigh the challenges of being a feminine artist. The feminine strength is a quiet strength; like the roots of a tree, our strength is anchored in a deep well of subtle power, that eventually grows to become seen and admired, almost like a surprise. There isn’t a lot of noise…until there is massive flowering. So what are some of our unique gifts?
First, femininity is magnetic. It isn’t all about pink and ruffles, either! The essence of a feminine energy is an exquisite acceptance of herself and her work, a deep knowing of the worth of what she makes and who she is. Think of a beautiful flower blooming in your backyard. She is so fragrant, the colors so perfect, her petals so welcoming that the bees are naturally drawn to her. She doesn’t have to chase them down.
This analogy is true in all aspects of life, but if we use it for the art world, think of how an artist with something really special going on in her work is a magnet for opportunities. She doesn’t have to chase or beg press to write her up, or show up at another person’s exhibition to try to talk to the gallery owner.
But that flower still took action by blooming her best in a place where the bees could find her. Likewise, feminine energy artists can blossom in their work, and let it be seen: on the internet, by sending introductory emails, by engaging in opportunities, by showing up and simply being present. But she does so with a deep inner knowledge that her work is worthy, NOT to gain acceptance or prove anything. She shines, and lets her work be seen, so that opportunities that are WORTHY OF HER can be magnetized to her.
Secondly, feminine artistry is deeply creative. Of course all artists are creative, but feminine creativity especially in females is encoded in our DNA. We are literally equipped to create souls, if not in the literal sense, then in birthing our creations.
We have a natural propensity to lean into our creations and put our heart and soul into them. The feminine artist’s work often is full of curved lines, unexpected textures and a beautiful, intricate look to it. This is a mirror of her mind and heart, and the more you let open that door of freedom to your creativity, the more striking and powerful your imagery will become.
The key is TRUST, trusting your inner psyche that you always have more depths of unexplored creativity that grows more powerful the more you use it.
Third, feminine energy is full of powerful archetypes and enduring story. Just look at the stories and fairy tales that resonate with cultures all over the world and don’t go away, that always center on a female protagonist. We do not always embody the princess (although I’m not gonna lie, it’s one of my favorite archetypes!) Feminine archetypes include the Queen, the Teacher, the Princess, the Angel, the Servant, the Heroine, the Crone, the Witch, the Healer, the Saint, the Virgin, the Fallen Woman, and more with almost endless variations of this.
These archetypes are repeated in stories throughout the ages and have been embedded in our psyche. And although none of us is just one of these things, it can be helpful to take some of the powerful stories and imagery of these characters that you identify with, and incorporate it in your business and persona as a feminine artist.
Imagine LEANING INTO the archetypes you like to strengthen your art, your luminosity in the art world, and your understanding of human behaviors around feminine lore…that persist up until modern day! And, you get to create your own story around your archetypes.
Red Riding Hood, by Jessica Libor
By leaning into your favorite archetypes, you can create a more striking and enduring feeling around your art that will linger in the mind.
I will be digging more deeply into Archetypes in my expansive course especially made for feminine, contemporary realist artists that will be launching soon! If you are interested in getting on the waitlist (no commitment, you’ll just be the first to be notified when it goes live!) you can click HERE.
There are so many more benefits to being a feminine artist, and I just wanted to encourage you that you are not alone; that your femininity can be your strength, if you embrace it.
