I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Wednesday Website, I explore and plan for some improvement to my website.
I’m feeling confident about my Motion Memory series of paintings, and want to make it easier for buyers to find my art. I’ve uploaded paintings to Saatchi Art in the past, but haven’t before had a set of paintings that presented such a strong point of view.
I started last week by creating an art inventory spreadsheet to keep track of each painting’s information — title, thumbnail image, year created, dimensions, medium, framing. For paintings on 3/4″ depth canvases, I plan to frame them, either with purchased frames or frames that Ray makes. The handmade frames are a nice touch and I can paint them in a coordinating color such as the dark brown-black I use as a ground layer and key color in many of the Motion Memory series. Paintings on 1.5″ canvases can be wired as is. I like both looks but the 1.5″ canvases are easier to get done, though a bit more expensive. I bought eight new such canvases yesterday in a range of sizes: 36″ x 36″ (a size I’ve never painted on, very excited), 24″ x 24″, and 24″ x 30″.
Next steps:
- Decide on a pricing calculation. I came up with a formula last year but I want to revisit it. Saatchi provides some tips for pricing your artwork that will be helpful. I may reduce my prices somewhat in order to get some more sales under my belt. I want to defray some costs of my painting practice right now but it’s not my intention to make it into a significant income stream right now.
- Understand packaging and shipping costs as well as shipping weights (artwork + packaging). I will need to shop for packaging materials and probably buy them to have them ready if someone purchases a piece. The artwork is supposed to be shipped out within 2-3 days of purchase so I need to have each painting completely ready to ship (sides cleaned up, framed if necessary, wired for hanging, signed, glazed) and have packing supplies ready. Shipping materials:
- Glassine paper or acid-free archival tissue paper
- Plastic sheeting, poly wrap, or heavy plastic bag
- Bubble wrap
- Foam board at least ½” thick or two-ply cardboard
- Packing tape
- Cardboard corner protectors
- Cardboard box
- Take up close photos of painting texture for additional images
- Assign keywords to each painting — these help collectors discover artwork on the Saatchi site. Add these to my art inventory database.
- Write a description for each work I’m planning to upload. Saatchi suggests that these should answer the following questions:
- What/who inspired the work?
- What do you hope its viewers will feel/think?
- Why did you choose the medium, subject matter, style?
Today, I will identify the first five paintings I’m going to make available for sale. Because most of the paintings are on 3/4″ depth canvases I will need to make a plan for framing them. And it seems I will need to photograph the paintings in their frames. Or I wonder if I should just make them available unframed? This is something to research today. Framing them with handmade floater frames would make them more appealing, perhaps, but it adds expense and work to the process.
And then I will write the painting descriptions as well as update my artist’s “about” entry.
Feel both nervous and motivated to move forward!