Technology Tuesday - Spread Sheet

Did I Blog About That Painting

There's a lot of things to remember when promoting your art

or any product, online.

Have you every realized that painting you love is not on your website?

I have.

Have you ever forgot to post it on Daily Paintworks?

I have.

Have you ever forgot to blog about a painting?
I have.

If there's a way to screw it up,

I've already done it.

But during the most recent 30 paintings in 30 days challenge,

I was able to keep all the balls in the air with my trusty spread sheet.

I know,

I'm a geek!

Anyway, here's how I did it.

Name of Painting	Photograph	Website	DPW	Blog	Facebook	Pinterest	Sold	Leslies Blog
Day 1 Jersey Girl	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Day 2 Grazing	X	X	X	X	X	X		X
Day 3 Strut	X	X	X	X	X	X		X
Day 4 Wanna Play	X	X	X	X	X	X		X

There are two columns to the right I'm not sure you can see.

One is a sold column which you could make a whole spread sheet for that with columns for

sold, paid for, shipped, insured, price for shipping, and dates and anything else you need.

The other column was strictly for the 30 in 30 challenge,

and that column is on Leslie's blog.

With that spread sheet, I no longer have to worry about did I do it or not.

When I did it, I checked it off.

Another Thing I Don't Have to Remember.

Also, I'm sure you guys have figured out a way to do this,

but this is what I came up with on keeping the URL's for my paintings listed on DPW.

I have a document in Microsoft Word and I copy and paste all the URL's on there preceded by the name of the painting.  

If I want to facebook or blog about a piece on DPW, I just copy and paste the URL and link it in the new document.

I usually keep both of those documents minimized on my desktop,

so they are always handy.

It takes a few minutes to set up the spread sheet,

but for me, the time it saves in helping me stay organized is 

"Priceless"

Still Time For A Commission

This was a commission I did last year of a local tobacco barn for a Christmas gift.

There's still time for your custom art piece for Christmas.

 (for the next 10 days or so)

email me at slgraves6@gmail.com

or leave me a comment and I'll contact you.

What a great gift idea.

I Did Just Fall Off . . .

I Did Just Fall Off the Turnip Truck 

Enough Said,

My husband brought in a whole tote of these the other day

and you know I couldn't resist that purple and all those roots.

The first one got wiped, but this one, I'm satisfied with.

6" x 6" acrylic on a panel

$50 + $6 shipping

Migraines as Inspiration

Migraine Night

 Shhhhhh!!!!!!!

There's a migraine going on here.

OK, not right now

but I had one the other night that was absolutely in color.

My migraines are very orderly, usually.

I get the aura of waving black lines,

then the nausea,

then the headache

and then what I call the aftermath,

when your eyelashes hurt,

your lips hurt,

your fingernails hurt,

and you might be having an out of body experience.

You've been there, right?

I'm very visual, and the other night I had a migraine and the aura was in color.

I'm not kidding you.

I studied it, because I knew I was going to need to paint it.

Not selling it, just painting it.

This is what I saw from the inside out.

I felt like I could really see my eyes.

That was one weird night.

And I don't even drink.

Why Is Green So Hard

How to Get Great Greens

Green is one of the hardest colors to mix,

but I found this on YouTube.

They send me suggestions and this was today's suggestion.

Click here to watch this cool video on making green color charts,

without using green.

Here is my green color chart I made.

 

The colors on the left are:

Lemon Yellow

White

Cad Yellow Med

White

Yellow Ochre

White

Indian Yellow

White

Cad Orange

White.

The colors across the top are:

Phthalo Blue

Ultramarine Blue

Cerulean Blue

Tourquoise

Prussian Blue

Black

Burnt Sienna

Burnt Umber

These are great colors for landscapes,

and I decided to use every shade of yellow and blue I had

and he also used the last two,

Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber.  

I'm going to do more of these

probably in reds, blues, purples, pinks, etc.

Get the picture.

Re Work Wednesday

Reworked, Renamed and Happy

Sometimes you're just not happy when you finish with a painting.

That's how I felt about this.

First Rendition.

I didn't like the water,

I didn't like the rocks,

I didn't like the plants,

I didn't like the trees.

So I began a rework.

Now this isn't the first re-work

or even the second re-work,

but it is the one I'm happy with.

Introducing

 Swirls

12" x 12" unframed original acrylic on a panel.

$100 + $10 shipping.

Thanks for checking this re-do out.

Technology Tuesday - So You Want to Sell Some Art

If You Want to Sell Your Art,

Make it Easy for Me to Buy Your Art.

I was trolling the internet and I came across a great gallery in North Carolina.

I went to the page about painters,

and they had all their 2D artists listed.

First off, I was shocked they had that many artists that didn't have website.

No Blog, No Website?

How am I supposed to buy your art if you don't have a website?

But, then I started clicking on the websites of those that were listed,

and I looked at them all.

If you have a website and you want me to buy your beautiful art,

Please, Please, Please,

put a price and a buy now option.

I hate shopping,

and I'm not going to send you an email and ask about the price, shipping costs,

or anything else.
I don't like haggling and by the time you get back to me,
I'm either out of the mood to buy your art or I bought something from someone who made it easy.

Tell me everything I need to know about buying your art easily

with as few clicks as possible.

Then give me the option to buy

quickly, easily, no muss no fuss.

It's really OK to state how much you want for your art.

It shouldn't be a secret!
And you shouldn't apologize for your price.

What's the purpose of having a website or a blog if I can't buy from there.

It's easy to put that buy now button on your blog.

Go to Paypal and sign in.

So far so good.

Click on merchant services.

Click on create payment buttons for your website.

 
Then click on the type of button you want.

I usually select the Buy Now option.

Then a list opens up and I again click on the buy now option, but you have a few choices here.

Then you fill out the info in the form.

 Once you do that you click on create button.

Then click on select code and it highlights the entire cods.Now we're talking.
 Then copy, I use Control C.

Now you go to your blog where you have written about your beautiful artwork,

click on the html section.

I scroll all the way through all the code I don't understand and when I get to the end, 

I paste using Control V.

Then go back to Compose and see your beautiful buy now button.
Easy Peezy!! 

It will take a time or two to really get the hang of it,

but it will only take a few minutes once you get it,

and now people trolling the interweb in the middle of the night can buy your art.

Just to show you, here is how it works.

Watching You Watching Me

12" x 12" acrylic on a panel $100 + $10 shipping.

Another thing you probably should check, is go on your website,
blog, Daily Paintworks site, and try to buy your own art,
just to see how it works or doesn't work.

If you can't buy it, no one else can either.

     Look, there's that buy now button.  Wasn't that easy.

Flowers For Christmas

Does She Love Flowers

These will stay fresh looking forever.

Here's just a few of the floral paintings I have available.

You can purchase these paintings right here, right now,

or if you want sensory overload,

you can head on over to my website and see everything available at

finenatureartbyslgraves.com

Happy Day
unframed 6" x 6" oil on canvas

Garden Gate 

 

Garden Gate

unframed 7" x 5" acrylic on panel

$50 + $60 shipping

Painted from Augusta, KY

 Grape Hyacinths

Grape Hyacinths

7" x 5" oil on canvas panel

$50 + $6 shipping

So there you go.

Three great original floral paintings to consider for someone special for Christmas.

Fall Friday - Fall at Blutler Lake

Fall At Butler Lake

General Butler State Park

Carroll County, KY

This is a framed 20" x 16" acrylic on a canvas panel.

This frame is solid wood and is heavy.

This would make a great gift for anyone in my area

or if you've ever camped there.

For one week only you can purchase this at 20% off.

It is listed on my website for $200 + $20 shipping.

and for this week only you can make it yours for $160 + $20 shipping.

Local purchasers, you can even save the shipping.  

I'll deliver within Carroll County, KY. for free.

What a deal

and it's over.

First Snow

First Snow - REALLY!

Are you kidding me?

Yes, November 12 we had our first snow for this season.

Our orchard with the first snow of the year.

unframed acrylic 9' x 12" on a stretched canvas.

$100 + $10 shipping

Technology Tuesday - Evernote

Ever Lost Something?

Try using Evernote.

This is a free program I learned about from Leslie Saeta and Dreama Tolle Perry

when they were on Artists Helping Artists together every Thursday.

Did I mention it is free and it is a way to keep track of lots of notes and information

that could otherwise be easily lost.

It is very easy to use and the learning curve is relatively low.

You sign up

And you can create notebooks right away

and put notes, regardless of how short they are in the corresponding notebook.

Some of my notes are just one sentence, but they are important to me and I want to be able to get to them when I want them again.

Here's a screen shot of what it looks like with a list of notebooks on the left,

when you click on a notebook, all the notes you have in it are listed in the middle box,

and the open note being the largest open box on the right.

This is a super easy program to use and you will find lots of ways it can help you.

You can share the screen with others if you are working on a project together,

but I mainly use it for notes on different topics and of course art.

I am able to keep track of goals,

art techniques I learn in my art journey,

art shows I want to enter and their dates

and the list goes on an on.

One of the great things I really like about this program,
it saves automatically every few seconds,
so you don't have to worry about saving or losing if you don't save.
That's huge.

The list of my 2013 goals are open on the right,

and OMGOSH!

I have completed almost every single one.

The last goal is about entering a state fair piece in large and miniature.

Just thought you'd like to see the large one,

again.

Cause we needed a little art on the art blog.  hehe!

Keeping Watch

16" x 20" framed acrylic

$200 + $20 shipping

Fall Friday

Opportunity is Knocking

Fall Friday is here again!

Another opportunity for you to purchase a fall painting at 20% off.

Every  week this month I'm posting fall paintings for 20% off for one week only,

and they can only be purchased at this special price from my blog.  

Mountain Mist

 unframed 11" x 14" acrylic on a canvas panel 

This is normally $100 + $10 shipping, but this week only

$80 + $10 shipping.

Oh shoot,
 you waited to long.

Before The Fall

 This is a 5" x 7" acrylic on a canvas panel

$50 is the normal price + $6 shipping for this original painting,

This week it is $40 + $6 shipping.

It would be easy to frame or could sit on an easel on a shelf.

 Too late.

Not Technical - Not Tuesday

This Is Definitely Not Technical

And it is Definitely Not Tuesday

I was trying to get this done yesterday,

but life happened and the blog post didn't happen.

Does anyone else out there sometimes feel like they are drowning in clutter?

I have a lot, and I mean a lot

of paper, magazines, books and printed ebooks that is beginning to overtake me.

I have a fairly large studio,

but I have a wide range of interests and things just start to stack up -

literally!

So I have two ways to try, and I stress the word TRY, to keep it under control.

Did I mention I'm tight!

I don't like to spend money on something I can make for myself,

so I've been making these magazine holders this way for about 20 years or more.

They work great in my studio.

 Cereal Box

Brown Paper

Tape

Are you getting the picture here.

The large cereal boxes will even hold my art books as well, 

so I'll be making more of these.

 I cover them in brown paper that I use for the back of my paintings.

You could put nice labels on them,

but hey,

they aren't in stacks on the floor and shelves,

so this is pretty good for me.

Now here's what I did for some of my art books that cost a little bit of money,

but they look nicer.

Large binder, 3" or 4" works great.

Then I bought a pkg of Magazine Holders by Rubbermaid.

I got them at my local office supply shop.

They come in a pkg. of 12 and the last time I bought them they were about $3.95 per pkg.

You can put a whole years worth of magazines in one and then you're done in about 10 minutes.

These are books from Northlight and they are heavier than magazines,

but it still works.

Not a clear pic, but you at least know what you're looking for.

Here's the holder in one of the books.  It wouldn't go to the half way point in the book

because the book is thicker than a magazine, but it will still work.

The holder then fits right in the binder and you can take out any book or magazine you want.

 I made front and side labels for the notebook.

The one has two sizes because I wasn't sure which would fit on the end binding.

I just used a template for a flier in Publisher.

Erased all the stuff they had except for the picture and the color blocks at the top.

I could have put a picture of one of my own paintings in place of the one they had,

but I love sunsets and sunrises so I used theirs.

I printed it on cardstock paper so it would go into the front and side plastic cover 

without incidence.

 

Finished product.

Here's how they look on my shelf.

The cereal box holders are cheaper, but the notebooks look really nice.

But I have a lot more books to do something with,

so I'm sure both ideas will get used some more.

I told you it was not technical,

but it is something I need and use.

I need to go eat some Cherrio's

Walk With The General

Walking With the General

We have beautiful General Butler State Park in Carroll County, KY

and I took the photo reference for this there at least 10 years ago.

Walking With The General

unframed 16" x 20" acrylic on stretched canvas.

$200 + $20 shipping

Fall Friday

You Get the Benefit

Leaves are swirling all over my yard.

  I've already made a large batch of chili and cornbread.

I've had hot chocolate on more than one occasion.

High school football is almost over.

We are plowing under our gardens.

I need to buy antifreeze.

Kentucky is playing basketball.

Yep!

It's FALL!

In honor of fall, I'll be offering over the next several Fridays

20% off select fall paintings.

They will only be available through my blog at the 20% off price

so only those of you that subscribe to my blog will know about it   

and they will only be available at the reduced price for one week.

This weeks offering is

Falls of Autumn

framed 16" x 20" acrylic on a stretched canvas.

Normally $200 + $20 shipping

until midnight Nov. 7

$160 + $20 shipping.

Christmas is coming and here is a fabulous opportunity to give original art

without breaking the bank.

Aren't you the sly one for subscribing to my blog.

Oh so sorry,
You missed the opportunity on this one.