ALBERTA MaY MaDnEsS SALE MAY1-7

I am a member of the Etsy Alberta Street Team and we are having a "May Madness Sale" featuring extremely talented artists/artisans who would love nothing more than to assist you in finding the perfect gift for yourself or someone special. With this many artists at your fingertips (39 shops in all), you are virtually guaranteed to find something that you simply can no longer live without. The sale begins May 1st at 12:01 sharp to May 7th at midnight. Each shop is offering different special deals for you; so please see their announcements for more detailed information.

Check the Alberta Street Team blog for any updates Have a great first week of May! Let the madness take you away Ha Ha; Hee Hee; Ho Ho!

Scavenger Hunt

One of the teams I belong to on Etsy is the Original Artists on Etsy. This weekend, we are featuring a contest in the form of a scavenger hunt.

Join the fun! Put on your thinking caps, do a little sleuthing and find the treasure! Well, maybe not a treasure chest, but a darn nice reward! Find the clues in our team member stores and they will lead you to your reward. If you are the first to correctly identify the object and post a comment with the listing number, on our team blog at www.originalartistsonetsy.blogspot.com, you will win it. Along the way, check out our stores and tell us what is your favourite item and who's shop it is in. A list of our members can be found at www.OriginalArtists.etsy.com.

Here is my clue for the hunt.

..... It's home to clowns, and I'm not just fishin' around.....

For more clues go to www.OriginalArtists.etsy.com

Wood Carving an update

I started word carving in November of last year. I have been steadily learning about the craft from the other members. This is the biggest project that I have been working on. It is a relief carving. You may recognize the design from one of my paintings. It takes quite a lot of time to do this type of carving. This is still not finished. I’ve taken some time off to take a small course on caricature carving. I’ll show you my results when I finish the course.

My February Art Trip - A Free Workshop

Did you ever want to take a workshop but couldn’t afford one? Well here is how you can take one – visit your local library! Your library will have many many videos on many different subjects, including painting.

My art trip today was to workshop in painting portraits in oil Steps to a Likeness: Oil Portraits with professional artist, Perri Sparks. The workshop is reduced to 1 hour and 46 minutes long showing the important aspects of the techniques being taught. I’m sitting on my nice comfortable couch not a hard chair. I’m not missing any of these techniques by scribbling down notes. I can stop and start the video at any time and rewatch any part of the video or rewatch the whole video.

My trip to the library also provided me with an art history art trip and an art cultural trip. Three art trips with one visit to the library.

Marketing Plan

I have been doing some researching on how to run a business and found that I am missing some very important documents. These documents when put together form a Business Plan. I do have a Business Plan that I created when I took a course on starting a small business in 1999. Oddly enough, even though this is 10 years old, quite a bit of that plan is still applicable with some minor adjustments.

The part of my Business Plan that needs a total overhaul is the Marketing Plan. When I first wrote it I imagined that I would be teaching painting combined with selling my paintings to the public via gallery sales. I did not envision myself selling on the internet in a shop type store.

Some questions needing answers are:
Who is my target market? How do I plan to reach that market? Do I know who my competition is? What types of customers are best for what I offer? What is my marketing budget? I don’t think the answer “I don’t know” is going to be much help.

So for the month of March my goal is to write out my Goals and Objectives for my Etsy store and to write my Marketing Plan for my store.

There are many good books and websites out there to help develop these documents. The book I am using is called The Market Planning Guide – Creating a Plan to Successfully Market your Business, Product, or Service; 6th Edition by David H. Bangs, Jr. This book explains the different aspects that make up a Marketing Plan, a sample of a Marketing Plan and blank forms to use to create your own plan.

Some websites are:
http://www.artbizcoach.com/consulting/mktgplans.html
http://www.nitaleland.com/articles/marketing.htm
http://reviews.ebay.com/Why-All-Artists-Need-An-On-Going-Marketing-Plan_W0QQugidZ10000000008576464
http://www.business.vic.gov.au/BUSVIC/STANDARD/pc=PC_62518.html
http://www.knowthis.com/topic-areas/management/the-marketing-plan.htm

Etsy Fine Art Gallery

A bunch of artists selling, or in my case attempting to sell, original artwork through Etsy.com are working on increasing our visibility on the web. One of our artists Lisa Bartlett started the Etsy Fine Art Gallery. In it she is featuring various artists in a gallery type setting. Future plans are to feature up to six artists per week. She will be asking them to submit six of their very best paintings along with a short bio or artist statement. It was suggested to increase the wordage in the blog to get some “keywords” going and the bio/artist statement would generate that. She is hoping that this format will showcase everyone in a professional manner.

You know you're an artist when

I was doing some searching on the internet and found this site on Art Jokes. Here is a sampling that I really enjoyed.

You know you’re an artist when…
The highlights in your hair are from your palette and not Clairol.
When viewing a sunset, you think in terms of cadmium yellow (light hue), salmon and gold, a tinted teal mixed with gold for the water...."
There are Prussian blue fingerprints on your phone.
You stay awake late at night wondering how to render on canvas the dimly lit shapes and the shadows in your room.
You explain your deplorably bad housekeeping by saying, "it's a work-in-progress..."
Dust bunnies are part of your mixed media.
You buy expensive brushes that have nothing to do with your hair.
You get a feeling of calmness from holding and stroking the bristles of your clean paintbrushes.
You know the difference between beige, ecru, cream, off-white, and eggshell.
You never look at a person's face as a whole. You break it up into shadows and lines and shapes, and think how they would look on a canvas.