Explore Art Online

Today’s Image

In The Studio

I mentioned wanting to work on something small for my next project, and I did. I bought several canvases that are postcard size; that is, 4 x 6 in/10.2 x 15.2 cm. I read a story online about artists who paint on small canvases this size and even smaller, and I wanted to try it. I will say, it doesn’t take long to do one, so I understand how they’re able to do one every day. I'm pretty sure you can crank out several a day, so I see the attraction if you're trying to sell them. It's like working in miniature and you have to squint to see the tiny details. It's today's image--what do you think?--email or leave a comment.

Explore Online

If you’ve been keeping up, I’ve been blogging about the 4 Steps to Renew Your Interest in Art.

• Step 1 is Make Your Art a Priority
  


• Step 2 is Invest in a Few Art Supplies
  


• Step 3 is Explore Art: explore art museums , explore art galleries and art festivals; explore art supply stores, and today Step 3 wraps up with explore online

Since you’re reading this online, you probably already know all that’s available on the WWW about art. If you Google the word ’art,’ you will get 1,760,000,000 matches. That’s one billion, 760 million! The trick is to narrow that down into something useful, which means you’ll be able to pick and choose exactly what you want in the online world of art.

Following up on art supplies, last blog I said you should explore your local art supply stores in person and some reasons why. But if wide assortment and price comparing are your thing, then you can shop online ‘til your heart’s content’ and find exactly what you’re looking for at a price you want to pay. Without plugging any one site, there are plenty of big online art supply sites from which to choose. All the major (and most minor) manufacturers of art materials also have their own sites to tout their goods. In my blog of July 23 I talked about pencils and mentioned a site about pencils that contained more than you ever wanted to know about them. You just have to find the right site.

If you like to know what’s going on in the ‘art world,’ you can virtually travel to all the major art museums worldwide and find out what’s being exhibited. There are also art ‘news’ sites that report on daily happenings, for example Artnews and the Art Newspaper, not to mention the art sections of major newspapers and sites devoted to art, such as ArtSlant.

There are sites where artists can post their artwork for sale or just to look at, ArtFlock and MyArtSpace, just to name a couple. But don’t get me started on buying /selling art online. Have you shopped at eBay? They have so much it’s been subdivided on whether it’s direct from the artist, from a gallery, or from wholesale distributors. Then it’s categorized even further. Here’s an example, you can look for original acrylic paintings direct from the artist created since 2000 in Europe in the Abstract style over 30 in/77cm and you will still have 22 from which to select. What a selection (and a lot of competition).

There are what I call how-to art websites that specialize in art techniques and targeted subject matter for artists.

I think Empty Easel does a good job.

Then there are the art blogs like this one. Need I say more?

Cheers!