Abbotsford Wine and Art Walk

I don't know about where you live but now that September has hit someone has decided to flick the fall switch here and the temperature has dropped and the leaves have started to turn colour. Can't we drag summer out just a bit longer?

  Coming up this month I will be participating in the 2nd Annual Abbotsford Wine and Art Walk on September 11, 5pm. For $15 ticket buyers can do a self-guided tour of various downtown businesses and sample some tasty wine while enjoying the displayed artwork. Only 200 tickets will be sold so if you haven't picked yours up yet you should soon as I heard last year sold out. I will be showing at Tha Realm Dance Studio at their new location, 33788 George Ferguson Way. I will be selling original drypoints, a linocut and an original watercolour. See you there?

Local Showings

Just thought I'd let let you guys know that I'm currently showing works in a couple places right now. I have one series of landscapes and moon images hung up at the Terry Fox Library in Port Coquitlam. If you're that far into the 'burbs you take a look and take out a book.

My second show is hung in the Upper Rotunda of the Richmond Brighouse Library. This new series is all about mushrooms and I taken the theme and explored it in a variety of ways. I really enjoyed creating the works for this show because I gave myself permission to experiment and learn things that I had been putting off for ages.

If you happen to be in the downtown Richmond area, take a look and you'll see monotypes, watercolors,photography, digital painting, encaustics and linocuts all inter-mixed. I haven't yet properly documented this work but once it comes down I will and I will start adding the pieces to my shop. As always, these pieces have spurred some new ideas. If only my studio time were more often.

For those of you in Toronto the Good, I have an invite for you. The Year of the Tiger 9th International Print Exhibit is opening this weekend and will show until the 28th.It is being hosted by PROOF Studio Gallery located in the Distillery District.

I along with many printmakers from around the world submitted an 10x12 original print based on this year's Chinese zodiac the tiger. Prints will be sold to the public and exchanged among the participants. Below is a photo of my linocut with watercolor submission. He's a little cutie, don't you think? To view all the prints in the show go to Year of the Tiger blog.

Fun stuff. What's next year's animal?

How do I price my art?

I've been thinking about this post for a while now. As an artist, I have struggled alot with how to price my work and determining its' value. Now that I have decided to be more proactive in selling my work, I have had to question its' value everytime I post something on Etsy.

 Etsy is an amazing site to find so many highly talented and skilled artists. I have found, however, that  there are alot of artists who sell their items too low. This is great for those of us looking for beautiful things for very little. It's not so great for people like myself that realize that I have to compete with those prices. It's taken me many a years to convince myself that I deserve to be paid well for my images and ideas. 

 As such, I have tried different formats of my work to make it more "sellable" to the Etsy shopper. I have created digital prints of my monotypes  and paintings which have turned out to be amazing in their clarity and color. I have access to a Canon Pro9000 and have found it to produce images better than anything that I have sent out so far. Being that they are still archival I think that I may use the printer for my collages which will deteriate much faster.

I have also created some glass pendants of my images which I just love. Now my images are portable!

So even with all the adjustments I've tried to make to reach my "target market", I have to say that I haven't sold one digital print or art pendant yet. I have only sold original paintings and hand-pulled prints so far. Go figure.

I would love to hear from other artists and their thoughts on pricing their works  and how they market their talent.

As a side note, I would like to share with you some of the finds I've seen on Etsy. I love posting my favorites and wish I could puruse the art pages even more than I do.

I recently bought some pieces from meluseena, a.ka. Lisa Falzon. They will be hung up on my wall of inspiration. Lisa's work is fantastic and she collages with a computer in a way that I only wish I could do. Now that's a good use of a computer!

Another artist that I am kicking myself for not buying from is five in the morning. This edition sold so fast that I lost my opportunity to own such a well done print. I kept looking at it and its' description to determine why the artist was selling it for only $15 (!). I will check back often so that I don't make that mistake again.

As I opened up one of my Decor8 daily I was blown away by Natasha Morton and was heartened to see that she sells originals. I would love any painting set by her but I just might convince myself to buy one of her collages.

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Finally, I love the work by Etsy artist Francois Dyment but luckily I get to see his work all the time. I ended up marrying an amazing painter and he has really inspired me in so many ways. Francois is also selling originals and is at the higher end for Etsy prices but has a selling history that justifies this.

Tell me about your amazing finds on Etsy. Is there an artist on there that you feel deserves some more recognition?