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I have not updated this blog in a long long time and to all intents and purposes it is dead

I would like to thank everyone who dropped in over the years and left feedback and comments and apologize to all those whose comments I never replied to. Let’s just say that life happened and blogging was a necessary sacrifice. I was tempted to delete the blog completely but as WordPress seem content to let it sit, I have decided to leave it alone for now.

You will probably find some dead links but hopefully some of these old articles will still interest people who stumble in. I have disabled comments now and will probably not return too often. Much has happened since I last visited these pages and I returned home with my husband to Cayman in January of 2007.

The good news is that I do have a new website so if you are still interested in my art you can find me here:

ArteccentrixGallery

A quick apology for my absence but several things have taken priority over the blog in the past few days. I have managed to produce some work for the Cayfest celebrations and I will post more about those soon.

The last few days have seen my husband locked away in his home office working on his new domain at TheCaymanHost.com (I don’t really understand exactly what his business is all about but it means he works from home so I’m not complaining) and I have been painting and banging nails and sawing wood for all I’m worth. We have been passing at meal times and collapsing into bed each night and falling asleep in mid conversation, him mumbling about Search Engine Optimization and me about sponsors and paintings!

I also have news of a big solo art show coming up…….I’m really excited about it and again, more news soon. Thanks to all the commenters, I promise to respond really soon

Have a great day everyone

Nickola

I’m not at my most comfortable talking about my art, at least not in that type of situation and I busied myself ensuring that guests had champagne, wine, or water readily to hand whilst my husband worked busily away in the back tidying up the fallout of used glasses and empty bottles! I was proud of him, as he was there as a guest, but he’s not a man to shy away from any kind of work and I think he enjoyed the labour. Being a straightforward and no nonsense type, I’m always amazed that he can adjust to pretty much any social situation and he walked around mingling with the artists and guests alike, looking incongruous in his black stetson and denim yet seeming to fit in at the same time, just as he did the previous evening, attending the gala dinner at the Ritz Carlton, where he claims to have felt like a fish out of water.

As it turned out, both evenings were enjoyable, tiring, and thankfully successful for both the sponsors, charities,the gallery and the artists. “Bad Boys” made a very good price at auction on the Friday evening and I was pleased to sell one painting on Saturday evening called “Outlaws”. Several other artists made sales too, so several of us drove home happy!

Now it’s time to get busy for the upcoming shows at the Ritz Carlton and Cayfest so the frame building and stretching continues unabated. Today is the big race so we may find ourselves a spot on the shore to watch the main event and I think tomorrow, when the crowds are gone and the Easter weekend is over, our quiet spot on the beach, under the coconut palms will be an ideal place to take stock and enjoy a tranquil day away from paints and laptops!

Nickola

OK, that sounds rather boastful of me I know, but I’m the kind of person who rarely, if ever, wins competitions so I’m quite proud of myself. The main reason for posting was to thank Nicole Hyde for giving me the opportunity and to encourage people to go and have a look at her blog, Nicole Hyde Fine Art

Nicole is an artist from Colorado who states a preference for working in oils and if you can spare a few seconds I’m asking everyone to go and vote for a painting she has entered in the Saatchi Gallery Showdown – it is a very moody landscape and it would be great if we could help increase the voting for her – not that the painting doesn’t merit our votes, but hey, bloggers help bloggers right? You have only until April 9th, So – Click here to place your votes

Good luck Nicole and let us know how you get on.

I can’t wait to receive my prize – thanks so much – I shall put a picture up for all to see. Oh, and look out for future competitions at Nicole’s blog,  and you too might win one of her excellent paintings – just like me

Nickola

I am still not ready to show any of the eight pieces online until after the opening night of the show this weekend but I am posting a picture of the painting that will be auctioned tomorrow evening at the Ritz Carlton MDR gala dinner. It is called “Boys Toys” and has been done in a stained glass technique, for want of a better description. Let me know what you think!

Click Here For High Res Image Of Boys Toys

That’s all for today – I’m beat!

Nickola

The fifth annual Million Dollar Run race is around the corner, on Easter weekend,6 to 9 April. The event, which comprises a powerboat race, poker hand and several glamorous parties, has grown to become a fixture on the spring calendar of both the Cayman Islands and the region.

read more | digg story

The above article from the Cay Compass fills in the details of the upcoming exhibition at the Morgan Gallery which opens on April 7 and will run until April 21. 

I am really pleased to be able to confirm that one of the paintings to be auctioned off at the annual gala at the Ritz Carlton to benefit the Junior Achievement charity will be mine, and specially painted for the event. I really hope that it will fetch a good price

The final preparations for the show have kept me hugely busy so I apologize for not being around to post as frequently as I would like. I’ve attached a copy of the invitations to the opening night and you can read more about the whole MDR weekend in the above article.

Thanks for visiting, I have to get back to work now!

Nickola

I’ve managed to get photographs of a couple of recent abstracts, the first one is “Icarus” which, although posted here a few days back was not a very good picture.

The second painting which was painted at around the same time is titled “Newborn Tide” and although the theme is entirely different, the similarity in style is obvious. Both pieces are currently on display at the Morgan Gallery, as I will be myself for another couple of days! If any readers are out there, please do pop in and say Hi!

I hope you enjoy them and your  comments are always welcomed. Until next time.

Nickola

1) Hosted online galleries do not bring much in the way of sales of fine art. In the two years since the experiment of registering with several organizations the sum total of sales directly attributable to hosted galleries is four paintings. None of these individual sales amounted to more than a few hundred dollars. I won’t name the various sites, not wishing to denegrate any of their services. I relate this as purely my own experience.

2) There are now so many of these galleries, often hosting thousands of hopeful artisans, that the chances of a visitor stumbling across your work have become less and less likely. Information overload will overwhelm most people long before they make a buying decision.

3) What does sell is very likely to be at the very bottom of the price scale. Few people are willing to spend a lot of money on original paintings if they can’t see them up close and in person. This is quite understandable; I certainly wouldn’t do it, unless I was already very familiar with the artist and their work, and this is not likely to be the case for most artists trying to sell through these channels.

4) Serious art buyers go to galleries, read art publications and know what they like. You are very unlikely to tap into such a market through a free or paid gallery hosted by a third party.

So, is it all doom and gloom, are most starving artists destined to remain that way? Well, there are a few positive points to make about these sites. Firstly,anything is still better than nothing, the old “if you ain’t in it, you can’t win it” philosophy. If you sign up to some free galleries, you increase your chances of finding a market for your work by a fair percentage. I would simply caution you not to feel too disappointed when nothing bears fruit.

When I first signed up to half a dozen galleries, my visibility online was not great. After joining them, ‘Googling’ my name at least flagged a few results – but who is going to search for your name if you are an unknown?

I’m sure there will be people out there who will come back citing their successes to prove me wrong and I don’t doubt that they are out there. I am saying that my work does not sell through these channels, and, to be honest, I didn’t really expect it to.  A lot of people sell art on Ebay, but, let’s be honest, the biggest auction site in the world is not really a marketplace for fine art, although I concede that some people may well make a few bucks on Ebay, it’s certainly not for me.

I would recommend any artist to have their own website – not so much for direct selling, but as a showcase for their work. People will at least know what you are all about and if they are serious about buying your work, they will find a way forward from there – give your visitors a means to contact you from the site of course.

If you can’t afford a website, don’t have the know-how, then start a blog. I would advise any artist to start a blog even if they already have a website. Blogs are simplicity itself to get off the ground and even some of the free hosted galleries are providing blog facilities for their members. Technical knowledge is certainly no longer a prerequisite – anybody can blog and once you begin you will soon be getting visitors and it’s a great way to network and talk about your own art and that of others. The real attraction is that a blog need not cost you one red cent! You can learn, do and spend as much as you like, there are some very high quality art blogs out there so go looking and find some inspiration.

Ultimately, if you are a serious artist in the field of fine art, looking for serious buyers, and expecting your work to command higher prices, put together a portfolio, start wearing out shoe leather, read the press and art publications, look for representation, push yourself, and have faith in your ability as an artist. Learn from each rejection, or criticism of both your work and your methods. Success doesn’t come looking for most of us, so it really is up to you, to seek it out for yourself.

I shall say goodnight and leave you a link to my latest press coverage – please excuse the photograph!

I was given some beautiful silver and turquoise jewelry a couple of years ago which had been bought in South Dakota and instantly fell in love with it, my husband kept some beautiful iron wood carvings on display at his home and I began to see that there was a huge variety of art still being produced by some very talented craftsmen, and I wanted to see more paintings!

Today, on a rest from my brushes I went exploring and thought I would share some of the art I have been looking at on this Saturday evening.

Monte Yellow Bird Sr. is an Arikara/Hidasta artist who was born and grew up in North Dakota and his work is so bright and vibrant – so many painters shy away from bright primary colours, but his work is blindingly colorful. His website at Black Pinto Horse Fine Arts not only displays some of his wonderful work but also makes for very interesting reading.It is hard for me to cite any particular favourite, but his “Calling Of The Ponies” series is a highlight for me. See what you think. I didn’t want to infringe the artist’s copyright by posting any images here, although I would have loved to have brightened this page with his work.

The work of the late Jerome Bushyhead, of the southern Cheyenne is perhaps more traditional but the imagery is so wonderful. I often paint from dreams or fragments of dreams and this is something the tribal artists seem to be able to integrate into their paintings so fluidly.

Brent Learned is an Arapaho and his contemporary native american art gallery is beautiful and in very stark contrast to the more traditional work in the second gallery by Matt Learned. Visit his site to see more and see which studies you prefer. (Brent is seen posing with Mel Gibson which is a bit of a coup in its own right but I’d better not go in that direction…….)

Another artist who caught my eye is Thomas Clair from New Brunswick in Canada, and a native of the Mi’kmaq Reserve, Big Cove. His paintings are beautiful and well worth viewing.

I could probably go on at great length, and these artists represent only a tiny fragment of the talented painters, sculptors,  carvers, and jewelry makers to be found in the vastness of their lands, but hopefully my fascination will spread to others who visit here. (A large list of Native American can be found here) for anyone interested in seeing more. If anyone can share more, or if any artists are reading, please leave your comments and links to your artwork.

Have a good day everyone.

Nickola