This is a guest post by Imagekind artist Warren Keating who is an award-winning artist whose paintings reflect the culmination of 25 years in both figures and landscapes. He has had numerous solo shows of his paintings in the U.S. and Mexico, as well as having sold directly to a variety of collectors around the world. He has been featured on CNN, and has had several articles written about him in Los Angeles area newspapers. Currently, Keating is represented by several galleries in San Francisco and Los Angeles. His latest series, “Overview” was selected as an LA Times Calendar pick; it is currently exhibiting at M.J. Higgins Fine Art in Downtown L.A.

If I were talking to a particular artist, I could assess in more detail how that painter should go about finding a gallery to show his or her work, but I will attempt to give you a quick guide to how I found (and tips for how I continually find) representation.

To start, please don’t set out with the notion that you are searching for the Holy Grail of artists’ accomplishments, that a show in a renowned gallery is a silver bullet that will cure all of your art career difficulties. While I wouldn’t rule out that possibility, it is not a useful goal for the emerging artist. Rather, your goal should be to become aware of and involved in your art community, cultivate relationships with collectors, dealers, and, hopefully, museums, and become a salesman of your own work. You will need to learn to think like an art dealer. In my 20 years’ experience, when I’m busy with self-generated exhibits and don’t have time for much else, that’s when the galleries finally start calling.

1. Get The Picture

Good photography is a must when submitting, publicizing or selling your work. An inexpensive ($100) light kit with 2 fixtures containing 500 watt, color-balanced bulbs is the best light source for photographing paintings, and now you can get a really decent digital SLR camera for under a thousand dollars. If you are on a bare bones budget or in a hurry, you can use sunlight, but there will be more image-deteriorating reflection on paintings that have any sheen whatsoever. A polarizing lens is a must, to help minimize any glare from your light kit, and is absolutely necessary if you try to photography your work outside.

After I have color-adjusted and sharpened the images of my paintings, I upload them to my Imagekind account to keep copies of hi-res files of my larger paintings ready to make a large print a for a presentation or exhibit.

But, it’s also crucial to get the picture in a more allegorical sense. It’s important to make your best impression with the most appealing and accurate images of your work, a resume that says that you are a committed artist and an attitude that lets the dealer know that working with you will be a pleasurable and lucrative experience.

2. Research the Gallery

Before the rise in popularity of the Internet, the emerging artist had to drive around his or her city, or state, to visit galleries to see what kind of work was displayed within before considering whether to approach that dealer or not. Now, it’s easy to get a good feel for the dozens of galleries in an urban area within an hour without leaving your home office.

The more educated you are about the art world around you, the more quickly you can navigate it to find the venues where you fit in. Often, while an established gallery has as stable of artists, the emerging artist can find exhibit opportunities from within the up-and-coming venues. It behooves the artist to keep track of the local art scene to become aware of these new exhibit opportunities as they come into being.
When submitting, I use my very best work, and, while my paintings are all basically depicting people from overhead, I also show a variety of sizes, colors, crops, etc. and include that I have limited editions prints available of my work, high-quality giclees from Imagekind.

3. While You’re Waiting, Find Other Ways To Exhibit

Emerging artists that hit a brick wall and complain that, after approaching all of the galleries in the area, there is simply no way for them to get an exhibit. Harnessing some of that frustration, the successful artist will find a juried exhibition, country club, art fair, co-operative gallery, etc. Be wary of vanity galleries that charge hundreds or thousands for a show. Personally, I don’t think that’s the way to go, but I may opt to do that as an investment at a future date.

This year, in addition to gallery shows, I’ve participated in two major charity events in the Los Angeles area, an internationally-juried competition in Dallas, several online competitions and exhibits in Second Life, The Ventura Art Festival and I’m painting a mural at my daughter’s elementary school. Hey, many of my neighbors are a lot richer than I am and can easily afford my work.

As life often goes, once you’re busy with all of these other exhibits and are feeling overwhelmed with alternative exhibit opportunities to which you’ve said, “yes”, the galleries will start to return your calls. So, my advice to the artist that is having difficulty getting into galleries is to sell and exhibit so much that you don’t need them, and then they’ll come calling.

4. You Had Better Be Ready

Right after you read this, spend some time, hopefully in your studio, thinking about your art, where you want to be and what your next step is. Don’t be in a rush in this moment to enact your marketing plan or crank out even more alluring work in your studio. Take some time to think about why your art is important, why someone should buy it, why it should be in a museum or history book, if that is your goal, and write it all down. You can edit it later, but, after reviewing what you come up with, update your Artist’s Statement and Bio. I’m pretty much going to sell a couple of paintings on Ebay and a print or two on Imagekind no matter what I do, so it’s easy to stay busy, but I make it a point to take time out, sit in my studio, look at my paintings, analyze where I’m at and imagine where I can go.

Be honest about yourself and your art and seriously commit to whatever plan you come up with. If after you do all this, you’re in a meeting with a gallery, and something about you, or your work kills the deal and you don’t get the gig, then, consider this: A relationship with a gallery is a big, time and energy-consuming commitment. Often the dealer is saving the artist a lot of time, headache and heartache, because the dealer knows that the work will not sell to her audience.

5. Create a Brand with Social Media Networking

Instead of sitting in your studio and waiting for that big opportunity, create a following without enlisting the P.R. machine of the biggest galleries. As you create work, post it into a half dozen Social Network outlets. I take video of myself painting, and have a YouTube following. You’ll quickly find that the prolific artist that creates interesting art has more posts to share with a better audience, so you’ll become more prolific and your work, more interesting. There are experts that can explain viral marketing much better than I can, but I can tell you that a good idea (creative vision or process), wrapped in media (images, video) properly disseminated (blog post, video/image upload, link, email, comment) will most likely go viral to some degree. People can’t help share what is cool, and there’s something cool about every artist. One just has to figure out what it is, how to capture it and how to disseminate it.

Well, for those of you that are sitting around, frustrated with the rejection that you’ve received from galleries, now you have plenty of things that you can do to advance your career as an artist while you’re waiting for that big break. Good luck.

Warren Keating is an artist in Los Angeles. For more information, go to http://www.WarrenKeating.com. His original work is sold at KeatingArt.com and prints of his most popular paintings can be purchased from http://KeatingArt.imagekind.com.

With the Imagekind Portfolio Manager it is now easier than ever to edit your images for sale on Imagekind. The Portfolio Manger allows you to batch-edit your images’ titles, tags, descriptions, categorization, default frame and more. Login to your account to start utilizing the Portfolio Manger right away!

Get Recognized!

It is essential to add titles, tags, descriptions and categorization to your images. Adding these will not only allow shoppers to  find your work easier, but Imagekind team members as well. Our internal search engine, as well as big ones like Google, take all of these into account. So, it is imperative that you heed this advice if you are selling your artwork on Imagekind, and want your images to be found!

fragments of me VII by Lisa Scadron

1. Title your Work

Descriptive titles will not only help your buyers connect with a piece, but will help your images come up in searches. If you do not have a title for a piece, putting a descriptive term in the title box is adequate. Having a more personal title than “DSC1937” will let your buyers know that you spent the time to think about and present your work.

2. Write a description

Adding a short description will also help buyers to connect with your pieces. A couple of lines will do. Some artists include a little snippet about how they created the piece, or what inspired it. Others will add a small detail shot of the image. If your description is too long, it will be truncated, but you can view it in its entirety by clicking the “View More” link.

St George Reef Lighthouse 232 by John Foster

3. Tag It!

What are tags?
The Imagekind search engine uses several methods to find your work, one of them being your tags. Tags are descriptive keywords that you assign to your images to identify major elements and details featured in your work.

Be Specific…
Specific, accurate tags are essential. Tag your images with all the specifics of your image. If you have taken photograph of a sunset over the ocean, don’t stop tagging at “photograph” and “sunset.” You might want to include water, pink, sun, ocean, seascape, pacific… Be precise and detailed, and use terms that a customer would search for. If your images convey a certain emotion, such as “Happy” or “peaceful,” feel free to include them, but keep in mind a buyer may not search for terms such as these.

chair_2 by Greg Simanson

Be accurate!
Inaccurate tagging leads to bad search results. If a customer is looking for a sunset, and you have tagged your nature photograph of a tiger with “sunset,” then you will not change the customers mind – in fact, you make your customers frustrated. Inaccurate tags may be removed at the discretion of Imagekind.

Not enough tags? Upgrade your account
Free accounts can tag their images with up to 10 tags. Pro members get 50 tags, and Platinum members can use 100 tags to classify their work. If you need to add more information, consider upgrading your account.

old piano by Gabrielle Ralle

4. Utilize Taxonomy

What is Taxonomy?
“Taxonomy” means the science of classification. Our taxonomy system allows you to group similar images together based on broad categories such as subject, genre, medium. Users can then drill down their search results based on the classifications you have assigned each image. One of the best ways to think about taxonomy is as a categorization method that allows shoppers to easily find particular images, based on their broad preferences.

Subjects, Genres, Mediumsand Decor

Categorizing your images is one of the best ways to be found on Imagekind. Directly after the general search (based on titles and tags), is categorization. Let’s go through some of the options individually.

Subject – Subject is the content found within your image.  Let’s say you have a photograph of cows in a large field, with flowers. You’d want to find subjects that relate to what is actually in the image. If there is not a direct subject available, tags are the next best option.

Genre – Genre is the general style of art that your image might fit into. For example, if your image is more conceptual in nature, you’d want to categorize it in that genre. If you are still stuck on this, here is something that might help. Consider your artwork were going to be hung in a museum, or gallery, or heck, they were selling it at an art supermarket (if such a thing exists). Before you go to drop it off, the owner calls you up and asks what section of the gallery or museum it would fit best. If the supermarket were split into various genres, which isle would your image fit best in?

Medium – Medium is the method you used to create your image.

Decor - Decor is what style of home you think your art would look best in.

Remember, you can feel free to leave any of these blank if you’d like. However, categorizing your images appropriately is one of the best ways to be found on Imagekind.

3-COWS by Brian Simons

Need to classify further? Upgrade your account
Free accounts can add 2 subjects, Pro members can add up to 4, and Platinum accounts are allowed up to 8. If you need to add more information, consider upgrading your account.

Following these tips will ensure that your work gets more recognition when shoppers search for artwork on Imagekind. However, that’s not it. Imagekind team members are always looking for art to showcase as well. We constantly utilize all of these options to find artwork on Imagekind. Whether it’s through tags, titles or taxonomy, make sure to use all of the above options to make sure you get found on Imagekind.

Practicing artists that build a brand for themselves stand out from the rest of the group. An artist’s brand is a unique way of marketing yourself as something different, exciting, and recognizable. No matter what your preferred medium is, the first step in building your brand is developing your own identifiable image making style. The goal is to make your work recognizable as your own, so when somebody sees it they think “Hey! I know who made that!” Everything that you can do to achieve this will help you!

The Villes by Camilo Bejarano

1. Where to Start

Not sure how to make your images more uniquely YOU? Take a look at the art that is being made right now. How do you fit in? How is your art different? Keep a list of what you like and don’t like, and be sure to reference it often when making new work. If you create work incorporating similar themes, you will start to see your style showing through.

Pinecone River by Dan Turner

2. Make it Come from You

Incorporate your personality and sensibilities into your style. If you are a meticulous, detail oriented person, let that quality work for you! Make very detailed images! If you are boisterous and spirited, your work should reflect that. If you are not sure where to start, ask a friend to describe your personality traits, and work from there. Sometimes just a small change can really make your work stand out. Developing a unique style starts with with discovering your own personal style.

Boxed by Ross Farrell

3. Practice Makes Perfect

Practice, and make as many images as you can to perfect your technique. Learn from your mistakes! Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t in your artwork. Make sure to keep a record of your successes so you can look to them for inspiration in the future. Trial and error is one of the best ways to discover your style. If you’re looking for a sign from the heavens to declare what your unique artistic style is, I am afraid you’ll probably be waiting a very long time. One of the best ways to discover your style is to continue refining it through trial and error; practice.

A Specious Origin by Jerry LoFaro

4. Invest in Classes

Enrolling in an art class can be very exciting! Even if you are an expert in your craft, enrolling in a class can give you alternate viewpoints on your work. Your classmates can offer opinions and critiques of your work to help you grow as an artist. Taking artistic classes are helpful because they can give you that perspective on your artwork that you don’t always see first hand. Having other people around you can really help shed light on your style.

Smart Suit by K Mitchell

5. Find your Niche

If your focus is on selling, pay attention to developing images that will fill a niche market. In other words, provide artwork for a group of people looking for your particular style. Discovering your niche is about the epitome of developing a unique style; they are closely related. To discover your niche, focus on what type of subject matter you find yourself drawn to. Your niche is a perfect place to help discover your unique style.

It’s Friday! And with Friday comes my Friday Favorites. This week you’ll see how Imagekind is making a difference in the interior design community by connecting designers with the independent member artists on Imagekind. Also, take a look at a fascinating artist I found who is selling a very unique style of nature and world art.

Check it out!

Imagekind Artwork on Ava Living

Ava Living, the “thriving global community of interior design enthusiasts” has teamed up with Imagekind to offer their interior design community members the opportunity to purchase framed artwork for their interior design projects and clients. Their mission is to “[help] connect those who are passionate about the various aspects of interior design with professionals in the field.” One way they do this is through their Designer Room Review service, where anyone can “get personalized attention in a written review of your room from a professional designer.” See the ad for this service below.

Day Seriani and Pangaea Art.

I am always on the lookout for inspiring art and when I came across Day Seriani’s work on Imagekind, I was quite blown away. What’s really compelling about Seriani’s work is how she overlays images of nature, the earth and places where people and animals inhabit, onto various portraits that may, or may not, represent that land. Check out her work and you’ll see what I mean. It is an inspiring and unique form of art that I have not seen done in such a way before. Fascinating.

One With the Earth by Day Seriani

“Done in the style of my “Earth series”….but as I was doing this piece images of life, death, change, time, sadness, pride, honor, and destruction all came to mind. being ONE with the Earth….we come and go…we become the past and also the future.” Read more…

Tethys by Day Seriani

“The Caspian Sea … About 250 million years ago, during the late Permian Era, a new ocean began forming in the southern end of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. A rift formed along the northern continental shelf of Southern Pangaea (Gondwana).” Read More…

East Africa by Day Seriani

“This is East Africa. The geography of East Africa is often stunning and scenic. Shaped by global plate tectonic forces that have created the Great Rift Valley, East Africa is the site of Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, the two tallest peaks in Africa.” Read More…

Choeung Ek by Day Seriani

“*Choeung Ek (The Killing Fields) where the Khmer Rouge marched prisoners from Tuol Sleng to be murdered and buried in shallow pits. It is now a memorial to those who were killed by the regime. Phnom Phen, Cambodia, The Killing Fields.” Read More..

Have a Friday Favorite yourself? Drop a line and let me know! Leave a comment or send me a message on Imagekind.

Trivia Tuesday is a new feature on the Imagekind blog, which features a weekly trivia question. Some might argue that not all the questions are really trivia, because they lack a solid answer. Thus, they are more like opinion questions, not trivia. Well, that might be true, but because both “trivia” and “Tuesday” start with the same letter, and there is no day of the week that starts with the letter “O”, we’re sticking with the name.

Question: pink panther 2 online Why should you not leave your completed oil painting to dry in the dark?

Elephant Oil Painting by David Bleakley

[poll id="14"]

**polls close next Tuesday, 5/19/09 and the correct answer will be shared then.

britney spears circus mp3

Last week’s poll answer: #1; Frida Kahlo