Ready to sell your art! My top 3 reference books!

    Commission of the Blue moon on the St. Lawrence River.  You can purchase prints at lynne-reichhart.pixels.com!

I thought I would share my 3 favorite art marketing books in this post.  I own these books and they are well written and chock full of information.  I am just like you, I would rather be in the studio which leads me to my first pick.

I'd Rather Be In the Studio by Alyson B. Stanfield.  This book provides practical advice from an art business coach.  I would also recommend  Alyson's blog  for frequently updated posts with free tips and great information.

Art Marketing 101, 3rd Edition by Constance Smith.  This is the definitive book for all aspects of  marketing your art.  I would liken it to what the Joy of Cooking is for cookbooks.

Last but not least is Death to the Starving Artist by Nikolas Allen.  This is a modern take on the subject with humor and tough love.  Nikolas is a young artist with a unique way of looking at things.

Back with some new paintings Cocktails and Mustard and Pyrex!

New work to share!

Cocktails and Mustard, 13 x 10 acrylic on paper framed 

History of Pyrex 13 x 10 acrylic on paper framed.

I am back!  I know it has been sometime now.  I have said before that I want to awaken my blog again and make it a place for sharing my art, life and useful information.  I think I have figured out how I can make that happen.  I hope to update at least once a month.  This should be doable with my busy schedule.

These are two of my newest pieces.  I am really enjoying still life work.  Anything is fodder for the artistic mill.  I already have other set-ups in mind using some of my fun personal things.  I love retro and reflections - the two r's!  I will still do other subjects for my collectors and so I keep myself challenged and excited about the subjects I paint, but I will throw in still life work as well.

For History of Pyrex I set up some of my personal pieces that I use all the time.   The orange bowl and brown casserole were wedding shower gifts many moons ago!  Cocktails and Mustard was born when I noticed the sun shining on some liquor bottles on my china cabinet.  I quickly added  the cordial glass and antique mustard tin for color and interest and grabbed my camera!

How about a tip!

  I think it is really important to under paint your image to eliminate the stark white underneath.   This helps if you miss a spot which is easy to do on textured support like canvas.  You won't have the bright white showing through.  There are different approaches to this.  I was taught to tone for light and shadow underneath - ultramarine blue watered down for shadow and raw sienna watered down for light.  Another approach is to under paint with a compliment.  For example, if you are doing a landscape that is mostly green - under paint with red to make the greens sing!   Give it a try and see what works for you.  I know one artist that always under paints with magenta so it all depends on your style and preference.

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

When is it Done?? How to know when your painting is resolved!

When is it done???

Something that artists struggle with is how to know when the painting is finished.  You don’t want to overwork a piece, yet you want it to be the best it can be.  I actually prefer the word resolved rather than done.  So how can you tell if it is resolved?  There are some tricks to help you see things that need fixing.

Trick #1 – Hold the painting up to a mirror and study the reflection.  You would be surprised what that will reveal. 

Trick #2 – Snap a photo of the painting and study it on a computer monitor.   This helps you look at it with fresh eyes.

Trick #3 – Just let the piece hang around on your easel for a few days and look at it periodically.

Trick #4 – It always helps to have a second opinion.  Have an artist friend take a look at it if you can.

All of these tricks can help you see something that needs tweaking.    I use them often and they help me see an area that is drawing my eye away from the focal point of the painting.    They also help identify perspective problems as well as other issues.

I used the mirror trick to identify what was bothering me about this painting.  I saw that the background was a bit too bright and tried to come forward and fight with the foreground.  Since the background has a goldish orange hue, I glazed it with a blue compliment to dull it a bit.  Voila, now the painting was resolved!! 

Life is a Carnival Glass, acrylic on paper 10 x 13

Choosing when to stop altering a piece is a personal choice.  You, the artist, need to be happy with it and that is what matters.

Please share any tricks you use to get it done!!!

Locks of Luck to you! European locks on fences - new Watercolor and Free Giveaway!

My latest painting is from a photo I took in Florence, Italy.  I love how people attach locks to iron railings and fences for good luck!  It is so colorful and interesting that I had to paint it.  This piece is done on 140 lb. Watercolor paper in professional watercolors.  Use the button above to purchase from Daily Paintworks using Paypal.

I decide it would be fun to create prints digitally modifying the center lock to customize the piece.  I have the print for sale on my Etsy site and a facebook giveaway going on right now until 3/24/15.  Check out Facebook for all the details.  In a nutshell, I will digitally customize the center lock for you with any text you like. Since the lock is small there are limits though. Up to 4 lines, 8 characters each max. Any text like Happy Birthday, Lynne or The Smiths or Good Luck, John. I am showing one with hubby's and my name.  This would make a great gift or keep it for yourself!  Enter here!

The painting is complete! Life is a Carnival Glass!!!

My last post was a Work in Progress for this piece.  I still had lots to do and I saved the tough stuff for last as I always do :)  I am so please with how this piece turned out.  I have found that reflections are not as hard as they may seem.  What I do is under paint what is behind the reflection first and then dry brush the reflection over the top.  Works well for me!

I was first thinking to call it 'Top Shelf China', but that didn't really do it for me.  Then I thought of the song by the Band - Life is a Carnival, so why not 'Life is a Carnival Glass'.  That worked!!!

I had a frame all ready for this and have it hanging next to my china cabinet so you can see the still life and the painting together.  Typically, everything I do is for sale.  My mentor thinks I should keep this one for myself.  I do have it for sale right now though on Daily Paintworks.  Thank so much for looking!  Prints are also available on Fine Art America here:  Buy Print!

Still life painting work in progress vintage glass and more glass!!

I love to see works in progress.  In the top photo you can see the reference I am working from.  This one is challenging!  The view is the top shelf of my china cabinet.  I have lots of glass from my grandparents so it is all near and dear to my heart.

As you can see in the top photo, I toned the painting for light and shadow with blue and raw sienna.  This gives me a road map and also gets rid of the white paper underneath  if I miss getting color on a small spot it will not be glaring white.  I  worked on the background and the blue and white creamer in the front.

The 2nd photo show a close-up of the carnival glass in the lower left corner.  All the color changes and reflections took me many hours to accomplish.  I have made some more progress, but still have more to to.  I will post the completed piece when I am done.  Please check back to see it!  Thanks for reading :)

I call this piece 'Autumn Ivy'  It is a piece I did for the 2015 Twitter Art Exhibit in Moss, Norway.  It is on its journey to Norway right now.  If you haven't heard of the Twitter Art Exhibit - it is a great concept and really fun show.  It is open to artists and amateurs alike - no jury process.  All art is donated and all proceeds go to a selected charity which changes each year as does the location.  If you are interested in participating, please visit The call for artists page.  Deadline for submissions is  March 1, 2015.

Red Poppies Three hot off the Easel!

I have recently finished this 14 x 11 acrylic on Canvas! It was a fun and challenging piece to do!  Poppies have such papery, translucent petals that need to glow!  I love the deep background shadows too with some of the foliage barely visible.  It is interesting how sunlight makes some greens appear almost turquoise.  I also love the little pop of lime green in the centers.

I did a smaller poppy painting for a collaboration with another artist and have been wanting to do a larger piece.   This one is only a 5 x 7 piece.

 I do a lot of florals and have many for sale on Daily Paintworks, Etsy and Fine Art America!

Yes, I am a geek! A day at Scare-a-con Horror and pop culture convention!

I must admit I was needing a con fix.  I read in the local paper about a convention called Scare-a-con just 20 minutes away.   I have been to some pretty big Sci Fi conventions and this looked like a small convention with some pretty good guests so heck - I'm in!   It was very intimate and everyone was so nice.

There were some great panels with Dee Wallace and Eric Roberts and 3 folks from the walking dead.  I have to admit I have never seen that show, but it is quite the phenomenon.  My sister, husband and I opted for the photo op with the Walking Dead folks.  From left to right, my husband, Madison Lintz, my sister, me, Lew Temple and Vincent Ward.  Lew was the nicest guy.  He shook hands and thanked everyone in line for the photo op.  He became my buddy!!!

Dee Wallace gave a great talk and had some great stories from filming ET, Cujo and many more films.  We stopped by her table for an autograph and she gave us a free photo op as well.  Such a nice lady with a beautiful smile on her face all the time.

This was such a peasant experience - lots of fun stuff to purchase and parties that I did not attend.  Very affordable and it quieted my con fix for awhile anyway :)

Zazzle products rock! Check out these watches.

 Zazzle has some very cool new products!  The watches have been around for a year or so, but they are newer to me.  I love making them.  There are watches suitable for men, ladies and children.  The pig above is a fun kid's watch.  It is so adorable!!!  You can purchase the piggy watch here: http://www.zazzle.com/pink_pig_wrist_watches-256299810901935454

This is a large watch featuring my purple iris painting.  This watch has a large face to really show off the art.  There are some very pretty smaller face choices too.  You get to choose the band/face for each watch face art selection.  Very cool!!!  Check them out.  Find the iris watch here:  http://www.zazzle.com/purple_iris_watch-256712483044071615

Check all my watch designs here!  http://www.zazzle.com/artbylmr/watches  With Zazzle, always look at the page to see it there is any sale going on.  Use the coupon code provided to save some scratch!!

Old Canoe is an award winning painting with 2 Ribbons!

Here I am with my painting 'Old Canoe' at the Regional Art show at the Rome Art and Community Center (Rome , NY that is :))  I was surprised to see that I won two awards since I did not get a call.  I was at the center and took a sneak peek at the show and was thrilled!  Of course, I went to the opening that night to get my certificates.  I'll get the ribbons at the end of the show!

I got a Place award and a special award from the Jervis Library.  These special awards are the best, because, to the person choosing them, this piece was the 'Best of Show'!  Thanks so much to the judges!

Old Fashioned Christmas - vintage decorations are the best!

Here is a little 5 x7 that I did in acrylic on Ampersand gessobord.  I love to decorate for Christmas and these are two pieces near and dear to my heart.  The Santa Post office is a bank that I had when I was a kid.  I recently found it in the attic at my Mom's house.  Now it is part of my way to big collection of decorations.  The tree was given to me and my husband by his Aunt Helen shortly after we were married.  She fired ceramics in her basement and loved making pieces for the family.  These lighted trees were popular in the 70's and I am lucky to have this one plus a white one with all blue lights that Helen also made for us.

I took this photo as I was taking down my decorations  last Christmas and wanted to paint it before I lost the image which happens too often, but that is another story.  I think this will be my Christmas card this year :)

This piece is available on Daily Paintworks:  http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/lynne-reichhart/old-fashioned-christmas/238222

Do you have any favorite holiday decoratios??

Confessions of an old school Musicholic! Vinyl rules!

I know this is an primarily and art blog, but music is my 2nd love after art!  In my high school days I used to stay up until all hours listening to my favorite radio stations, often drawing and painting at the same time.  I had piles of cassette tapes from recording my fav songs and DJ's from the radio.

As you can see above, I still have all my vinyl albums that I collected growing up and beyond.  I used to go to Woolworths and get a record album for $3.99.   I can't bring myself to part with my collection and I still play them on occasion.  10 years ago or so I started to catalog all the records and what they are worth. Some are pretty rare, but they are all priceless to me!

I also have a nice collection of 45 rpm records.  When I was making the big bucks before I retired to pursue art  we got a jukebox so I could play my singles.  I love playing the old songs and singing along.  Songs like ' The Night Chicago Died' and 'Treat Her Like a Lady'.

Next week I'll be back to art because YAY- I just won a couple of awards for one of my paintings.

Anyone else out there still listen to their vinyl - I'd love to read your comments.

History of a Rock concert goer - prices sure have changed!

I have saved my concert tickets for as long as I can remember.  I put them in this 30 year old photo album that has ended up being a history of ticket prices as well as wonderful memories.  Check out Paul McCartney for only $34 in 1989.  This is a random page from the album.  I think the most interesting is The Rolling Stones in 1981 for only $15 (not shown).  That also included Journey and George Thorogood!

I remember my first concert was Orleans and Melissa Manchester at a local venue.  My Mom had to take me because I wasn't old enough to drive.  Poor Mom ended up taking me to many shows near and far.  I lived on the Canadian border so I heard and loved a lot of Canadian music.  She crossed the border to take me and a girlfriend to many a show not to mention the treks to Canadian record stores to purchase favs not available in the US.   Ottawa and Toronto get lots of big US names too!

I still love going to concerts.  The most recent was Justin Hayward from the Moody Blues just a couple weeks ago.  I must admit that I am seeing the acts that are no longer in the big arenas anymore, but they are still rockin' after all these years as am I :)

'Oktoberfest' painting finished! 'Hacker Pschorr' brewery.

After many hours, this painting is finally done!  I posted an 'in progress' photo 2 entries down in case you missed it.  Check it out!

Flora and more flora!  It was a challenge painting all the floral garland, but I like the cast shadows they create.  I was always looking forward to the next item to paint.  I love the blue on the wheels and that was one of the last thing I painted.  I did this one on smooth Ampersand gessobord and it proved to be difficult to blend even with my favorite blending too - my fingers!   I am really happy with how this came out though.

Please share it with your beer loving friends!    Hacker Pschorr  is a Munich brewery.  This is their float in an Oktoberfest parade.  My husband was lucky enough to be in Germany at the time.  I am kind of curious to try one of their brews now.  The first Hacker brewery is mentioned in 1417, located at the corner of Sendlinger and Hackstraße in Munich so they must be pretty good.

Featuring 'Montmartre circa 1977' Paris France painting

This is one of my favorite paintings!  I snapped this scene on a high school junior French club trip to Paris.  I was so in awe of all the wonderful artists painting and selling on Montmartre.  It was like painting little paintings within the larger piece.  They were such fun to do since they were looser than my style and I probably wouldn't paint a clown :)  I did this piece on Ampersand Gessobord which helped loosen me up a little because of the smooth surface.

This was a trip of a lifetime and one I will never forget.  There were 3 total from my school that went and they were both friends.  We slept 3 in a bed and faced the morning wake-up calls together!  The chaperons were quite lenient.  There was an older guy from our school going to the Sorbonne and we were supposed to meet up with him.  The three of us took off to tackle the Metro at night!  Such fun memories.

Thanks for reminiscing with me.

Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest painting Work in Progress - a sneak peek!

I found this great photo of a float during Oktoberfest in Munich a number of years ago.  My husband took the photo when he was on a business trip and I was psyched when I saw it.  He is not known for he photo prowess, but he got lots a great pics this trip. 

I have been slowly working on the wood areas and took a break to do the sign which was a challenge.  After taking a couple hours to do it, I had to look up what I was painting.  I found out that 'Hacker Pschorr' is a Munich brewery.  In the late 18th century, Joseph Pschorr bought the Hacker brewery from his father-in-law; he subsequently founded a separate brewery under his own name.  His two sons divided his estate by each taking control of one of the two separate breweries. In 1972, Hacker and Pschorr merged to form Hacker-Pschorr, but the beers were sold as separate brands well after 1975.  It is incredible that the original brewery was founded in 1417.  I guess the stuff must be pretty good!

I have made some more progress since taking this photo.  I have to get everything else done before working on the flowers since they are 'on top' of the barrels.  I hope I can do it justice!

Thanks for looking and feel free to leave me a comment to say Hi!

A Trip in the Way Back Machine or How to Decorate a Teenager Girl's room in the 70's

I came across this photo and boy did it bring back memories!   You can still see tape residue on the paneling.  Get a load of that lamp!  My mother just recently took it down to put up a ceiling fan.  I wish I had gotten a hold of it - could have been a good Ebay item :)

Do you recognize anyone on the wall?   Let's see - I see Rick Springfield (sigh), Alice Cooper, Seals and Crofts, Mick Jagger, Barbra Streisand, David Bowie and a huge poster of Gilbert O'Sullivan.  I really didn't know it was that big when I ordered it :)  In the upper right hand corner there is a painting I did of Michael Sarrazin, an actor,  He was a cutie.  I painted and drew lots of my favs in my teens.  I never realized I would eventually become a full time artist, it was just a lot of fun.

I was a night owl.  In the summer I would stay up until 2:00 AM painting and listening to music.  I would love to hear your memories of your teenage room.  Feel free to comment and Thanks for reading!

Finished WIP "Old Canoe' Fall painting

 'Old Canoe'  14 x 11" on Ampersand Gessobord

 

Photo of the finished piece.  It is at the scanners so I will have a better pic for making prints.  I am not a very good photographer so I get them scanned so customers can order large prints that will be crisp and clear.  The colors in the original piece are brighter - especially the canoe. 

 

I love fall and painting fall scenes.  This reference photo was courtesy of Wet Canvas, a great tool for artists with no strings attached.  People have told me that I like bright colors.  I guess I do if that is what the piece calls for.  I can just as easily use more subdued colors for the right painting.  Check out 'Pont Vecchio Landscape' below.  This painting is from a photo taken on a dark day in the morning.  Visit  http://lynne-reichhart.artistwebsites.com/ to purchase prints of this piece.  Prints of 'Old Canoe' will be available shortly once I get the scanned image back.

 

 Thanks for visiting and come back next week for a new installment~



A fun shout out from a media personality about my art!

As  I mentioned in my last post, I participated with The IndiExhibit  at the WOW Creations Oscar gift lounge. 

Media personality Karen Salkin chose my artwork to take home - Yay.  She writes a very fun on-line column called 'It's not About Me (But it Really is)'  This month she talked about the WOW gift lounge, the IndiExibit and my canvas print. 

Under a photo of the display she writes 'Don’t get married to the painting in the middle (the predominantly red one)–it’s now MINE!'  She also mentions me by name.  Thank you, Karen!

You can read the column here.  The second vendor she talks about is The IndiExhibit.  There is a photo of the display with my piece hanging on the middle.  Look for this piece...

Thanks for reading!