A New Year.

I can't believe that a new year has started and I've only a few scant ideas for new paintings. It's sad, really - trying to find time between work and home and with the dark days of winter it seems that the day is over as soon as the clock hits 5pm. My evenings seem so short.
So I bought a couple of Frederix board-backed canvases in hopes of producing a few new Oil Pastel pieces. I love Oil Pastels, but admittedly, they are a thorn in my side as I can never seem to master them in the manner in which I want them to be. Makes it difficult to justify going out and buying a Sennelier set of pastels costing $300 when I can't make the $50 set do what I want....grr!
I have ONE piece that is hanging on the wall that really turned out exactly the way I wanted it to. I call this piece "WaterMusic" Now I have to find a way to have it photographed without the actual original being ruined. Hmm....we'll have to wait on that one - maybe I'll buy a Digital SLR this summer.

So here's one piece I enjoy sharing:

Red City is available on FineArtAmerica's site - click here:
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/red-city-laura-swink.html

No grand titles today....just a few thoughts.

I have a rather spiritual feeling when I look into the sky at night. I live in a remote area of Ohio where it is very easy to see the Milky Way - something which is often lost when one lives in the city and has to deal with the ambient light of surrounding civilization.
I guess that spiritualism comes from a very vivid childhood memory of mine when the Northern Lights were visible over Lake Erie. We lived in a small town called "Avon Lake" where the lakeside was just a few blocks away. I was about 4 and a very cool summer night I was awakened by my father who took me outside to see the lights.
They were fantastic.

So my space-scapes were born of these fascinations and experiences. Here is one product of that -  Ascension

Ascension: Acrylic on Canvas

About Me...as an artist....where I began....

I haven't always been an artist - although I always dabbled in it since childhood. I went to college to study classical music as a flute-player and was blessed to have studied with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra and the Akron Symphony. While the sweeping sounds of Bartok, Bach, Hadyn and Chaminade were wonderful, a class taken as a senior at Baldwin-Wallace College in Oil Painting sealed it for me, but even then, my art would lay in wait until my career was settled.

Fade Into Light, Oil on Canvas

I returned to school to study Graphic Design at a local college where I had a terror of a teacher who was fantastic and I got my first jobs in design shortly thereafter. I was young, I had a career and was making some money so I spent much of my free time in the studio that I created at my parents' home. My first paintings of 'Threnody' and 'Azimuth' were created there, but the art really didn't take off until about 2004 when I actually began to sell works all over the U.S.

Azimuth: see the painting here!!!
Threnody: see this painting here!!!
Fade Into Light: Prints and original on sale here!

I now dabble mostly in oils, mostly in landscapes - although I have been expanding my reach as an artist while I am continuing to develop my talent. My works of art, as a body, have never represented any specific area of artistic expression. It's never been a matter of "I create abstracts" or "I paint seascapes". I've always had the fascination of how rich strokes of paint merge to create a picture which then becomes a work of artistic impression for both the viewer and the artist. As a result, I will dabble in any subject, I want to explore any scape, any place and any emotion that can fill the canvas. When my pieces are finished, I want my pieces to look like paintings, not photographs. I want the viewer to see the play of liquid and solid, color and contrast, dark and light. If I've managed all that in one piece - I can call it successful.

You can locate me at: http://laura-swink.artistwebsites.com

Pricing your artwork - let's be realistic...

I sold a few things there, but after about a year - I became disgusted and decidedly quit without looking back. Afterall, they don't call it Fee-Bay for nothing...

So here is the problem with Fee-bay: as an artist you have to pay the $19.95 featured auction fee - just to be seen, and then there is your listing fee, which was based on how much you were asking for the artwork. Then, if you are lucky enough to sell the item, you pay a final value fee and then the Paypal fee and before you know it, you are lucky to be taking home two pence for all your work.

So it's working for some and more power to them. But for many of the others, there is simply something I just can't understand - and that's the constant need for these artists to list their originals - yes, ORIGINALS - at an opening bid of $1...

So there it is, after shelling out $30 to $35 for the listing, they began their auction at $1 (and I am not considering the price of their materials here, either.) I understand the need to create interest in the work, to foster bidders into a game of out-bidding each other by offering a "too good to be true" offer, and yet these paintings rarely sell at anything above $10 - if they sell at all. And if you spend any real time there looking at the artwork, you will also see that often times the art doesn't even get many views.

Why?

But it's not a question of why don't they get any interest.. It is more a question of why do you do this? Why does ANYONE do this? And you can't blame Fee-bay, there are other art auction sites where you see artists engaging in this same insanity. The legacy that they are passing on to their counterparts is tragic - it makes it nearly impossible for any artist to ask even $99 for their artwork, let alone a real price for the piece. And then you have to consider what to charge for packing and cost for shipping the item. How ridiculous does it look when you charge $1 for the artwork and $50 for the shipping?
On a piece that is 30 x 40 charging $50 to ship is down right cheap - but the customer thinks you are trying to gouge them by charging a higher shipping. So the artist doesn't get a sale and he looks like a con-man in the process.

I don't deny that the advent of auction sites for art have brought more market forces to the art buying public. Artists who have large market appeal will see their prices rise - it's the way it works. But the idea of any serious artist attempting to pass off their hard work for a lousy buck makes me want to scream. It also makes it harder for me to defend why I am charging hundreds more for a smaller painting.. Despite the market forces, many art buyers simply don't understand what goes into the work itself. Unfortunately, few clients understand the work that is entailed and an ignorant public then cannot go the extra mile to see why the price is high.

And how about this simple comparison - remember this the next time you price your work: Diamonds are the most plentiful of all the precious gemstone - you want rare?? Go buy an Alexandrite, an Emerald, an Imperial Topaz - and we'll talk rare. But the diamond sellers weren't stupid, they simply placed a high emotional value on the item and sold it as such. To this day no guy could ever get off buying his best girl anything less than something of such perceived value - and it had better come with a nice price tag - or its worthless in her mind. It's just a shame that artists have not been able to master this technique. Many more of us could be living as full time artists. I believe the buying public is happy to have something of value as well as having contributed their hard earned dollars directly to the artist from which they buy. Clients simply do not now how many of their dollars have supported fee-bay, and how many really good artists drop off the edge simply because they refuse to compete in the sweatshop market place.

In closing. Consider carefully the next time you place a dollar value on your piece. A simple, fair market price does everyone a favor.

Come and visit my website on Fine Art America:
Laura Swink, Fine Art

Links to Prints and Originals:
Flowers Paintings
Flowers Canvas Prints
Flowers Prints
Flowers Framed Prints
Flowers Greeting Cards

"Solitude in Blue and Green" now offers prints!

It's been a while for this piece, as it should have been shared with the public as soon as the paint was dry, but in the last year I have been able to finally get this piece produced professionally so that it can be offered to the public in the form of prints.

This piece was really my first ever offering to the public a painting in oils. To commemorate the event I chose Monet as the inspiration for this piece. It was truly a joy to paint with the rich buttery soft oil paints spreading easily onto the canvas, the smell of the linseed oil - it was truly a wonderful experience! The first of many oil paintings this one will always be cherished as my first walk into another medium that I put off far too long.

I hope everyone enjoys it as I did bringing it to you.
Canvas prints start at $75
Use this link to see all the details:
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/solitude-in-blue-and-green-laura-swink.html?newartwork=true

Stratos: A new abstract from the "Ancient Earth" Series.

A simply play of color and water combine to present this piece. Atmospheric in quality it takes on the representation of air and water to make this painting rich in its scape and unusual in its quality.

Now available as the original on Fine Art America for $450 it measures 24-inches x 20-inches. Prints start at $34.

Click here to see it:
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/stratos-laura-swink.html

Rain....and it's aftermath....

It doesn't rain enough in the summer-time to suit me. I love a good thunderstorm especially! The humid air with a touch of coolness, the gathering clouds which often times I watch from the backyard. It culminates with the rolling sound of the thunder, the pattering of the rain and its cooling breeze.
But it's not just the thunderstorm that leaves me feeling a tinge of creativity to the point of wanting to go into my studio - it's the grey and sometimes sullen rain day that puts me into a mood of wanting to put color to canvas.
As an artist, I am always looking for inspiration in every place I go and I have often noticed that the wet days are the best days for seeing the play of color and light.
Rain is a mood to be captured - it's more than just trying to technically control both the paint and the process. Here is one of my more successful pieces capturing it.  Blue Trees:

Prints are available online at Fine Art America. Starting at $50.


















Click here to see it:
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/blue-trees-laura-swink.html