Portrait Society of America 2015: Opening Night Face-off

At 5:00 pm on Thursday night, fifteen artists gathered to paint 5 models before a packed crowd in the Grand Ballroom at the Hyatt in Buckhead, GA, a suburb of Atlanta. Both artists and models draw numbers so no one knows in advance where he or she will paint nor whom will be modeling - it is such fun, and in my group were Kate Stone and Carol Arnold, both spectacular painters. The finished demonstrations are auctioned during the weekend, with the proceeds going toward the scholarships the PSA offers each year. Here are several photos showing the process - time flying until the final bell rings at 7:30 and the event is concluded. You can see all the paintings here, on Matt Innis's excellent blog, "Underpaintings"

Above, an overview of one end of the ballroom. All of the painting stations were set up in the center, so that conference attendees could move around the perimeter to watch each artist's progress.

Here are some of the steps:

Above, part way through painting our model, Sarah. You can see artist Katherine Stone painting next to me. Carol Arnold was on Kate's left. I used for the first time the Natural Pigments's Artefex oil-primed linen panel, with thanks to George O' Hanlon who graciously donated the panel. It's a beautiful panel, and I will look forward to using more of them.

Above, artists painting the model in red. And below, my artist friend Annette Goings must have been saying something funny as she took these pics:)

 Below, my finished portrait of Sarah. Oil. 20 x 16.

Below, showing artists my brand new fabulous NewWave grey palette, complete with a thumb gasket to prevent aching hands while holding the palette. It's a beaut,and best of all I got to keep it - thank you Kyle!

Jaime's Lemons, oil 6x9, for The Portrait Society of America's Mystery Sale, Friday May 1, 2015

One of the wildest and most fun highlights of the Portrait Society of America's Annual Art of the Portrait Event is the 6x9 Mystery Sale - more than 200 small panels, unsigned on the front, are donated by the PSA Faculty and invited artists, where all are both unveiled and sold in a matter of 30 very, very short minutes. Only after the panels are purchased (each at a fixed price of $250) is the buyer allowed to take the panel, turn it over and find the name of the artist who painted the panel. So much fun!

Here is the panel I donated,  fresh lemons painted from life, picked from my niece and nephew's yard.

Promoting your work in the 21st Century: Self-publishing - presented at the 2015 Portrait Society of America, Atlanta, GA

As part of a panel discussing various approaches to promoting your work in the Twenty-first Century, I joined teammates Scott Jones (Legacy Gallery) and David Gluck and Kate Stone (artists and bloggers, Painting Stuff to Look Like Stuff) and addressed the concept of self-publishing for artists.

Rather than try to guess at how many handouts to bring, or to see people frantically trying to write down the notes from powerpoint slides, I'm just sharing the info here so it can be read at your convenience.

To simplify, I focused on three basic tiers to publishing art books:

1. Self-publishing, Print-on-demand (POD);
2. Self-publishing, short run (up through about 5,000 copies); and
3. Big publishing clearinghouses (e.g., North Light Books,Watson-Guptill).

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The following table highlights the basic differences between self published POD and short-run:

Courtesy Amy Strickland, Matter Deep Publishing

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Considerations in Self- Publishing

 •Template flexibility

•Hard/soft cover/digital options

•Cost/Pricing/mark-ups/profitability

•Editing

•Design assistance

•ISBN

•Marketing

•Distribution

…all of which should be driven by your book’s purpose.

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Some examples of Print-on-demand publishers

•MyPublisher

•Blurb

•Lulu

•Shutterfly

•Createspace

•LightningSource

•MagCloud (now part of blurb)

….and more being added every day :)

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Why stop with books?

Zazzle

RedBubble

FineArtAmerica

CafePress

FinerWorks

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Oh. And if you want to hire some help with your soon-to-be-published book?
Don't call me. You already know what I know.

Contact Carly Stickland at Matter Deep Publishing. contact@matterdeeppublishing.com