Feathers & Fluff - SOLD

Feathers & Fluff

6" x 8", oil

available at Sweet Lips Art and Gift Gallery

I had a nice photo session with our hens the other day, this one is a little bantam hen. The eggs are really at their best now with all the fresh grass and bugs to eat, yum (eggs, not bugs)! I didn't quite capture what I had hoped to with this one, but there are some things I like about it anyway.

I'm making arrangements to put some paintings in a new gallery nearby. Working with a gallery and pricing my work is pretty new to me so I did a little research. I ran across this piece that I think helps give some perspective on pricing artwork so I thought I'd share it:

Robert Genn's Ten Commandments of Art Pricing
Thou shalt start out cheap.
Thou shalt publish thy prices.
Thou shalt raise thy prices regularly and a little.
Thou shalt not lower thy prices.
Thou shalt not have one price for Sam and another for Joe.
Thou shalt not price by talent or time taken, but by size.
Thou shalt not easily discount thy prices.
Thou shalt lay control on thy agents and dealers.
Thou shalt deal with those who will honour thee.
Thou shalt end up expensive.

Pig Race - SOLD

Pig Race

6" x 8", oil

available at Sweet Lips Art and Gift Gallery

I celebrated my birthday today by finally doing another painting. It's pretty bad when I had a snow scene on there in May, so at least I've got my blog in the correct season now.

Why pigs? Don't know. They were just so cute, I took the photo at our local Schuster's Playtime Farm during the "pig races". I'm sort of in farm animal mode right now, since I'm reading "The Face On Your Plate". Except for the occasional fish face, I don't have faces on my plate anyway, but maybe I'll put some of their faces in my paintings. Or perhaps by the time I get back to painting again I'll be in landscape mode, who knows...

Now for some photo tips:

Before photographing my previous painting, I spent some time researching and experimenting to find the best way to photograph paintings. I also got myself a small collapsable photo tent to diffuse the light.

So here is what I've found:

--Set the camera farther away and zoom all the way in.

--Set lights nearly parallel to the subject on either side and on top if glare is a problem.

--Set camera to ISO 100.

--Use AV setting and set f-stop to 8 or higher, 8 or 10 seems to work for my lighting.

--Try to use a fast shutter speed if possible.

Some links:http://emptyeasel.com/2009/09/17/camera-tips-for-photographing-your-artwork-for-the-web/
http://www.photoflexlightingschool.com/Lighting_Lessons/Advanced_Lighting/Product___Still_life/Photographing_2-Dimensional_Artwork/index.html