Learning how to submit applications for shows

I don't know Photoshop. I wish I did! My nephew, Illustrator Shane Rebenschied has written books about it, but I think those genes came from a different side of the family. And he lives in Arizona while I am in Colorado. No asking for help there. So, I spent a couple of evenings and learned the few little things I needed to know to submit photos to Zapplication so that I can enter some summer shows.


Many shows will only accept applicatons through this website, and it is pretty easy once you figure out how to do what is required. Uploading a photo is a piece of cake, but making sure that it is 1920 pixels on the longest side, that it is no more than 2MB but still high resolution, and that my name did not show up on the photo, is not as easy as I thought it might be. I always take my photos so they are at least 2MB, but once I cropped them to get rid of the frames, they were less than 1920 pixels on the longest side. I retook the photos with the camera set at 3.1MB, then once I cropped, I was able to resize the image to 1920 pixels.

Step two was getting rid of my signature. The first photo is one of the paintings with my signature. I have marveled at how people can just get rid of things in a photo. I recently had a good (for once!) photo taken, but had a candlestick growing out of my head. My daughter is good at photoshop, and she just eliminated it. I had to figure out how to do that with my signature on my painting. It actually isn't too hard. First I zoomed in on the area where my signature was, then I chose the clone tool (it looks like a picture of a rubber stamp). To eliminate the signature, you have to select a color very near the section of the signature you want to cover up by doing an Alt-click, then click on the area you want gone. It will clone the area you first clicked on and duplicate it with the second click. It takes lots of clicking, especially if the painting has a lot of color changes and brush strokes under the signature. Here is the painting without the signature.

Oh-oh, I hadn't compared the two before, but it looks like the color in my second one isn't as good. The first photo is the better of the two. I didn't change that in photoshop. They are two different photos taken at different times as I had to start over. Live and learn! I have been doing a lot of that lately.

The third step is to save it at the right size. The first time through I didn't realize it was preset to about 57 kb, which is too small. You cannot resize a small file and make it larger, so I had to redo the whole thing and this time save it as a 2MB file. That was why it took two evenings!

Good practice though. I submitted my application for the outdoor art show in Crested Butte, Colorado this summer. I hear it is a difficult show to get in, so I don't expect to be accepted, but I definitely wouldn't be if I didn't apply!

No snow needed on opening day!

Here in Summit County, Colorado, it takes a lot of snow to keep us from doing things. We love snow and the ski resorts in the county, (Breckenridge, Keystone and Copper Mountain) depend on it. We have not had a lot of snow this season. In February, I usually have at least three feet in my yard, but this year I have perhaps a foot. Unlike most of you, when we hear that the forecasters are predicting snow, we cheer....except when I have the reception for my art show!

Not only did the date (always the Second Saturday of the month) fall on a holiday weekend when there are lots of tourists in town, it also snowed. Traffic was awful and the snow made it worse. As a result, the number of visitors to the gallery wasn't what I had hoped. I sent or gave out about 130 invitations and sent a press release to the local newspaper, and I had many people tell me that they would definitely be there. In fact, they were looking forward to it!

So it snowed. While the turnout was still better than average, I was disappointed as I knew it could have been much better. However, many people have since gone to visit the gallery and have commented favorably on my work. I took my camera that night, but of course, forgot to take any photos. I did take a couple of the featured wall display right after I hung it. A bit crowded, but we don't have a lot of space and I had a lot of work. This was one of two walls, but the one with the most impact as it was right by the front door.

Getting ready for a show

It isn't a big show I am getting ready for. I am featured artist in February at Arts Alive, the Co-op gallery in which I hang in Breckenridge. It has been a very good gallery for me and I had great sales this summer. I am very active in the Summit County Arts Council, which is the non-profit organization that runs the gallery. We feature a different gallery artist each month, and February will be my month. I am treating it as if I had a one person show opening in a big, fancy gallery. It will be good practice if nothing else, and perhaps it will also generate some sales. I have put together about 100 invitations for the reception on February 13, so I hope to have a good turnout.

I have been spending a lot of time painting. This little one above is a 6x8 called "Golden Pond". I was pleased with the way it came out and will probably use it as a study for a larger piece. I have several larger pieces for this show. My biggest piece in the gallery to date has been 11x14, so the other artists will be surprised to see larger work from me. I started out painting small and am comfortable with it. Because the gallery is in a resort area, many of our clients are from out of town, and they prefer small pieces for ease of travel. Also, we sell mostly less expensive (under $300) work in the gallery, and it makes sense to paint to the price range that sells.

After I get all the work hung next week, I will post a photo of the display.

Where is the best place to buy art supplies?

It is a frequent question I get from local artist friends. I live in a resort area, about 60 miles from Denver, and art supplies are very limited locally. Our Jerry's Artarama store in Denver just closed. Meiningers is a very well known Art store that has been here for years. They always have a good selection of product, but still, it takes most of a day to get there and back with a couple of other stops on the way.


Hurrah for the internet! Jerry's, Dick Blick and others are available online, but my favorite is ASW (Art Supply Warehouse). They have great prices, a fabulous selection of items and shipping is only $6.95 per order. With many websites, the shipping costs can eat up the savings you get by ordering online. Periodically ASW emails coupons for 15% off your entire order of $125 or more. I keep a list of what I am getting low on and when I get the coupon, I can order right away. It is usually only good for a day or two. They ship you a catalog with your first order, but now that I am familiar with their website, I don't use it as much. Hower, it is easier to find a specific item if you have the catalog number for it.

Above is my latest painting, a 16x20. I did a little study first to make sure it would work, as I don't paint large very often. The photo I used as reference is one I took on the Park County side of Hoosier Pass in September. I love the color we have at that time of year!

Painting with friends

In a prior post about finding time to paint, I mentioned that I paint weekly with a group of friends. That group, the Blue River Artists, now has a north location in Dillon as well as our old location in the Arts District of Breckenridge. Tonight was our first night to get together. From left to right you can see Joe Dennis, me, Diane Johnston, then really small in the back, Kris Lee, Bonnie Norling Wakeman and Marianna Duford. We paint at the Lake Dillon Art Center, a new art center that is the brainchild of Matt Lit, the photographer who took this photo tonight and kindly allowed me to lift it from his facebook page.

We had a great time and plan to be back there next week for more painting time.

A blogging tip

While I have been blogging as an artist for only a short time, I have been a Realtor for 16 years in the mountains of Colorado. I have had a real estate website for 15 years and have been blogging about resort real estate for three years or so. While I might not know much about painting yet, I know considerably more about blogging. I plan to pass on a few tips here from time to time, in hopes that others will benefit from some of the things I have learned in my real estate business.

Here is today's tip: Set up a google alert for your name. Part of the reason we blog and use other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc, is to get yourself exposure far beyond what galleries and traditional marketing methods will do for you. But how do you know when someone else is talking about you? Google will tell you. Just tell google that you want to know. Here is the link to set it up. http://www.google.com/alerts It is easy!

Perhaps you also would like to know when information about a certain breed of dog is posted, or plein air painting, or an art workshop. Set up a google alert for that information too. I have an alert set up for my name, but I also have it set up for "vacation home" and other terms that bring me information that will help me in my business. I found one day that my real estate blog had been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, and I never would have known about it without the google alert. Set it up to notify you via email, daily or as they find the information you need.

Breckenridge Poster contest finalist, that's me!

In November, I posted that I had entered two oil paintings in a competition for the 24th year of the Bach, Beethoven and Breckenridge poster. In the past, the posters have sold well as a fundraiser for the Breckenridge Music Festival. I often see them in homes here in Summit County, Colorado. My two submissions brough the total of entries to 22, and I found out recently that one was selected as a finalist! The photos above were the two I submitted, both 18x24, and the lower landscape is the one that made the finals.

There are no specific requirements about whether the poster should feature music or just be representative of the beautiful area in which we live. Mine was a local landscape with fall color, and the other finalist is a watercolor by Linda Dice of a woman leaning against a tree, playing a flute. Linda is a fellow New Zealander who also hangs her work in Arts Alive Gallery. Needless to say, I am thrilled, but I wonder if the poster will even get printed this year. Apparently, with the economy affecting many aspects of the art world, money for this project is in short supply. If it doesn't happen this year, it may not happen ever again! That would be unfortunate. Wish us luck!