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Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, GRINNELL Iowa! Yes! 

But that's not what this post is about.

I must be feeling slightly guilty about not giving you a "Painting of the Week" yesterday. Maybe it will happen yet. Did you remember that I had written to you about my soon-to-be-new-studio? It can't get finished any time too soon. Yesterday I moved the easel from the basement (impossible location to paint in) to a corner of the kitchen (almost impossible location to paint in) but I painted all day today anyway. Believe it or not, I am reworking an old one. See, that's what happens when we paint in weird places!

And that's not what this post is about either.

So let's get started. You do realize that with a two paragraph preamble, I am getting ready to bash someone's work, right?

I have had occasion to peruse the member pages of Oil Painters of America. There's some very inspirational painting going on there bytheway. You should look too:

[Oil Painters of America]

And oh my gosh, there are a LOT of artists in that fine group. Alphabetically, I am only to the C's, and already it's page 10. Yup, lots of artists.

But I have a question for you:

If you are an accomplished enough artist to join a national arts organization that charges a $70 annual membership, wouldn't you try your very hardest to take full advantage of that membership fee? 

I thought so.

May I tell you that not everyone thinks like we do?

Because as I survey those pages of artist listings, I have noticed something, that to me at least, is quite curious. There are 4 or 5 artists on each of those pages of about 80 artists per page, whose website links don't work.

I know, I know! Who would have thought it??

Many of the malfunctioning simply go back to their GoDaddy (or whoever) host which means they lapsed.

Yet I found several others whose front pages won't open, or the link to their portfolio page won't work, or a malady like that.

I suppose we could list a few possible reasons why an artist might intentionally have this happen?

- they are just so freakingfamous that they really don't need their website to work, because people flock to their front door anyway?

- they died last year?

- they've been hacked?

- they are too busy taking care of all their social media accounts?

- they paint just fine, but organization is beyond them?

But still, aren't we told every time we turn around, that if we are going to have a representational website, it HAS to be current? And well done?

And if out of about 80 artists listed on a page, 70 of them have viable links to get you to their website and images of their paintings, what does that say about the handful who don't?

What good is an artist's name on a page if there's not an image of a painting you-the-viewer can get too?

I guess this is just deep-thought-Tuesday in Grinnell, Iowa.

Thanks for stopping by.

And if you are an artist with a FASO website, OR one of the fine folk who work to bring we-the-artists the wonderful commodity known as the FASO website, pat yourself on the back. Because on those pages of 80ish artist's names, those with FASO websites shine. And I mean beautiful shine.

Later, Karen

Greetings!

Welcome to the Cooper studio, freshly returned to Lipetsk, from Bryansk.  Bryansk; where a strange something happened, that caused me to think upon websites & website success.

The setting:  a day to myself, in Bryansk, Russia.  I had spent the morning at the hotel, getting some work done, and now, downtown to find a wonderful cafe for lunch.  Yes, I was successful at lunch, and likely scored reference material for yet another painting that I will have to find some time for :)  Oh, what a terrible problem, NOT!

I decided to take the scenic route back to the bus stop, that would get me back to the hotel.  Have I mentioned that Bryansk possibly has two shoe stores for every three loo-dee?  (люди - people!)  And I wore out my black sandals that were good for walking great distances about a month ago...  seems like a golden opportunity, right?

Aaand, so I start off down Ulitsa Lenina (yup, that's a street)  The first store on the right, yes indeedy, a winner in the enticement category, but no sandals whose design, size, and cost fit my motives of the day.  Onward up the Ulitsa.

And as I made my way up Ulitsa Lenina, I suddenly realized I was being kind of random.  THAT one pulled me in, but then I skipped the next two, and was awfully hesitant about the third.  Was I being INTIMIDATED?  What on earth??!!  We have lived in Russia for almost two years now, surely I've gotten past the stage fright issue - of being seemingly dumb about the language.  So what was it?  What was causing my shopping discord?  What on earth was stopping me  from going in every one of those shoe stores until I found just what I wanted???

Yes, this would be a good place to make a list of things that caused me to turn away.  Therefore, here comes your list of what, in fact, pulled me in to those which I did favor.  (Contrast is the artist's friend !)

1.  Easy access.  Some even had their doors propped open on this beautiful summer day.

2.  Eye candy style window displays.  Color.  Contrast.

3.  Discreet signage regarding prices.

4.  Solid inventory presence.

So, now you tell me:  is that a universal list for anyone trying to market something?

Let's try to apply.

1.  Easy access:  How many hoops do I have to jump through on your website to get to the paintings?  How long do I have to wait for something to load?  Do I have to hover over the moving target of forty images scrolling by trying to land on the ONE that I want to zoom in on?  Are you going to tell me with a 2 page single spaced resume, how wonderful your talents are before you actually show me, with a painting image?

2.  Eye candy:  boredom happens to viewers that don't find something beautiful at every turn.  And then every turn turns into a turn away.  Color and contrast are pretty important to the artwork.  Is it any wonder it's also important to the presentation of that artwork?

3.  How much?  сколько?  (skol-kuh?)  Yes, we have been down this road many times, in discussion format.  You can try to be dignified & reserved all you want about the pricing on your website, but if you don't give pricing information, know that you are turning people away.  And while we are here, let's add in a subtitle:

  3a.  When your potential client is looking at your work at 10:30PM, do you seriously expect that "call me for further information" line to work for you?  Yes, morning comes anew, but have they found something else in the meantime?  People on the internet don't seem to have much patience - at least that's the way it appears to me.

4.  Solid inventory presence:  as I peak in the window, do I see a good supply of quality stuff?  Or do I see one of this, a handful of that, and maybe a smattering of something else?  And then there's that horrifying option of the one hit wonder.  Is there one, oh wait - two, things to look at?  Possibly the moral of the story here is get some work done before you go for the website?

Thoughts to ponder on a lovely Friday morning - I'm glad you joined in!

Later, Karen

PS.  Because the title of this post includes the word shoes, you get a bonus photo.  Does it need painted?  Yes, indeedy...

As seen on the corner of фокина и ленина, downtown Bryansk.

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa, where this Cooper is thinking about technology.  (whoa!)

Does your familiarity with convenience ever catch you from behind?

Little bits of technology that you use so often, that it's become a habit?

Think about those rare occurrences when the power goes off, when a storm "takes out" the electricity - you know it's off, but you find yourself reaching for the light switch anyway.

Or your website.  You know where everything is and how to make it function.  Have you ever tried to explain to your spouse, via the phone, as spouse sits in front of the computer, while you are NOT, how to grab a piece of information you need at that very moment?

Zoom feature.  What about THAT one?  I just came from a daily painting website.  There was an interesting street scene painting.  The "participants" of the scene had cold weather clothing on, and were seated at outdoor cafe tables.  So for pampered American outdoor diners, not so common - or am I speaking Midwestern?  Around here, people do NOT dine outdoors, if the temperature is such that a coat with a fur collar is necessary to keep you comfie.

So with this street scene painting, my first thought was that it must be a European setting.  There were two cars painted into the background of the scene.  Little rectangles where the license plates should be.  Sure, I'll just ZOOM in on that, read the license plate, and then I'll know where the scene came from.  Duh.

Duh again.  I knew that.  It's a painting.  I can zoom in on the information the artist gives me.  License plate info was of course edited out by this artist, and I would have too.

The zoom feature.  When so much of our information comes to us from a computer screen, that zoom feature can be a great aid.  Brush strokes on a painting - not visible on a thumbnail photo by any means, but zoom in, and you can learn a lot.  Edges that the artist's paint brush created - that first image shows the general effect, but zoom in, and you can begin to see the way the artist worked it.

The zoom feature.  A great aid for an artist trying to get their paintings out into the world, via the internet.  On this painter's website portfolio, it's present and functional.  Feel free to use it, in your exploration of art.

Thanks for stopping by.

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.

Let's talk about websites for a minute, shall we?  I just came here to write this, straight from someone else's. Yes, that someone else is also an artist.  Also a writer of books.  In fact, I read a brief article about his recently published book on painting technique, and I was encouraged to look at his paintings to see if I appreciated his painting style enough to buy the book.

At this point in time, I am sincerely hoping someone else put his website together for him, because if he designed the website AND the book, the book is going to be a nightmare.

Hoops.  Front page of his website:  15 or 20 thumbnail images of paintings with a blue film over them, with one painting image clear.  Off to the right, a menu bar of groups of paintings - landscapes, still lifes, figures, etc.  So I guess the website visitor is supposed to click on the menu bar item of interest, whereupon the little opening through the blue film moves to the image subject of your choice, and then you get an option button of "more".  

Am I annoying you yet??  You should have been there.

But wait.  There is more.  The blue film is light enough to see through, somewhat.  I wanted to see the painting in the middle row, 5 spaces to the right.  What category was it in?  Landscapes, figurative, action?  Who knows?  Not me.  I never found the right category to "illuminate" or remove the blue film from that painting.  And I don't give up easily.  But when annoyed....

Hoops.  Don't make your website visitors jump through them.  It's why I have a FASO website.  Clean, concise, easy to navigate.

Think about this:  if the power goes off in the middle of the night, can you walk from your bedroom to the kitchen without running into something?  And if you have a guest at your house that night the power goes off, would they be able to make it  to the kitchen unscathed?  I will venture a "yes" to the first part, and a "no" to the second.  Knowing something like the back of your hand, plays a big part in the art of navigation.

If you insist on a website with "stuff" on the front page, you know, random moving parts, clever little windows, optical chases across the page, do yourself (and your art sales) a favor.  Enlist the services of a couple of strangers to your website, and carefully consider their thoughts and actions.  Getting to the kitchen (paintings) might be easy for you, but what about your visitor?  Does he have to crash into the table?  Sideswipe a chair?  Sit down in the middle of the floor in dismay, because he sincerely doubts he's ever going to get there???  To the kitchen?   (er, I mean, paintings?)

Btw, call me dubious, but I'm holding off on the order for that book.  Thought you'd like to know.

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.

Folks, today I've got good news.  And I've got bad news, and that's just the way it is.

Let's get started.  The good news is after a pile of messed up emails, I (er, my paintings) have been accepted to the Geneva Fine Arts Fair, Geneva, Illinois.

The bad news, brace yourself.  I hopped over to this very website, to add it to that page labeled Schedule, and with horror washing over me, discovered that on this fine March 11th, 2012  THERE in big bold print was my (I am so embarrassed to say this) my 2011 schedule.

How do things like this HAPPEN?  I, who have written articles about the risk-to-character of artists who let their personal web space run amuck.  Fade from lack of attention.  Fall behind the times?  I have succumbed to the fault of not checking out my very own website.

Now in defense of artist-website-owners universal, I can say to you-our-fair-readers-of-the-front-side-of-this-webspace, normally all our viewing happens on the backside.  We need to add a painting image so we go to the menu bar, click the button that says "your artwork portfolio" and do the work.  Add the painting.

And when my favorite events started sending me happy letters (acceptance letters!) this spring, of course I wrote a blog post about that.

But I forgot all about the page on my website labeled "Schedule".  That place I personally had set up so that my friends and patrons of the summer art fair world know where I, and my paintings will be.  And I forgot about it because I had failed to follow my own good advice about reading the thing from the viewer's point of view!

There is a pathetic line that goes something like "Don't do as I do, do as I say".  Yeah, that means revert to that article I wrote awhile back.  The one that talks about how each artist should visit their website from the patron side on a regular basis. 

As artists, we add things to our websites with a regular (hopefully) and timely routine.  And when that happens from the backside of the control panel, we lose track of what's available to our viewers from the front side of that control bar.  On days like this, that can become concerning.  Dios mio.

But now, I've followed my own advice. I've read my website like a regular viewer, from the front side.  All of those embarrassing OUTDATED entries have been corrected.  You, my artist friend, should go do that to your website, too.  Old information is worthless information.  And even worse, you just might alarm your fans into thinking you've checked out.  Let'em know you're still working this gig.  Keep that front page current.

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.

Just outside the kitchen window of the Cooper house, there's a bird bath.  One of the old white ones, heavy as a load of bricks.  But we enjoy having it there.  This morning, a handsome pair of red birds were enjoying it also.  I watched them as I drank my coffee, and I thought:  If I didn't offer them a drink in my back yard, how far would they have to go to find water?  It's not like they can just turn a faucet on somewhere, you know.  The Raccoon River is the closest natural body of water, and it's over a mile away.  And I think red birds are kind of nice creatures to have around, so, likely we'll just continue to make it easier for them.  Give them easy access to a refreshing drink of water, whenever they need it.  Have it ready and waiting, for whenever they are in the mood.

Hey all you artist-types!  You know where this is going, surely?  The website.  Most specifically, the artist's website. 

Clint posted a great article the other day, about making sure your website included prices.  It fits right in with this line of reasoning.  How far will your patrons have to go to find water?  Oh, wait.   That was the first paragraph--I mean how far will your patrons have to go to find the price of the painting they want?  Will you really make them send you an email?  They might just think it's easier to fly to the river and back.  You just might lose a customer over that no-pricing issue.

And that front page of your website.  Do you make it easy for your patrons?  Is that menu bar right there in plain sight?  And how many times does a patron have to click to get to the main feature, the paintings?  Does it take forever for those paintings to load?  If that afore mentioned bird bath was put in our garage and those poor red birds had to look in through the window to get a glimpse of it and then wait for an open garage door moment of opportunity--well, would they?  Would they wait?  Hunh.  I think my second in line competition, the Raccoon River would get their patronage that day.

Are you enough of a gardener to know about how birds love ripe strawberries?  Some gardeners will hang aluminum foil pie pans in their garden to distract the birds, keep 'em away from the berries.  Or if you're not a gardener, think about the scarecrow in the Wizard Of Oz--the original purpose of a scarecrow was to distract a bird from his mission--finding good things to eat.  Good things to eat that the gardener/farmer was not willing to share.  What about distractions on the artist's website?  Think about freebie websites loaded with advertisement.  Think about those flashing, moving, wiggling things, that some artists trick out their websites with.  Are they attractively showing off the main feature, the paintings, or are they distractions?  Are they so confusing, that the patron just gives up and flies (er,clicks) away?

And another thing:  you know how one day you have two birds visit the back yard watering hole?  And the next day you get five?  And then two days after that, you seem to have the entire flock splashing around out there?  I guess that means the good word spreads.  Unless it gets blocked.  You know, if the bird bath runs dry and no one refills it, or if some crazy person lays something on top of it to keep out one of those bad birds.  Are you really so worried about THAT bird (the really bad mean one) taking your "water" that you'll restrict access to your main feature?  The paintings.  Yeah.

Yeah.  Because while backyard bird baths are nice, PAINTING  is what we do.  And while the main feature at the bird bath is water, the main feature at the artist's website is the paintings.  And it's crazy to think we can truly offer our paintings to website visitors, with:

1.  If you write me, I'll get back to you on that, or

2.  Jump through these hoops for me so I can see how much you love my work, or

3.  I am a techno-genius!  And don't you just love all these gadgets I've given you to look at?

4.  And, I have to protect myself from the bad guys, so that's just too bad for you, deal with it.

Aaah.  The perfect website, don't we all want it?  One that actually sells a painting or two, now and then.  Does yours do that for you?  Sell a painting, I mean?  If your answer is no, or even, not very often, maybe it's time for an overhaul.  You can re-read my suggestions.  Or if you are like me, and a picture is worth a thousand words, I have a visual for that.  On the FineArtsStudioOnline artists page, the one where you can search for artists alphabetically, the FASO powers that be have listed their choice of the top websites, letter by letter.  (click here for a look at the A's)

Time to go paint.  And thanks for stopping by.

Later, Cooper