Pink Lily by Mary Van Deman
Mary Van Deman, Oakwood Artist
Recently, I was introduced to the concept of selling my art online via www.DailyPaintworks.com. The website was established several years ago by artist Carol Marine and her husband David, and has grown to include top notch artists from around the world as well as emerging artists. Carol was one of the first to embrace the idea of “Daily Painting,” a very effective method of improving artistic skill while producing an abundance of sellable art in very small sizes. Most daily painters try to finish a small painting each day. When concentrating on painting small, the stress of planning a large work and the possibility of failure is eliminated. If a small painting is not one the artist considers a success, it can be wiped off and re-painted or simply discarded because so little time and expense has been invested in it. I try to limit my online auction sales to my smaller works, but continue to paint larger ones as well and sell them in other venues. I consider the small works as a fun way to increase my skill while producing salable works. Daily painters will see their artistic skills expand rapidly. Practice makes perfect, after all.
Art buyers, too, will find much to love about the website and about the Daily Painting concept. Most of these small, spontaneous works are offered at very reasonable prices and there are an abundance of paintings from many artists from which to choose. Works both large and small (though most are small) are auctioned daily. I usually mark my starting bids at one half of my standard price. The paintings can be bid up, or they may actually sell at the opening bid. My advice to artists wishing to sell through these auctions is to set your opening bid to the lowest price you are willing to take for your painting. Once you build a following on the site, bids for your works will likely increase and volume can make up for low initial prices. Most of my auctioned works are five inches by five inches by one and one-half inches wrapped canvas, though some are four inch by four inch canvases and others are six inch by six inch oil on panel paintings. The Daily Paintworks website is easy to navigate and the support team is very helpful. I have found that it is also helpful to promote my auctions on Facebook and have both a website and a business Facebook page.
My website is administered by Fine Art Studio Online and I have set up a Works Collection devoted exclusively to my Daily Paintworks Gallery. Visit my website at www.MaryVanDemanFineArt.com to view my collections and to access links to my Daily Paintworks auctions. If you are an artist interested in learning more about online selling contact me through my website and I would be happy to answer any questions.
My paintings are also available through the Art, Etc. Gallery at 96 Main Street in Greer, AZ.