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Ok I am trying to put an add on Craigslist… I took pictures with my camera and put it on my computer with the SD card… Now when I upload the pictures onto the craigslist ad creator it says my images are too big and need to be resized. Does anyone know how to do this through windows picture gallery? Please give specific directions.. I don’t know what I am doing lol. Also, just a note I have Windows Vista.

Thank you!

Hi MrsSchmidty,

The easiest thing is to use Paint to resize the picture (for most Windows users). When you’re looking at the picture in preview mode, right click and select the “open with” from the menu and select “Paint” from the resulting slide-out menu.

From there, the picture will open up in Paint. Click the “Image” button in the header and select “Resize/skew” from the drop-down list. From there, you can simply change the percentages to make your image smaller. Be sure you save.

Cheers,
Ron
Windows Outreach Team

I love art/ the arts and i’ve always wanted to run an art gallery of my own work or others’. What goes into starting this type of venture?

It isn’t what goes into it that will bring success…it’s who goes into it once it is built: customers. The key is to have the demand for what you want to offer. Do the market research upfront. Too many people get into retail thinking they have a good product. Well, it might be good, but if there is no demand, there are no sales. Price point is next. Can you offer value and still make margin? If you charge a 50 percent commission, you’d better work at getting people to see and buy. Advertise, direct mail postcards, mailing lists…marketing, marketing, marketing. It’s work. There are few, very few, "build it and they will come" success stories, especially in the art world today.

I am meeting with a gallery owner and I can put together some pics and show her paintings but everything else?
What can I do?

I am a gallery director myself and have people ask me this question every week.

First off, be professional. This is a job interview, essentially. If you show up and act too stereotypically "Aloof Artist", you will already have points against you. As a Director, what I want in an unknown artist (if you have no resume, shows or training,) is someone who has strong, saleabul work first of all.

Secondly, I want someone who seems able to sell their own work. Meaning, someone who will approach people during their receptions and talk to people and make them interested in the art and them self. If you have any collector base, (people who buy your work), I want them to commit to having the sales go through the gallery and not AROUND the gallery. A lot of new artists feel like selling a painting outside of the gallery is a good idea, and a good way of making extra money. But, to the contrary, you will get a reputation of being an underhanded business person and will have a harder time getting shows in the future.

Also, as an example of being professional, have a VERY professional looking portfolio to LEAVE with the Director. Don’t try to pick a fancy font, or quirky sheet of paper to put your artist statement on. Do something that you would expect an executive would put a business proposal on. Simple, readable text on simple, quality paper. The same goes for your method of image distribution. If you use slides, put them in a slide sleeve and put the sleeve in a folder with your statements. If it is a cd, do the same. Have everything clearly labled and clean. Do this even if you are bringing in originals to the Director. I always like to look at the work later.

Include things like, a Bio and an Artist Statement (why you do what you do). These are important, and should be written well. If you aren’t much of a writer, have a friend who is write it for you. You need to appear as "Put together" as you can.

To make a long story short. We, as gallery Owners/Directors, want to know that you are worth investing in. Essentially, we will be spending thousands of dollars on: Rent for the space, Printing fees for post cards and promotional info, labor/salaries and such just so you can hang work in our space. We need to feel like the sales of your works will meet or exceed the costs mentioned above. Do everything in your power to make us think that. And if we show your work, you need to make that happen.

—Ricky H.

I am 25 years old and getting my MFA in figurative painting…how can I begin to get my artwork seen? I would really like to get some of my paintings into a gallery, but I need to know the best approach. Can anyone help me?

My major was Commercial and Illustrative Photography / Minor in Graphic Design and Illustration.

Getting your work seen should be your primary goal right now.
Unless you have connections, an amazing portfolio or pretty strong credentials you’ll have to wait a little on gallery showings.. (with a few exceptions I’ll mention later)

1) Get your portfolio together and TIGHT (also practice your presentation).
2) Get business cards you can leave at locations you show at (and/or on your artwork)
3) If possible, have slides of your work shot. (“Call for Artists” always seem to want slides)
4) Start your research and lay out your plan on paper (you’re starting here which is GREAT)

Your main goal is to locate business that need artwork on the walls, are appreciative of the arts and that have good traffic. Look for art districts in your town or towns near to you. Also, (I was apprehensive about putting the following down, due to how it sounds.. but it worked for me)….It may sound snobby, but this is a business… It doesn’t hurt to look for areas where upper and upper middle class people live – If they like your work they may have connections to gallery owners or art dealers. Places I’ve had success – Coffee shops / Small restaurants / Pottery shops / Country Clubs / Jewelry stores (NOT in malls)/ Winery’s/ Specialty Grocery Stores (the type that has imported cheese and aged meat-lol) . One of my best locations was a County Government Executive office building (go figure!) – My work was in a long corridor between 2 buildings – LOTS of traffic.
The goal is to make an appointment with the owner to present your portfolio. (Also, create a flyer with examples of your work and your contact information on it- which you will be able to leave). And follow up, follow up, follow up!

Your selling point – You have a rotating gallery that you will maintain /change (every 2 months is what I did). You attach your contact card to your artwork (as well as leave additional cards with the receptionist for inquiries they may get)
Find a radius of large towns to market to – My area consisted of Pittsburgh / Cleveland / Columbus / Toledo and Detroit. (I later found out this was too big of an area)
To begin, you may want to find good prospects in 2 of the larger towns near you.

Regarding gallery showings: After years at a college you have great connections without even knowing it – Your art instructors. They may have knowledge of Artist Galleries. Those galleries owned and run by artists, and looking for new work on a regular basis. Also, join art societies (national and local) – either specializing in your medium or interest. They always seem to have gallery showing information (local or out of town) and always seem to be asking for submissions for one thing or another. An odd “get it out there idea” that worked for me – Subscribe to a magazine in your medium / area of interest. Most have contests a few times during the year.- or have “calls for artists” listed in the back of the magazine.

Last (and sorry for my rambling) — Go to every gallery showing you can—drive the extra miles and stay out of town if you need to. NY,NY, NY! (I made more connections at a 1 week show in NY then I did after 1 year of local showings)– Become chatty, make friends / connections. (Travel with your portfolio attached to your hip!)

How artists fail (and I’ve seen a number fail over the years) – They aren’t willing to go outside their area, they aren’t willing to work at selling their "product" (it is a business no matter what we want to believe)– they hold on too tightly to the idea of being a starving artist or suffering for their art.

It’s a wonderful field!—I’m very excited for you, hope I’ve given you a few ideas—Enjoy!

Tomorrow I have my first interview with a gallery, I have already the works that i want t show and my portfolio. but I don’t kow what to wear, any sugestions?

cool! congratulations! okay lets see. designer for sure. as high end as you’ve got. i would wear a slim-fitting pencil skirt, probably grey, and some kind of lacy blouse. or i would wear short sailor shorts and a drapey jersey t shirt. it sort of depends on the gallery. if it’s conservative (you do oil pantings of landscapes or portraits or ab-ex or straight photo or figure sculpture) then i’d go for the first look. womanly and together, but au courant. if it’s more of a cutting edge type of place i’d dress more trendy and you can throw a little bit of yourself into the outfit. like feel free to wear a studded belt with the dolce and gabbana dress.

I have three orignal paintings it says royal albert gallery and its authenticated but im not sure how much its worths. Paintings are from around 15 hundreads.

Any gallery will have many pictures of different values, without knowing the artist it is impossible to say.

With paintings that old your best bet would be to take them to one of the reputable auction houses, such as Sotherby’s or Christies to have them valued, this will ensure you get an accurate valuation. You will not get this if you just take them to an art dealer as with all antique dealers, they will want to make as much out of them as possible, whereas the auction houses take a set percentage of the sale.

For example:

Mooseknuckle

LOL… I’ve seen a bunch and can’t think of anymore, but I really want to know where i can see a gallery of these things.

They are called "demotivational posters"

Here are a few places to see them: (some may not be safe for work or polite company)

http://despair.com/
http://images.google.com/images?q=demotivational+posters
http://www.theburningbiscuit.com/Demotivational%20Posters.html

Google has a million of them. Happy demotivationing

on deviant art, i cant figure out how to add other peoples pics to my gallery , i don’t even kno how to get my pics on their. any help?

I think it’s against the rules to post other’s pictures. Maybe it’s not as long as you give credit. Remember not to claim other people’s artwork as your own. You can get in serious trouble for that.

Anyway, if you go to your profile and then look at the upper right side of your page, you should be able to see a button that says "Submit Deviation". Click it.

Pete & Dud visit the art gallery.

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Roy Grounds designed it in 1959 and construction began in 1961. So was the original 1861 gallery elsewhere? Or did Grounds’ building replace it on the same site?

Same street, different buildings.