This is very cool. A friend turned me on to Animoto, a video creation and sharing service. It is very cool! this is the first thing I did. You can do a 30-second video for free on their site. You need to pay to be able to do longer videos. Anyway, I used my paintings in the video. They turned out great. Check it out.
St. George Art Festival in St. George Utah
A really good friend from high school contacted me via facebook and suggested I exhibit at the St. George Art Festival next April. I checked it out and it looks really cool.
For one, it is on Friday and Saturday. Not Sunday, which is very important. How can I tell my kids that we don’t work or buy stuff on Sunday and then go and sell my work on Sunday? Not cool.
Anyway the St. George Art Festival isn’t on Sunday which is great. I might just have to move to Utah and exhibit in their Friday/Saturday Art Festivals.
I might have to start doing some southwest or religious themed work. I will explore that.
Glen, we’re coming and staying with you. I hope it’s OK. 
Would you like to win one of the paintings I do during the “100 paintings in 100 Days” challenge? Well, you can. All you need to do is tweet me the title and link of your favorite painting I have painted during the 100 day challenge and you may win that painting on New Years Day.
How to win an original painting in seven easy steps!
1) Visit http://oneartistsjourney.com/ or http://shaunellsworth.com/ (Make sure you look at the “100 paintings in 100 days” gallery on shaunellsworth.com) and pick your favorite paintings
2) Then go to http://oneartistsjourney.com/
3) Click on the “Twitter” link in the top right corner of the home page.
4) It will take you to Twitter.com. If you have an account, great. If you don’t, set one up. It is free.
5) You should land on my Twitter page for “shaunartist.” If you don’t, go to http://twitter.com/shaunartist
6) In the top left, just under my picture, is a “follow” button. Click on it.
7) Next, hit “home” and make a post under “What are you doing?” Tell us which of my paintings you like. Include a link to the page with the photo of the painting you like. Get the link by clicking on your favorite painting and then copying the address in the browser window.
It should look something like this:
I like Shaun Ellsworth’s painting “Fields.” You can see it at http://oneartistsjourney.com/2009/10/one-month-is-past/
(Remember, you have 140 characters to get your message across, so you may need to adjust what you say. Twitter will probably shorten the link part for you.)
And now you are entered to win your favorite painting! Once you “follow” me, I will “follow” you and all your tweets of all your favorite paintings will be entered in the drawing.
You can enter as many times as you want, but only one per painting title per day.
Answers to all your questions
What are you doing?
I am painting 100 paintings in 100 days. This challenge will end on New Years Eve, 2009. I would love to give away a painting to a fan to celebrate the end of the challenge. If you are reading this, I hope you are a fan – and I hope you win a painting.
The winner of the contest will win an original painting, ready to be framed. This isn’t a print or reproduction of any kind. The winner will get the real deal. And it will be ready for you to pick out your favorite frame at Aaron Bros. or Michael’s.
Is there a Catch?
Of course there is a catch! I want to start some online buzz by having people tweet about my art. That is where you come in. You tweet about my art and tell the world about your favorite painting and that tweet counts as one entry in the contest.
But that is the ONLY catch, I am even going to pay for shipping inside the US. If you are out of the US, you will need to pay the difference between what it will cost to ship domestic and international.
What are the Rules?
In order for the contest to be valid, at least 100 people must “follow” me and post at least one “favorite painting” tweet. You can find out how many people are following me by going to my Twitter page at: http://twitter.com/shaunartist
It would benefit you to tell your friends about this contest so we make sure and reach the 100 followers number. I purposefully set the number low so I can give away a painting.
Your tweet must follow the format. “1) I like/love/adore/dream of owning, etc. 2) Shaun Ellsworth’s painting, (Painting Title). 3) Link (url) of page with the picture on it. The link should be from either from http://oneartistsjourney.com or http://shaunellsworth.com . You can just copy the link from the address bar in your browser when you are on the page of your favorite painting.
Check the websites often because I will be posting new paintings weekly. You might change your mind and want a newer painting. Tweet about the newer painting and it will become another entry for you. Then if you change your mind and an old tweet of yours wins, you can still get the latest favorite painting that you tweeted about – if it is available.
I say “If it is available” because I am constantly entering these paintings in exhibitions, trying to sell them. So if one that you want sells before the end of the contest, I am sorry, but you will need to pick another painting.
EXCITING REFERRAL BONUS
If you tell a person about this contest and that person wins, you can also win a painting. So if you have a blog and talk about this contest and someone who reads your blog wins, you can also win a painting. Because I have no way to track this, the only thing I can do is ask the winner how they heard about the contest. We will have to go by what they say to award the second painting. The REFERRER must also have entered the contest to be eligible to win the second painting.
IMPORTANT
Remember, this is a contest. ONE person WILL win. YOU might not win. If you really love a painting, don’t wait to win it. Please buy it. And then if you win, you can win another painting and have a set. Good idea, huh?
Questions
If you have any questions, please contact me by leaving a comment under this post. That way, when I answer your question, it will become part of my “Frequently Asked Questions” and perhaps will help someone else. I will also email you a personal answer if you leave your email address.
Small Print
As always, contest rules subject to change at any time.
Here is my art. "Autumn Valley" and "Sailboats" - the two on the left. They are hanging in the "East Wing" which is a fancy way to say "the big studio room off the main gallery."
Today I sat in the Redlands Art Gallery. It was the first of my two days to sit.
Lynn, a real sweetheart who makes great jewelry, was my trainer. We had a crazy, busy morning, but I learned how to use the system. We have a new POS system and everyone is learning how to use it.
We had a lot of interesting visitors come to the gallery and we sold a few things. It was a good day. I lowered my price for the two paintings I entered. I started at $600, then thought better of it and on Saturday I dropped by and brought it down to $400 and then today, I was still thinking about it and dropped the price to $297. Let’s get this thing sold and make some Christmas money!
This is the Redlands Art Association's Art Gallery on State Street in Redlands, California.
I joined the Redlands Art Association last week. They have a member show every 5 or 6 weeks. Today we submitted art to hang. It isn’t a juried show, so it doesn’t really go on the list, but my art is going to hang in public. Woohoo.
This is how it works at our gallery: We can submit two hanging pieces. They should both hang. We pay $5 for that and sign up to sit in the gallery for two 3 1/2 hour shifts. I will need to come earlier next time because most of the morning shifts were already taken.
I need to get some “table pieces” done for the next show. Those are glass and ceramic pieces, glazed tiles, gourd art, etc. You can submit 10 of those for the same price.
Kanji #4 - 12” x 12” Acrylic on Masonite - This is the painting that sold.
I am so excited!!!
Today I reached a milestone. I sold my first painting on ebay. I told you I posted 5 paintings online about a week ago. There was a free deal where I could post 5 things for free. So I did.
I posted 5 of the kanji series. This morning, I was reading my email and got the news from eBay that the auction was over. And I didn’t sell the painting – do I want to relist? I got 4 of those, but then the 5th one said “Your eBay item sold! Contemporary Abstract Asian Kanji Acrylic Painting” How cool is that!?
So what did I do? I went out and spent 3 times what I made in supplies! Go figure!
Finally got around to setting up accounts on some online art galleries. I had to look around for some free ones – which I eventually found.
Oh, and I posted 5 paintings on Ebay last night too. They are cheap on ebay. If you are interested, I put the five Kanji paintings up for $47 each. See link below.
Here is a list of the online art galleries I am now a part of:
My Zatista online gallery: http://store.zatista.com/shaunellsworth
My d’Art online gallery: http://www.fine-art.com/shaun-artist
My “About Me” page on Ebay:
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=shaunartist
My Artbreak gallery (Be careful. Even with the adult filter ON, some gets by. Sorry): http://www.artbreak.com/shaunartist
Halloween Mashup of the Ellsworth Family October, 2009 - Click to watch ours and then make your own!
I have never done one of these before. It is really fun to do and share. Check it out and make your own! This only took me about 10 minutes.
Send me a copy of what you make to shaun[at]oneartistsjourney[dot]com.
Check out ours and make your own at: http://www.monstermashup.com/d35534
Spent the morning getting all my new paintings posted to my fine art blog. Can I just share the steps it takes to get a photo online?
1) Create the art
2) Take a picture of it
3) Download the photo from the camera to my wife’s computer. there are invariably family pictures on the camera and she is keeping track of them on her machine.
4) Choose the best photos (straightest, best color, etc.) and put them on a thumb drive.
5) Transfer the photos to my computer.
6) Open the photos in Photoshop, crop the photo and make sure it is straight. Then optimize the color and contrast and change the size and export for the web.
7) Make sure the images go into the right folder. Drag the optimized photos into iPhoto
8)Drag the photos from iPhoto into iWEb where I have created my galleries for http:/www.shaunellsworth.com.
9) Import the photos into Wordpress (where I have my blog at http://www.oneartistsjourney.com) and then import the image into a blog post.
10) Double check everything. Make sure I didn’t forget or leave one out. Whew… done.
Now I am done. Time for lunch and then down to the studio for some “fun and natural” painting before the boys get home. And no, I don’t paint in the nude.
Kanji #3 - 12” x 12” Acrylic on Masonite - $200
I am not interested in buying art online, but I AM interested in selling art online. However, I want to attract online art buyers. See the subtle difference? When I make a post, I need to think, “How are people who want to buy art online looking for art… online? They will probably Google, “buy art online,” so that is what I need to have in my post.
Anyway, there are a couple of sites where buyers can buy art online and sellers can set up a gallery. One that I found is zatista.com. This is a really cool site because it is easy to use (thought time consuming) and it is FREE to post and set up a gallery! A lot of the sites charge a monthly fee to set up a gallery, but not Zatista. I will post the link to my gallery once I set it up.
Kanji #4 - 12” x 12” Acrylic on Masonite - $200
Another site that is free is fine-art.com. You can post a small gallery for free and then they have paid services that allow you to post more images.
And finally, this is a twist on the “post your art online” idea. Imagekind.com is a cafepress company. They allow you to post your art online and they will create prints for your customers. So you can get your art into the hands of the masses for less. You make money when people buy your art online and can also get a commission for any frames they sell.
p.s. This post was kind of dry without any art, so I came back and put a couple of the kanji series in. Hope you don’t mind if they are out of order…
