Thank you Mary for writing me. I got Carol’s book and love it. Okay I will surly keep it up. I appreciate your response.
Ditto…great advice Mary. And Glenda…keep on keeping on. Happy painting.
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Thanks Anne,
This DPW is different than anything I have ever attempted. I feel like I am learning so much by doing this and seeing my paintings in thumb nail form along side so many other artist. I can see where and why some of the paintings are weak and some are strong. thanks for the Ditto.
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Well, I am one of the “Featured Artists” for a month, thanks to winning something in July’s contest. (Squee! Thanks to the judge!) It’s been an interesting experience. I do think that I get slightly more views on my paintings, but I can’t say that it’s super dramatic in the difference. I don’t think I’ve sold anything extra because of having my paintings nearer the top of the page. Don’t get me wrong, I really like having my paintings near the top of the page. I’m certainly not complaining! But I don’t think Featured status is going to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. It won’t make you suddenly skyrocket in sales. (At least not in my experience!)
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There are a lot of factors IMO, the work, the quality, popularity, a name and luck as well. Being a featured artist would probably help at bit as well,
I guess,lol… at least with some potential buyers. We just have to keep going and stay the course.
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Thanks for the reply about that, J. I was really waiting to here from someone who’s been there in the featured area. I really think a bigger issue would be marketing strategies to bring potential buyers to your listings instead of being featured. I really do understand valri’s point though that being in the middle or the bottom makes the playing field uneven.
But I think that if I put myself in the buyers shoes, I would not just stop at the first few rows of listings but I would want to search until I find what I’m really looking for. I have seen art that I would want and not want in all areas of the front page. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why selling art works the way it does. Until about a week ago, I was selling fairly consistantly, then for the last week, no sales at all. That’s the thing that’s more perplexing to me than anything else. Anyway, for the last 6 months or more, I’ve been joining facebook groups to try to get more views but really most of the group members are non-buyers and are there for the same reasons I get a lot more views but that’s about it…views, not sales . I wish I can find a site or group that has mostly buyers and not desperate sellers like me.
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Bob Kimball, I looked at your gallery, I’d say your selling track record is quite good, compared to many DPW galleries I’ve seen. (And I should add, compared to my own! 
)
The last two weeks have been slow (dead) for me too. I have weeks and weeks of bleh sales. But part of the problem is me, I haven’t been producing as much as I should! (Though the last few weeks I’ve been doing better with that! 
)
I do think the Featured status is very nice, I wish I could have it all the time, but again all I can say is I look at my stats, and my sales, and the difference isn’t super drastic. I think there may be some difference, but it’s not like night and day.
I have given some thought to what “daily painting” means. I can’t imagine that a large painting with a hefty price tag is being painted in a day, yet those paintings are for sale (and appear in the competitions) right along with our small paintings. I’ve come to two basic conclusions.
- Daily painting is daily painting and the size of the support isn’t relevant.
- Daily Paintworks is a great site to promote and sell artwork of any size and price. Thank you to all who make it possible for me to have a gallery and a place to interact with other artists and to learn.
There are other similar sites. I encountered one of them on FB. Small Paintings is a closed group with a lot of members. I joined the group, which (I thought) was a place to post paintings and get feedback from other artists. When my painting didn’t show up on the feed, I contacted the admin and was told that my work wasn’t “professional enough,” Opps. I left the group.
I don’t want to get too sidetracked, so will conclude by saying that I very seldom finish a painting in one day, because I’m not fast and I seldom have time to do so. That is a goal, however, because I don’t subscribe to the “starving artist” mindset.
Has anyone asked David or Carol if small daily paintings (done in a day) was part of the original intention of the founding group of artists?
The daily painting or painting-a-day movement, as it began, is described HERE. As it gathered steam, several groups formed, of which Daily Paintworks was one. So yes, the original intent was to show work produced by the discipline of creating a small painting in a short (often pre-determined) time period every day, alongside one’s regular work. What set DPW apart was the creation of their own auction venue, as an alternative to eBay. I think when the site was opened for general membership, these parameters were not really enforceable–and the addition of gallery pages and a monthly contest further diluted a strict focus on “daily” paintings. They are still generally the idea and practice for many members, and small paintings sold at auction are still the biggest draw; but there are no hard and fast rules for how long they take or for whatever else may be shown.
HERE is a link to a 2013 HuffPo article about Duane Kaiser, who pioneered the whole phenom in 2004, and HERE is a link to 2342 thumbnails on “Postcard from Provence”, by British artist Julian Merrow-Smith, who began his daily paintings a few months later.
Sharon,
Having just looked at your gallery, I’ve gotta say “not professional enough” was a strange charge to level at you. Your paintings look great. “The Sentinel” is my personal favorite.
Thank you, David. I like The Sentinel, too. It was fun to paint. One day, I’d like to do some plein air painting in California.
One of the things that I haven’t seen brought up is positioning on the front page. Sure, the featured artists get top billing, but usually that’s only the first couple of rows on the page. Even most of the Featured artist don’t paint and post every day.
What David has come up with for the rest of us is quite fair, in my opinion. The paintings are listed in alphabetical order by artist’s name and periodically during the day, the starting point for that listing will change. So right now, the artists with names starting with “A” might be right under the Featured artists and an hour from now, that will change and the first non-Featured artists will be those whose names start with “D”. It changes throughout the day so everyone gets the opportunity to be near the top of the page.
So, what is the best answer? Paint and post as much as you can. If the regular “window shoppers” see new stuff from you on a regular basis and it catches their eye, they will begin to look for your stuff. They will probably add you to their Favorite Artist list.
So, there is no reason to get caught up in an “Us vs. Them” argument and take it out on the Marines. Paint stuff that people want to see and they will start looking for you every day.
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Wow…! You covered a lot of territory. I did not know that the featured artists are founding artists rather than rotating earned status (not sure the phrase is a good one). I too want exposure. At the same time input, posting more work and contribution by each and every artists is to the benefit of all. I am still learning the ins and outs of this community and I am so far very grateful for the great website and its email promptings. Great job David and Carol.
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You are of course absolutely correct, no one likes elitism, however I believe there is some history. When Carol and Dave first developed the site there was a given set of participating artists. Then after some years as sales began to drop off, they opened the site to others, however they accorded those original members the benefit of being featured in the uppermost tier on the “What’s New” page which has a certain obvious advantage. Though overall those artists do not seem to sell all that much better for all that than anyone else. Attempting to sell art to a fickle audience at best places all participating artists pretty much in the same boat, minor perks notwithstanding. Though currently the site does seem to be in some decline. Perhaps the small number of actual potential buyers who visit become weary of the same offerings after a while. The overall auctions have increased some 25% over the last couple of months whereas the active auctions percentage of the total has dropped from some 3% to 4% to less than 2%. The average price per work of art also seems to be weakening.
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I think your analysis is excellent Peter. Your conclusions are somewhat disconcerting and I hope that the market may recover and pick up in time. Optimistic I know.
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Bottom line its* is* an uneven playing field. Don’t get me wrong It is a good site and I have used the service. But there are a lot of sites out there where you do not feel, well… less than. Just wish I had thought of it first.
I must be pretty oblivious. I never noticed there were permanent featured artists here…and I have been posting paintings for a few years now.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
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Ditto. Paint, paint, paint. Then there isn’t time to be thinking about versus.
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