Monthly Archives: February 2024

Online Art Sales

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At shows, I sometimes have people ask me if they can buy my work online at a later time. I’ve also had distant friends ask if they can buy my art online. For a while I had a link to an Etsy store, but keeping it up to date was a chore. I’ve decided I need to have an online retail store, so I’ve built one. In some ways this terrifies me, because it feels like I’m opening a big can of worms.

When I started doing shows I signed up for a Square account so I could take credit cards. It has many other handy features like calculating and tracking sales tax, which is required at most shows. It’s worked very well for me.

My site is built using WordPress, and there is a plugin suite called WooCommerce that links your Square account with WordPress to allow online sales. I think I’ve got that set up. So, as of today, we are open for business. I have only put a subset of my available paintings in the shop. I will try to keep adding them to keep it fresh. I’ve also indicated that people should ask about availability if there is something that they like that’s not in the shop.

Right now I’ve limited my sales to the US. I may add Canada if it goes well. We shall see!

Mountain & Vine Artisan Show

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I mentioned in my last post that I would be doing a show at Mountain & Vine, a local winery, on Saturday February 3rd from noon to 5. That’s tomorrow! In addition to the pieces I’ve shown in the past I will be showing some new paintings that I also shared in that last post, including this one.

I am also trying something new. I have a lot of nice artwork that I’ve never framed. Much of that is because I don’t have frames to fit. I have observed in past shows that people sometimes like to buy unframed art because it’s a little cheaper and they can use a frame they already have, or chose one to their liking. I also painted a few new pieces for this show that I chose not to frame. These will all be on display in a bin on my table in my booth. I am curious to see how people react to that. Here are a few photos. These were harder to photograph because they are in plastic and there is a glare if I light them directly.

These first two are things that I painted for this show and matted but did not frame.

These two were in a sketchbook but I like them. They are very tiny, but I removed them from their sketchbook and matted them and I think they are cute and would go well in a small space.

Finally, the opening of the second show in The Trillium Gallery went great! We got some fabulous artwork from our local art community. We had a wonderful turnout and sold four paintings! There is still a lot of good work up so hopefully sales will continue. This show will be up until late April or early May.