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GO TO YOUR ROOM !

I borrowed this phrase from the recently deceased Canadian painter Robert Genn who believed that there is only so much we can learn about how to paint from the many fine instructors and resources available today. The true learning comes from going off on our own and just doing it - Go to your room!

I have had the good fortune to take instruction from outstanding artists in Canada and the USA. I continue to work on my own development ( Going to MY room!) . I share, through this blog and workshops, what I have learned and what others have shared with me.

I created this blog primarily for those attending my workshops to keep in touch and to further share as we grow together. If others are interested in following that would be great.

Enjoy the journey.

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Do you know where your paintings are?

Its the end of the year. Starting to think about getting on top of paperwork - annual files, preparing for taxes etc. And this year I need to catch up on 5 months of organization of my paintings. Cathy and I have been traveling/painting for almost 5 months this year and I have let my records slip. I also HATE doing this stuff.  I have tried numerous approaches to organizing my paintings from file cards, to my own spread sheet to three different commercial databases designed for artists.

I have about ( if my records were up to date I could give you the exact number ) 60 pieces in galleries - some with frames, some not. I have had two art fairs each displaying about 30 pieces this year - and I like to keep track so that I don't repeat the same paintings. Now I have a bunch in Daily Paintworks and need to keep track of which ones are there, etc. etc.

One of many reports
Last year I stumbled upon Flick,  an Aussie product from  Arawak. It is inexpensive ( $29.95 US)and easy to use. I quite like it - at least compared to the more complex systems I have  tried. It organizes paintings in a variety of ways and produces reports by a variety of criteria .

Because I got so far behind I needed to generate a spreadsheet of all my paintings in the database so I knew which I had yet to add. Simple to do and really helped.

Spreadsheet report 
I don't use the full power of Flick. I use it strictly to inventory my work. There is a good system for managing email lists, buyers, prices, gallery commissions etc. But I have other systems I prefer for those.

In an attempt to not get so far behind, I have moved my database to the cloud system I use (Dropbox) and put a copy on my laptop (no extra charge). Now I can access my data from home or from our RV while travelling and keep up to date.   No more excuses - other than I'd rather be painting.

Its worth taking a look at this one if you are in the market.Good new is that you can get the full version on trial to see if it suits your needs.

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