Friday, March 25, 2011

Art Licensing, A Network of Creative & Helpful Professionals – Part I

The use of imagination and creativity is often talked about. Artists express their creative concepts through their works of art and many create communities or groups to help one another. They incidentally inspire others in the process.

Professionals learn their trade through hard work and practice. In turn, they often mentor others and thus they help keep the creative spirit alive and well, as it's a noble practice to help other fellow artists to achieve their goals, too.  

“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” — Albert Einstein

In this five-part editorial I feel honored to feature several professional artists who also share their knowledge with others in the art of licensing their work:
 
Part I:                  Part II:                Part III:              Part IV:                 Part V:
Paul Brent            Tara Reed            Maria Brophy      Alex Sanso            Allan Summa
Cherish Flieder    
Joan Beiriger       Drew Brophy      Oscar Armelles      Kate Harper

•   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •

Paul Brent

Artist Paul Brent
Paul Richard Brent is a Panama City artist whose life work has been spent in the depictions and reflections of the Northwest Florida environment he has lived in since 1969. His paintings in watercolor and oil have deftly portrayed the many aspects of the area capturing the area's innate beauty on paper and canvas. His work has shown constant progression and change throughout his career. 

Paul began selling his work in 1976 and, after beginning a print publishing business in 1986, he entered the business of licensing when he attended SURTEX for the first time in 1988. His coastal imagery has become his signature in home décor, gift and stationery products which he now licenses with over 90 manufacturers.  Over his long career he has designed nine complete books of wallpaper for Seabrook Wallcovering, and had over one million prints produced and currently has over 3,000 designs in his licensing portfolio.  

© Paul Brent

He has been in the top 100 list of licensees for the past 6 years and has been nominated for the top licensee of the year by LIMA.  His work has appeared at retail in stores from Lord and Taylor to Target.  

Paul was born in Oklahoma and later moved to California where he majored in art at Cal State Long Beach, receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in architecture from the University of California at Berkeley. Some highlights from his life include illustrating a children’s book, authoring a how-to book on watercolor, creating a hand painted Christmas ornament for the White House Christmas tree, and serving on the boards of the Florida Arts Council and Florida Humanities Council. 

courtesy of Paul Brent
His work has been written about in the Wall Street Journal in an article about artists who have success outside of the New York galleries. Paul lives in Panama City, Florida, where he and his wife, Lana Jane, who is president of their company, operate a fine art gallery as well as his licensing business.  He is a featured guest on tele-seminars and consults with artists who license their work through his ask Paul Brent website.  Further information about Paul Brent can be found at paulbrent.com

 Cherish Flieder

Artist Cherish Flieder
Cherish Flieder is a licensed illus­trator and designer whose work explores a variety of visual themes with a touch of opti­mistic realism and playful whimsy. She is the founder of Cherished Solutions, llc., an illus­tration and design studio at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Golden, Colorado. She and her team assist publishers, manu­fac­turers and other niche busi­nesses with art services and thoughtful print and web marketing strategies. Cherished Solutions, llc licenses art brands, Painting for Life, Been Cherished and Something to Cherish.

Their work has been featured in inter­na­tional art licensing maga­zines Total Art Licensing and Art Buyer. She is also inter­na­tonally recog­nized for her lead­ership in estab­lishing the core online group for art licensing profes­sionals on LinkedIn at ArtOfLicensing. Cherish is long time member and former Vice President for the Colorado Alliance of Illustrators.  She is a profes­sional member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, the Craft & Hobby Association and the Colorado Watercolor Society.

© Cherish Flieder
She also teaches aspiring artists she meets that they too should never give up on their dreams. "Because, life is short and the moments we live should be cherished. My passion is art. I believe that beau­tiful things happen when form and function embody concept, color and texture. My greatest joy comes from helping people realize their visions. I am addicted to learning and problem-solving. I aim for beauty and excellence in every­thing I do".

Further information about Cherish Flieder can be found at somethingtocherish.com

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Social Networking & Fun Websites for Artists


I recently got to find out about an interesting website through Marie Stile, a fine art artist
who has been exhibiting her art on Art In Embassies: "Established by the United States Department of State in 1964, the ART In Embassies Program is a global museum that exhibits original works of art by U.S. citizens in the public rooms of approximately 180 American diplomatic residences worldwide. These exhibitions, with art loaned from galleries, museums, individual artists, and corporate and private collections, play an important role in our nation's public diplomacy. They provide international audiences with a sense of the quality, scope, and diversity of American art and culture through the accomplishments of some of our most important citizens, our artists" their mission statement.

Marie Stile's painting
Here are some additional potentially useful website for artists who like to share or sell their art online, or just like to have some fun with graphic fonts and prints. While I don't endorse any of them, I find some interesting and worth exploring as fun networking tools. 

I'll update this list as I go, so keep tuned for more!
 

Want to Network & Promote Your Art, Blog, Website? (artist online communities, portfolios, how-to's editorials, and more...)
 
Fun Websites!
Pinterest
labs.wanokoto 
inbox12
TartanMaker - NEW!
aviary - NEW!

Albums, Cook Books & Blogs Printing:

Fabrics, Pattern, Window Shades & Shirts Printing:

Creative Graphic Fonts:
MyFonts - NEW!
FontSquirrel - NEW!

Promotional Tools:

Online Shops:                                               

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Tascha and Modi - A Unique Inspiration

Modigliani - Print on canvas
Amadeo Modigliani has always been my favorite Italian artist and has inspired me since I was little. My mother had a beautiful reproduction of one of his paintings in our family room. Last year, I re-discovered his talent through a unique exhibit of his greatest works in Milan. Shortly thereafter, I ran into his most famous paintings in several other exhibits. Modi, his favorite nickname, seemed to be everywhere! I even found a flick called "Modigliani", with Andy Garcia. Great movie and examples of his fantastic art! Finally, I bought a print on canvas of one of his charming portraits.

Tascha is a contemporary artist from Toronto, Canada. Her paintings are very whimsical and vivacious. She also draws inspiration from Modigliani. Here's an exclusive interview with the artist:

3 black cats portrait - © Tasca
1. The Moon from My Attic: your paintings are very unique and whimsical! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your art? Hello! I'm an self representing artist living in downtown Toronto Canada. I have been selling my art online since 2001. I began with eBay, and then when Etsy started up I joined there also. I love meeting other artists and collectors from all over the world. Being self representing, I can have total control over what art I want to make. I create something and put it out there, I don't have any pressures of what an art director or gallery owner might want. I just do whatever I feel like and hope that people can relate to it. Most of my art would be considered too "cutesy" for the regular gallery scene and that is okay with me. I like being free to be myself.

2. TMFMA: The colors in your paintings are so vibrant and fun! What is exciting about your creative work? Color is really important to me. I strongly believe that your mood can be influenced by color. I like making my paintings bright and colorful because they give the impression of a bright sunny day with colorful flowers. A feel-good day. Bright colors also bring you back to your childhood when everything was fun and happy.

Frida Kahlo and the blue dog - © Tascha
3. TMFMA: What's you favorite medium or tool you create with? My favorite medium would have to be acrylic paint. I love the immediate gratification of doing a painting in acrylic and having it be dry and on the wall within an hour.

4. TMFMA: Tell us of a fun and creative project or a collaboration, and what you learned from it. Every year I participate in the "Toronto Square Foot Art Show". The show has hundreds of artists in it, all painting on a one foot by one foot size canvas. The walls of the gallery are covered in paintings in a grid pattern. It is so interesting to see everyone's ideas of how to handle the one foot square canvas.

5. TMFMA: Is there a person or thing that has influenced you in your artistic efforts? What inspires you? My cats in my life have always been of great inspiration to me. I also love all things cute and child like. Bright colored candy and cute toys. I also love Picasso and Modigliani, a lot of my portrait work has been inspired by them.