The Hub of your Art is your website?

Weekly Art Practice #14. PR prep and website revamp focus.

Every Saturday I share my art practice over the past 7 days. I’m fascinated by artistic practice – it’s not just about creating art but the entire process. From influences and ideas to materials and skills, each artist’s unique approach shapes their work, making it more than just a finished piece.

Continue reading for this week’s artistic insights…

Thank you,

P.S. This piece is too long for email, you can read it here in Substack. Or download the app.

Thank you so much for joining me in my art practice this week.

I mentioned in a previous post about finding an awesome art PR person from LA. We had the scheduled call last night and she said she’d help on a consulting basis. She’s going to send more info over so I will probably update you in next Saturday’s post.

In my first post on Substack, I said that Substack was my art hub moving forward. Since then I have changed my mind. So I’m in the process of setting up my e-commerce website.

I did have a Shopify site in 2022, but sadly I hired someone and wasted a lot of money on them doing tasks badly (It was a lack of direction from me, I said to come up with some example products using my artwork, and they ended up working for 40 hours doing that, the products weren’t what I was looking for). I deleted it in 2023 and decided to go with Squarespace in 2024.

Let me add that I have a background in website creation, I did a lot of freelance web projects since 2008 and normally use WordPress. I am a bit of a WordPress fan, so I felt bad moving to Squarespace. But needs must and I need something super duper drag and drop simple to use and to add e-comm capabilities.

I’ve got a call with marketing expert, Dean Jackson on 18th April, so I am doing a bit of prep for that. It’ll be aired on his podcast More Cheese Less Whiskers. I have a rough idea of what to expect, he’ll be chatting with me about my art business and supporting me with some practical tips on finding art buyers/collectors. So, that’ll be cool! I do often find it hard to decide on what to focus on specifically, I am hoping Dean will give me some practical tips that I can use. Knowing his work, he certainly will!

I sometimes think that maybe I haven’t made it in the ‘art world’ because I keep changing focus. But, I’ve stuck with Substack and this is my 87th post so far! I may change focus a lot but as you can see from my weekly art practice posts, I’ve been doing a lot.

I’ve done no painting this week and I feel sad about that. This is often our plight as artists, we ideally only want to paint, but in modern times you have to do a lot more to promote yourself. I’m not complaining, as it’s easier to get your work out there than even 50 years ago. The advice I’d give myself to get studio time is to (wait for it) “Block out the time” only I can give myself this time. I know I have a 1-year-old and I’m with her every evening in the week, but there are ways I can fit in studio time, or paint at home.

So, on Tuesday 16th April, I’ve scheduled 90 minutes of painting time. I’ll go to work an hour early, leave an hour early and have 90 mins spare before I pick my daughter up from the childminders.

I’m excited about this. Let’s see how it goes, it could be my new routine of a Tuesday. I’m going to experiment with going to the studio early as well. Of course, there are weekends, but there is guilt on my part due to eating into family time.

On the 3rd of May, I booked 1/2 day off work to paint with a friend at my studio, he was in the art class that I dropped out of at 17. I don’t normally like painting with anyone else, but I am looking forward to the studio time.

I went to the Arnolfini in Bristol today with some friends, it’s a “lads” meet-up with old school friends, there’s a group of 8 of us who are all in touch via WhatsApp regularly.

Here are some of my favourite pieces for you to enjoy!including a moving video of Tracey Emin discussing her abortion. The exhibit was all female artists.