I recently got an email from a fellow artist, Kenny Wu, who found my website and reached out with questions about my experience as an artist. I thought others might be interested in the answers, so rather than answer privately, Kenny agreed that I could share his questions and my answers here:
What is your current creative process?
I typically paint in one or two sittings, working quickly and mostly with a palette knife. I like to apply thick impasto paint on wood panels, typically painting from photos of places I’ve been or that my client’s provided me with. I just bought a car and would like to get out and paint more in real life. I’ve been an artist all my life, but have only been a landscape painter for the last 3 years, so I still feel like a newbie.
Do you currently work in a studio?
Yes, I rent a studio about a mile-and-a-half from my home in Brooklyn. I share a large room in an old industrial building with several other artists.
My studio space
What work has greatly influenced you?
My original inspiration were artists from the Impressionist era: Monet, Van Gogh, Bonnard, Vuillard, Soutine and Klimt. But I also love O’Keeffe, Diebenkorn, Fairfield Porter and Hockney. Contemporary artist Sonya Sklaroff has been a significant influence for me this year as I've been doing a lot of urban landscapes.
Raining at the Pub, Sonya Sklaroff
Any courses, learning material you highly recommend for a self-teaching painter?
- Seeing art in-person, although that’s tough to do at the moment
- Books: The Art Spirit by Robert Henri, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist by Caroll Michels, Start Your Own Etsy Business by Entrepreneur
- Podcasts: Art Marketing Podcast, Plein Air Podcast with Eric Rhoads
- Wet Canvas painters forum
- MoMA’s online course In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting
- YouTube, there’s so much available, including the MoMA Painting webinar I hosted
What are the three most valuable lessons you’ve learned as an artist?
- Having total compassion and trust in myself during the creative process.
- My artwork will probably be fun to look at if it was fun to paint. I try to have fun when I paint and let go of perfectionism.
- The secret to good painting is good drawing.
I think paintings that are fun to make are also fun to look at
What was successful in building a presence and a client-base (Etsy, Local, Online)?
There is no “best” platform, each has pros and cons. Marketing success comes from the amount of time I dedicate to fostering a real conversation with each different audience. I would say people feel the most connected when they get to know me and that usually happens fastest face-to-face. That being said, there are few opportunities to sell in-person these days and I’ve had plenty of success connecting with people online as well. It just takes consistent work for people to get to know you online.
How do you price your work and why?
I started by pricing my work very inexpensively which provided me with a lot of sales, experience and a feeling of immediate success, if not a ton of money. As I’ve gotten better at painting I’ve been modestly increasing my prices. For me, the most important thing isn’t money but making a connection to people with my art.
Have you ever dealt with international shipping?
Yes, for international shipping I charge for the artwork + shipping. For simplicity, all domestic shipping is free.
What were the three most valuable lessons you learned as a business person?
- My success has been built on making and reaching simple, achievable goals one step at a time.
- In order to make a sale or gain support I’ve found it’s usually not enough for a person to like my work, they need to have a sense for who I am as a person. This means my job is to learn how to make art that makes an impact and also to provide opportunities for people to get to know me.
- Realizing there is no authority figure out there that is going to “discover me” and that if I do the work, I can learn the skills to make and sell my art on my own terms.
Thanks Kenny for all your questions! I hope you found this helpful.
If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to include them below, maybe they’ll become my next blog post!