Plein Air Podcast 230: CW Mundy (Part 1) on Impressionism + Pop Art, and more
The Plein Air Podcast has been named the #1 Painting Podcast by FeedSpot for two years in a row.
In this episode, Eric Rhoads interviews the incredible artist CW Mundy. Listen as they discuss:
- CW’s musical career (hear him sing!)
- How he didn’t always believe in God, but then heard Him “in his heart”
- How he feels when others refer to him as a master artist (“I am not impressed with myself. I am more impressed with what God wants to do through me.”)
- The importance of experimentation for painters
- “Impressionism + Pop Art” – his new project
- How a trip to France became the turning point in his career
- His advice on painting for yourself versus art galleries, and techniques such as marbelizing, deconstructing, softening, and more
Bonus! In this week’s Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads, author of Make More Money Selling Your Art, answers the questions: “How I should manage my reputation online and in person?” and “Without going through a gallery, how do I sell and unload artwork currently in storage?”
Have a question about how to sell your art? Ask Eric at artmarketing.com/questions.
Listen to the Plein Air Podcast with Eric Rhoads and CW Mundy here:
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Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Plein Air Podcast with CW Mundy, coming soon!
Related Links:
– CW Mundy online: https://cwmundy.com/
– Plein Air Convention & Expo: https://pleinairconvention.com/
– Watercolor Live: https://watercolorlive.com/
– PleinAir Magazine: https://painttube.tv/
– Eric Rhoads on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericrhoads/
– Eric Rhoads on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eric.rhoads
– Plein Air Today newsletter: https://www.outdoorpainter.com/plein-air-today-newsletter/
– Submit Art Marketing Questions: artmarketing.com/questions
FULL TRANSCRIPT of this Plein Air Podcast
DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Plein Air Podcast. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.
Eric Rhoads:
This is episode number 230 with living Master Charles Warren / CW Mundy.
Announcer:
This is the Plein Air Podcast with Eric Rhoads, publisher and founder of PleinAir Magazine. In the Plein Air Podcast we cover the world of outdoor painting called plein air. The French coined the term which means open air or outdoors. The French pronounce it plenn air. Others say plein air. No matter how you say it. There is a huge movement of artists around the world who are going outdoors to paint and this show is about that movement. Now, here’s your host, author, publisher and painter, Eric Rhoads.
Eric Rhoads 0:00
In a minute, we’re going to hear from the great CW Mundy. What an opportunity this is this is a red letter day, especially for him. No, just kidding. Anyway, coming up after the interview, we’re going to have our this week’s marketing minute, which is at the end of this, and I’m going to answer your questions about marketing. And today we’re going to talk about how to know if your artwork is ready for primetime ready to sell. And also, how do you manipulate or utilize things like competitions to your advantage to help you in your marketing. So we’ll talk about that. So stick around when we’re done with CW and and I want you to raise your hand if you’ve been plein air painting this week. And if you have it, shame on you, I’m one of those people that I I barely got out, you know, you some of you are in ice and snow and you’re getting out and I’m, I’m making excuses, you know that I have to work. So I got out one time did a watercolor but I didn’t get a lot of time, it’s been an insane week, there’s a lot going on, you know, we did a big black friday blowout sale and continued through the end of the week. And you know, it’s just been crazy. Of course, we’ve had Thanksgiving time, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We’re really happy and honored, and quite frankly, humbled that we have been named number one painting podcast in the world by feed spot. And this is our second year in the row. And there’s a lot of really, really good podcasts on their list. And so we’re really humbled and thankful that we have been able to accomplish that, you know, it Christmas time is around the corner, it’s gonna be here before we know it. And then as January is going to be here before you know it, it’s matter of fact, I think what I’ll do is I’ll talk a little bit about what to be thinking about for next year in the marketing podcast too. So we’ll have to make sure to add that remind me if I forget. If you’re looking for ideas, of course, you know, a lot of us I know I go out Christmas shopping for somebody else, and I’ll see something I want and I just kind of get it. But oftentimes, you know, everybody’s asking me, Well, what’s on my list, one of the things that you might want to put on your list is the ultimate plein air event, which is the plein air convention. And that’s going to be held in Denver in May, it’s going to be an exciting time, we’re going to be painting in Estes Park, and it’d be painting in Garden of the Gods and some other incredible spots. Plus, we have some of the greatest masters of all time who are going to be on our stage, including today’s guest, CW Mundy. And there’s some other things that you’re going to learn about, at some point. We have about 80 instructors, we have four to five stages, I think it’s for this year, maybe it’s five, we have a watercolor stage, and we have a pastel and Mainstage. And in a lot of stuff going on big expo hall, and this year, we have a big celebrity, we’re not allowed to announce it yet. But when it gets announced, this is a national celebrity, someone you know, for from, from the movies from television. I can’t say any more than that. But it’s a big deal. And once that word gets out, we’re likely to sell out because we were sold out pre COVID. And then we had to cancel that convention. So it’s kind of a sell out anyway. But when we announced this, it’s going to be a big deal. So go ahead and get signed up at plein air convention.com. Also, if you’re looking for a really great gift for somebody, you know, I have been a watercolor artist for about a year. I started that well, maybe two years now I started watching watercolor live a couple of years ago, and I did it kind of because we’re we’re sponsoring and hosting the event and I thought well, I probably should learn watercolor. And it turns out I’ve gotten very passionate about it and I love it. I’m doing oil, I’m doing watercolor and I’m doing pastel but one of the the things that’s really been fun about it is, is learning. I always thought, you know, watercolor was kind of a certain style or certain approach. And, you know, you can accomplish some very incredible things, depending on who’s teaching you and what their method is. And so we have three days, plus an optional beginners day at watercolor live coming up in late January, and we would love for you to attend. And it was it’s also you know, it’s inexpensive, it’s a great gift. It’s something that somebody you know, and love, loves, or wants to learn watercolor or wants to get to the next level, just go to watercolorlive.com. And of course, another great gift idea plein air magazine, we’re very proud of it. We’ve been around for allocation a long, long time, I think it was, it was about a decade, two decades ago now that we launched, it seems impossible that that much time has passed. And we just have a brand new design. It’s still the number one selling art magazine at the newsstands nationally at Barnes and Noble. And quite frankly, it’s cheaper to buy your own subscription than to buy it on the newsstand. It’s almost twice as much to buy it on the newsstand. So, we also in the digital edition of plein air magazine, we have 30% expanded content that is not in the print magazine. And of course you can zoom in on those images. And that’s really kind of nice. Our guest today is CW Mundy, CW and I have become really, really great friends over the years. I don’t even remember where we met. We’ll talk about that in a minute. But he is officially Charles Warren Mundy. He is an American impressionist, born and raised in Indianapolis, we have that in common. I’m from Indiana. He graduated with a fine art degree at a secondary education teaching degree from Ball State University, which is in Muncie, Indiana. And then he worked on a Master of Fine Art at Long Beach State of California from an early age. CW demonstrated a lot of interest and skill in drawing and athletics and in 1978, he combined his love for art and sports and worked as a sports illustrator for over a decade. Boy, I’ll tell you, the illustrators, they just got it and they’ve that’s a great place to start. In the early 1990s. He sought a different approach to painting and took on a challenge of painting more in a impressionistic style going out outdoors doing more plein air or from life. And his style led him to a series of European plein air painting trips, from 1995 to 2009, and plein air trips to the east and west coast and harbours of the USA, including he has been many times to the Adirondack artists retreat that I do the publishers Invitational and that’s where we’ve really been able to kind of enhance and develop our friendship and he and Rebecca come up so it’s really nice. CW Welcome to the plein air podcast.
CW Mundy 7:50
Hey, I’m honored to be here.
Eric Rhoads 7:52
You know, we didn’t talk about your music, too. You’re an accomplished musician. So let’s just go ahead and talk about that. We’ll get that out of the way. When you come up to the Adirondacks. You and Rick Wilson sometimes Eric Capo and some other other folks, you’re jamming almost every night. You’re playing the banjo did you start out in music plan to beat the banjo.
Unknown Speaker 8:17
Now, my grandmother bought me the Arthur Godfrey ukulele, really, and that was my introduction. Although the real introduction into music into my life was my grandmother on my mother’s side, Stella peak, she played piano for the stand up movies downtown in Indianapolis, a circle theater and then over in Irving to that big theater. And she did all the Scott Joplin ragtime music that was popular during the 20s. And the teens and she so when I went over there, their home my grandparents home, I was just amazed to see a human being do that. And make music whether right and left hand. At the same time. I just couldn’t figure out how anybody could figure out how to do that. And these were for silent movies. Yeah, they were Yeah, she played all the backup piano for the silent movie industry.
Eric Rhoads 9:23
Well, it just doesn’t even seem like it’s that that close to where we are today. Things have changed so much. So you started out playing the ukulele. And did you did you get pretty good at it?
Unknown Speaker 9:35
Well, I could play cards and I could, I could saying Mayor we had a little lamb lamb, you know, I could play stuff like that. My dad bought me a four string tenor guitar, which was a bigger body. Steel strong and I played that and then my dad got me into a 12 string. acoustic guitar German, too. While strange because of the birds and you know a VISTA Tambourine Man play a song for me, you know? Yeah. And and so then I got a sick my first Martin guitar and then my father bought me my first five string banjo.
Eric Rhoads 10:18
Wow, you were very lucky to get that kind of support. That’s pretty incredible.
Unknown Speaker 10:22
Yeah, amazing though I wanted to play the piano because grandmother just blew my blew my mind but my dad said no, now son of mine is gonna be playing a piano. He’s gonna be a jock, which I ended up being but but I to this day, I if I would much rather than the banjo played the saxophone are the piano. Those are my two favorite instruments. I grew up, my parents used to roller skate and dance at the Riverside arena to the big band sound. And so I really listened a lot. And my favorite instruments and the big, big bands on them are the horn horn section. And they got that that added out, you know, all the horns section and stuff. And so I love that. And to this day, it still has an imprint on me on the jazz stuff that I’m trying to play now.
Eric Rhoads 11:18
But you you’ve never been able to take the time to learn either of those instruments.
Unknown Speaker 11:23
No, no, no, no, I, on my second CD i i packed on the piano. I packed some notes. Yeah, to give it that flavor that I wanted. But you know that you can do that in kindergarten too.
Eric Rhoads 11:41
Yeah. Well, you know, it’s a it’s a pretty major accomplishment to master one instrument, let alone, you know, ukulele guitar.
Unknown Speaker 11:49
I’ve mastered Menino, the plethora of unbelievable banjo musicians that are out there. The greatest in the world, some of which are my very dear friends. It’s very humbling, because I don’t know anything. Well,
Eric Rhoads 12:07
you know, from my uneducated perspective, you’re pretty amazing when you play. So it’s pretty interesting to hear you say that you played professionally, if I remember correctly, were you doing some sound recording in LA or something?
Unknown Speaker 12:22
Well, we had a band called The Tarzan swing band. Yeah. And the greatest five string jazz player ever in the history of music was our young banjo player. And then he left a practice he didn’t want to play anymore. So they grafted me in and I had to try to play some of his songs that he actually wrote like the Woody Woodpecker rag, which I’m really learning right now. And so I had to play them for them. And we were going to record MCA was getting ready to they just hired Elton John, and they were going to bring us in the the Tarzan swing band, we were going to be the next nitty gritty dirt band. And then our fiddle player, Simon, who was from France, was dying of Hodgkin’s disease. And she came back after a chemotherapy treatment. And it was she was fried. She was gone then. And that was the end of that. The music thing. And God spoke to me in my buddy’s brand new convertible, when I left really crying from that, that show we did that night. He said, You know, you’re gonna, don’t be so upset, I’m gonna have you, you’re gonna be doing your artwork. And I mean, literally, and I wasn’t following the Lord then. But he spoke to me in my art because I was desperate. Because I saw that whole dream, leave. And he said, No, you’re going to be an artist and I have to depend on four or five other people in your band, you’re going to be doing your artwork, and that’s exactly what God did.
Eric Rhoads 14:01
So I got to ask you about that, because that’s a very big part of your life. And we’ve had discussions about that. But you know, you you hear people who often say, you know, I heard God talking to me and other people hear that and they go what now? What, Why, and you were not a believer at the time so what you know how do you how did you know it? Was God talking to you?
Unknown Speaker 14:25
Well you know, upon redemption in Jesus Christ from new believe on Him for eternal life, and He gives you everything that you need. It says in Ephesians chapter one, everything that you need, he has finished accomplish that on the on the cross of Calvary. So everything you need is there. So I’ll go jump from that to point B and point B is that she know the shepherd’s boys.
Eric Rhoads 14:57
Yeah. Yeah. So Um, let’s move on to painting now. So you you get this, this word from God that you’re you’re not going to have to worry about five other people and entertain plan your banjo, you now are going to be a painter, or you already a painter at that time.
Unknown Speaker 15:17
i Yes, I had done when I lived out there in Southern California to make money, I did animal portraits, or had paint what anybody wanted me to paint, you know, because I, you know, I had already had my undergraduate master’s degree. And so this is when you were an illustrator. Well, this was actually before I became an illustrator, I was, I was just, you know, I knew how to paint. You know, if you’re going to get a master’s degree, hello, you better know how to paint. I knew how to paint, but I just did things commercially that would pay my rent, so I could be out on the beach, playing volleyball and chasing girls. And still doing that. No, and I got my girl boy. All right. She’s pretty wonderful. Yes, the best thing that happened to make sense, Jesus.
Eric Rhoads 16:15
I’m going to ask you a really silly question. And I’m sure that this is going to be completely hard to answer. But you know, you have I’ve known you for a long time now. But you have really graduated to the highest level of of mastery and painting most human beings would ever aspire to. How does it feel when somebody refers to you as a master? And do you actually believe that?
Unknown Speaker 16:56
I, I would admit that I do have a certain amount of competence. But, you know, that’s up for people to you know, the, as you know, in the business, the name master flows around firstly, freely,
Eric Rhoads 17:16
a little bit too loosely. And I probably have
Unknown Speaker 17:20
friends that are on Facebook, they always tell their friends, you’re just such a master, you know, and that’s nice, but I’m not, I can really tell you I just turning 77 I’m not impressed with myself at all. I’m impressed with what God wants to do through me if I just stay out of the way.
Eric Rhoads 17:42
How do you know to do that?
Unknown Speaker 17:44
Well, it’s a real job, you know, the your mind and your emotions and your well, which is your soul really wants to show run the show. And that’s the big battle that the Lord has the pecking order, according to Scripture as the Spirit reveals the soul and the soul runs the body. But unfortunately, as human beings, we are always going to have this challenge where our mind and our emotions and our will wants to run the show and the spirit gets swallowed in the backseat.
Eric Rhoads 18:17
When you ever have you ever have those moments when you’re painting and there are things that are going through your mind that are completely obtuse to the actual process things like, oh, boy, they’re really gonna like this one, or, man, this one’s this one’s just gonna win all the awards, or, you know, do you ever have those kinds of thoughts?
Unknown Speaker 18:39
Now? I know at the end, if I think that this is you know, I use these terms. You know, there’s times when you get the Grand Slam, and you’re always happy for that. And I think the artist has the ability. If he has a certain level of season, seasoning, he has the ability to be able to call a Grand Slam for himself are a home run, there’s a big difference between a home run and the Grand Slam. And then a triple bagger. A double a single strike out on a walk.
Eric Rhoads 19:21
Yeah, are not showing up at all. Or not showing up at all.
Unknown Speaker 19:27
Yeah, so really, I’m so engrossed in the whole process of painting, you know, I don’t my my mind really. And I’m grateful for it doesn’t wander off, like, what am I going to have for dinner tonight? I’ve already figured that out in the morning, you know when I get up. So anyway, no, I don’t really. I don’t have a wandering mind because there’s so much So much going on in the process, that’s the whole thing for me painting is the whole journey from the beginning, that conception of what the subject matter is going to be. And all the way through, it’s a, it’s a spiritual. And I saw a call thing all mixed in one endeavor,
Eric Rhoads 20:24
I gotta tell you that I pay very close attention to you on social media. And I, you know, you were at a level that I didn’t think that anybody could exceed, you know, you just were, were so strong. And then you started doing some really weird stuff, you started experimenting, and you were talking about this, you were you were showing it anyway. And then you did this one painting. And then you know, the one I’m referring to, it’s a painting of a stick. And that stick, it was so three dimensional, I could have reached out and grabbed it. And yet, when you zoom in on it, or if you got close to it, I haven’t seen it in person, you just you know, it’s completely abstracted. And I remember sending you a note and saying, I don’t know how you did it, but you have topped yourself considerably. And I think it was the beginning of, you know, 20% better than you had been. And now your work is something about that experimentation, period, your work is even stronger, and I didn’t think it could get there. What’s behind that? How do you how do you get from point A to point B to point C? And you know, how do you keep getting yourself to a higher level of accomplishment,
Unknown Speaker 21:44
where were they higher level that’s, I stay the heck out of the way as much as I can. And it’s amazing. It is absolutely amazing. And it’s all through Scripture, what he will do for those who love Him and and want to have that intimate relationship with him. That’s what Christianity is. It’s a personal relationship. It’s not a religion, I hate religiosity. I hate religion. Christ didn’t die on the cross to start a religion he died on on the cross so that we can have an intimate relationship with him as Father and the Holy Spirit.
Eric Rhoads 22:25
Okay, and I get that get out of the way. But Did you discover anything in the process? Beyond that, that could be shared in terms of how to grow?
Unknown Speaker 22:37
Well? Yeah. Experimentation is, is a big part of the whole journey. You’re you’re painting a painting, that’s an experiment. Hello, is anybody home? Hello, you know, so. So, you know, I talk often when I would teach, I would tell the students look, you got to be willing to go off to the right, way off that direction. And you got to be willing to go way off on the left side. And I’m talking not politically, I’m talking about your right arm and your left arm, you’ve got to go out on a limb, and be willing and know that, hey, if it’s too scary out there, you can come halfway back. And if it’s still too scary, you can come back another half from that. So but the ones that bear the most fruit that get to become better and better artists are those who are willing to go out and challenge themselves because you don’t know what’s out there. And unless you’re willing to gamble and go out there and find it.
Eric Rhoads 23:50
You were at the very first publishers Invitational. What happened is I had been somewhere and some artists started talking about, you know, we never get to paint together, you know, get to hang out together at plein air events because we’re busy. We’re competing. And so I came up with this idea of the publishers Invitational. I invited I think it was seven artists to meet me and we took over a bear Bed and Breakfast in, in Austin, at ROY WILLIAMS place at the wizard Academy. And then, you know, some of the artists yourself included, said, Hey, you know, can I invite Carolyn Anderson or, you know, whomever, and we ended up with I think, 16 of us to remember that.
CW Mundy 24:34
Well, actually, I didn’t get to go to that one.
Eric Rhoads 24:36
Did I? Yes, you were there. No.
Unknown Speaker 24:40
I think we were sick, or what? You were there. We were sick. But I got the whole report. You know, I think we talked about setting that up. And yes, I did get some really quality artists to come there but I wasn’t able to
Eric Rhoads 24:58
you weren’t. I was stick anywhere because Todd lifers was there. Yeah, I guess that’s why I was thinking you were there. No, I Well, what I was gonna say is somewhere along the line I one of these events, you did something that was an eye opening thing for me. And that was the idea of deconstructing, you want to talk about deconstructing?
Unknown Speaker 25:21
Well, Webster says, I build a farm and I destroyed I build a farm and destroy it, I build a farm and destroy it. And that is like pointment to my spirit, I mean, that’s the belly and the deconstruction process, you know, your Don’t ever let anything. So many of the problems that artists face in the beginning, they start laying in the beginning of the painting, they get to in love with some of their earlier marks and registrations. And then you know, you can’t do that. In fact, what I like to do is lay in all the masses, and then take my Kleenex and get rid of all the brush drugs on purpose. So that the ones that are I’m going to build in my centrality and focus or build my story about those those drugs will have really have some meaning. So it’s, it’s thinking in those primary, secondary and tertiary, but the deconstruction part, there’s another big key important part of that, because if we were honest with ourselves, we’re all control freaks. And both suck the blood out of anything if we get a chance. So, so that deconstruction will help you to not get too in love with what’s going on and find out that, you know, hey, I build it back out. I like it even better now than it was before. Why? Because it’s not so control. That’s one of the big problems that I see that all beginning artists have, you look at their painting, and it might be a plain earpiece, and it might be real objective and and have that impresses realistic look. But all of the strokes and everything is so controlled, it’s almost like, to me, it’s just like, makes my body tight and uptight. Well,
Eric Rhoads 27:19
I was thinking of you, I was painting in New Zealand with a group that I took over there recently, and I was painting this ship in a port and it was a big ship and you know, old 1900s smokestack and everything. And I just, I rendered that thing, just perfectly, you know, every port hole, every wire, everything which, which, you know, I don’t know why it was even going down that path, but I was for whatever reason,
Unknown Speaker 27:49
your mind was making you that way. You had your mind sometimes I’ll take Yeah,
Eric Rhoads 27:54
I think so. And I and I looked at that. And I thought, you know, this just, this isn’t a painting it. It’s a photograph, and it wasn’t a very good photograph. And I just took my palette knife and just started scraping it. And all of a sudden my voice said stop. And it was like perfect it it the deconstruction it’s still red like the ship. It’s still but it had this had energy. Yeah, like art.
Unknown Speaker 28:24
Yeah, well, that’s the whole point of the deconstruction, he hit the nail on the head. That’s Eric, that’s a perfect example. And when you see your painting and get in that situation, that’s the time to scrape out and scrape back and then come back and land some stuff because it’s, you know, you’ve got to be I talked to my students about you got to be the Steven Spielberg, you got to direct your painting, and when you see the painting, going into the direction, that is not worthy of what you’re after, then you’ve got to deconstruct that and and come back and, and fill in the blanks.
Eric Rhoads 29:09
So you talked about, you know, softening it, deconstructing it and softening and then putting in vital brushstrokes. I often wondered if, to some extent that’s what Sargent did. You know, I look at that and, and I see those yummy brushstrokes. And I wonder, did he just save those for the last and did he
Unknown Speaker 29:32
hit the nail on the head? Eric, he did exactly what you said. Sargent was so particular about, you know, what his painting was what he wanted and with all of his mileage and experience, he put those brushstrokes down on that chair. Put a down ago, man, scrape it, put it down again, man, scrape it, put it down again. Now we’re talking. Yeah, you know Oh, no, that’s really that’s being really diligent, deliberate and getting what you really not settling for second best. That’s why he wasn’t a second best artists. He was one of the greatest commission partner at RSA that we know of.
Eric Rhoads 30:21
So assuming that, you know, you guys both both have landed in heaven, and you get a chance to sit down with him. Do you have anything you would ask him?
Unknown Speaker 30:32
Yeah, what cigars? Do they like to smoke? I can’t smoke anymore. Because the two carotid, you know, I don’t know what the questions are be now. But I guarantee you. There would be a lot of language flying, I would do a lot of listening.
Eric Rhoads 30:54
Yeah. Yeah. And what do you think he could learn from you?
CW Mundy 31:01
I don’t think much.
Eric Rhoads 31:04
So, since we’re talking about Sargent, who were some of the artists who really have inspired you, and what was it about those artists that inspired you?
Unknown Speaker 31:16
Well, you know, there’s so many for all different reasons, because I’m a very eclectic student of the history of art. I love tons of different schools. Because there’s so much so much meat and so much understanding and so much mileage and so much to look at. I was just looking tad ruts and I are we work on projects together and we were I was bringing to his notice the decorative artists of France from 1890 to 1930. boatyard Bonaire can’t can’t think of the other names right off the bat. But they they painted these scenes with a lot of pattern. And pattern was a was the biggest part of the whole reason the way they are painting. And I find that that’s very interesting and why it’s so interesting as Carolyn Anderson talked to me a long time about a girl about the fact that human beings, their mind loves patterns, because it can recognize patterns. And so that’s why that decorative art with the pattern stuff was so desirable even even Danny McCall and Dan McCall will put an John McCall and his total nonobjective paintings we’ll put a pattern in there because pattern is as something that is can be jittery and interesting and draw attention. And and it’s an it’s a it’s a neat thing.
Eric Rhoads 32:59
And yet pattern can also be completely distracting and and not work. I was taught by one of my early mentors about being a being really careful about if you have patterns, let’s say it’s a row of trees, that that pattern, you know, you got to break it up. You got to make it interesting. You got to space them differently. You don’t want everything to be evenly spaced. Is that
Unknown Speaker 33:23
how you feel? Well, but that’s the problem of the human being the trees aren’t in perfect. Don’t need to be space perfect. And they’re already space perfectly for anybody to view. Right. But that’s just over over. Over designing but ask me your question again, because there’s something I wanted to say.
Eric Rhoads 33:46
Well, I was talking to you about artists who have inspired you. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 33:50
well. You know, I love Emile Carlson dying Carson is you know, of course Monet that got Whistler way back who’s the artist that brings the figures out of darkness? Yeah, Caravaggio. Yeah. Rembrandt a Michelangelo, Titian. Rousseau modern. A modern one of my favorites is this Ukraine guy that that we have become really, really wonderful friends have a wonderful friendship now? Because I fell in love with his art and his name is Dennis Garodnick chi. And Dennis’s work is he’s one of the most spectacular plein air painters I think out there and he he He he’s really kind of like Levittown on steroids, a whole new generation of that great Russian heritage. He’s, he’s phenomenal. And what a humble, beautiful human being he is. He’s only how old? Is he? Rebecca? five or four, maybe maybe 35 or 40. Really young guy. But boy, his work is absolutely spectacular. I think he is a guy that you need to send a film crew there, and you need to go yourself. Why?
Eric Rhoads 35:38
I’m sorry, but I’m not gonna go to the Ukraine right now. But I’ll meet him somewhere else.
CW Mundy 35:44
Yeah, that’s,
Eric Rhoads 35:45
but I’ll fly him over here.
Unknown Speaker 35:48
Yeah, he is. Absolutely. The audience would go nuts over him.
Eric Rhoads 35:55
Well, speaking of which, we just sent a film crew up to Indianapolis to spend a week with you. And that’s something I think you and I have have chatted about for 15 years, about, you know, beating you over the head about the idea of of finally documenting what you’ve learned. And one of the things you kept saying is, you know, I’m not ready, I’m not ready, I’m not ready. And so that’s something that is going to be kind of fun that’s coming up. We don’t talk much about it. But
Unknown Speaker 36:25
yeah, these new four videos are going to have I think, real cutting edge. We’re not gonna let the cat out of the bag, but real things that I’m very interested in that I really got schooled in the, in the educational department by trying these different styles of painting. I’ve got a new one. Now that I’m hot on the trail. You want to know what it is? Yeah. Well, I’m incorporating impressionism of pop art.
Eric Rhoads 37:02
Oh, yeah. Oh, well, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Because you sent me a car and idea. I want to talk about what it was. But and I think if if I can say so much as you were questioning whether or not you should send it to a certain event, and I thought, yeah, it everybody’s gonna go nuts over it.
Unknown Speaker 37:24
Well, I, I did make the statement and it could be good or bad. That one thing that I do know for sure, it will be probably one of the most talked about paintings and the excavation. And that can be bad and good. But I’m not concerned about the bad. I’m not concerned about the good. I’m, I’m concerned about what I want. What I feel the Lord leading me to pain. And as you know, Eric, everything’s fair game. As long as that’s moral. I’m in there, baby.
Eric Rhoads 37:58
Well, so what I think is interesting about this as you didn’t, I don’t think I mean, I think he would tell me if this were the case, you didn’t start out by saying, Hmm, I think I’m going to create something controversial for this event. It’s just like, I think this would be a cool thing to send to this event. What do you think? And so there’s no there’s nothing manipulative about it.
Unknown Speaker 38:23
Yeah, and you know, also to Eric, I, I’ve done several toy paintings that my wife said, You’re not going to paint that from photography, you’re gonna have to hand draw it, and paint it. So I did, I did probably 15 or 20. And then you have been, they were very successful in the market. One of them. One of them that I want to mention that I think was really cool, because I’d always come up with with cool titles, and this one was a Thai Japanese toy 10 Garbage city garbage truck that I painted that was white, and I painted that and then I had a cootie from the cootie game that I disassembled and I had a body and its head departed and its legs laying there the little black legs and the title of it was roadkill and that’s just the way you know my childhood mind thinks you know, I’m playing it’s like when I paint those paintings, it’s like the look when you were a little boy you went to your you know your closet because your parents always had you got to put your toys in a box and just don’t have them laying out everywhere all over the place and I’d go on it and go to my toy box and say this is pull this out maybe some you know some soldiers, little plastic soldiers and then I and then you you you put a narrative up and you play.
Eric Rhoads 39:54
So when did the whole plein air thing start for you? You had you had gone to school you learn learned how to paint. When did you start going outside?
Unknown Speaker 40:04
Well, I had taken to Dan Garr Hearts was the first one that got me back centered on Look, man, you got to start playing painting from life. Because back when I was just finishing out of my illustration career and I wanted to get in into fine art, I took Dan Garrett Hart’s workshop, because I saw in his work from painting from life, that this guy could do stuff that I can’t do. And that’s what I want to do, I want to do the real. I’m going to be the real McCoy. So I knew I was going to have to get back and start drawing everything from life and painting from life. And that was back in 1994. In fact, I did my first plane earpiece in Switzerland. And it was very tonal. But it was the side of a mountain, a little bit of snow and some shadow a couple of rocks in the foreground. And then I did another one at Lake OCEAN, Ocean insight. And the waiter came up to me when I was finishing, and we had gotten some lunch and stuff, and the waiter said, the owner walked out and saw you painting that painting. And he said, he would be glad to take the eraser bill if you’re willing to give him that painting. And I said, well, thanks. I’m very honored. But I’m wanting to take that home. Because this is like the second painting I’ve ever painted out on location. You still haven’t? Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, we have in our bedroom.
Eric Rhoads 41:46
Yeah. You know, that’s what I love about plein air painting, among many things is, I very rarely want to let go of my studies or my outdoor paintings, I will take them and create a different version of them from the original. But I want to keep them because to me, they’re, you know, it’s my life. It’s, it’s better than a photo album, because every single one of them, I look at it, and I can remember where I was or who I was with, or, you know, the snow or the rain or the, you know, whatever the deer jumping in front. And so I think those are very special.
Unknown Speaker 42:22
Well, you know, the same plight as asked Rick and Scott Christians, and I’ve been after Scott, for years, they go, Yeah, I’ll pull one of them out CW and let you buy it, you know, he finally had that little small show, but I didn’t get to see the paintings that were in there. But I’ve always wondered one of his those guys called him studies, I call them finished paintings. You know, it’s it’s just everybody has a different definition for everything these days. But for me, it was more than a study, it was a complete painting. And the reason I call it a complete painting because of a so simplified, and added because you know, as yourself and you’re getting out there, you’ve only got so much light, control light, same light to paint the subject. And these guys would do these all eight by 10s. And they would just get the bare necessities down. But guess what, that’s what great painting is.
Eric Rhoads 43:21
Yeah. Well, and I can I can tell you in my own path. I remember one time, we were camping with the kids across from the ocean, we’re a little campground and sun, you could tell someone’s gonna go down was a super windy day. And I said to my wife, you know, can I just slip out you know, the sun’s gonna be down in 25 minutes. So I ran across the street set up the easel and the wind was blowing and everything was shaking and, and I and I had to hold on to the easel and, and the sun was going down fast. And it was a lighthouse painting and I had no time. And I didn’t think I just was instinctual. And it turned out to be one of the best paintings I ever did. And the same thing happened to me up in sky works up in Maine. When I went up for fall color week, there’s this place called the Raven’s nest, which is a stunning view. And I took a 30 by 40 I was gonna paint it in plein air, I was gonna get myself like four or five hours to paint it and then wait for the sun. And one thing led to another and we only had an hour and a half. I got up there the winds blowing 65 miles an hour. I’m holding on to it. I’m using the biggest brush I’ve got and knock that that giant painting out in less than an hour and 45 minutes. And it turned out to be the best thing I’ve ever done. And again, it’s because I’m not sitting there noodling and thinking about it. I’m just responding to instinct.
Unknown Speaker 44:51
That’s what is an important aspect of plein air painting responding to end instinct. I want to Tell the viewers and you a little story because it’s a plein air story. We’re in France, and we are attached to our TA. And we had our gallery manager traveling with us at the time. Well guess what it was? That’s yeah, that’s the image right there. Yeah. So anyway,
Eric Rhoads 45:20
what we’re what CW is referring to is we have a video version of the podcast you can find on YouTube.
Unknown Speaker 45:25
So yeah, so anyway, we show up at the spot, it’s 45 degrees out there colder in a macro, and get the winds blown 35 mile an hour, and I said, I’m going to have to hold on to this stupid, you know, Canvas and, and the easel and all that stuff. And I go, it ain’t gonna happen. Or I said at work. They’ve got that restaurant, let’s just go in and get some hot chocolate. So we’ll go into the restaurant. And there’s this big picture window with the tables and stuff. And so the owner was there. And I said, Beau, do you? Do you care if I set up? And he said, No, go ahead. He said, I’d be honored. I think that’s great. So I painted at the top of the needle, right there and they’re had hot chocolate, you can see the hot chocolate in the thing, and we had some food. And I painted that. And to this day, we had that painting at home, we we didn’t put it out on the market. We’ve sold different ones that I painted because we painted in France several different times. But so that was that was really an interesting thing that happened, you know, you never know what’s going to happen when you’re playing their pain. The other thing in Europe that I always like to talk about, in the beginning, I hated hair and all the motorcycles you know, because you know you find a spot to do you got to paint, you may have to be right there on the street. What’s a lot of times that was to get the view that you want, you’re right on the edge of the street. And I used to get so annoyed I got and Rebecca was trying to shoot video and stuff. And I got so annoyed that Dan, it ended up after being there a month and a half. I look forward to hearing motorcycle. I love him then you hear that? You know the the place name ambulance was going by? I loved all the sounds.
Eric Rhoads 47:26
I remember you referring to the reason you you ended up taking that that trip to France. Do you remember that?
CW Mundy 47:35
Yeah, because my wife said she had gone to the Chicago Art Institute. And we’re gonna see that monads exhibition. He’s got 242 paintings of the largest collection of his work to this day. And I was 1995. And I go, Rebecca, please. I said, I don’t want to go. I said, I’ve studied him. I know all about him. I don’t really care about going and then I started thinking, How selfish of me to rob her that chance when she was excited to see it. So I said, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna take her and I said, Honey, I’m sorry, I forgive forgive me. Let’s go out there. You set it up, we’ll go out and we did. I came out of that show like a rocket. It was such an encouragement to me because we’re getting ready to go to France to follow my footsteps, and paint all the places that he had painted. And when I saw that exhibition, I said, even though I didn’t have hardly any experience in plein air painting, I told Rebecca, I can do this. I think I can do this. And that’s exactly you know, it was really God motivating me to and letting me know that. Yeah, you know, you’re not going to fall on your face. Is there going to be some? And it was.
Eric Rhoads 49:03
So thank you to CW Mundy. In case you’re wondering, we didn’t finish we didn’t say goodbye, because we’re gonna have to put this into part two, which you’ll be able to hear next week. All right, let’s get right into the marketing minute.
Announcer 49:19
This is the Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the number one Amazon bestseller “Make More Money Selling Your Art: Proven Techniques to Turn Your Passion Into Profit.”
Eric Rhoads 49:31
Oh in the marketing minute I was sleeping there in the marketing minute I answer your art marketing questions. You can upload your video questions@artmarketing.com/questions or you can email me Eric@artmarketing.com. Amandine, our producer, what is the first question?
Amandine 49:48
The first question is from Jen Wendling from Syracuse, New York. I am a new artist. I’m just starting to put my work out there. I’ve sold some pieces. What is your recommendation for new artists? And do you have any advice on how I should manage my reputation online? And?
Eric Rhoads 50:08
You know, that’s a really great question. It’s very astute of you to ask that question. Because if you’re just kind of starting, and nobody really knows who you are, um, some people do, obviously, you have, there’s an old quote, right, the old quote is, you never have a second chance to make a first impression. And so many artists start out and hurt their careers by making really silly mistakes, reputation, mistakes, marketing mistakes, and I’m not just trying to hock my book, but you need to read my book, make more money selling your art, that’s a really good place to start. But let’s just talk about that in case you don’t read it. By the way, I’ve got a great blog at artmarketing.com, too. So what I would recommend you’re brand new, you first off want to say, Okay, what do I want out of my career? What is my grand vision, now, I don’t know what age you are, Jen. But I’m going to pretend you’re 25. Okay. And I’m going to pretend you have a 50 year career ahead of you. And if you plant the right seeds now, and continue working the system, you’re going to be able to be by the time you’re relatively, you know, not terribly old. If you do it, right, let’s say five or seven years from now, you could be considered a very important artist, and 1015 years from now, you could be considered a master artist, and then ride that wave for the rest of your career. Now, you got to have the chops, I’m not going to talk about the chops, you’re gonna have to figure out how to get the chops, how to be a good painter, et cetera. That’s a whole nother animal. And I know CW is going to have talked about that a little bit. So I think the first thing to understand is, you know, what are my goals? What is my five year, three year, two year one year goal? What do I need to do? What and I would start out, in spite of the fact you want to do some big dreaming? And where do you ultimately want to be all of that stuff, setting those goals is important, I think what you want to do is start out by saying, Okay, how do I get what I need in your one. Now, if you’re working another job, what I highly recommend is not quitting your job, but I highly recommend is paint and figure out a way to get to the same level of income that you’re at in your job. And once you get to the same level of income, prove it for another year. And once you’ve proven it for another year, then you can quit your job, or you can phase out of your job because you get this overlap. And that’s a really great way to do it, because it takes some of the risk out of it. And that’s that can be nerve racking, because you quit your job, you don’t have any income, you’re under a lot of stress. Unless you’ve got savings, a lot of us don’t. So I think that’s one of the things you want to do. And I have a whole video series just about that one particular topic, somewhere, I don’t know where it is, but we can find anyway, the idea here is you got to, you know, everything you do isn’t going to go perfect. And you’re going to make a lot of mistakes. And mistakes are important because you grow from mistakes. And it’s better to make mistakes when you still have an income. Because once you’re relying on your income, if you make those mistakes, you’re going to be harder, more costly. So I would recommend that that procedure, but where you’re going to start is you got to start building a collector base people who are interested in your work, you got to start building a database of people who have expressed interest in your work. And a database of people have expressed interest in your workshop, you got to build the right kind of website. And most people do websites wrong. There’s a whole whole chapter on that. And and you need to look for ways that you can get frequently in front of people in a tasteful way so that they’re going to see your artwork and a lot of people do that with newsletters and I have a whole section on newsletters because most people do newsletters completely wrong. And you know, they make it all about them and nobody cares about you. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to offend you, but they don’t even know you yet. Why would they want to read your newsletter unless you do something in your newsletter that is really interesting to them. So look for look for something, they care about that good about them and then pepper it with the stuff about you and it’s gonna it’s gonna go much better. The idea is you want to build your own media and when you build your own media, that means you get them on your list. And that way you can talk to him through email, etc. Now, there’s a whole social media marketing thing
Eric Rhoads 54:58
you know, and that’s very important, more important than ever, but it’s not everything. And if you are of the generation that has grown up with only social media, you’re going to assume that nothing else exists. And I have a mentor that I actually have paid a lot of money to, to teach me a lot about marketing. And one of the things he says is, if you’re only digital, you only have half of a business. And what he means by that is, there are other ways to generate income, you know, a gallery is not digital, you might be advertising a gallery on Instagram, or Facebook, or they might be advertising you. But that’s not where you reach everybody, there are certain people who have money, who are not looking at your Instagram or your Facebook, and you’ll never figure out how to reach them all. And so what you want to do is ask yourself, Where is the money? Where How can I stand in the river where the money is flowing? So where what are the rivers where money is flowing? Well, art shows as a river where money is flowing, you know, you’ve got 10 shows, you know, in your local community, you know, if you’re, if you’re up for it, if you’re good enough, you know, you have these art shows, like the LA art show, Palm Beach art show Baltimore, you know, those kinds of things, where you can buy a booth, they’re expensive, but they’re probably worth it. You have art magazines, like my fine art connoisseur, you know, all these billionaires who read it and buy art, I want to advertise your tells me it gets $80,000 Average sales from each ad, but that’s a cumulative effort. And also he sells, you know, $500,000 paintings. So you know, you got to try a lot of different things, and you got to stick with it, because you’re in it for the game, the long haul. And what typically happens when people are first learning marketing, they like, oh, I tried that didn’t work, I’ll go somewhere else. And then I’ll I tried that it didn’t work, I’ll go somewhere else and keep doing that. And you just burn out everything, when if you stick with something, and you just keep building on it, you build momentum over a long period of time. So that’s kind of a first piece of that. The second thing is about reputation. Now, reputation matters more than you can possibly imagine. If you make the wrong moves early, you are getting yourself in trouble. Okay, so let’s just assume that, you know, you get, you get invited into this gallery, and you haven’t done your homework. And it turns out the gallery has a bad reputation. And they’re taking advantage of people and they’re not paying their bills, and they’re not paying their artists and you know, everything is going wrong with them, you get tainted by their reputation. On the other hand, if you got invited into like one of the top galleries a super important, you know, high high reputation, they know that they only select the best, that’s a booster to your reputation. And there’s a middle ground, you’re gonna know you’re gonna have to go into that middle ground before you go into the high ground, typically, not always. But you want to ask yourself, you know, can I be patient? Can I take my time to get invited into the right places? I have whole whole chapters and videos on getting invited into art galleries, but and getting invited as the answer you don’t want to call on him. Sorry, don’t do it. There’s a whole reason. And that basically, is you’re going to annoy them and they don’t want to be annoyed. So get yourself thinking about your reputation. What what is my brand look like? Am I elegant? And my cheap in my colorful, you know, what is the brand? What do you want to stand for watch branding, don’t copy branding, because people come up with branding concepts and strategies because they have a specific thing in mind. That may not be what you think it is. But try to figure out you know, who has been buying my paintings? What can I understand about them? What do they like about them? What is the story behind them? Write stories for every painting? I I think this is really critically important story stick. And 50% of the people who look at your paintings in a gallery environment, are not the kind of people who can get it. You know, 50% are like, Oh, I get it and 50% need to be told how to get it seems crazy. That’s just human nature. Right? You get it? I get it, but you know, somebody who’s a particular type of person, they’re not going to get it. So think in terms of that and then start building you know, I, I think you know, it’s I like the idea of dominating a particular magazine to dominate it for five or 10 years. I have one artist who was broke bankrupt, hardly had any money and decided to advertise in one of my magazines. I think it was fine art connoisseur and just the bought what she could buy, which was a quarter page or half page or something in every single issue, never skipping it. And it was hard. And I said, Look, you know, after the first year, you’re going to feel a little nervous about this, because you’re spending this money and you’re not really feeling the result. But you got to build your brand and your reputation. And after, after that, all of a sudden, you know, invites started coming in to be judges and to do galleries and to do shows, and you know, stuff like that. And things started selling and moving. And then better galleries came on board after a few years, and she was able to get rid of the crummy galleries. And you know, it just was like, elevating up and has stuck with it for 10 years, and it has put this person into superstar status. Now, you got to be able to paint or draw or sculpt or whatever it is you do photography. So keep that in mind. But it’s a long game, and you got to play the long game if you want to succeed. Well, also, I should mention that, you know, there is no difference between your personal reputation and your business reputation. I had a gallery owner, I’ve told the story a few times, gallery owner and a major, big city, big gallery, important gallery fired, fired an artist, because the artists kept posting pictures of, of the crazy stuff that he was involved with, in you know, you know, partying and stuff like that. And now you could probably tell yourself a story. Well, you know, that’s the reputation I want. But the gallery got complaints about it, one lady wanted to, it turned her off so much, she wanted to get a refund on her painting because she didn’t like what the artist was standing for. So you got to keep that stuff in mind. I have another artist friend who’s very prominent, and he insists on sharing his political opinions on social media. And no matter what you think, and no matter how much you want to stand for what you stand for, which is fine. But just know, if you do that. You’re going to make 50% of the people hate you. Sorry, it’s the truth. They’re not going to be able to overcome that. And you know, you’ve seen this. I mean, you’ve seen people who have boycotted companies, because they got political, and they just, you know, these companies shouldn’t be getting political. I don’t want to get polluted. Anyway, that’s about online reputation. Next one on badeen.
Amandine 1:02:42
The second question is from Deseret homes, Sharon Lee, from Washington, my art galleries all closed during COVID. I’m not interested in gallery hunting or hanging in short shows anymore. How do I sell and unload artwork or lean storage?
Eric Rhoads 1:03:01
All right, well, so I’m gonna get a little down on you here. Desert free, no offense intended. But it sounds like you’ve given up look, in the world of business. And if you’re selling paintings, you’re in the world of business, your small business, whether you like it or not. And in the world of business, you’re gonna get your gut kicked in, you’re gonna get your teeth kicked in, you’re gonna lose paintings. I had 12 pieces in a gallery out west, the gallery went bankrupt. I never got my paintings back. Luckily, by some stroke of luck, I was at a party, I met a guy I talked to him, he says, Oh, we’ve been looking for you, my sister owned this gallery. And we’ve been we’ve gave up looking for you, but we have all your stuff. And they sent back in 10 years, 12 years later, miracle, but for years, I thought I’d been burned, you’re gonna get burned. It’s part of doing business. You don’t like it? I don’t like it. But it’s part of doing business. And if you give up and say, Well, I’m not gonna go into any galleries, because all my galleries closed during COVID. Guess what, not all the galleries did close. There are great galleries out there that are thriving, not just surviving. And there’s a lot of other things that you should be doing. So if you’re giving up on galleries, if you’re giving up on shows, don’t give up. Now, if you decide you want to give up because you just don’t want to put up with it anymore. I get it. That’s fine. You might be at a stage in your life where you just don’t want to do that kind of work. But the reality is, if you’re gonna sell artwork, you got to do the work. And it’s a pretty much full time job. I always say, if you’re marketing your own art, you got to spend 20% of your time which is roughly you know, two hours a day or one day a week out of your five day week to work on marketing your art, you know, it’s just you got to work it you got to be talking to people you got to be selling Listen, you gotta be marketing and putting shows together, you know, all this stuff, I mean, it’s just all part of it, if you don’t do it, you’re not going to get the results you want, the more you’re willing to put into it. And in the early stages of your career, you put all that time and effort into it, and then you don’t have to do as much still got to do it. You can’t completely disappear. But if you keep, keep it alive, keep the train running, you’re gonna have a big impact. But how do you sell and in this case, she says unload artwork, currently in storage well, okay, so if you want to just unload everything, let’s, let’s say, you’re not going to pay it anymore, you’re not going to try to market your art anymore, you just want to unload everything? Well, you know, there’s a lot of things, you can do a garage sale, I know it sounds silly, you can do an art sale, like a garage sale, you can do Facebook marketplace, if you want, you can place some ads, or local ads, depending on the prices and how many paintings you can play some local ads, you know, in the local media, newspaper, websites, whatever, you know, if you have something here in Austin, we have the East Austin studio tours, you can participate in that, you know, get space in one of those studios, with somebody else, pay them for a little of their time, or whatever, put your work in there, and they get big crowds through you can sell that way. You know, you can try to sell it online, and, you know, put together a website with all the stuff that you’re offering. If you’re trying to get rid of it, then it’s all about price, right? Because if if you’re willing to dip price, you’re gonna get rid of things much faster. If you’re not willing, then you’re going to it’s going to take longer, you can still do it, but it’s going to take longer. I think that the real question is, how do I sell artwork, if I don’t want to do shows and being a gallery, and that becomes pretty much a self marketing strategy. That means you’re promoting online, you’re promoting on social media, you have a very specific strategy for social media. And you also are promoting in other places, because as I’ve said before, stand in the river where the money is flowing, right? So get into art shows, but you don’t want to do art shows I get that. But where can you stand where the money is flowing? Well, you know, I’ve got art magazines that have rich, rich, wealthy collectors who love art. And so that’s a concentrated audience of people who are going to buy paintings proven to buy paintings. So you know, you’ve got to get known there, build your brand, you know, that kind of thing. And those things matter over time. Now, if you are Deseret, you’re kind of like done with this, you’re at the end of your career, you just don’t want the paintings around anymore, you’re not going to paint anymore, I would, I’d probably just go to somebody locally who’s already set up, maybe it’s an art gallery, and just say, Listen, get rid of these, I need a minimum of, you know, X number of dollars for each of these, or, you know, I’ll sell you the whole bunch for X number of dollars, and let it become their problem. And they might have a big sale. Or maybe you can get somebody, if you have a list in you have people who have collected your art in the past, to a studio sale, you know, I’m retiring, and I’m getting rid of everything. And this is your big opportunity. And by the way, these paintings are going to be more valuable than ever, because I’m not going to pay it anymore. Right? So, and you need a story. Everybody needs a story. Now my rule is the story has to be true. You can’t lie. But you need a story. You know, I’ve decided to stop painting. You know, I made a great career and I had a lot of fun, but I’ve decided to focus on travel. You know, so I’m going to sell out all my inventory or you know, maybe you have a health issue and you can say I’ve developed a health issue. And my hands aren’t going to be steady for much longer. You know, you can come up with some story, but it’s got to be a true story. You can expand on it. You can enhance it. But don’t lie. Don’t lie. That’s important. Okay, that is today’s art marketing minute.
Announcer 1:09:29
This has been a marketing minute with Eric Rhoads. You can learn more at artmarketing.com
Eric Rhoads 1:09:37
remind you a Christmas plein air conventions coming up? We’d love to have you come or be a great gift for yourself or have somebody get it for you. A spouse or friend or mate or partner or something. Watercolor live is coming up in January you do not want to miss this is going to be spectacular. That’s at watercolorlive.com And subscribe to pleinairmagazine.com You can do gift subscriptions and like when it shows up my grandmother used to buy me boy’s life and Boy’s Life showed up every month in my mailbox from the time I was 11 years old till probably I was 15 or 17 I mean even after I was out a boy scouts and every time that came it’s like wow me ma really loves me right and and so you know if you have somebody you want to help culture i Is that a word culture is you want to give culture to that you think if they you know this flip through it once in a while have you had an art magazine show up? You know, your daughter, your granddaughter, you know, whatever. And you know, I would do with my kids shows up every other month and you know, or you get plein air magazine, and fine art connoisseur, you know those kinds of things. And and they’re gonna always remember you every time it comes. And of course you couldn’t get a gift card and all that stuff. Anyway. Subscribe to plein air magazine at pleinairmagazine.com. And if you’ve not seen my blog, Sunday coffee, check it out. It’s coffeewitheric.com. And every day, every week, day, five days a week 12 noon, I’m on YouTube and Facebook Live with art school live where I have lots of different artists interacting teaching lots of different things going on. And you’ll love it. Go to YouTube and subscribe. Just go to YouTube search art school ly that’s easy. And if you don’t mind, I’d love a follow. And I’d love for you to kind of private message me say hello. I love to meet new people all the time. I’d love to meet you. Don’t spam me. Don’t send me topless pictures and all that nonsense at Yeah, I know it’s happened. That’s just weird. You don’t need that. Anyway. That’s it. That’s the plein air podcast. Remember it’s big world out there. Go paint it. Bye bye.
Announcer:
This has been the plein air podcast with PleinAir Magazine’s Eric Rhoads. You can help spread the word about plein air painting by sharing this podcast with your friends. And you can leave a review or subscribe on iTunes. So it comes to you every week. And you can even reach Eric by email Eric@pleinairmagazine.com. Be sure to pick up our free ebook 240 plein air painting tips by some of America’s top painters. It’s free at pleinairtips.com. Tune in next week for more great interviews. Thanks for listening.