How to Create Your Own Artist Brand

Creating your own brand is something that can really help differentiate us by highlighting our very own unique gifts and abilities. Here’s some thoughts on how to do that after interviewing artist, Wyland (who has one of the biggest brands in the world!)

For those of you who do not know who he is he is probably the world’s top environmental artist. You can check out his website at Wyland.com.

The interview was great. Funny, I almost immediately liked the guy when we got on the phone. He just sounded relaxed, was courteous (referred to me by name many times) and, at times, very funny – kinda like speaking to my brother.

We covered a TON of stuff on the interview – however the thrust was mostly marketing. I mean, Wyland has a friggin empire! Just go to his site and you can see all the projects, relationships, causes and more he is involved with.

I did want to cover one thing he said (to get the rest of the “secret sauce” to artistic success in the interview you’ll have to wait until the launch of the Art Marketing Association early next year – sorry)

And that one thing concerns your brand. He talked a lot about creating a personal brand. Now those of us in marketing have most likely been exposed to that philosophy before. There was even a book out recently called The Brand Called You (which is excellent, by the way, and highly recommended) which goes into detail on this.

What does that mean – create a personal brand? Well, it really means to use all channels available to you to extend your brand – meaning your artistic niche, your lifestyle, your interests – they are ultimately all extensions of you and your personality.

And, don’t, for a minute, think that you are stuck with your current “personality” – Like people will say, “I’m too shy” or “I’m not that good at speaking” or “My interests are not as flashy as Wyland’s” etc. etc. well that’s just dog poop.

The real secret is you can create your own personality or brand whenever you like. It’s all a creation anyway. It’s not something stuck in you or your DNA. You created your own personality now that is moving and interacting with the world.

If you don’t like your current one then CREATE a new powerful personal brand that supports your new goals and vision. CREATE the person you want to be – much like Tom Hanks or Jack Nicholson or Glenn Close does every time they create a new character on the big screen.

Another excellent book (I’m a pretty big reader so I like to share these “finds”) that goes into quite a bit of detail on creating a powerful personal brand when formulating your own business is by expert marketer, Allen Bechtold, called – Will Work for Fun: Three Simple Steps for Turning Any Hobby or Interest Into Cash.

The book gives you some simple exercises to recreate your own “character” in some simple and fun ways. It really opened my eyes to the fun and creativity of how you can differentiate your business from others.

I really think this is important stuff and deserves your attention. I would start with the books above and then stay tuned for future resources that I will be sharing!

What Van Gogh Taught Me About Painting Materials

I have been reading a number of technical reports which give some amazing information on the tools, materials and process of select Van Gogh paintings.

I love these reports. They’re not cheap (yes, you have to pay for them!) but they are utterly fascinating. Keep in mind, whenever I go to a museum, most of my friends and family members take advantage of the many benches to take a quick snooze (i.e.; they could care less about looking at art – but no matter, it’s their loss)

To give you reference to which Van Gogh painting I am referencing – it’s is “A Cornfield, with Cypresses” (see picture above) one of three related versions of this composition, completed in the summer of 1889 not long after he entered the the asylum of Saint Paul de Mausole in Saint Remy de Provence.

A lot of things caught my eye when reading this detailed report (about the 3 versions of the painting pictured) which covers, Cleaning and Restoration, The Materials of Van Gogh’s “A Cornfield, with Cypresses” (including exact pigments used, what support, ground, the likely process he used and more) and The Medium.

I could go on and on (and probably will in future posts) but as I was researching the what ground because as I looked at the close-up of the picture via the National Gallery in London website I noticed, what appeared to be raw linen. The warm linen color looked beautiful behind the cool greens/blues in the swirling sky.

You can check it out for yourself by going to the National Gallery site and using the enlarge feature to actually see this. For your convenience just click this link: Van Gogh Painting: “A Cornfield, with Cypresses”

Come to find out the “pre-made” canvases that Van Gogh often used would come with a very light white lead ground when they were purchased.

It appears, some manufacturers in the 19th century put on just such a ‘wash’ to stiffen the canvas a little, over a layer of (glue) size, the intention being for the artist to apply their own proper thick ground on top.

So, what is fascinating to me is that Van Gogh didn’t even do this. Of course, a glue size is actually enough to oil paint on but it’s not ideal.

I find, many times, even myself fussing over the stretcher (typically I build these myself) but since reading this technical report I have realized that it’s about doing the work.

If a pre-made stretcher, bought off the rack, is good enough for Van Gogh (and has held up quite well over time) it’s probably good enough for me.

The big lesson being: just getting into action. I always had a strange phobia about buying “pre-made” artist canvas from Utrecht, Pearl Paint and all the other art manufactures (and even some of the craft chains) I thought they “appeared” cheap.

Well, since reading this report I have decided to use them and spend much less time building (and worrying about the perfection of artist materials) and spending more time creating and painting.

David Hockney Paints his Native Yorkshire DVD

Just watched the beautiful “David Hockney, A Bigger Picture” DVD documentary about his journey as he returns to paint his native Yorkshire.

It ‘s a beautiful journey from his main residence in Los Angeles, CA to the landscape he loved as a boy and whom he actually worked in those very East Yorkshire fields when he was a school boy.

A friend actually said to him, “You were very happy working in the fields in Yorkshire” Hockney said, “I was actually”. You could tell it was a very touching memory for him.

The film makes clear it wasn’t like he never returned to his native England as he mentioned he would go approximately 4 times per year and even more when his Mother was dying (she lived to a robust 99 year old) but he was just compelled somehow to return and stay.

What I love most about it is the beautiful closeups of Hockney actually painting, on site, in plein air. It’s just scrumptious to watch that beautiful oil paint being applied to the canvases, the oil color being moved and blended together with such artistry.

You see him painting clouds, fields, roadways, thickets, and trees – lot of trees. As Hockney has said, trees are “like faces – every one is different. Nature doesn’t repeat itself”. Winter trees were particularly difficult to capture, he said. “You have to observe carefully; there’s a randomness.”

He actually started the “Yorkshire Paintings” by first doing watercolours. He mentioned he did them in his car. They are pretty amazing and it’s cool that many of them are highlighted on the DVD.

He is still such a wonderful, charming character (now approaching 70) with that snappy Brit humor. He gives such honest and revealing insight on his painting process on the landscape on how he “sees” the world.

You get the feeling he somehow needed to get these paintings done. It’s such an incredible burst of creativity that he immersed himself in and it’s such privilege to be a voyeaur on watching this all via film. You see him laughing, his assistant getting him sandwiches, the wind knocking over his canvases. It’s just plain fun to watch.

He reminds me a lot of Van Gogh and his painting process with these paintings. He works very fast, often completing canvases in an hour or 2 (depending, of course, on the size) It’s, again, like he is racing with time to complete these. I clearly got that sense when watching.

The apex of the film is a 50 canvas work called, “Bigger Trees near Warter (2007)”, is a monumental-scale view of a coppice in Hockney’s native Yorkshire, between Bridlington and York. It’s the largest painting Hockney has ever completed and has since donated it to the Tate Museum.

It’s interesting that they interview artist Damien Hirst (famous for his “Dot” paintings) as he is looking through some of Hockney’s catalogues and mentions “there’s a sadness about these paintings” which I thought was very insightful and I got it almost the minute after he said that.

All in all, this was great to watch. We get a very intimate portrait of this great artist and to get to see his creative painting process is really a treat for the mind, heart and eye.

You can get the DVD here (via Amazon) – David Hockney: A Bigger Picture