Let’s say you are interested in art.
Maybe not quite Mona Lisa or Guernica, and you say ‘I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like when I see it’
Start looking at Instagram using ‘tags’ such as #landscape #harvest or try these tags:
#Dailypaintings #dailypainting #oilpainting #oils #allaprima #stillife #stilllife #paintingoftheday #summerfruit #jug #berries #blackberries #6x6art #oxfordshire
OR
Let’s say you have a yearning to learn about how to create art.
Nothing quite substitutes for time at the easel with a good teacher BUT if you add you-tube demos into the mix, you can learn such a lot so easily.
OR
Let’s say you want to define what sort of art you respond to,
to put in your home or aspire to paint.
Collect your own boards in Pinterest or Artfinder. Here is my Pinterest board of ceramics.
In a nutshell:
Instagram: This is mostly visual and the images are photographs of various subjects from tattoos to gardens to art. There are very few words and lots of tags to help with searches. People who are selling stuff usually use a ‘shop’ like Etsy or Artfinder, so Instagram is another avenue for advertising, or sharing / networking.
Pinterest: You make up collections on various boards by ‘pinning’ stuff and it has lots of craft / art /ideas /photography / recipes / home decor. You can search for things you like and once you have your boards, you’ll find that Pinterest sends you lots of emails suggesting other boards to look at.
Artfinder: You can follow artists and ‘collect’ work you like, but this is primarily a shop that sells art. It is a very good avenue to find artwork you like and is not cluttered with non-art. Artists may only sell original art and must be eligible to join if they meet Artfinder’s standards. It is professional with lots to choose from and each participating artist has their own ‘shop’ so sales are direct, Returns are accepted.
Instagram: You can join Instagram without necessarily putting your own posts up (your private account) and you can ‘follow’ various artists. To find people to follow: Search for the person by name or the subject you are interested in e.g. seascapes. Click on the ones you like and follow the authors if you like most of their work. Then every time you open instagram, if you look at the home page, you’ll see the latest postings by the people you follow.
Lin’s Instagram
- What you’ll see on my home page
- What you’ll see if you scroll down on my homepage (my blackberry series)
- What you’ll see if you search for #blackberries in the general posts.
You can follow me as linkerrdesign. This is the only place you’ll see everything I paint as I paint it. Facebook gets a few images, but not all, because that would be like going to a party and just talking about your own stuff non-stop. As you can see, I have 217 followers. Some people have 1000’s of followers, (e.g. Angie Lewin). Some people buy followers etc! My niece had 400 followers and only post with a picture of her dog – but all her facebook followers had also followed her on Instagram!
Some of my favourite sites are: eva_magill_oliver; debbytenquist and terryrunyan
Pinterest: Join Pinterest and begin collecting images of anything you are interested in, on themed ‘boards’ You can do a search using various headings – e.g. art – paintings – landscape paintings – abstract landscapes and you’ll get a page of images. If there is an image you wish to collect, click the pin and it will take you to your home page and you can create a board titled ‘Landscapes I love’ or whatever and ‘pin’ the image there. You can also create a board with images you have culled from your friends with their permission. This is an excellent place to create a mood board for your interior designer!
Lin’s Pinterest
- What you’ll see on my home page
- What you’ll see if you click on my board titled ‘Light and reflections’
- What I saw on the general site when I selected landscape paintings.
You can follow me as linkerrdesign.I have not really followed through with posting images to Pinterest as sometimes social media overwhelms me! So I have only 10 followers who I imagine, admire my choice of art on my boards e.g. ‘Light and reflections’
Artfinder: I am not sure if you just open it or if you have to join. However, you can see some incredible and very costly art available right down to pot-boiler stuff. I hope mine is somewhere between the two. Artfinder will protect the buyer and this makes it very useful.
Lin’s Artfinder:
- What you’ll see when you open Artfinder
- What you’ll see on my home page
- What I saw on when I selected Paintings – Oil – Realistic – Landscape.
If you like something you can follow that person, send them a message or buy it! As a seller you have to show your work from all viewpoints, the front, the side, in situ etc. We have to take loads of photos and I have still got to do a lot of photography! So at present I have only 4 pieces of work on Artfinder and about 16 followers! You can follow me as Lin Kerr.
And finally, You-tube.
Once you have started on a particular subject, more options will pop up on the side menu, or you just keep googling. Some of these videos are better than others, but You-tube is a very useful teaching and learning tool.
Try this one for instance!
And this is just the tip of the iceberg!
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