A little of this and a bit about that regarding my art

"The Conductor" now resides in Philadelphia.

“The Conductor” now resides in Philadelphia.

Marketing your art can be a whole lot more time consuming than creating it.

That’s a simple fact that I have learned over the past several years and it continues to be a true statement every day. You need to keep pushing your art out into the world if you ever hope to have any success. Even then, it’s probably not enough because there are literally millions of artists out there in the world trying to do the same thing.

My work can be found on multiple websites, but I am certainly not inundated by sales. And though this year has been a good one as far as sales go, it continues to reenforce my opinion that I made the right choice back in high school, deciding to pursue a career in advertising versus one in art.

The website that my art newsletter is posted through, Fine Art Studio Online, will soon be dropped – by me. It seems that only other artists visit this site and up until about a month ago, I never even had a sales inquiry.

So I was quite shocked when I received an offer to purchase “The Conductor” through this site. That was a first. But it doesn’t make up for the paltry amount of visitations I get to my page (https://bloodlinesart.com).

The person who bought “The Conductor” really wanted it. He told me he had gone back to view the painting more than 100 times and ultimately, he decided to buy it. As soon as he received the painting, he took it out to have it framed and told me he’ll be sending a pic as soon as it’s done.

That made me happy. So many of my paintings reside in storage areas. They don’t see the light of day. Even I forget about a lot of them.

Because I keep on painting, always in a quest to try and get better.

Soon, I’ll achieve my 40,000th view on http://tom-blood.pixels.com

I have recently joined a new website which originates out of St. Louis and will have the unique aspect of being able to sell your work online as well as have your work displayed and for sale at various organizations, groups and public places. More info on that will be coming soon.

My work has been featured recently on artsleuth.com as well as singulart.com – one originates out of Hong Kong, the other out of Paris.

My work on singulart has had more than 16,000 views in the past four months and I’m among their top ten percent in terms of number of artist views.

Two days ago, I met with a gallery owner to discuss an upcoming solo show.

If that works, out, you’ll be hearing more about that as well.

And oh, yes, I continue to paint away. Last night, I began my 18th painting of 2020 (which doesn’t count 3 commissioned paintings). I’m looking forward to this one – just like I look forward to every new painting that I decide to pursue.

So thanks for continuing to follow my journey. And just in case I don’t push out another newsletter in the next few days, have a safe and happy Halloween.

In addition to creating advertising and marketing communications by day, I also paint at night and my work has now been sold on four different continents! If you find the price of my paintings are keeping you from purchasing anything, know that you can order prints of my work on Artfully Walls. You can also order prints as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items by visiting my other website on Pixels. As if that weren’t enough, more items are now available on Vida on an even wider variety of items – from umbrellas to yoga mats, clothing and jewelry to household items. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram to see work in progress from start to finish!

New music video by Liz Cirelli featuring my artwork

 

A still from the opening frame of a new music video featuring my artwork.

A still from the opening frame of a new music video featuring my artwork.

I am both thrilled and excited to announce that my artwork is being used in the release of Liz Cirelli’s newest music video called, “Bridgetower“.

So who is Liz Cirelli and how exactly did it come about that she is using my artwork for one of her music videos?

Liz is a London recording artist. In her own words, “I fuse the worlds of classical and electronic music into intricate, hypnotic and melody-driven moods – with a pinch of pop accessibility. It’s a blend of electronica, downtempo, dream pop and contemporary classical.”

Bridgetower is one of eleven new tracks on her latest release called “Awakening“. And Awakening is her 23rd release overall in a career that spans more than a decade. She is an accomplished artist with a large following across the pond.

I first ran across Liz via an email. She’s a creativity consultant and being a creative person, I’m always in pursuit of new knowledge. I read one of her blog posts and liked it and received an invitation to join her mailing list.

It was there that she made the announcement of her new, upcoming album release. I decided to give it a listen and I liked it. In fact, I liked it enough that I downloaded a few tracks and was actually listening to them as I painted.

Music is always on when I paint. I have several artists that I listen to over and over when I’m painting as their music just seems to fit the mood of my surrealistic endeavors. Fleet Foxes, Radiohead and Grizzly Bear are my most listened to favorites.

But the music by Liz struck a chord with me. I reached out to her and told her that I enjoyed listening to her music while I painted and I sent her a few images of paintings that I had done.

That began an on-going correspondence between us. Liz said she loved my work. I loved her music. When she asked if I would be interested in having my paintings featured in one of her music videos I was instantly interested.

She asked me to send her more painting images so she could decide which track she wanted them to accompany and ultimately, selected “Bridgetower” which was a collaborative effort with another recording artist named Minski.

When she sent me the track, I asked Tom Jr. to help out with creating the video. Tom laid the groundwork for the video, assembling most of the images as you see them now. Liz and her video editor then took over, incorporating some of my newer paintings.

Yesterday, Liz launched the video to her followers on Patreon. Today, I’m letting my readers on this newsletter have the first look.

This past Friday, Liz premiered the video to her extended community via social media and I’m in the process of doing so as well.

This is a huge step forward for me regarding exposure of my artwork to the world. I’ve been slowly building an audience on Instagram (please follow me if you don’t already!). I am approaching 30,000 views on my pixels website. I was recently invited to display my artwork on an international art website but that’s still in the approval mode so no links on that yet. And I’ll be ramping up for my solo show in June at the Renaissance Airport hotel.

I’ve been given a gift – a talent for creating art – it’s up to me to pursue it and keep trying to get better at what I do.

Sales are always welcome and someday, more will come. But for now, I will enjoy the fact that potentially hundreds of thousands of new people will get a chance to view what I do.

That’s pretty cool!

In addition to creating advertising and marketing for a wide range of clients, I also paint on the side. If you know anyone who you think might enjoy learning about my paintings and the stories behind them, please pass this along to them and invite them to sign up for my free newsletter.

Also, if my prices are keeping you from purchasing anything, know that you can order prints of my work, as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items by visiting my other website on Pixels. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram to see work in progress from start to finish!