Plein Air Podcast

Plein Air Podcast 232: Lori Putnam on Artistic Growth 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 Lori Putnam, a plein air painter whose work is in private, corporate, and museum collections around the globe. Listen as they discuss:

– Lori’s principles of growth and process for success
– The sacrifices that she and her husband made in order for her to pursue art as a profession
– Some key experiences and people who guided her on business and marketing
– What happened when her art workshops started filling up
– Thoughts on studio versus plein air painting
– What she does when she feels creatively “stuck”
– The steps she takes to get ready for an art show
– What artists can expect when they attend her pre-convention workshop at the next Plein Air Convention

Bonus! In this week’s Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads, author of Make More Money Selling Your Art, discusses NFTs and social media platforms, and answers questions about how to know if your work is ready to sell and how you can use art competitions to market your art.

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 Lori Putnam here:

Related Links:
– Lori Putnam online: https://loriputnam.com/
– Plein Air Convention & Expo (PACE): https://pleinairconvention.com/
– Plein Air Magazine: https://painttube.tv/collections/magazines/products/pleinair-magazine-subscription/?utm_source=3176
– Watercolor Live: https://watercolorlive.com/
– 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 0:00
This is episode number 232 with the great Lori Putnam.

Announcer:
This is the Plein Air Podcast with Eric Rhoads, publisher and founder of Plein Air 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 1:06
Thank you, Jim Kipping. And welcome to the Plein Air Podcast. I’m Eric and today is a red letter day because we have Lori Putnam on with us and she is a superstar. Now you already know that about her. But we’re going to really dig into her and get to know her a little bit more today. Talk about some of the cool things that she’s up to. I just got for instance, I just got her 2023 calendar in the mail last night, I’ll probably show it to you. Anyway, it’s beautiful. Coming up after this interview, we’re going to have the art marketing minute. And we always do it at the end of the art marketing power at the end of the podcast. But we also have an art Marketing Podcast, where it’s aired separately. Today we’re going to talk a little bit about NF T’s if you don’t know what that is, You’ll soon know and social media platforms for marketing. This week has been kind of an interesting week for me it’s been this is like, I’m just I’m so judgmental. And what I mean by that is I’ve been judging art shows I judged. I don’t know a couple of weeks ago, I judged the the art renewal center Show. This week, I’m judging two different shows. And it’s really a lot of fun. But what I’m I’m learning, even though I’ve done some things about how to how to win art competitions from the perspective of a judge, but I’m learning about myself and myself as a painter is that when when you’re judging something, you were given basically a spread of one to five, five being best one being worst, three being average. And when you’re looking at 234 100 paintings, you get to a point where you can develop a sixth sense, if you will, on how you look at paintings. And I’ve discovered a couple of things that just kind of came to mind I wanted to share with you the first thing is that the people who typically are getting fours and fives are almost always getting fours and fives. Now there’s no names. You can’t tell who the people you’re judging are. But oftentimes people enter together. So there’s in there in clusters. But also, sometimes you can just tell a style. And so oftentimes, those people consistently are in the fours or fives, the people who are in the, the, you also get a lot of people who are in the ones and twos, but you also have this group of people who are sometimes they’re they’re getting twos instead of threes, and they’re getting fours instead of threes. And I think the thing that I have discovered about this is the idea of consistency with your work. You know, our galleries have told me this for years is that you want to have consistency you want a gallery might see a really great painting from you. And then they say, Okay, I want to see if you can hold hold that kind of quality level for 10 more paintings or 20 more paintings, and if you can, that’s a real big win. So I now I went out to my studio, and I started looking at my paintings and trying to be objective, which is almost impossible. And I’m going oh, that’s a one or that’s a two or that’s a three. Oh, there’s a rare four there. There’s hardly ever a five. And but if you can get to a point where you ask yourself those questions, I think it can be helpful in terms of getting yourself to a higher level of quality. Of course, there’s lots of ways to get there. I did a little painting this week. I did not go outdoors to paint this week at all, which I almost did but you know almost isn’t quite enough. But I did I have this big painting that I’ve been working on my studio. It’s a giant it’s like a 30 by 40 and I just hated it. I had put it away for months I opened it up and I hate it. I hated everything about it. I hated the composition. So I just got a palette knife out just started throwing paint on it and just being completely reckless and changing everything, and I worked on it for two or three hours, and it came out great. It’s just one of those things that happens. Sometimes you just gotta let go of what you’ve done in the past and, and try to take it to the next level. We are so thrilled that you’re on the podcast today. And we are also really honored and thrilled that the plein air podcast has been named number one numero uno, two years in a row now for feed spots of painting, top painting podcasts. And so that’s a nice pleasure to have. Thank you for making that happen. And we have an audience. I think we’ve had 2.5 million downloads, and we have had, I think 109 or 100, maybe it’s 190 I don’t know a lot of different countries. Welcome. I hope you’ll reach out say hello, at some point. If you’re kind of in this mode of thinking about Christmas, which I am, unlike, I don’t know, what do I get my kids and my wife you know, they have what they need. And you know, what do you get um, if you are someone who loves plein air painting, and you want to know more, you want to get involved in the plein air community. You know, you might do the little hint hint thing with your friends or your spouse or your husband or your partner or whatever. And just say, hey, you know, I would love to go to the plein air convention, it’s going to be in Denver in May, you can come along with me. And we’re going to have a lot of fun. There’s going to be like the world’s top painters that are teaching, we’re going to be out painting together. There’s parties, there’s, there’s all kinds of stuff going on big expo hall. And we have a big announcement. I hope it’s coming after the first of the year. We’ve not been allowed to talk about it yet because we have to kind of make sure certain stars align. But speaking of stars, we have a big star, big star who is planning to come to the plein air convention. And you know, you may think, Oh, well, this is like, you know, some hot painter or something. No, no, no, this is a big star. So, and the people who sign up for the convention and they get the VIP package, we actually we’ll have that star in a room with them privately and they’ll get to have their picture with that star. That’s pretty cool. Also, the great CW Mundy is coming. Alvero Castagnet, Daniel Sprick, many others. And of course, one of the hot hot things is a pre convention workshop from Lori Putnam, this is this is really a big deal because she’s not doing much teaching anymore because she wants to focus on our work. And so to get a day and a half of workshop, Lori Putnam right before the convention, this is like something you must do. So you can learn more about all this at the plein air convention, website, pleinairconvention.com. Of course, also coming up another great Christmas idea is watercolor live. I started painting watercolor more and more when I travel because I just don’t want to lug all that heavy paint all the time. And I really was struggling with it. But I have I’ve been transformed, I really have seen a big change in my ability to paint watercolor. And it just gets better and better. And that’s because of watercolor live and you can be transformed as well. It’s three days of demo, there’s a fourth beginner to if you want to do that. And it’s a great time. And even if you don’t have the time, you can of course, watch replays. But if you could be in there and be immersed. It’s really great. And that’s it watercolorlive.com. And last but not least, of course as plein air magazine, what a great gift that is. And it’s a really great gift because for a very low amount of money. You could have this arrive at your friend’s houses. And they’re going to be like, oh, yeah, Eric sent that to me or Mary sent that to me or Laurie sent that to me. And every time it comes, they’re going to remember you and what a great gift and it’s going to help immerse them in the whole plein air scene and the art scene, whether you’re a collector, or whether you’re an artist, you know, it’s if you’re an artist, and you’ve got like 10 or 12 collectors that you just really love, you know, for what, I don’t know, 30, 40 bucks, I guess 40 bucks. It have that appearing in front of them every every time it comes out, and they’re gonna go oh, I remember my you know, this artist sent it to me. So it’s a pretty cool thing to do. And a great way to get people involved. Of course, that’s at pleinairmagazine.com. Now we’re gonna get right to our guests. And I’m really, really, always excited to see and talk to Lori Putnam. She has become a good friend over the years, and she has been a student of growth. One of the things that has impressed me about Lori Putnam is that she is determined. She says, I’m going to figure out how to get here. And I don’t know what it’s going to take, but I’m going to get here and we’ll tell some of that story. Lori, welcome to the podcast.

Lori Putnam 9:51
Thank you so much, Eric. I’m really glad to be here. We haven’t talked in a while so it’s good to catch up.

Eric Rhoads 9:58
We’re all busy people I guess So let’s start there. Because we kind of talked about this student of growth, I can remember the very, I was at the very first plein air convention or the second one. Do you remember when we met?

Lori Putnam 10:13
We we actually met in the Adirondacks. But then I ended up being nuts. Okay. I ended up being the first one. And was a field painter for the first one. That’s right. Yeah.

Eric Rhoads 10:28
Well, it’s been interesting to watch you, you have been a big student of marketing. You have, I remember you telling me your goals and what you wanted to accomplish. And you have far surpassed those goals. So talk to people about what you see are the principles of growth, in terms of accomplishing what you really want to set out to accomplish?

Lori Putnam 10:57
Well, you know, I think has setting those goals first, is the important part, right, you know, having a clue what it is, even if that changes down the road, having some clue what it is you want to do, and, and writing that goal down and thinking about that? And no, it’s everybody’s goals are different, I think. And sometimes, it’s a little easy to get wrapped up in what somebody else thinks is success or whatever. And you think, Well, I have to do that thing. But, you know, knowing yourself is the first step to, to figuring out at least, you know, a primary goal, like a short term goal, five years or something like that. It doesn’t mean of course, you can’t have long range goals. And I’ve certainly had plenty and have plenty more. But you if you don’t just get started somewhere, then you’re constantly just throwing my you know, that thing, throw something at the wall and hope it sticks. And that’s no fun.

Eric Rhoads 12:05
Well, we’ve all been there. And but you know, I went for years setting goals, but I never hit my goals. And I went for years where I didn’t look at my goals. I didn’t pay attention to them, I’d set them you know, like everybody does, it’s the first of the year, and then it’s like you forget about them? Do you have some kind of a process or a system that you follow?

Lori Putnam 12:29
Well, I think the first time I ever wrote down anything, it was actually for a workshop. And we were to write down, you know, what success was and what our goals were for this workshop. And it was very, very early on. And, and I remember being told it was Scott Christensen. And I remember being told, you know, don’t look at your neighbors. And revisit this, revisit this. And that’s what I do. I make lists, and I rewrite them like, nobody’s, you know, it’s like, dance like nobody’s watching. I write them. For me, they’re mine. Nobody else has to see them. I have people in my mentoring program that asked them to do the same thing, and I don’t see them. But the thing is, then to revisit that, you know, if like, every three to six months, revisit that, and just pull it up and say, Wow, I did that already did that? Or what was I thinking? That isn’t even important to me anymore? And understanding anything that you intended to happen? Or hoped would happen? And what is it that maybe you’re missing, that you need to work toward? Because that thing isn’t happening, it doesn’t seem to be developing. And if it’s still really important to you, and you remind yourself of it every three to three to six months, then you can stay on track with that. I am a big to do list person, if I don’t, people kind of make fun of me. But if I don’t have a list, then I would get nothing done. And it’s not you know, have a list of things to paint and calls for entry in there. And they’re by date. And that way I can can say and not only things that are Date Specific, but also if there’s a series I think I need to work on to get the attention of something, you know, some show or some whatever it is I’m interested in. But it it’s also really important that you want to do those things. Like don’t you know, I think it’s, I think we do ourself a real disservice to set a goal are put on a list something to do, that we are not, that just isn’t us, it’s not something we’re going to enjoy doing. And so, so for instance, if you if you see all your friends doing really great at plein air festivals, and you think, okay, that’s my goal, I’m gonna start doing all these plein air festivals and start traveling everywhere, and you absolutely hate traveling. You know, maybe that’s there are other ways don’t make that their goal.

Eric Rhoads 15:33
Yeah, that’s a really great point. And you know, in using that particular example, that’s a hard life, you know, that’s a, almost a road of gypsies. And I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. But you know, the fact that you have to prepare so far in advance, you got to drive you stay in these different places, you got to frame things, you got to you know, and that’s just from one to another, and we know, painters, and you, I know, you did lots and lots of them early on, and we know painters are doing 15 or 20 a year just about kills him, you know. So I mean, you’ve got to be willing to put in the work. I think the other thing about that what you said, I think was, is worth repeating in a different way. You know, just because somebody else is doing it doesn’t mean you should be doing it. So a really great example of that fall color week, I said, you know, I’ll give you guys a little advice if anybody wants any. And I did a couple of coaching sessions one time, and two different people the same story. It’s like, I want to sell more art. And I’d say, Well, why? Well, isn’t that what I’m supposed to do? As well? Do you need the money? No. Well, then why do you want to sell more art? Well, then it helps them identify Well, what do they really want? Well, I want to sell more art because I want recognition. All right, do you have to sell that art to get recognition? No, I could I could do at a charity events or whatever. So I think if you if you dig deeply, as you I know you have, then you, you’ve got to find what is exactly right for you.

Lori Putnam 17:01
I think that’s so very true. Like, for instance, the opposite of the plein air festival thing is I know people who cannot stand to work in the studio, they only want to paint outdoors. And so they should not feel obligated to come in and make you know, six foot by eight foot paintings in their studio, that’s not something that they intend to do the rest of their lives, you know, do something that you can see yourself. And in that, in that setting the rest of your life, you know, it’s not that things kind of come and go, you know, like, some people do plein air festivals a while and then stop. But if you set yourself up as only that thing, only that, you know, that’s what I am. And that’s what I want to be known as it better be what you want to be known. You know?

Eric Rhoads 18:00
Well, I think that’s a good point, you know, you you have a quite a success story, I like to say you went from, from, from nothing to something pretty substantial, you know, your yours is a from, from very difficult times from having a very little to pulling yourself up. You want to tell your story just a little bit.

Lori Putnam 18:27
Sure, you know, it for a while, it seemed like it was I was telling it all the time. And so I sort of stopped because I didn’t want people to be bored. But you know, we’ll well i i I didn’t get into painting until I was in my mid 30s. And I was painting just on the weekends and had a graphic design business, which was going really well. And but I was so burned out at the design business that I was, I was feeling physically ill no matter how much money I made, it just was making me ill. And I really, really wanted to learn to paint. And so I went full time as a as a painter, or as a fine artist in 2005 on April Fool’s Day 2005. And I tell people I did that to learn to paint. I didn’t do that because I already knew I had something to hang on a wall. And so that meant if I’m giving up an income, you know, graphic design, in order to learn something new, you know, you can easily do the math there you go from really good income to zero. And at the time. It just so happened that my husband was also looking for work. And so we things got pretty tight there for a bit. And we put our house on the market decided to sell everything, so that I could learn to paint. Really, I mean, I could have gone back to graphic design, and we wouldn’t have had to do that. So it wasn’t like, I didn’t have other options. I didn’t want other options, you know. And so we sold everything took 18 months for the house to sell. That was the scary part.

Eric Rhoads 20:26
Well, I was right in the middle of a tough economy, if I remember, well, you know,

Lori Putnam 20:29
and it took a while and, and so that gave us a little cushion then. And we took basically we budgeted, okay, what is it going to take to live in an apartment right outside of Nashville? For we had eight months until our son was graduating from Carnegie Mellon. And so is what’s it going to take? What is the budget for that. And we took that amount of money from the sale of the house, and put it aside and went to Italy for eight months instead. And lived in a farmhouse. And, you know, we’re very frugal, we had no car we didn’t, you know, we walked everywhere we were, it was the middle of the winter rates were very, very low. So that I could just really concentrate on painting, learning to paint. And of course, that still meant nothing, no income coming in, right? It just meant I was learning to paint and drinking good wine. And which is not bad.

Eric Rhoads 21:35
drinking cheap wine, but still good.

Lori Putnam 21:40
And it was just so inexpensive to live there, that the end of the eight months, I had done about 200 pieces. Not all of them worth anybody ever seeing. But I can remember specific assignments I gave myself, you know, to try to figure out why I was there, and had just come up. Incidentally, I just come off about six months before our workshop with Kwanko. So I had a lot to chew on. And the whole time during that anyway, we came home, and we actually didn’t spend the entire budget. But Mark still couldn’t find work, you know, and I’m still, you know, at the level of maybe put a painting in a beginning gallery $450. So you know, that’s not like, That’s not like you still have any income, just speak up, right. And so things were really tight. We were very choosy if we went to the grocery about what we bought, didn’t buy, and basically did absolutely nothing that would cost a dime. Because we didn’t have a dime. And then that Mark had some part time work. I started selling a little bit doing some little beginning oil classes, just anything, you know, to keep our heads just right above water barely. And and then things changed.

Eric Rhoads 23:19
Was there a trigger point, a turning point, something that might give other people going through that some hope? Is there something that that you did that made everything change?

Lori Putnam 23:33
Well, there were, there were several things. I mean, besides just doing what I could to sell what I could, or, as I mentioned, teaching or beginning workshops, that didn’t really pay very much. I also was very fortunate to fall into the arms basically, of some helpful people. And yeah, I had Don Whitelaw, who just took me in and helped me figure out how to start a business and how to make the product better. You know how to paint. And I had a lot of people like that that came into my life. And so Dom and I decided that if we were very, very frugal, we could go to the first plein air convention. And we had gone to the annual Adirondacks, the year it was you were planning you were thinking about this is the thing I’m going to do. And so we went to the plein air convention, and fortunate enough to be field painters at that first convention. And you know, it was it was, it was not like we were either of us in the best It was tough financial time for a lot of people at that time, right? Because I mean, what year did you start that? That was?

Eric Rhoads 25:09
Well, I don’t know, I would say it was about 12 years ago. Yeah, we’re celebrating the 10th anniversary in Denver in May. Yeah, we had to skip two years.

Lori Putnam 25:20
Yeah, yeah. And so it was, it was pretty, it was pretty tight. And I remember, you know, thinking, I’m gonna get everything I can ask this convention, because this is, this is a big chance I’m taking to, you know, travel here, spend the money to travel here, spend the money for the convention and all that. And, you know, I’ve met first of all, a lot more people who were encouraging to me, which helped me feel affirmed in some way, you know, we think we don’t need that, but we do. It Claude Aspartic was there that you remember, meeting Ken and, and I went, of course, to your marketing thing every morning, and listened and took a jillion notes. And in, you spent some time just talking to me personally about some things, which I don’t know how you did that, as busy as you are these conventions, but you did. And, you know, so we just, we’ve spent some time talking about, honestly where I am, and what I could or couldn’t do. And I remember you saying you probably don’t remember this. But I remember you saying, because I was very honest with you about where I was, and, and where it was, both in terms of my artistic growth. And my, the growth of the business and how things were so tight, financially, at home. And I don’t know if you remember this, but you said, Well, normally I would tell you to advertise. But you you shouldn’t do that. Because you don’t have the budget to do that. And you know, you’re still working on getting your artwork to a level of putting it out in front of people. And you were really honest about it, you know, that, why tell me to do something, but it just clearly was not the right thing to do. And that totally ignored you completely. And on the way home, I just thought, you know, I’m going to do this anyway, I’m gonna, I’m gonna get my art better, and I’m gonna start advertising and I’m gonna stick my neck out, you know, and it’s now or never really, it’s hot. So because when you start a little bit later, you feel this crush to catch up, you know? And it’s about everything. It’s about the learning, it’s about the career, it’s about all of it. Is this this, you know, how much time is there for me to work this in. And so I came home and I committed to a very small but consistent marketing plan with advertising. And, and you were also very generous, you gave me a lot of personal input and help on what to do not to do and, and just, I mean, this entire thing, from the art, to the marketing to everything. There’s just a, there are a lot of generous people out there who will give and give and give. And you were one of those.

Eric Rhoads 28:38
Well, I don’t, I don’t need to talk about me. But let’s talk. Let’s talk about me for a while let’s

Lori Putnam 28:46
Quan was one of those. I mean, Scott was one of those I just they just gave and gave and so. So after about eight months of advertising, little things started happening that had been on my goals. Incidentally, things like get invited to XYZ plein air event, you know, well, I didn’t realize

Eric Rhoads 29:10
I remember I remember that. I remember two conversations. First off, I remember when you called me and you were very excited that you got invited to be a headliner at one of these events. I don’t remember which one it was, I want to say it was Hawaii or something, but I may not. But the other one I remember is when you called me to said, I’m going to I’m gonna go against your advice. I’m going to advertise anyway. You remember what I said to you?

Lori Putnam 29:36
Probably told me I was crazy. Yeah.

Eric Rhoads 29:38
I did. You know, I always want people to buy advertising but not at the wrong time. I’d said to you, you’re gonna advertise consistently for eight months to a year. And you’re gonna call me about six months into it and say,

Lori Putnam 29:54
Hey, you didn’t say that. What did I say? Yeah, you said you’re gonna go I was gonna call and be in have regret, had regretted maybe making the choice and want to stop and pull out and all of that. And that that would be probably about the time it was starting to actually pay off. You know that I would do that.

Eric Rhoads 30:13
Yeah. And then about two months later, that’s when you started really seeing the action.

Lori Putnam 30:18
Yeah, yeah, that’s right. And it was fabulous. Because I found out that these plein air events, look through those magazines right there, their organizers looked at those magazines and when they see work, consistent work that they like and a name keeps popping up, then suddenly you’re on their, their list and and, and it can be something you apply for it being Invitational doesn’t, that doesn’t seem to make the difference. It’s just that your name is at the front of their minds instead of who is this person. And so that started happening first. And of course, that’s a big, that’s a big snowball. You know, if you’re going from Easton to Maui, in all parts in between your names getting marketed across the country. Yeah, you know. And so it was really huge, really huge. And also, I had been, like I mentioned, I had been teaching basically beginning workshops, beginning plein air, beginning, loyal, whatever. And I started listing my workshops, obviously, and plein air magazine. And prior to that time, you know, you might schedule I might schedule a dozen workshops, because only three of them were going to make, right, you know, you just you always scheduled more than you ever thought you would teach because it’s so it was so hard to fill workshops, as you know, a name nobody knew. And those workshops started filling and I remember that next year having like 11 that before with waiting lists and thinking, Oh no, I’m not gonna do this and get my mind and, you know, and, and so it helped that to, you know, to be able to fill workshops that’s, that’s, that’s a lot of reaching out to other people. There are people from those very earliest workshops that are my collectors today. So it just keeps going, you know, just keeps going.

Eric Rhoads 32:35
Well, you really are a success story and it’s been really fun to watch you the let’s let’s talk about plein air painting you you do a lot of studio work you you made enough money that not only did you pull yourself you and your husband out of this situation, but you ended up building your dream studio, where you do workshops and things which I’m pretty impressed with quite frankly and then on top of that now it allows you gives you the space to do some big pieces, some studio pieces. what’s your what’s your ratio of studio to plein air

Lori Putnam 33:13
you know, that’s a really difficult one to answer because I tend to go in you know kind of trend almost not trend. That’s not a good word, but I will I’ll get to do a lot of plein air because of certain things right either in the past I’ve been either teaching or a trip with brands or plein air festival you know Kevin McPherson and I do the art ambassador for colorful world trips and all of that is plein air and, and so I get to do that or I will go and paint because I’m researching to do some studio work and but then I’ll be in the studio for months and months. Because I have so many plein air sketches that I’m excited about painting studio pieces and so I it’s getting, I would say it’s getting less and less plein air. But when I am out there I’m getting a whole lot more intentional information, you know, that’s helpful. When for me when I come back and say

Eric Rhoads 34:36
well, you know if you if you would ask some of the kind of the early founders of the modern plein air movement, some of those people would probably say, you know, never the intention was to do plein air painting for finished paintings The intention was to get studies for for for studio work

Lori Putnam 34:56
great and and I find that a lot of The the pieces that I do you know, they they are truly studies like I’ll have a piece that has certain colors in it or time of day in it that I did paint a totally different scene or subject, but it’s based on that learning I got out side and so it’s not necessarily in my case that I will bring something in and just enlarge it to a bigger piece, you know. And to that end I’m not even aware sometimes of probably fairly bad compositions that I do maybe outdoors because when I come inside it’s about those values and colors and things I can that are useful to me. If I’m painting studio painting

Eric Rhoads 35:58
now you you had the benefit you were probably a studio painter before you ever went outdoors right when you when you first started painting, were you going out?

Lori Putnam 36:07
No matter of fact, I remember taking a plein air workshop friend and I were studying still life over we were painting very, you know, no brushwork realistic, monochromatic, almost still life that would take weeks to do just one little simple thing. And she said, Hey, I’ve heard about this, this guy, he’s gonna teach at plein air workshop, you want to go and I said, Sure. What’s plein air? So? No idea, you know, but it was to do something fun with a friend right and met and his name was Jason Saunders. And then he is a really good friend of Scott Christensen’s. And so that’s how I found Scott and you know, but don’t want law kept telling me that if you that she had been guided by Everett Rehman Kinsler, the late, great counselor that, you know, she wanted to paint better portraits, she needed to paint in plein air to learn from nature. And, and so the fact that she had also taken me in and was helping me, we started plein air painting together. And that was just enormously useful to be with somebody who was already a good painter. Useful, not just because she maybe always knew what to do that because there were times she didn’t know what to do. And that was helpful. There’s the conversations, you know, having, having artists as friends, that you can really talk about all this stuff and bet back and forth possible things that might make something better, I just love traveling with her. So that that’s really helpful.

Eric Rhoads 38:08
First off, she’s a fine human being. Secondly, she’s an incredible teacher. And third, she’s an incredible painter. I think that for the people who are studio painters out there who have never been listening to this that have never gone outside, and I hear I hear this all the time from people’s like, I don’t want to bother, you know, it’s too much work. I don’t want to deal with nature and and with the lights changing, et cetera. But I have seen so many examples. And I know you have as well, where someone has been a studio painter their entire life, and some of them are really, really great painters. But the minute they they start going outdoors, maybe not the minute, but after they’ve been going outdoors for a year or two, suddenly, the impact on the light and the feel inside their studio paintings is completely different. Would you agree?

Lori Putnam 39:01
Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, obviously, they’re, you know, there are types of painters that, you know, their style or their genre is not about that. And so that’s, that’s a totally different thing. But people who really want to know how to make their studio pieces, feel feel more light filled, and have a better sense of color harmony, you mean, Nature gives that to us? It’s just there. If you will take the time to go out and study it. And you’re right, there are people that it changes in such a dramatic way, even if they’re already fabulous painters. It just takes their work to a whole other level. And of course, you know whether you’ve been painting a little while or not All while you can pick and choose then it’s like in the studio. You know, outside, I’m learning that in the studio I’m creating. And so I can pick and choose little things I have learned to create something in the studio. And I think that is like, a lot of times I’ll paint something, I’ll be looking through photos and a photo will pop up, that will remind me of something I wanted to paint. But the photo doesn’t match what I have in my head at that place. And so the photo only it’s only the spark.

Eric Rhoads 40:41
So how do you deal with I don’t even use the photo, you don’t paint from photos,

Lori Putnam 40:45
I don’t even I mean, I do I do paint from photos sometimes. But it’s more pleasurable for me, if the photo just sets off some memories of having been there, or a study of something even totally different, that would work for that. And, and create, just really create. Because if I start looking too much at photos, and like I say I do paint for them from them sometimes. But if I look too much at photos, then I become a slave to the photo and do what it’s telling me and what is telling me is wrong. You know, I mean,

Eric Rhoads 41:25
it happens to early painters is that they’re trying to do paintings and photos. I mean, they’re, you know, they’re trying to do photographic reproductions in paint. So what do you do when you get stuck? If you’re in your studio? And you’re just like, I just, you know, I don’t know what to do, does that ever happen to you?

Lori Putnam 41:45
You know, it happens only when I’ve just finished something really large, like, have an exhibition that has 28 pieces in it. And most of them, the majority of them are our larger pieces. 3040 3648. A couple even larger than that. And so I spent a good long time writing those, right? I mean, I’ve worked on that for a long time to get that ready for the show. And so then when it’s delivered for a day or two, I’m like an hour, what do I do? You know, just everything has been about that. But it doesn’t take long, whether it’s looking back on my list that I mentioned earlier about what to paint, or just looking through an old photo album of something, and something starts to click, and maybe I don’t even end up using that photo album. But it will remind me of something else I wanted to do and it doesn’t take very long to get right back into it. Of course deadlines are good things to you know that helps to

Eric Rhoads 43:05
deadlines ever Rob, you of the joy is like the idea of I’ve got to get 50 paintings to a gallery of their giant paintings. And I’ve only got a year to do it, or two years or whatever the number is, Does that ever feel like I don’t like this pressure. I’m here to paint and have fun. And I’m painting but like, this isn’t fun trying to meet these deadlines?

Lori Putnam 43:27
Well, it used to, because I used to do so many plein air festivals that the time it was I was always so stressed about time and deadlines of anything that was in the studio. But now I feel like and especially now that I’m not teaching small group workshops anymore. I feel like the time is more my own. And I’ve also gotten a lot pickier about what I will put in the show. And so if it’s all if the show is all mine, obviously, that’s more pressure than if it’s just an opportunity to maybe exhibit with an association or group that you respect. And you just don’t have the time to get to get that to get something really good for that. I won’t send something that I’m not happy with. And so that but that’s, that’s hard to do. Because sometimes you think, man, I really want to be in that show. But if I don’t have anything worth putting in that show, it’s better for me to not do that.

Eric Rhoads 44:33
Yeah. Do you if you have a show and you’ve got a certain amount of time and you’ve got a certain number of paintings that you have to do in that show? Do you do you actually calendar eyes that out? Like I gotta have one done every five days or something like that? Or do you just kind of just keep going and do you work on multiple paintings at one time? How does that work?

Lori Putnam 44:56
So it sort of depends Last two solo shows that I’ve had, I’ve had quite a bit of time to prepare, you know, the deadline was set with a lot of time. And so after, it became kind of clear what direction I wanted to go, like one of them, the last year’s exhibition was close to home, because we’ve all been home for a couple of years, right. And so I came up with a theme for that, and then started filling in, in my mind, that pieces for those for that theme, and how many that would be this, your show is far from home. And it’s based on all the travel, you know, and so that was, that was a lot of fun to go back and relive being in those places. But I knew how many pieces realistically would fit in the, and the Exhibition Space Museum. And so. And I knew how long I had to do it. And I knew that I wanted to have some large ones. So I my schedule, if you will, was to try to get the large ones, pretty much gone. Early on, because it’s one thing to have planned a space for 3648 and not end up with it. And it’s another thing to plan to space for, you know, 1824 and not enough with it, right? I mean, and so I just in that case, tried to get most of the big ones done early on. And some of those, though, a few of those were older pieces that I knew one day, I would know what to do with. And so they weren’t all from the beginning, almost all of them were but there were a few that were not. They were older pieces that are reworked, like you were, you were saying at the beginning of the podcast, and that was really freeing because it’s like, well, this is just going to be a found painting if this works. And and sometimes I do have a few going, but not from beginning to end going I’ll have a few that are almost finished. I can’t work on, you know, Peru, and Cecily, at the same time, I just can’t do it. My brain doesn’t do that. But if I have both of those 95% of the way, and they’re leaning against the wall, and I you know, I can think about little changes. And both of those at the same time. You know, so?

Eric Rhoads 47:43
No, I’m curious. You’ve had, you’ve had a lot of chance to encounter a lot of really great living painters, but there’s also painters who have influenced you from the past, who were some of the people have inspired you over the years, what painters come to mind?

Lori Putnam 48:02
Well, some of them, it’s interesting, I don’t even know I’m there, just know that that’s the beauty of social media, right is for all of its faults, you can find artwork, that is really inspiring, then you don’t even know the person. And so there’s a there’s a painter, as odd as this, it sounds because the what this painter does is nothing like what I do. But there’s something about the way this painter sees and thinks. And the name is Alex Cunniff. Ski and probably not saying that right.

Eric Rhoads 48:42
Ukrainian

Lori Putnam 48:45
you know, that’s a really good question. No, all I know, is that there’s something about the way he sees, oh, and puts together these scenes that are out of an ordinary life. That really is intriguing to me. And I tend to think of that a lot when I’m looking for something to paint that seems maybe I don’t like to paint just the picturesque, you know, something and get on a postcard. And so I’ll think about that, that him and his work or, you know, somebody I could not find I wanted to to get an image out for Lynch meal. And, you know, he, he is always his, if I look through like I have his book and if I look through his work, he’s always he doesn’t know, obviously, but he’s pushing me to have guts, you know, and to do some composition that’s out of off the wall and and color, you know if that’s the color you want to work with? And, you know, if it’s like, when can do it? The why can I do it? And so he’s like, well, so you know, but exactly. And so those kinds of things. Of course ad campaign, you know, who has, who is influenced, most of us, especially if we’re, plein air painters have had the great privilege to paint in many locations where ad campaign painted, and see what he did with those things, you know, in person. And so he’s, he’s very influential volcanes to Roya. Not just his high key paintings, which he has a lot of very high key paintings. But also his that are more dramatic, dramatic paintings. With it’s just really light and dark pattern in the painting, all of those things influence the way I see and think. And I want to put down the paint. Of course, Kwanko, obviously, I mean, how many, how many people has he has he inspired, there’s a painting of a million paintings that come to mind. But there’s one in particular that I got to see, it was on exhibit, he and Scott had a show down at the booth, Western art museum. And it’s, it’s really huge painting, you should people should look it up, it’s called heavy laden. And just it’s a snow thing. And I wish you could see it in person, because it’s great if you see it online. But if you see it in person, it is absolutely brilliant. And it’s the one of the things that he does so well is make these little pieces of shapes of different shapes all come together that make no sense of clothes, you know, and then you step back and go, Oh, my goodness, you know, he and he’s got paintings of leaves and, and paintings that just made me want to make sure I never paint a single, quote unquote, thing, again, in my life, you know, that’s

Eric Rhoads 52:21
something you’ve really gotten good at is, is creating the abstract, I am pleased to own some of your work. And when you get right on top of it, it’s very abstract. You know, as you step back, it comes together as a whole so that you get the image. And I think I my sense is that you’re really moving more and more of that direction. Is that true?

Lori Putnam 52:45
I am. And I think that is why a lot of these types of painters are most intriguing to me. Now, that’s, you know, not to say that, somebody who’s a, well, here again, if you look at things that are shot down on the internet, it’s different than seeing them in person. Right. And so you think about Tim Lawson, and his work online, you know, looks, you know, really tight and, and neatly drawn and, but then when you see it in person, it is so brilliantly abstract. And I am also amazed at how many times he can totally break the quote unquote, rules that we’ve all been given. So I love him for that. And so he inspires me, you know, that’s a totally different. That’s a totally different type of painter than you know. I don’t know. Sargent, right. I mean, they’re totally different. But they are both and influential in a way. That makes sense to me. Well, when

Eric Rhoads 53:59
you can see what’s possible. I mean, you see some of these artists, and you’re just like, how, how could anybody accomplish that? And so when you get these ideas, you know, you’re not copying them, but you’re getting ideas from everybody you see. Right. That’s why why we all love art books. Let me ask you, before we wrap up, you’re going to be coming out to the plein air convention. You’re doing a pre convention workshop, and I have to, I have to give you applause because you’re the first woman to do the pre convention workshop. It’s always been a lot of you know, it’s been people like Christiansen and McPherson and, you know, a lot of the greats and and we really felt like this was your time. This was something that you know, the pre convention workshop gets, sometimes it gets several 100 people, we put the images up on the big screen so everybody can see. And this, this is a huge deal for us and it’s a huge deal for you. What what are you Your plans? What are you going to do?

Lori Putnam 55:02
Well, it’s, as it’s starting to come together. One of the things, I think that people, I started to think about what is it people tend to respond to in my work. Because obviously, if you want to study with somebody or learn from somebody, you want to learn something because you respond to their work. And generally it is the use of light. And my paintings. You know, sometimes it’s brushwork, and color, and all of those things, but that all goes, that all goes together. And, and we’ll come out with as I do demonstrations throughout the time, but it’s the hardest thing, I think, when people especially beginning painters start to paint in plein air, they still are painting, like they’re painting from a photograph, you know, they’re not understanding the changing light, and the type of light and how it’s amazing how they don’t even get that they need to know the direction of the light and the color of it. And our density is. And so I’m very, very excited to present all of that to people and try to get people to be more excited about learning from nature, and more excited about how that translates them when they go into their studio, and really start to see that stuff and feel it and use it in their own work. It’s, it’s, it’s interesting coming on the heels of Kevin McPherson from last year, you know, he’s a dear dear friend of mine, and also a big influence of mine. And so it’s all these people who have come before that, you know, I’ve looked up to for so long and and to be coming and trying to stand in their footsteps. It’s a huge, huge honor to do that. And I thank you, thank you so much for the opportunity. Oh, you’re ready,

Eric Rhoads 57:02
you’re ready, you’re up for it? Well, I think I think it’s gonna be an awesome workshop. It’s a day and a half. It’s before the plein air convention. And you have to attend the plein air convention to be able to go to it, and it’s gonna be really terrific. So and once we announce our celebrity guest, everybody’s gonna, it’ll sell out in a minute. Well, Lori , we could probably go on for hours, because you have so much good information, and we will have you back. But I just want to say thank you, I want to acknowledge you, I’m very proud to watch what you’ve done with your career in the short amount of time that you and I have known each other, which is 12, of 13 years probably. And it’s it’s amazing to me that that someone can soar as high and accomplish so much and push themselves to get to the level of mastery that you’ve accomplished in such a short time. You know, real The reality is, it’s not a very long time as some people take 20 3040 years. And I just want to acknowledge you and applaud you for that. You’ve been a big inspiration to me, and certainly to all of us out and I can’t thank you enough.

Lori Putnam 58:21
Thank you so very much, Erica, I really appreciate that. That acknowledgement of hard work is really what it is. It’s hard work. So thank you very, very much.

Eric Rhoads 58:32
Awesome. All right. Thank you very much, Lori, and we’ll see you soon. See you at the at the plein air convention. Alright, so you guys, what a great what a great interview. And then like I said, we’ll have her back because there’s so many more things we could touch on. But it’s time now to improve your art sales. We’re going to get into a couple of topics that we haven’t touched on too much before. So it’s time now for the art marketing minute.

Announcer 58:58
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 59:11
In the art marketing minute, my goal is to answer your marketing questions. And almost all the questions we ever asked come from you once in a while. We don’t have one and we have to make one up but very rarely. But it has happened. So I’m just being honest here. You can send your questions to me, [email protected] or you can email or you can actually there’s a way you can go to artmarketing.com/questions And you can actually record a video. I don’t think anybody’s ever done that. But you could be the first and we’d like that. My producer Amandine is going to read the questions and then I’m going to answer.

Amandine 59:53
Eric the first question is from Marla Brenner from Madison, Wisconsin. What is an NFT? How might it help the future of art marketing? How might hurt have been approached on mine from a buyer wanting to purchase an NFT of my work? Does it make sense that he may be the future of sales of original traditionally produced art?

Eric Rhoads 1:00:19
Well, so the NFT thing is really interesting phenomena. We did an article on NF Ts and in one of my publications, and one of my editors had written that he thought it was a fad. And I quickly wrote him back and I said, I’m gonna change that line, because this is not a fad, this is something that’s going to last and it’s it’s gaining steam, and it’s something we need to embrace and, and, and, and truly it is really the case. Nf ts a lot of confusion about it to a lot of people, and especially people who are not what I call digital natives. If you’re a digital native, you’re someone who grew up everything was digital, everything was you know, on your phone on your music was digital, people like me are not digital natives. You know, we grew up with books and records and, and those kinds of things. And so when you’re a digital native NFT makes a whole lot more sense than when you’re not a digital native NF T stands for a non fungible token. And essentially, in the world of what’s called blockchain, which is a it’s the same technology that is used for for cryptocurrency and NFT really is kind of a child of cryptocurrency, it means that no one can steal it, at that it has to be replicated, it’s replicated every like nine seconds across 100 million different computers, and there’s just no way anybody can steal it in theory. And so, it is morphing into a lot of things it started out as a digital, only digital, you know, the the original NFT images were something that somebody had created digitally. And when you get an NFT on that digital image, even though it may have been reproduced, you know, millions of times you have the NFT means you have the original the only one it cannot be it may be duplicated. But you have proof that it’s the only one you have NFT is essentially almost like a What could I say it’s almost like a What’s the term I’m looking for, you know, a title on a house, it’s kind of like if you had a title on a on an image. And that title can never be stolen from you, but it can be sold. And what’s wonderful about NFT, that is not true. Typically with paintings is in the NFT world, when you set up your first NFT, you can set it up so that you always get a percentage of the sale, no matter what and you get to set the percentage. Of course, the higher up, you set it, it might discourage other people. And anyone who has owned the NFT in the past can also set to get a percentage, but you got to be conservative about that. Because you know, at some point somebody wants to make money on it too. And they can’t because everybody else owns it. But what’s nice about it is if you created NFT, and you say okay, for ever, anytime this NF T is going to be sold, I’m going to make, let’s say 5% on it. And so, oftentimes NF Ts, if they’re making money, if they’re good, NF Ts, they’re sold 2030 4050 100 times and sometimes in NFT can start out for under a couple $100 and go to you know, we’ve seen stories of, of, you know, millions of dollars. Those are rare. It’s, you know, there are lots of NF T’s out there that have never sold that have never been successful. But the way to do it is basically you go to what’s called an NF T exchange. Now, you can Google NF T exchanges, there’s tons of them, there’s open C there’s xe there’s crypto punks, there’s referable super rare, I like wearable, for some reason, I don’t know why. But you’ve got to look and see if you see something that fits what you do, because the audiences tend to buy you know, like there’s a there’s an NF T site that’s kind of devoted to sports related things. So you’re probably not a place for you. And I’m sure there’s NFT exchanges devoted to you know, more traditional art and more modern art, etc. So you just have to google them. Basically, you go in there, you pay a small fee, I don’t know what it is 1020 bucks, and you create your NFT and you put all your registry information, and you upload the image of that, and then it goes into the exchange and if you’re lucky, it will sell and if you’re really good at marketing, you’ll figure out how to promote it to help it sell. Giving people a link to where They can find it. So I think it’s very exciting. I haven’t done a lot with it personally. But I do think it’s something that I will do a lot with when I just find the time. And it’s not likely to be going away, you know, there’s a NFT has been wounded a little bit, because at the current time of this broadcast, there has been, you know, the Bitcoin thing is, has had a lot of problems, there’s been some fraud, and so on. And so a lot of people had a Bitcoin and a lot of the crypto are going down. But that doesn’t mean it goes down forever. I don’t give advice here, you have to figure that stuff out on your own. But I suspect that all of those things will continue and continue to be strong, because they’re really appealing to a digital generation. And now you have a digital generation that has money. So they will buy NF T’s. And so the you know, the big thing is how do you tie an NF T with a traditional painting. And you know, you can do an image of that traditional painting nfts can be more than an intimate, you know, that can be, you know, a video or it could be a process of creating the painting kind of a thing. But ultimately, it’s the NFT that’s going to sell that you can design things were in theory so that the painting, and the NFT have to sell together. But really, the painting is not necessarily in the exchange. I may have that wrong, but I don’t see how that’s done. But maybe it can be done. We’ll have to look into that. Anyway, I hope that helps. I probably confused everybody. I’m a little confused about some of myself. Next question, Amandine.

Amandine 1:06:37
The next question is from Lorenzo Chavez from Parker, Colorado. What is the most effective social media platform for art marketing?

Eric Rhoads 1:06:49
And sales? Is the question. Okay, so, Lorenzo, that question and I don’t mean to insult you, but I’m gonna. Alright. Alright. So that question is like saying, What’s the most effective magazine to advertise in? That’s broad, or what’s the most effective TV network or to watch or, you know, that’s broad social media is broad, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, tik, Tok, Snapchat, you know, everything, you know, there are broad audiences. And most of these now, you know, they typically they start out as, as mediums for for younger people. You know, Facebook started out as something for younger people, once, once my generation started coming on, they’re like, Sia, bye, bye. We don’t want to be a part of you. And then they moved over to do other things, they moved over to Instagram. And then we all went to Instagram, and they’re like, we’re leaving, we’re going to Snapchat, you know, so, and Tik Tok, and so on. So what happens is you get these bubbles. And then when the, the older generations come on, the kids end up going somewhere else. But you know, they’re all very broad. And each of them has its attributes, each of them can be very effective for you in different ways. So it’s not so much about which one is a better advertising medium. They’re all really, really great advertising mediums. It’s more about how are you going to use them? And what is what is the strategy. So what I tell people is a social media is not an advertising solution. I know that sounds weird. And by the way, I spend, I can’t even say the amount of money but I will tell you that it’s a very large number, very large. I spent a lot of money in social media, but and I’ve wasted a lot of money on social media. But I also have learned what works. But you know what, I had to go to experts, I had to find people who were I have had several different ad agencies, some of which I still employ. And these people who spend their lives and it really know what works and what doesn’t work. And the the methodology and the trends change every single week, because each one of these social media changes something there’s something new, you know, when Apple changed their technology so that you couldn’t be tracked and you couldn’t retarget people that just killed a lot of social media advertising. So you have to be constantly evolving and trying to learn what it is. But let’s back up. You know, the the question may be how do I make money with social media? But really, the question is, how do I make money advertising? And maybe the question back that up further is just how do I make money as an artist? And so that’s the place to start. It’s not necessarily about medium. It’s, you know, you could say, well, how do I make money? You in Fine Art connoisseur magazine or plein air magazine, that’s not the place to start, the place to start is what do I want to accomplish? What are my goals? What is my budget? What percentage of my sales Am I willing to give up now in, in most businesses, you’re a business, if you’re selling artwork, and most businesses, depending on the nature of the business, there is an allocation towards marketing. So in the makeup business, because it’s such a high margin business, you know, they it’s clay, right, colored clay. And so basically, you know, the cost to make, you know, some makeup, for some expensive company, really, the biggest cost is the jar, right? The clay that’s in the glob that’s inside isn’t very expensive. So they can spend tons of money branding, and hiring movie stars and doing all this stuff, to drive interest in their glob, and they’re still going to make a lot of money on it, their margins, as we say, are going to be really high. But if you are, you know, if you’re in a business where you only make 1%, on what you’re selling, you can’t spend as much advertising. So you have to ask yourself, all right, assuming I let’s say it’s paintings, and I’ve just written an article about this, it’s gonna get posted somewhere soon. I think it’s going to be posted on the oil painters of America newsletter in December. But it’s kind of about, you know, how you budget this stuff. But basically, the way to start is, what are your goals? What what is my strategy, you know, once I knew my goals, if let’s say I made a goal that I’m going to make $100,000 This year, and I have to, you know, have that $100 $100,000 I, if I meet that goal, I’m going to make X amount of profit, meaning after all my expenses, I’m going to put money in the bank after my taxes and put money in the bank. And based on that, how much of that are you willing to give up? To get more business? Because really, that’s what advertising is, right? It’s how much am I willing to give up? And so most companies have a range between 5% and 20, or 25%, for marketing, and some some even higher than that, depending again, like on the margins, so you want to be thinking about how much am I willing to give up? And here’s a clue, the person this is going to see seem really obtuse. The person who spends the most money, the person who outspends their competitors, wins. And and so the way I look at things is I say, How much money am I willing to spend to get a sale? And what is the lifetime value of the person who buys. So if let’s say, you come and buy something from me one time for 10 bucks. And then over the course of the next three years, you spend another 60 bucks, total of 70 bucks, your lifetime value is 70 bucks, right? So I then say, Okay, what am I willing to spend to get your 70 bucks, and I might say, Well, I’m willing to spend 20% was $14. So I’ll spend $14 on ads to attract you. And I lose money on the first sale, but that’s okay, because you’re likely to make a second purchase, and then I’ll break even on the second one, and then maybe make some money on you in the future. That’s kind of how it’s done. That’s how you think about it. So you’re asked yourself, based on my current track record, how many paintings do I sell a year? And let’s say you sold 10? At 1000 bucks. That’s easy math, that’s 10,000 bucks. How much are you willing to spend of that? 10,000 bucks to get that 10,000 bucks? Is it 1000? Is it 500? Is it 2000? Is it 5000? Because the more you spend, the more people you attract, the more people you bring in, the more you have the ability to sell, but it all boils down to budget, your goals and then developing a strategy. And the strategy then is okay, how am I you know, what am I going to sell? How am I going to present myself what’s my messaging going to be? And then tactic is the very last thing you do and social media is a tactic. Advertising is a tactic whether you’re advertising and fine art connoisseur or plein air somewhere else. Whether you’re doing social media ads, it’s a tactic. You need to know all that stuff and do your homework first. The last thing you want to do Facebook and Instagram will pop up these things that say do you want to boost this you had? You had 2300 People watch this. Do you want to boost it? Click here spend 10 bucks, and they’re going to put it out in front of a bunch of other people. That’s not effective. Typically, it’s not and by the way, it’s very expensive to do it that way doesn’t seem like much, but there are much more effective ways to do it. And that’s about getting into and knowing and understanding how social media works. It’s a very effective medium when you do it right. But anything is effective when you do it. Right. And in this world, not everything is about social media, you think it is because you spend all your time there. But not everybody does. And not everybody’s going to see you. And if you’re focusing, you’re saying, Well, I have, you know, 1000 followers, I have 10,000 followers, or I have 100,000 followers. You know, are those followers people who are going to buy your artwork? And the answer is, some are, some are not. And so, you know, or are those 1000 followers, people are going to go to my workshops, some are, some are not. So what you really want to do is focus on who am I building my audience? What is my purpose? Most of us have all of our friends, you know, I have a lot of artists friends, but are those people who are buying paintings? While some artists are buying paintings? There’s no question about that a lot of them are, but you have to ask yourself what is going to work effectively? Anyway, that’s today’s art marketing minute.

Announcer 1:16:11
This has been the marketing minute with Eric Rhoads. You can learn more at artmarketing.com.

Eric Rhoads 1:16:19
Oh, I want to thank Lori Putnam for being on the podcast today. I want to remind you guys, she’s going to be doing a workshop at the plein air convention, the pre convention workshop, and the convention is in May 21, or 25th. In Denver, it’s gonna sell out, it’s just a matter of time it was sold out before COVID it’ll sell out now. And especially when we announced the celebrity guest want to remind you guys also watercolor live is coming up in January. And it is really powerful way to immerse yourself and like cut two or three years of time off your life and get to the next level. It’s really an opportunity for you and that’s a great Christmas present for yourself or for others. And then please subscribe to plein air magazine. It’s it’s a must, I believe, of course, I would believe that wouldn’t. Okay, well if you’ve not seen my blog, where I talk about art and life and other things, it’s called Sunday coffee, and you can find it and subscribe for free at Coffeewitheric.com. Also, I’ll be on the air daily on Facebook and have been since COVID began with art school alive. We have teaching every single day noon Eastern time weekdays, you can subscribe on YouTube, which I like you to do, because I’m trying to hit a certain number there are right under 100,000 subscribers trying to get there. And of course just search my name Eric Rhoads. And if you would give me a follow on Instagram, that would be really cool. Or Facebook at Eric Rhoads. That would be nice. That’s me, Eric, publisher of plein air magazine. Thank you for taking the time today to listen. Thank you to Lori Putnam and remember, it’s a 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 [email protected]. 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.