Life of an artist in this computer age.....

I often wonder what the old masters would have made of our world we live in now - the materials we have available, the cameras we can use to aid our work, the internet!! Can you imagine 'following' Monet, Rembrandt or da Vinci! One can only imagine what Leonardo da Vinci could have achieved if he had had the power of communication that we have now!

This struck me today, as I was looking through the photos from last night's 'opening' of an exhibition of 240 postcard sized paintings in Norway. One of my paintings was hanging there among paintings from all around the world! ...Why?......... Because of the ease of communication of the internet!

I have been on Twitter for about a year and have around 900 'followers'. Most of them are artists from all over the world and we often 'tweet' about art; how best to clean our brushes, what paints to use, where best to buy materials. I love the fact that all the twitter artists are genuinely happy when another artist sells a painting and we all *cheer*! 

It was one of these Twitter artist friends, David Sandum, who asked me, and others, to be involved in this plan to send a small painting, representing a 140 character tweet, to his hometown of Moss in Norway where they would be sold and help raise much needed funds for the children's library. Wonderful idea. 65 of the paintings have already sold since last night! 

                                         David Sandum at Twitter Art Exhibition, Moss, Norway

So, I paint, photograph and upload the painting to various internet platforms I am a member of - here on my blog, on my Facebook page, onto a couple of art 'galleries' etc. Producing the painting is the easy part! Since being part of these online communities my confidence in what I paint has increased. If I am not sure about how a painting is working I will ask for feedback from my Twitter Art Friends. They are always happy to help out.

Sales of paintings are slow but that is to be expected with the financial problems the world is encountering. It can be frustrating because all of us artists would love to make a good living doing what we love best; being creative. But, being part of an online community helps you to realise that we are all in the same boat which is why we all *cheer* so loud when one of us makes a sale! ....maybe next time it will be us!!

'Sitting Proud'
My entry to the Twitter Art Exhibition, Norway.