12 Days of Christmas - Day Eight Giveaway

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If you haven't figured it out by now, there is a method to my madness in asking you to do certain things to be eligible for my 12 Days of Christmas giveaways. Most of them are to prepare you to get ready for 2103. By having to go back and decide on your favorite painting and blog post for this past year, I am hoping the process will lead to some good things for 2013. The same goes for having you choose your biggest marketing challenge. I am hoping the challenge you identified will be added to your goals for 2013.

The Artists Helping Artists radio show this Thursday is titled "Organizing Tips for Artists ... Getting Ready for 2013". The show is going to be REALLY GOOD and I hope you will all listen to it as it will tie in some of the things we have done for my giveaway. Click here to listen to the show (it will be broadcast at 9:00am/12:00 noon on Thursday, Dec 20th). 

The winner for the 12 Days of Christmas Day Seven giveaway is Stephanie Berry. Congrats on winning a set of 20 notecards. Email me with your address so i can send them off to you later this week.

Keeping in the AHA spirit, to be eligible for the 12 Days of Christmas 8th Day giveaway, all you need to do is make a suggestion for a topic for the AHA show. I'll be honest, coming up with show ideas is one of the hardest things I do every month. So for each suggestion you submit, you will get an extra chance at winning. Please read the entries submitted before you as I will need delete any duplicates. I can't tell you how much these ideas will help me! I will be forever grateful.

The giveaway is the most expensive one yet ... a Private Marketing Consultation. It's a pretty cool service I offer that's valued at $250.00.  If you want to learn more about what happens in one of my marketing consultations, just go here. So, start thinking about those ideas for the Artists Helping Artists shows. Post them here on my blog or either of my Facebook pages. Thanks!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

12 Days of Christmas - Day Seven Giveaway

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Yesterday's blog posts are all about selling your art. I asked all of you to identify the biggest marketing challenge you face as an artist. The response was amazing! Many of you want help with identifying your audience, getting in to galleries, building a better website and just balancing marketing and painting at the same time.

I have tried really hard these past few years to answer many of your marketing questions through the Artists Helping Artists show. But I realized earlier this year there was a need for more detailed information. That's why I created webinARTs to show you EXACTLY how to do all of this "marketing stuff". 

I posted this question on yesterday's giveaway post because I wanted to get an even better understanding of what artists need to help make them more successful. I am thrilled that almost all of the items mentioned yesterday are already in the webinARTs course. But I now have a list of more things that I can't wait to address in future AHA shows and webinARTs courses. So thank you for sharing and I am going to do everything I can to help all of you!

One thing I would like to suggest is that you go back to the directory of all of the "Artists Helping Artists" recorded shows and listen to the topics you would like more help with. If that isn't enough then take a look at the sample video on the webinARTs page and see if you think the course is something you want to pursue. 

I am not trying to push webinARTs on any of you. It's just that I believe it is a really great resource. All of the information is there to create a website, better blog, manage all of your Facebook pages and build a client list. And you have access to it for a year. As a way to say thank you for helping me I have created a discount code to save $25.00 off the January class. Use "save25" at registration to redeem this discount. 

Now ... The winner of the Day Six Giveaway is Durinda Creek. Durinda has won a one month webinARTs course. Just email me and I will get you all signed up for the course. Congrats!

Today's giveaway is a set of 20 of my notecards (valued at $60). To be eligible for the giveaway, all you have to do is post a link below of your favorite blog post from 2012. If you don't have a blog, then post a link to another artist's blog that you like. This will be a great way to share our favorite blog posts!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

12 Days of Christmas - Day Six Giveaway

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I am learning so much thanks to this giveaway! 

Yesterday there were a lot of wonderful links posted to on my blog that represented websites that you all enjoy. Be sure to visit them all as I think you might find a few a new favorites.

The winner of the panel holder for the Day Five Giveaway is Sharon Rose Smith. Just email me your address and I will send it off to you later this week!

The Day Six Giveaway is a free month long webinARTs course. There is a Marketing 101 course starting in January or a Marketing 102 course in March. The course consists of 20 on-line classes and all of the students have access to a private class blog (with almost 80 videos) for a year.

To be eligible for this giveaway I would like to get your input about marketing your art. I'd like to know what areas in marketing you would like to know more about. Is it your website, blog or Facebook you would like more information? Is it getting in to galleries ... pricing your art ... or building your client list? Give it some thought and post on my blog what you think is the most important marketing need for you, as an artist. I'd really appreciate your input. One of you will win the free webinARTs class for giving me your input. Thank you!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

12 Days of Christmas - Day Five Giveaway

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I think I underestimated the impact all of your submissions were going to have on my 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway. I am so inspired by your paintings from Day 1, the pictures of your studios on Day 2, the artists that inspire you most on Day 3, and the music that helps you be creative on Day 4. If you have missed any of these be sure and go to my blog posts and check out all of this wonderful information. I love the fact that we are sharing resources and I think today's posts will continue to inspire us all! Plus it's always fun to giveaway stuff!

First off, I need to announce the winner of the Day Four 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway. I am so pleased that Annie Salness was the winner of one of my 2013 calendars! Just email me your address Annie and I will send it off this week!

Today's giveaway is another one of my canvas panel holders. I heard from so many of you that you wanted a one of my panel holders so I have decided to give away another one! It holds panels up to 12" in height.

All you have to do to be eligible for this prize is add a link below to your favorite art website. Choose a website that inspires you, gets you excited about your art and one that you think other artists need to know about! I cannot wait to see the links posted here tomorrow.

Finally, if you went to the trouble on Day 1 and 2 to select a photo of your favorite painting and your studio, be sure to post these photos on Facebook, your blog and your website. Photos are a great way to tell your followers more about you and your art!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

12 Days of Christmas - Day Four Giveaway

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Wow ... it's been wonderful reading about all of the artists that inspired so many of you. I can't wait to spend more time following the links and getting to know many of these new names. Thanks so much for sharing! 

The winner of the Day Three Giveaway webinARTS month long class is Melissa Adams. Email me your contact information and I will get you all signed up for the January class!

Today's giveaway is one of my 2013 Calendars. It's easy to become eligible for the giveaway. All you have to do is leave a suggestion here (or on my Facebook page) of music to listen to while you are in your studio. I love Pandora and I am always looking for great artists to add to my play list! And I think we would all love to know who everyone is listening to while painting in the studio!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

12 Days of Christmas - Day Three Giveaway

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Things happen in life that are hard to understand. We look for answers and explanations but some things just don't make sense. Yesterday's events left most of us in disbelief and numb. I can't even fathom what those families are going through and my heart is absolutely broken. 

I seriously considered canceling my 12 Days promotion. It just didn't seem right. But I want to continue my giveaways because I really want to thank all of you for supporting me and believing that artists helping artists is something we all want to do. 

Yesterday's photos of your art studios and painting shots were wonderful. It was nice to be able to see  where so many of your amazing paintings are created. If you haven't seen the posts, be sure to go back to yesterday's blog and check out the more than 60 wonderful pictures. There are photos of great studios and beautiful plein air painting shots.

The winner of the Day 2 Giveaway panel holder is Rebekah Sisk. Congrats! Be sure to email me with your mailing address. 

I've decided to step it up a bit so today's giveaway is a free month long webinARTs course. 

The winner gets to choose either the January Marketing 101 course or the March Advanced Marketing 102 course. The giveaway is valued at $179.00. If you don't know about the course, it's an on-line 20-day course that shows artists exactly how to build a better website, blog, newsletter and sell art on Facebook. The September class had over 120 artists and I am so impressed with the amazing websites, blogs, newsletter and Facebook Pages that were created by the students! 

To be eligible for the Day Three Giveaway all you need to do is leave a comment here (or on my Facebook pages) telling us about an artist that you admire. Perhaps you love this artist's art, teaching style or daily blog posts. Just let us know. And be sure to include a link to their website so we can learn more.

Finally, hug somebody today. We all need more hugs.

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

12 Days of Christmas - Day Two Giveaway

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Yippee, another day to give something away!

What a joy it was to visit my blog all day yesterday and see so many BEAUTIFUL paintings posted by all of you! There are so many talented artists out there and thank you for sharing your art! I can't think of a better gift for the holidays than a piece of original art. So think seriously about painting, giving or buying a piece of original art. Of course if you would like to see some beautiful paintings, check out all of the wonderful artwork on yesterday's blog post. There are almost 100 paintings posted and I promise you all of these amazing artists have artwork for sale.

I picked yesterday's winner by using www.random.org. It's so simple, as you just type in the nmber of entries and the website picks the winner. The lucky winner of the custom embroidered Artists Helping Artists apron is Josephine Hardison. Congratulations! Please email me your choice of a white or black apron, the name for monogramming and your mailing address.

The giveaway for the "2nd Day of Christmas" is a panel holder, and it's one of the most important tools in my studio. It holds any panel size up to 12" tall. The best news ... it weights about two pounds! It's valued at nearly $50.00.

And speaking of studios, for this giveaway all you need to do to be eligible is to post a photo of your painting area or your studio (if you have one), or a photo of you painting in your studio or plein air! I am hoping we can share these great photos and even end up sharing great ideas about other artist's painting areas! If you don't have a photo then get out your camera or smart phone and take a photo. Download it to your desktop and upload it to my blog below. Just click the link titled "Add Your Link". Feel free to link the photo to your blog where it asks for the URL link. Type in your name and email and then upload the photo on the next screen. It's very easy, I promise!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

12 Days of Christmas - Day One Giveaway

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Day One!

Giving gifts at the holidays is one of my favorite things to do. Just ask any of my family members and they will gladly share a long list of mostly homemade, mostly "nice" gifts that I gave out every Christmas. Over the years there were some duds and quite a few that were given when "still unfinished"! It's time to continue my holiday tradition of gift giving!

The Day One giveaway is an AHA embroidered apron. The lucky winner can pick either white or black and I will embroider your first name on the apron!

To be eligible for the Day One prize, all you have to do is click below and add a photo of one of YOUR paintings that you consider is your most favorite from 2012! If you are not an artist feel free to upload any painting that you love! Just click the "Add Your Link" Button. You can link to a painting on your website or you can upload a photo. Have fun! This is my chance to say thank you by showing off YOUR ART to my friends! 

Be sure and sign up to receive my blog updates so you will be the first to know about the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

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It's that time of the year again!

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is my favorite time of the year. It's my chance to say thank you to all of you for supporting me, my art, the Artists Helping Artists Radio Show and webinARTs. It's my chance to give back. For twelve straight days I will be giving away prizes (which are valued at over $2000.00). There's no catch, it's just free stuff. Everyday for twelve days. And you can enter everyday and win more than once, so don't be shy!

I will ask you to complete small task each day to be eligible for the prize. This year you will even have a chance to post on this blog, so stay tuned to see some really great things shared right here by all of my art friends!

The contest starts tomorrow, Thursday, December 13th and continues with the last giveaway on Christmas Eve. Be sure to make sure you are receiving my daily updates of this blog so you don't miss anything.

Happy Holidays! Enjoy.

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

An Inside Look at My webinARTs Course

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My next webinARTs course starts in January. The course is for artists who want to learn how to sell more art by understanding how to sell it on-line. The class teaches you exactly how to build a website, blog, Facebook page and newsletter. If you already have all or some of these, the class also teaches you how to do them better and sell more art.
I have decided to release one of the 76 videos included in the webinARTs Marketing 101course so you can see exactly what taking a webinARTs course is like! Each class has three to four videos and there are 20 classes in the course. Since the course is on-line you can follow it at your own pace. You will have access to a private blog where the classes are posted and can post all of your questions on the blog. Since you have access to the private blog for a year, you can go back and re-watch the videos in case you forget how to do any of the things taught in the course.
This is one of the ten videos included in the classes about blogging. At this point in the class all of the students have already learned how to build their own art website. And everything shown is presented in more detail in future videos. Just click on the triangle on the bottom left side to view the video.



If you take the webinARTs class you will learn how to build a website, develop a blog, sell on Facebook, manage and enhance photos, build videos, create a newsletter and tons more! 

To learn more and sign up go to http://www.webinarts.net/Webinarts/Home.html

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

Cyber Sale Starts Monday!

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Cyber Monday Sale!

Join me for my Cyber Sale!

Five days of great savings 

November 26 - 30, 2012.

Savings on original artwork, workshops, webinARTs 

and merchandise.

Follow the link for great savings!

They won't last long ...

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

A Life Changing Cookbook!

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On this day before Thanksgiving I have decided to talk about cooking instead of art.

Most of my friends think I am a great cook. In truth, I am a good cook with a lot of great recipes. I even put a cookbook together with all of my great recipes (and all of my workshop students have been buying them). But once again, it's the recipes that outshine this cook every time.

I recently found a cookbook that I think is going to change my life in my kitchen. A friend of mine suggested it to me and it's called Ratio. I bought it on Amazon for less than $11.00. You can click the link to see it on Amazon. 

I read the entire book in one sitting. Twice.

This “cookbook” frees you from your dependency on recipes and simply explains how to "get your head out of your cookbooks and start cooking". As the back cover states, "Cooking, like so many endeavors, is defined by relationships. For instance, knowing exactly how much flour to put in a loaf of bread isn't nearly as useful as understanding the relationship between flour and water, or fat, or salt. That relationship is defined by a "ratio", and having a ratio in hand is like having a secret decoder ring that frees you from the tyranny of recipes."

The book shares thirty-three essential recipes and variations. With these ratios you can cook in your kitchen WITHOUT recipes and make countless doughs, batters and sauces without ever again having to look at a recipe.

I now know the ratio of pie dough is 3-2-1, three parts flour, two parts fat and one part liquid. With this small amount of information I am heading in to my kitchen to make my Thanksgiving pies … without a recipe. Sorry Betty Crocker, but I don't need you today. And I can't wait!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

Waiting For the Holidays

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"Waiting For the Holidays"

Oil, 6" x 6" on museum quality canvas panel

$200.00

Click here to purchase painting.

One of the things about teaching workshops is we forget how much they benefit the teacher. We all know that painting is the best way to improve your skills. But teaching students is so much better! In my workshops I spend a lot of time at the easels of my students. It's my job to teach them "the process" and the steps they need to follow to create a great painting. We spend a lot of time with color mixing, values and temperature. With 10 students, I can estimate I get at least 70 opportunities to help my students, at their easels, improve their paintings per day. What most of us forget is every time I do this I am learning too!

I just spent three of the last four weeks teaching workshops and I am thrilled with the results ... my students progress, their finished paintings and even my demo paintings! I am so excited about how much I learned over these past few weeks and am noticing it at my easel already. Yippee!

The painting above is one of my demos on the first day of my Newport Beach Four Day workshop that was held last week. I figured it was time to get in the mood for the holidays. If you follow my blog, you might recognize this painting from a blog post last week about photographing still life.

And here are a few more pictures ... check out the amazing paintings created in the workshop!

 

 

Next webinARTs class starts January 2013!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

Front and Back

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"Front and Back"

Oil, 12" x 12" on museum archival canvas panel

$550.00

Click here to purchase.

Teaching three workshops in four weeks is a lot but I am so happy! This week I am on Balboa Island teaching a workshop with the Debra Huse Gallery. We spent the last two days painting at the yacht club. we have already completed three paintings!

Tomorrow we head out to the docks to paint plein air. If the weather holds up we will be doing the same on Friday. I'll post pictures soon!

My next webinARTs class starts in January 2013.

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

Photographing Still Life

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Still Life Photography in the Carriage House Studio

I thought I would share a few photography tips I use to photograph still life. I take these photos every month to use in my workshops as painting exercises. They are great for the first day of the workshop for learning how to apply paint with a palette knife.  In my October workshops we painted pumpkins and we will paint these in my November and December workshops.

The photo above shows my "photography studio". Actually it's just a counter top in my Carriage House Studio that I quickly set up. You can set up a similar "studio" just about anywhere! I have one of my glass palettes on the bottom (which are normally used to mix paint in my workshops), a piece of hardboard as a back drop and I use my leftover scrapbooking paper for the background. For a light source I attach one of my cheap hardware store lights to a table top easel. 

I took about 200 photos during this photo shoot, which is about typical. I constantly move the light source, change the items and configuration of the set up and change the background. I used pears, a pomegranate, apples and holiday ornaments for this photo shoot. I use a manual setting on my 35mm camera that allows just enough light but no flash.

As I take the photos I am looking to capture great light on the objects, shapes, shadows and reflections in the glass. I try to get exaggerated shadows that can easily be painted in shapes in my workshops. I upload all of the photos to iphoto and crop and edit the photos. Here are a few of the finalized photos from my photo shoot. You will see the completed paintings of some of these photos on my blog in the next few days as I start teaching tomorrow in Newport Beach.

I am writing a book about Palette Knife Painting which should be available sometime in early 2013. There is a chapter about photographing your art which includes still life set ups as well as photographing your completed paintings.

My fourth annual "Twelve Days of Christmas" promotion starts next month. Make sure you are signed up to receive my blog posts so you don't miss out. I'll be giving away over $1000 worth of free stuff!

My next webinARTs class starts January 2013.

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.

Calming Waters

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"Calming Waters"

Oil, 12" x 12"

$550.00

Click here to purchase.

I am gearing up to teach my third workshop in as many weeks. I feel so blessed to be able to share my passion for palette knife painting. Although I must confess that for me personally, I think my workshops are just as much about discovering and enjoying the "love of painting". It may sound corny, but all artists struggle to find that wonderful sense of joy when painting. Life tends to get in the way and when we bring "outside stuff" into the studio then "outside stuff" often ends up on the canvas. So I like to create a joyful experience in my workshops. We paint, laugh, spend tons of time color mixing, laugh, paint, eat and paint some more. 

This week I head to Newport Beach for four glorious days. Two will be spent inside covering basics such as color mixing, values and palette knife painting. The last two days will be spent painting on Balboa Island. Does it get any better than this? And one night I am cooking a gourmet dinner for my students. That will be fun. And yummy!

If you would like to attend one of my workshops, I have space after the first of the year, starting with my January workshop taught at my home in South Pasadena. You can learn more here. I'd love to share my joy of painting with you!

My next webinARTs class starts in January 2013!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.