In The Same Boat, 24 x 30, Oil.

By Nancy Wallace

Technology is always changing; it seems like whatever skill I’ve acquired becomes obsolete by the time I get proficient at it. For example, blogs like this one are replacing websites as the go to place for up to date information.

Galleries are changing too. Artists can now easily take excellent photos of their work, post the images immediately, and even put their work into auctions on sites such as eBay, dailypaintworks.com, and dailypainters.com.

The movement towards selling art online has picked up speed in the last ten years. In 2004, a fellow from Richmond, VA,  Duane Keiser, started posting a new painting every day on eBay with a few words about his process.  His success was contagious, and many other artists joined the “painting a day” challenge, posting on their blogs and sending  their work out for the world to see.

Beach Conversation, 14 x 18, Oil

A benefit of galleries in cyberspace is that artists are able to keep their prices lower without the burden of steep gallery commissions. Because daily paintings are usually small (under 8 x 10 inches), many collectors will buy more than one painting.

For the buyer, a visit to any of these sites provides an array of work to choose from with easy to use built in filters to narrow the search. Looking for landcapes of a certain area, in a given price range? Click and browse. No obligation and lots of time to think it over.   For collectors, it can be entertaining and enlightening to read the blog post that provides a few sentences of information about making a particular painting. And it’s more personal; visiting an artist’s blog every day reveals who is behind the art.

I recently signed on to the the “painting a day” challenge and created a blog, (they’re free!) to go with it.  Visit my blog and my website.  Browse the online gallery daily at paintworks, and check out Charlottesville artist Paul Charlton.