John Lasater was our latest guests on our BoldBrush Live! program. As a paid subscriber, we are happy to provide not only the video replay but the full transcript of the insightful session with John below. Please keep in mind the transcripts are generated by AI so there may be some typos.
Creatively,
Clint Watson
BoldBrush Founder & Creativity Fanatic
PS - This email may be too long for some email programs. We suggest you watch/read it on the web by clicking the button below. Here are some Helpful Links & Resources from the webinar.
Olya Konell 00:00
So I'm going to go ahead and get us started. Let's see. So I'm going to do some quick announcements, and I'm sure you guys got a sneak peek who we have with us, and you saw all the emails. We have John Lasater with us today, and Angela Agosto, our Artist Relations Director, John is going to be we're going to be asking him questions. So get your questions ready. If you know you know you have a question you want to this is focused on what you want to know. So drop them into the Q and A box. You can use the chat too, but they might get a little lost in there, but use the Q and A box, put your questions in, and we're going to get to them in just a moment, something that we like to do as we get started, because we get a lot of questions about who BoldBrush is and what do we do. BoldBrush is a company that offers tools and resources to artists. Our motto is we inspire artists to inspire the world, and the tools and resources are free. So like this webinar, we have a newsletter where we send out tips and inspiration and kind of like this, you know, inspiration for the soul, inspiration for your creativity, and also marketing tips oftentimes go in there. We have a the BoldBrush podcast called The BoldBrush show, and you can see all of the recordings on our site and on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts, and where we interview artists from all around the world. And this live webinar is different, because it's an opportunity to connect you with the artists. So it's more of an intimate conversation, not literally, but with your questions. As far as our paid resources we offer we're a tech company, so we offer websites for artists. Faso is the website platform we built from the bottom up. It's a plug and play. It's for the artist that doesn't want to spend too much time updating their website. You upload your art, select a few things, put in a brief bio, and you can launch a site within hours. And then we also offer Art Full Squarespace by Faso, which is basically a special plan that we've created under our umbrella with Squarespace. And it's their most advanced plan at a much discounted rate. So $385, a year, $35 a month. This is our intro rate. This is for the artist that wants to do workshops, things, you know, sell courses, those types of things. And so, yeah, those are our two main, two main resources of how we can help you sell your art. And now we're going to focus on the marketing and the inspiration and all that other stuff so and I'm going to go ahead and introduce John. John. Welcome. Welcome. We are so thrilled to have you. First of all, we guys all heard he's in Arkansas and beautiful country, beautiful work. So much inspiration. I would love for you to just share a little bit about who you know, who you are and what you do.
John Lasater 02:55
Well, hello. Thank you. This is a big honor. It always is, to have a chance to reach out to the larger audience. I even got dressed up today. This is the first day this week I actually thought about what I was wearing and still just black T shirts. So
Olya Konell 03:13
I do that a lot too. I've noticed that I do better when I have just I have a lot of black shirts because you can't see stuff on them,
John Lasater 03:24
except my gray hair stands up. No, I'm really grateful to be an artist around the year 2000 I was 30 years old, still trying to find myself and had begun to be come a graphic designer at that time, and was introduced to plein air painting from a friend named Todd Williams, another very good artist. And he helped me kind of get more interested in plein air painting. And so for about 20 years, I pursued plein air painting. Although I was I was decent enough at drawing to do portrait. Back then, I didn't really have much of a language for it, because pretty much all of the fine art I had studied was in the vein of the Impressionist impressionists. And so I wasn't that interested in how to compose a portrait as I was a landscape. Landscape was just endlessly complex and hard to figure out how to make work. And so I saw, I saw the potential for a long, you know, career, and just trying to do that. And plus, it's fun being outside. It's great. I grew up appreciating places like Colorado and and the beach because I grew up in Houston, Texas, moved up to Arkansas for college and so that's why I ended up up here. But for about 20 years, really focused on plein air painting, and then for the last five to seven years, I've been working back into portraiture and still life, and have more of a language for it. You know, firstly, I'm a painter. I love to paint. And. I can be motivated to do that probably three to four hours a day. The rest of the time I'm working on business or teaching. And so Secondly, and a strong second, I would say, I'm a teacher. It really became fun. Even though I've been teaching for maybe 15 years. It really became fun maybe seven to eight years ago when I realized what my process was. I had this circular process that made it so fun. It wasn't linear. It was like a it was more like be playful and putting on the the paint and then and then critique it, you know, kind of figure out what didn't quite work and what needs to be adjusted. So I rescued the effort with this kind of unified simplification that might be through scraping or through kind of rubbing shapes in and that type of thing. And and then I, then I usually get frustrated with that and end up with some raw emotion sort of thrown into the mix. And, and then I, you know, and then I try to solve the problems again and and then usually I end up in something that's that is somewhat impressionistic looking in the end. And so anyway, you know, just kind of going through that, I figured out, like art books started to make more sense to me. And when I would read the the notes of of Monet or carot or Degas, like it all just kind of made sense, you know, in light of what they were saying about their frustrations and their process. So anyway, that just made it really fun to teach. And so that's, that's kind of how I ended up where I am now. And I've, I've started renting the studio about two years ago. It's a it's got a teaching side to it, and then it has a studio side to it. And so I do all my painting in this room that I'm sitting in here, yep. So that's basically what's going on. And I have, I have some galleries that represent me. I because I was in plein air for so long, I got to where I could sell art also just online or through relationships. Yeah, you probably want to ask more about that later. So,
Olya Konell 07:07
oh yeah, yeah. Actually, there's a lot that we want to end guys. If you there's something that you hear and you want to learn more about, drop your question. Drop your questions into the Q and A box, or even the chat if you can't find it, if you're on your mobile device. But so since we're kind of talking about what you're doing, I want to just run a run through your offerings really quickly before we get into the tips and advice. So if somebody is here, but has to leave early and but they want to reconnect with you afterwards, and they want to learn with you, first of all, the easiest way to find you is if they they put your name into Google, or they can grab one of the links that we have shared, they can get to your website, and that's kind of the hub of everything that you offer on here. They can find your workshops, right? And so you have a list. These are mainly in person workshops, correct? These are, yeah, yeah. So there's a really nice lineup. You have stuff coming up in July, October, December, and that's awesome. And then you have some other ones listed here. Yeah, and very affordable route. So if you're in the area or you can make it, definitely check out John's workshops. And the other thing that you also do. So if somebody wants to learn with you as a teacher, you also participate in teaching through a site called masteries. So for online learning, they can join your group, and it's like a flat monthly fee, and the groups are fairly small, right? My understanding is they're very intimate, like they're intimate opportunities to kind of,
John Lasater 08:41
yeah, they're capped at eight, so if somebody has more interest, they'll have two or three groups. But yeah, in my case, I have six or seven in mine, so there's still room.
Olya Konell 08:52
That's awesome. Okay, so if anybody wants to join, there's still an opportunity. And then this is cool, because you guys paint your assignments, and I think you do some critiquing, maybe, like, feedback, Yep, yeah. So,
John Lasater 09:05
yes, yeah, yeah. It starts out with, uh, I'll pull up Photoshop and pull up their the paintings that they turned in, and use basically a red, you know, red tool kind of show things. And then I usually, uh, involve some historical contacts as well. And so it's usually a very good discussion, and then I demonstrate. So that's the heart of it, the heart of it all.
Angela Agosto 09:26
And I do want to point out that those are online only, correct. Yeah, they're online, okay? And I did see you have a bunch of videos, is that kind of correlate with any of your teaching, and they're actually really reasonably priced
Olya Konell 09:39
on your Yeah, on your site, yeah. Oh, cool. Okay,
John Lasater 09:43
yeah. A lot of them are older, and so tend to, like, bring the price down as time goes on. Because, you know, I just, I keep growing as a teacher. And yeah, I see those as you know, they might have some little tidbits that are helpful, but I'm, I'm probably a little embarrassed.
Angela Agosto 09:58
Oh. I feel like any of this to learn from, you know,
John Lasater 10:02
20, we all got really good at this, at staring into a camera and seeing ourselves on the screen, you know, around 2020, and so I really like focused on online presence during that time, and built a group up called views, community of painters. Oh, yeah, and it was a paid program for a while, but now it's just a it's just a Facebook group that's free. And we have retreats. We have a couple of retreats a year. We do a still life retreat in at the end of January every year, which is really fun. We go to a resort and just paint still life for five days, that's and then we do a three day plein air retreat in the in the fall. So it's fun group to be a part of,
Olya Konell 10:45
yeah? So it's, it's and you can find it on Facebook,
John Lasater 10:50
views like, if you like what I'm saying, if you know, if you feel like you connect with me, that would be a really great way to interact.
Olya Konell 10:56
Yeah, yeah. And if you after this, feel lost, can't find it, you can contact him through his website, or look, you know, if you can't find it on Facebook, and connect with John that way. So awesome. I thank you for sharing that these are all great opportunities. And I see already a question coming in. I'm going to just launch us off with the just the first general one for business insights and career shifts. So looking at your career as a whole, was there a piece of business advice you received early on that shifted how you approached being an artist?
John Lasater 11:35
Thinking about that, yeah, yeah. You know, there's several things actually that come to mind. Probably the best one to share is just that you need to find your Avenue and really kind of focus on it, I would say so there's obviously many genres to choose from, and at one point I had a friend that got me to focus because he could see I was just trying everything, although, if you go to my website now, you'll see I still try everything, but he gave me about a 10 To 15 year focus out of that, that time with him, where he said, you know, what is it you really want to do? And I said, I don't know. And he said, Okay, well, let's, let's represent the the areas of interest you have with these little rocks. He put little rocks on the table. I've told this story many times, but it was very transformational. And then he he took a cup and he stuck it on that table, and he said, I want you to line up those things right now today, like, what would you like to work on today? And so I, I lined up those little stones along the table, and he said, Now put the, you know, the closest, the one that that you put closest to the cup. I want you to pick that up and drop it in the cup. And I did that, and it was empty cup, and it made a little playing sound, you know, and, and he said, Okay, that's what you need to go home and work on. It's, matter of fact, get up now and go do it. I was like, Well, I'm a little scared of it, because it involved. It was plein air painting. That was the one that was closest to the cup. And I started sharing my frustrations with him. I said, I love plein air, but I don't love Arkansas like I can't. I can go out and find things to paint, but I'm never satisfied with the pieces. And I feel like, if I could go see mountains, if I could go see canyons, if I could go to the ocean, I could, you know, I really could. Could do something that stood out. He said, well, then you've got to figure out how to make a way to do that, you know. And so he said, you know, it probably starts with asking the people that you love the most to give you permission to do that. And I never quite thought of these things that way. I was still young, you know, I was like 3031, I was just, you know, I hadn't quite worked out all those relationships, how to how to make that work, but, you know, finally had something I really wanted to do, and so, yeah, that's just how I got into plein air painting, and I started traveling to events, and that gave me a business reason to travel, right?
Olya Konell 14:18
Tax write off too. Should I ask
John Lasater 14:21
a tax write off exactly? Yeah, you know, once I started, they started becoming a little more predictable, where I knew I'd at least be able to pay for the trip. I started dragging my family along with me whenever they wanted to go, you know. So I guess it was probably the best thing for me, because it really got me to focus on landscape painting. And, you know, later I've come back to more studio work and, you know, in portrait work and still life work and whatever, whatever I feel like doing now I'll put myself into and maybe it'd be a good time to refocus. Again, I don't know, but I think being a teacher, it's made me really enjoy all the different genres, and getting to teach them and use them as a tool to to help other people grow. So I'm very happy with where I'm at now, you know, yeah,
Olya Konell 15:15
well, and I think that's that's such a artists are so visual. I love that exercise. I may employ that myself sometime, because that is true. Sometimes, in order to get somewhere, you need to start with that intense focus. And once you're at a place that you are happy at, then it's easier to branch out. That's the same advice that I received when I intended like a YouTube conference to learn how to like manage YouTube. It was you niche down and then you broaden out because, and that makes sense for a lot of things. You know, that makes sense in my sister into medicine, she niched down and then she broadened out and started doing other things. So that's really, really wise advice. So yeah, guys, if you're feeling lost and you don't know what you're doing, try it.
John Lasater 16:02
Yeah, yeah. You can try exercise on your own, you know, yeah, it helps when a friend does it. But, you know, you can do it on your own too. You can self medicate, yeah, by the way, plein air was just this incredible avenue to go down, because so much exposure, you know. And I, don't mind talking to people, you know. So, like, it was, it was a really great way to meet people and create collectors. And it just, it's kind of the going thing, you know, it's the gallery scene is pretty tough because you don't, you don't get to make those relationships with your collectors, typically.
Olya Konell 16:36
So, yeah, and selling art is all about relationships. And You briefly mentioned that, but it really is. I mean, people will buy a print online, people will buy, buy a study online, maybe a smaller painting online. But most of our signature artists that have been selling and are full time artists, they will, you know, they've all stated that the bigger pieces, those are done through relationships, whether the gallery facilitates it, or they, or they happen naturally through the relationships that the artist builds. So I I have one question from somebody submitted so guys drop your questions in the chat or into the or into the box, if you've been selling paintings randomly over the past five to six years but never got their emails. Is there a suggestion to fix this, or just to start from scratch? So this is talking about an email list which we haven't dived into. Do you what would what would you advise them to do?
Angela Agosto 17:31
How to reconnect with those collectors they missed on getting, you know, seen in contact with?
John Lasater 17:40
I don't know that I can authoritatively answer that. I've I probably haven't been that good at it either. I mean, you, you know, you'll know those collectors. First of all, I don't have any emails of people that have bought paintings through galleries. Yeah, it tends to only be at those those events that I travel to and happen to sit at a table next to a really nice person that wanted my email, you know, and so we all exchange through those kind of connections. Some galleries are open to giving you the list. So maybe if you're in a gallery and you're selling, you could approach the gallery in a really sensitive way and say, I know this probably is not something you know. I know some galleries would would not like doing this, so I'm totally fine if you if you won't share it with me, but can you tell me the names of the people that that had bought my work? And I don't know that galleries are even allowed necessarily, to do that?
Olya Konell 18:43
Well, I think it's more of their internal with conduct, you know, more than any like legal rule,
Angela Agosto 18:50
yeah, an artist before who said that they did a contract with them where they agreed, like they were allowed to send Christmas, you know, kind of like holiday, and kind of reach out emails to them. But they had, like, a contract where they if the collector contacted them separately, or their site that they were going, it's not even the honor system, because they were actually under contract that painting sold, that they would give the gallery, you know, their whatever percentage they actually had agreed on originally. So, and then they did get the list that way. So I was like, Oh, that that was actually really nice. But there was an actual some people, I think Clint has talked about, like the honor system in the past, but in this case, like you said, approach them and then maybe give them that option. If, you know, if I agree to sign a contract, you know, Why sell outside of the gallery, maybe. And then,
John Lasater 19:33
great idea, maybe, maybe that contract too. You could say, you know, anytime you make a communication with your collectors, you'll see can go through the through the gallery, that's very true, yeah, if you're not willing to do that, then, then you really do have your own you know, you should have some rights to reach out to people on your own, yeah? So if you really have a great gallery relationship where they're selling a lot of your work, you know that's that. The opportunity to be really sensitive if they're not doing much for you. You know, I've been in galleries that I was in for seven years and never sold a painting, you know, wow, we're still in a closet or something like that. Well, I don't owe them anything for that, so
Angela Agosto 20:12
yeah, and I feel like it's a win win, because you kind of are helping the gallery, like, oh, the artist contacted me. It's kind of a little bit more intimate with the piece, so maybe they'll want to, you know, yeah, buy more. It's kind of a win, win well,
Olya Konell 20:24
and and it's and it's different. A lot of times galleries know that, that things are different now, because with social media and access, if somebody buys your painting and they have, if they use social media, they probably follow the artist on their social media channels. So for that particular question, oh, it's not in galleries, but in exhibits. I'll jump to that, to that additional detail in just a second. But I think that things are shifting, and so galleries see the value of of can, you know, it benefits them when the artist has a bigger following, whether it be through email or through social or through whatever. So absolutely as far as exhibits. So just something I recently did, and I don't know if this will work for you or or or not, but I went through, so how, how did you take your payment? Payments? If it was through cash, obviously, you can't really track that. But if you took a check, or if you didn't a Venmo or Paypal or an invoice, or I don't know if you, if you used a little app like the pay or the Square app or or whatever, you can log into that account and you can, you should be able to export all of the in transaction, like the name of the card user and all of that. At least be able to see that once you have that, if it doesn't share their email, if it shares their emails, you can email them just like a thank you for that transaction back in blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, I just wanted to reconnect. If you're interested in and, you know, or whatever, like I want to send you, or just offer to send them a thank you, you know, and reconnect with them that way, so you could go through the card process or through the payment processor, and then also, if you corresponded, if you have their names, you can find them maybe on social media. That's something to think of. I mean, all of this is leg work. It's not going to be easy. And sometimes you have to ask yourself, is it easier to just start now collecting and not worry about spending the time unless somebody bought multiple pieces from you and you really want to track them down, sometimes it's easier just to start now, instead of going back and trying to track them down
Angela Agosto 22:43
I was gonna say, I've even seen where some artists will will say something on social media, like, Hey, if you have one of my pieces, tag me. You know, tag me, yeah, share your opening to Yeah.
Olya Konell 22:53
I would love to see it hanging in on your wall. If you can share it, tag me. Or, you know, I'm trying to collect, you know, testimonials, or something like that. And most collectors like to brag about the workthat they have.
Angela Agosto 23:07
So they might, and it might even be worth reaching out to wherever the exhibit was held, like if it was, you know, at a juried exhibit, or just wherever, reaching out to that gallery or that, you know, Association and just asking, do you have lists? Or maybe just not the full list, but the person who bought my painting, yeah, and if they say, oh, we can't get that out, well, can you at least send the mine my contact information?
Olya Konell 23:30
So they have and they the person that asked that question just added most or through the venue who won't give the contact information. So I guess I'll start from scratch. I must have 30 collectors already, though, you know, start from scratch, but also post on your socials, like, Hey, I used to sell through this venue. If you bought a painting from me, I would love to reconnect with you and just attempt to do that a few times, because they won't always see it. Try it on your different social platforms. And if you get five two, there you go. It's a start.
John Lasater 24:01
Yeah, I I used to, I used to work in a direct marketing company. It was a catalog that we'd send out catalog, yeah, and we would rent lists of addresses. You know, I this is really cheesy, I'm sure, but you could possibly trade your painting for a friend's list of emails. Man, Is that even legal? I don't know that right now, like I've never done that, but if you feel like your list is just too short, you know, yeah, infuse like 1000 emails, and you'll probably lose 200 of them out of disgust. But
Olya Konell 24:39
you know, actually, I was gonna go ahead Leah, then I'll see mine. I'll say the the the prop, or not the proper, but the legal way of doing that would be what you just described, just a little bit slightly amended. So if you pay them with a piece of art or something else, you could ask to be featured on their list, yeah, and have them feature. You and be like, hey, because that it's like you're buying an ad in their newsletter. But not really. You just hey, I'm like, Yeah, you reach out to you, to your friend, you either pay them, or you give them a piece and they do a little interview with you, or they feature your work, and then they put your site, you know this, or you're doing a giveaway. That's the best way, is do a giveaway of a couple prints or give away a couple studies. And people that subscribe to your list are entered, including your existing subscribers, so that encourages them to hop over, right?
Angela Agosto 25:33
And if you don't, and if they don't want to do it on their newsletter, because maybe they've worked really hard on it, ask if they'll do a collaboration on their social media. So that way your work gets shown to their audience, and then vice versa. So yeah, it's like a collaboration that you guys can do future things if it works out, and especially if it's two different genres, so there is no competition,
Olya Konell 25:51
yeah, yeah. Like watercolor and then oil painting, still life, you know, even subject and if it's a different subject matters, yeah, which Clint talks about this a lot is like, and I've seen artists that collaborate, artists that have strong artist friendships and like your network. A, it's more fun, but B, you get to help each other out just by overlapping your circles, you know? So, yeah, that's right. I have Gail asking these days, how do galleries feel about artists having their pricing or e Commerce on their website. What are your thoughts, John?
John Lasater 26:28
I really don't if a gallery is making a stink about that, they're really out of touch, I believe so that's just not the gallery model any longer. Yeah, I hate to say it, but, you know, I mean, that may not be true for every gallery. There's probably some out there that are still doing so well that you really need to respect that relationship. But if they're just more of a showroom for your work, a lot of people are in Co Op galleries, you know, but I'm talking about these galleries where they really wanted your work, and they've got a whole section dedicated to you, you know, if it's going well in that in that environment, it might be best to take that model where you don't list the prices. What I've done is I have a section of studies that I list my prices on, and that's it, you know. So my larger work, I don't put the price with it, you know, I still get inquiries. So what that does is like, if you, if you, if you'll do a little section of smaller paintings that you sell on your own, it shows people kind of what a baseline price is for you. And then they can do the math if they want to figure out what your price per square inch is, and maybe what that 24 by 36 might cost, you know, and they can figure that out on their own, and it should seem logical to them. Then when they when they contact you and ask what, you know, what the price of a painting is. So I don't know if that's helpful, but to me, that's been the happy balance for that.
Olya Konell 27:56
Yeah, that that makes really good sense, since those big ones probably wouldn't be a simple online purchase without that relationship piece anyway, it allows you to build that relationships for those bigger pieces. And like you said, they know what the base price is so and then
Angela Agosto 28:11
just make sure, if you feature the the artwork that's in the gallery on your site, that you put a little link that says, in, in or available through Gallery, and then they click on it, it takes them to your section on the gallery's page.
John Lasater 28:23
Yeah, I do use that anytime a paintings in a gallery, I'll say through gallery, I'll make that selection, you know, on Faso, and then, and then I list the name of the gallery too. So
Olya Konell 28:35
grabbing a comment, the situation with collecting the newsletters, person says I have phone numbers. I guess I could text everyone I haven't asked for their emails. Or maybe this is someone else. That's actually a great idea, really quick. That is, if you, if you have everybody listening, if you have a collector's phone number and you know their you know you, you have their name, you that is first, you know, that's the way to communicate with existing people. It's, it's that direct line of communication so people that haven't bought from you yet. That's the newsletter, you know, that's the social media that's getting people into that immediate, you know, immediate contact circle. We have a thing called the circles of art marketing. So I'm trying not to use lingo that doesn't make sense, but
John Lasater 29:24
and then circles are easy. They're just like this.
Angela Agosto 29:26
Yes, that was easy.
Olya Konell 29:28
Yeah. Jason crossno says my name is Jason Lynn chin referred me to you. If a gallery is asking for a portfolio to be, to be, to be sent for review, how many works are they expecting? And is there tips on how to present my work? Thank you and God bless.
John Lasater 29:51
I honestly, I don't know. I don't want to, I don't want to presume just, I don't know, just putting myself in their place. Works, I would just show them your two or three best works. You know, they don't probably, they probably are approached 10 times a day, so less could be better.
Angela Agosto 30:14
Yes, right. And then just link them to your portfolio page, right for like, yeah list.
John Lasater 30:19
Everybody's got one or two stunning paintings, pretty much, you know, and your best, yeah, yeah, best work. And, and a little interest. And then at some point, they'll want to see the ones you're bringing, you know. And so then you can expand that.
Olya Konell 30:35
Yeah, that's pretty good advice too. Yeah. And Jason, if you have a like, if you have a website, link to it, or if you don't have one yet, at least your social pages. But you know, it is good to have a site where they can kind of, it almost sets you up as it's it makes it seem more professional, if that makes any sense, yeah, but that's awesome. Congratulations. It's always exciting for an artist that's wanting to get into that gallery space out of curiosity. So going back to you were talking about, you know, you've had work in galleries that hasn't really sold, but then you got into plein air painting, the experiences of connecting with people, you know, what are you seeing now? What's working best for you when it comes to, you know, yeah, selling your work and connecting with, with the with people.
John Lasater 31:34
Well, in terms of gallery, I would say, you know, make sure it's a gallery that really wants you. You know, there's, I don't know what the deal is, but there's galleries that they want your work merely as a placeholder to keep you from competing. Hear me out. This is true. I don't know why, but there, there just seems to be galleries that that have, you know, 10 to 15 really great sellers in their gallery, but they'll take everyone. And so what are they doing? What's the point of that? They want to be the biggest and the best in their region, and that's how they do it. So I don't know. I think for me, the galleries I sell the best in are the ones that approach me. And so I just keep focusing on making great work. I'll put it out there, you know, maybe let them see it, send them some painting. Say, Hey, I'm a, you know, here's, here's what I do. I'm very honest with them. I don't try to sell, sell up myself, you know? I don't try to to upsell. Push too hard, but I really keep my ears open for the ones that are like, Oh heck, yeah, I think you'd do really great here, or the ones that approach me, and I'm talking about a lot of times it's just small, regional galleries, if they're excited about having you in there, who cares about the prestige of being in, you know, some big name gallery. And those big name galleries are in flux all the time. You know, there's, there's newer ones that that probably sell better than some of those old ones these days, and so, yeah, just be flexible, but aim for the ones that really want your work. And so, I mean, I'll tell you a couple of stories that are really fun. There's one in a town of 50 people on the border of Oklahoma and Arkansas. That's this lady, that's a sculptor and a potter. And so people come to her to see her work. Groups of groups of people come, and she'll, she'll entertain them, and she happens to put up a few paintings around her studio and gallery, and she'll sell out of there. You know, I sell maybe three to five a year through that gallery. And then there's another one just north of me in Missouri, that's in a small town. There's a few people in that town that have money, and they love going in and seeing what's new. And so I'll sell three to five out of there every year. I'm not in any big national ones anymore. I've pulled out of them all because there's, there's a lot of competition at the top, and a lot of these artists know how to just put the bling in their in their paintings. And I don't care about that, like I I don't want to trick people into buying my work with with these little sparkles and or using detail is the way to impress them. You know, I'm just a painter and painterly, and it's a it's a more of a niche audience that I have, and so if I can, if I can be the best artist in a regional gallery, then I'm more of a standout, and it's really fun to sell on a more regional scale, like that. So I don't know if that's great advice, but it's the one. Yeah,
Angela Agosto 34:57
I think so yeah, right about every. To being in big galleries, because more than likely they're not going to push you work. If there's a lot of people, and there were the smaller ones, like you said, if they go after you, they like you, they're going it. That means they're going to actually promote you in your work and put you on that special wall that everybody wants.
Olya Konell 35:16
Yeah, that's Yeah. I think that's great advice as well. Allison asks. I'm curious if John was to start again as a new artist trying to sell his work in the current market, what areas would he focus on the most galleries, online marketing, sales, in person, shows, planner, events, teaching, etc. Really good question. Allison, thank you. That is, yeah. Love that question. Yeah. So I want to know, what would you do if you were starting, like she said, as a new artist,
John Lasater 35:44
I guess I probably seem like an old guy stuck in his ways, you know, and obviously I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm not, I wouldn't say that I've ever had the momentum or success I hope for. It's a constant reinvention that's going on in my life. So I'm right where you are, Allison, I'm still trying to figure out what works. I still, I still feel like I'm going back into plein air next year. I kind of quit the plein air circuit five or six years ago, and I never quite matched the success financially from just working in a studio. It's also because I'm stubborn and I I don't think I ever really focused on supplying that gallery with the best work that would possibly sell. It was more about I've always been focused on myself, making myself a better painter, focusing on teaching lately. But you know, you need, you need multiple streams of income, and so the one that's really been missing for me has been going to plein air events. So I'm heading back into that hopefully next year. We'll see if I get in them. So if you try again and try to travel more now that all my kids are out of the house, so,
Olya Konell 37:07
so kind of like what to what you're saying is so taking that new, new new with that new mindset, I guess, or if you were starting right now, which kind of you're sharing that you're kind of restarting. You would dive into plein air. You would start to kind of get out there. More anything, anything else that, you know, these are rocks on on a table, anything?
John Lasater 37:39
Yeah, I don't. I've only been to probably two outdoor art tent shows, you know, and I didn't do so well in those because my price point was a lot higher than most of the people there. So I don't know. I haven't really experienced that much. I'm not probably going to focus on galleries a whole lot more than I currently do, just because I don't want to turn into a machine here in the studio making the same kind of painting over and over. I don't really want to do that, and I know that's what would happen if, if I started becoming dependent on that income. So, you know, I've got friends that make, you know, 200 grand a year and and I'm never going to probably be that artist. I'm always going to be that, you know, kind of middle class artist. But it's just because of my mentality. I don't know how to be successful. I kind of reel against being successful because, to me, like artistry is, is always head to head, butting heads with with success. It's like you can't you can. You can be a successful artist, but you're sacrificing the community somewhat when you do that, because, because it creates envy, envy and covetousness. And I just, you know, I kind of feel like it goes against the idea of being an artist. It's like you, you know, being an artist is the best life you can possibly have. First of all, because you have time as your greatest resource. Like you all of a sudden, you know, when you quit your job, and all you are as an artist, like you got time, oh my gosh, like the value of time is hard to explain until you have it, and then you realize, oh my gosh, I can put that energy after my coffee in the morning into just doing what I want to do. And people line up to admire that sort of passion that that you're able to unleash the moment you have time, you know. And so like, necessity is the second great resource. So, like time, but then all sudden you've got to make money. Then you're eager and you work hard, you know. And so like, those two things, I would say were probably the best resources I had to give me this. Middle Class artistry life that's just fine, like I do just fine, and I'm very happy about it, and I can do what I want to do. And so I've set my life up that way, where I'm not like a slave to anything except my own whim, which, that's kind of a, you know, that's sort of a downer. Sometimes when my whim is is is not doing so well if you just sleep on it the next day, you might have the, you know, the kind of energy it takes, but
Olya Konell 40:29
a nap and a snack,
John Lasater 40:31
yeah, yeah, I don't know. So I've really gone off track with that. Oh no, no, and I haven't there's avenues I haven't explored yet, to be, you know, to be frank. So I, you know, plein air was, was a great one for me, and I'm ready to get back into it. So that's really all I have to share.
Olya Konell 40:47
I have a question about play plein air. Sorry, this might be a dumb question. I don't know. I've never, I've never painted, you know, besides painting outside my house, attempting plein air, right? I've not gone to any events. How do you connect? How do you sell out of plein air? Like, what happens? Do people walking by? How? How does that work?
John Lasater 41:10
Yeah, so it just it? Well, there's two, probably two things that really come from it. One is you grow as an artist, because everyone that's seeing your you painting has no idea what kind of artist you are. Oh, okay, they've not seen your portfolio necessarily. And so you're constantly able to reinvent yourself, which is super fun, because I'll be looking at a book of a certain kind of artist, like, you know, Fairfield Porter, who was much more playful and childlike and with his work. And I'll, I'll be thinking, I want to practice that. This week I want to be like, quit. Quit worrying about the drawing being just right, you know, focus more on color and thick paint. And then the next week, I'll be thinking about an artist I admire named Israel Hershberg. And I'm like, he's, he's a little more subdued and subtle and careful. And so, like, I'll paint that way. So it was really fun for that reason, because I could keep reinventing myself. The other is, is just meeting people, as you said, gives you a chance to to have that initial relationship with someone. And often they're impacted by seeing someone outdoors, painting like they just think, what the heck? There's this instant trust that it sort of happens when they see you painting on the sidewalk, they think, Okay, here's a person that's probably a decent person, and so I'm just going to go up and talk to him. And so, you know, you can't get that walking down the street, but you can get it if you're set up doing something that they admire. So, you know, you can make quick relationships with people.
Angela Agosto 42:46
Yeah, I mean, that seems big, because it's almost like you're like some people feel vulnerable, you know, painting, having somebody see it, and you're literally doing it out there in the public for everybody to see. So I feel like that's probably where that trust comes in. And it's funny, because I think Donald Yatomi just asked, he said, “John, I'm sure there are many. But which contemporary painters that you admire or are or was are you highly influenced by?” And like you mentioned, like you'll read a book on an artist, and then that way you're going to come try that out. So is that I just thought that was, yeah,
John Lasater 43:15
I would just, in principle, I try not to idolize any living artists, but there are some you just can't help. You know, Israel, hershberg, Quang Ho. Those are two that Joe Paquette, three right there that, oh, Lois Dodd, who's in the Fairfield Porter vein. She's a little more playful. And so anyway, I think about them as I'm out painting and trying to be a little more like them, but strictly I try to find out who, who they admired, you know, and so, like Lois Dodd and Fairfield Porter were influenced by the Nabis, you know, Vu yard, Bernard and so, so I have books on those artists, so that I'm kind of borrowing From the same influence these living artists are borrowing from, and going all the way back to Da Vinci that was a that was a an ethic that an artist really needs to apply is, you know, you start out. You start out going to workshops and learning from from these living artists, but find out who they learn from. Go start making that journey back into your ancestral past, you know, and and you eventually need to be looking at deceased painters, because that's really the best source for creating some sort of new fusion that that looks it looks original. It never is, you know, you can't help but be original, because you're a, you're you're an autonomous person. But if you can infuse those artists that you really admire from the past, you do something that, on the surface doesn't look like a copycat, you know.
Olya Konell 44:58
So, yeah, that's a really. Really good at really good advice. I so I'm going to grab the next question from Jason. If you do have work placed in a gallery, how do you find security that your work will be protected, especially being sold and being told it was stolen? I hope that makes sense. So the piece was sold and you were told it was stolen. Oh, yeah, insurance, maybe, I don't know.
Angela Agosto 45:28
Yeah, like currently when you have pieces in a gallery what are is your protection right now, like you, it's just kind of like you, you sign a contract and you trust that it's, you know, they're going to return it to you, but doesn't sell.
John Lasater 45:43
You know, these are outliers. You know, those things might happen. I've heard of I was in a gallery that returned my work, but they went bankrupt and they they didn't return some work to some people, maybe because it had sold and they couldn't pay him. I hear about these things, but I don't know, like, I quit balancing my checkbook 30 years ago because I started to realize, oh, you know, the bank never tries to rip me off, and who cares? You know, if they do once in a while, it's not a big deal. It's going to happen once every 20 years, you know, and it might be a small amount. I'm not going to track all that stuff, so I'm kind of the same way with painting.
Olya Konell 46:22
And also I think it goes back to like what you said originally, finding places that really want you, places that you have that trust with because ultimately, it's a trust that you build with them. You're hiring them to represent you. If you, I think, run into a bad situation with a gallery or something seems off, that's maybe not a good one to participate with any longer. You know what I mean, that's a sign.
John Lasater 46:49
So maybe, maybe don't be in galleries that don't seem to be thriving. Because, you know, probably, I don't know, 60 to 80% of all galleries are struggling somewhat in two bad months might kill them, you know. So so look out for those, you know, get into the new galleries maybe and and then when you start to realize they're not marketing much anymore, then maybe pull your work. And so I just stay on top of it, because it's a very volatile market. Yeah,
Olya Konell 47:21
and something I wanted to add to kind of tie back, by the way, thank you for answering my question about what actually physically happens during these plein air events that allows you to sell, but for our audience that is listening, just a reminder, and something we always say, marketing isn't just posting on social media. Marketing is everything that you do online and offline, to meet people that could be at a grocery store, that could be at a barbecue, that could be at another gallery event for a friend, that could be traveling, that could be at the airport, that could be at a plein air event, that could be online, you know, could be with a post, and those types of things. And so I think the I've we've had so many artists on and we've had tons on our podcast. And then the one thing the successful artists do all do one thing that I and just hearing what you're describing, you're doing that thing. And when I say success, success as defined by the artist, right? You know, everybody has their version of what makes them happy. But they all, you know, at the end of the day, they're doing different things to meet people. It's not always, there's not a secret hack, it's not always doing it this way, but they're involved either in their community. Some artists do a lot of like local community events. Some write and they, you know, are involved with organizations. Some do, but you're in it's you're just like, you have to have multiple streams of income. You have to have multiple ways that you get out and meet people. And that's going to fluctuate depending on your own personality, too, I think. But, but, yeah, but the plein air events, they just sound fun. And Allison says, Thank you. I'm signed up for my first plein air event later this summer. So that's good to hear that community. That community seems great. So yeah, yeah. The Terry says, I love this mindset of the middle class artists with the primary purpose of being the best at your craft, that you can be for your own full for your own fulfillment. I wanted to say I agree with that. There was a I was listening to a podcast of this guy who's like, really smart, and he talked about this one guy that he had promoted to being a manager, who later demoted himself a year later, saying he just wanted to go back to being the regular guy. And years later, he's still working there as the regular guy, and he's the happiest guy, and this guy who's now successful, a millionaire, and he's like, he visited that place, and you know that that business establishment, and he, you know, met with him, and they reminisced about the good old days when they were both starting out. And he told him, he's like, I told him, You made it. You've. Figured it out. I'm still chopping away at this, this, this vision that I have, that I don't even know what it is, and trying to find happiness. And you made it years ago, like I'm still trying to figure it out. So that's cool. I really connect with that, that that time. You know that, yeah, yeah. Because at the end of the day, what is life? It is just time and how we spend it and what we fill it with. And those minutes become more precious, and I feel like it changes your perspective. So also, as you get older, yeah,
John Lasater 50:38
You know, there's, there's, and there's always going to be people that are God like and they just, they just invite success, and they can't help it, you know, yeah, and you know what they do with that power is up to them. You know, if they, if they just take advantage of it all the time, then you know that's, well, everybody's got to live with with with themselves at some point. So I'll say no more. But then there's others that that are actually very generous with it. So yep, you can't, not everybody can be at the top.
Olya Konell 51:17
So yeah, and you have to find what ultimately fulfills you. Because you could be at the top, but you could be miserable, yeah, and, and, I think that's yeah,
Angela Agosto 51:25
And happy, because you maybe, like you mentioned earlier, about somebody you know, who makes a certain amount a year, like 200,000 a year, but, but maybe they have to keep producing what the gallery wants, not necessarily what they feel moved create. And that while I had one person tell me I'm completely blocked, like, I have to turn seven pieces in for this big show at this gallery, and I'm stuck because I don't want to do that anymore, I kind of moved on. So that makes,
John Lasater 51:52
yeah, that's not a good place to
Olya Konell 51:54
be, is it? No, that's soul crushing. That's worse than doing a nine to five, like, that's, that's at least your emotion and Soul isn't involved, you know, your heart isn't involved, if you're just punching in, punching out. Yeah, the thing that that, I think, is important, we have an exercise in our we have a thing called the BoldBrush circle of marketing for all of our customers, where they go in and they can learn about marketing and stuff. And there's an activity in the marketing calendar that take takes you on a 30 day quest to basically get rid of all the beliefs that aren't your own. And what I mean by that is like we think we have to have a certain level of success. We think we have to do it this way. We think we have to do it that way, because that's what somebody told us, but that may not be what we actually should do or want to do, like, thinking that you have to be in a gallery, or thinking that you have to do with, Oh, you don't have to do anything. Like, what do you want to do? What do you see your art career like? Like, if you were to draw out the perfect career, what would it look like? And is that because that's what you think success looks like, or is that what you actually want to do? And I think in that there's true freedom and authenticity, and people connect with authenticity at the end of the day, that will get you further. They connect with what's real versus Yeah, yeah.
John Lasater 53:21
You know, momentum is an interesting thing. Just listening to a podcast about the psychology of humanity, we we're unique. We're a unique being because we can sacrifice for the future. That's, it's, it's like, ingrained in us to sacrifice for the future. And that sets us apart from, from a lot of the animals, you know, they're a little more impulsive. I mean, people can be impulsive too, don't get me wrong, but, but we, in general, we know good behavior is making sacrifices that make a better future, and so that causes you to become enslaved, maybe to momentum. It's not, maybe the momentum isn't even, isn't bringing an income quite yet. But you're, you're, you're trying your best to like build this momentum higher and higher and bigger and bigger and wider and wider, and in your sacrificing a lot of yourself to do that a lot of time, a lot of energy, and it becomes a fearful thing, like, once that momentum is there, you got a little bit, you got, you know, so many followers on Instagram or or so many on your email list, or whatever you're afraid of letting them down, and that's that's not necessarily a good, good place to be either. I've had friends that told me, whenever I kind of backed out of some of the large art associations that I was a kind of a part of, I quit trying to get into their shows and quit trying to quit trying to do this or that. I had people approach me privately and just said, said, How are you doing that? Like, I'm just afraid of what would happen. Like, would everybody quit? Would I just become irrelevant? That was their fear. And like, if you quit advertising, you know, that's another thing too, is, you know, we're pushed to advertise a lot, and people are dumping a lot of money into that because, well, I, I was told that if you advertise month after month for a certain number of years, you know, then, then you'll be successful. So I don't, I'm not trying to tell you that you shouldn't do those things. It's just be careful of when that turns into an enslavement that you're afraid of because you really need you're free. You chose freedom. You chose to become an artist. And intrinsically in that is this nature of that, that devil may K devil may care, nature that comes along with it, and it'd be good to to balance yourself so that you're willing to reinvent yourself at any moment, in any impulsive moment. We're kind of a childlike person, you know? We're we're allowed to be that way. A lot of us worse. Were, how do I put it? Like not socially inclined. A lot of us are introverts. A lot of us weren't the successful kids in high school and college. You know, we we were the we were the ones that had a little trouble to articulating ourselves or, you know, and so we learned this visual language, and so we're trying to to make a way, you know, using this visual language. And so, I don't know, don't become the sellout, I guess is what I'm saying. Also is like, always allow freedom to reinvent yourself at any moment. Don't worry, your momentum is not really going to go away. You know, people are going to understand that you need breaks, and people are going to understand that you need to try new things. You know, the cost isn't as bad as it seems. So I guess, Don't believe the hype that that there's a great cost to switching direction or backing off a little bit.
Olya Konell 57:24
Yeah, and all these, these beliefs that were set up were set up by the people that want to fuel fuel that machine, if that makes sense. So like you said, Don't. Don't do those things. Don't doesn't mean you shouldn't participate once in a while, like if you're getting started, and that feels right, but don't do it out of fear. And that's so that's really wise. I was, yeah, that's very wise, very wise, very deep.
John Lasater 57:52
Well, obviously I'd never quite said that. Said it that way, and that's why it was, I wasn't really getting to the point very quickly. But no, no, no, no. That's what I was trying to say. It was just don't be enslaved to momentum. Yeah,
Olya Konell 58:06
that would be the title. If this session had a had a title, I see a comment, and I actually really want to do this. If you're willing to, could John talk about some of the paintings I see in the studio? Are you able to grab anything and bring it up to us. Or are you? Do you have anything you want to show or
Angela Agosto 58:25
probably that one that's right behind you? Yeah,
Olya Konell 58:29
it's kind of far. It's kind of far. I don't know if it would be too hard. I would, yeah, I don't know about you guys. And we talked about this before we went live. I'm the person that when I see an artist studio, I'm like, what do they got there? And looking over, you know, like, oh my gosh, that's cool.
Angela Agosto 58:51
Beautiful and and large. I love that. Wow.
Olya Konell 58:55
I love the size.
Angela Agosto 58:57
That is fantastic. I have a huge 36 by 48 in my living room. I just love it. It's just,
Olya Konell 59:04
so is that getting ready to be shipped out?
John Lasater 59:06
Yeah, well, I'm, I'm heading to a gallery in Texas next week with that one. That's awesome. Yeah, it's in it's in Texas. So I'm bringing some of my Texas Canyon paintings, and that one's the Grand Canyon as well.
Olya Konell 59:25
Show us. Donald says, while he's at it, please have him talk about his easel. Okay, yeah, that is, is that custom built, or a thing that you ordered, or he's
Angela Agosto 59:38
I think he’s talking about the one on the wall, right? Yeah,
John Lasater 59:41
yeah, I built it. It's just, it's where I photograph. So that's my photography station,
Olya Konell 59:48
okay, got it?
Angela Agosto 59:51
Got it is that it's,
John Lasater 59:53
there's nothing special about it. It's just, as a matter of fact, it doesn't even slide that well up and down. And just, it's able to, kind of. Lamp the painting, keep it from falling, because usually they're wet when I'm photographing them.
Angela Agosto 1:00:05
So painting that you're taking, the paintings that you're fixing to take down to the gallery in Texas, are those already photographed and added to your site. Because I think, like someone said, they couldn't see it, so I wanted to share that with
John Lasater 1:00:15
them. There's, well, that one is the one I just showed, but other some I still need photograph. I'm really behind on that, probably because my paintings stay in flux for a while. And, you know, I'm even signing those paintings now, some of them, so,
Olya Konell 1:00:30
oh, you know what, I'm going to spotlight you for everyone. John, can you show it one more time? We weren't able to see the painting because, is it zoom titled? Yeah.
Angela Agosto 1:00:38
Is it the Mather spectacle?
John Lasater 1:00:40
Yes. So I do, I do my own framing too.
Angela Agosto 1:00:42
Oh, wow. Oh, it is this one. Okay, so I'm going to share the link. I found it also in your site. I love that. Yeah, 24 by 36 right? Yeah, 24 by 36 Okay, that's awesome. And so do you normally deliver your your paintings when you've got quite a few to the galleries?
John Lasater 1:00:59
Yeah? Like I said, most of the galleries I'm in are local. The gallery is five hours away, but that's not a big deal. And I love being on the road. I do my best thinking when I'm driving well, and
Olya Konell 1:01:12
it probably gives you an opportunity to, if you see a beautiful place, to have an experience, and at the same time, you know, do some live, live painting. Quick question, because you talked about multiple streams of income, do you do prints at all ever, or have you ventured into that?
John Lasater 1:01:28
No, yeah, I came from graphic design print background, and it was always nice to keep it separate from the fine art I see for me personally, just because I don't know, just because I was in the corporate world for so long, yeah, and they kept asking me, Can we put some of your paintings on on our products? And I was like, I don't know. Like, I want to keep those separate. So when I, whenever I left that world, I'll do it. I'll just do it for people that ask, yeah, but I don't, I don't try to sell them. I think it's that would be a very little stream of income, just because the the expense and what people are willing to pay for something that is an original would be very small amounts, you know.
Angela Agosto 1:02:19
And then you have your studies. So I'm assuming that these studies are probably smaller versions of some of these big ones that you maybe have the final original. Yeah. Is that correct?
John Lasater 1:02:30
Yeah. Sorry, I was thinking when you said that, so I didn't listen very well.
Angela Agosto 1:02:37
The studies, are they ever like a smaller version, or maybe the bigger the the actual,
John Lasater 1:02:41
yeah, sometimes I'll end up doing an enlargement. Is that what you mean?
Angela Agosto 1:02:44
Yeah, it's kind of like your, sort of your print, but it's still an original, but it's a study, so it's a smaller scale. So yeah,
Olya Konell 1:02:50
and on your, on his site, he has an example of studies that are available. And, yeah, that's, that's awesome. So they're 888, by 1216, by 12, which are still good size studies like these are, like small painting size studies, and there's quite a bit available. So that's awesome. I love that. No, you know, and there's no right or wrong. The thing is, when we do these Q and A sessions, it's to ask what works for you and why do you do it? Because there's somebody in the audience that what you're saying connects with and they want to try it that way, or not doing a certain thing, or give themselves permission to not do a certain thing. Because ultimately, there is no one way to be an artist. It really, it's, it's what works for you and
John Lasater 1:03:34
somebody. Suppose I would do prints if, if paintings took me, you know, like four to five months or something like that then. And so I was only producing two to three paintings a year. That would prints would be a part of what I do. But I'd much rather, you know, if somebody is going to pay $300 to get a print of mine, I'd much rather make a small painting for them and sell that for two or 300 because I love painting and I want to, I want to keep these little studies going all the time. So
Olya Konell 1:04:02
that's awesome. No that that and people, there's something special about original brushstrokes that people would rather do that anyway. They would rather have a smaller painting than have a print. We have a couple questions about frames. I'm so sorry for taking you a little bit over. Are you okay? That's fine. Yeah. Terry says, so gorgeous. Can John please talk about the frames he makes? And then I saw somebody else saying, I really like the idea of using simple wood, which is great. I love this. I love when we get to see that
Angela Agosto 1:04:33
It’s kind of like you’re giving us a demo here and see the also how big his studio is.
Olya Konell 1:04:38
I have so much respect for frames. You know, I tried building a frame once you've really got and I just ended up doing blunt ends because I could not get the angles.
John Lasater 1:04:49
Yeah, a good friend showed me how to, how to, how to make kind of more high end, Western looking frames. And so I started by making those for a while. Wow, they were very complex. Took a lot of time, and eventually my style started to change to a little more of a modern style. And so I was told that floaters would be the best way to go. So I started thinking more about that. And they're very easy to make using some of the same, you know, corner methods and things like that, to try to make strong corners that won't separate later. So, but anyway, this is alder wood, and I've really come to enjoy this frame a lot nice. It's got closed corners, and I do my best to sand it make sure there's no like, you know, there's not like, a an edge where I round around the edge just slightly. Oh, that's, these are, these are panel floaters, so I can paint on panel and glue them down to this. Obviously, I've ripped the one out of this. The panel was paper backed, and so the paper just came up with the glue. So,
Olya Konell 1:05:58
yeah, wow, that's, that's awesome. Do you, you know your mentorship groups? Do you teach? Do you ever cover your framing? You should make a video on your framing thing and have that available?
John Lasater 1:06:13
Yeah, I would, if I thought it was something that most people could just do on their own. But it's, you know, it's like, you got to have, you got to invest in some good tools to do it. And so most people aren't going to respond in that go out and buy all those tools just because I shared it with them. So sometimes I'll show people that I'm working on them, and if they have questions, I'm always happy to share. But that would be something like, if you wanted to join the views community of painters on Facebook and encourage me to do I might, might do it.
Olya Konell 1:06:50
I love that I have Maureen saying, Thank you, John and BoldBrush, John, I really relate to your mindset and have always, and have to always remind myself that I don't need to complete compete with anyone else, or even myself. I yeah, I agree. And then Allison says, I've been doing my own framing too for pastels, but I am just starting to use oils. Any tips for framing or photographing them? Well, especially when wet. Curious how you avoid the glare, but yours look great on your website.
John Lasater 1:07:20
Yeah. So you can see I've got a couple of umbrella lights back there that you can get a cheap set of those pretty easily and get some LED balanced lights from let's see light shoot. What's the name of that place? Yeah, yeah. It'll come to me, hopefully. But, I mean, you can any, any LED lights should work if the if the bulb is too cold, you might take a little bit of yellow ochre and oil paint and paint paint on the bulb, and then kind of wipe it off. And what that'll do is tint the end of the bulb to be a little warmer, and then you just regulate that to to where you get a good balanced color.
Olya Konell 1:08:05
Oh, it's large,
John Lasater 1:08:07
but you need really, really hot bulbs. You need, like, 300 watt equivalent, bright, bright, bright, yeah, and then aim, do them from the upper corners, if you'll, if you'll do it from both sides, on the upper corners, kind of aim down into the painting, like that. It avoids as much glare as you can avoid. I don't, I don't know, I don't know any other advice to give you just sort of deal with with any residual glare that happens to be there. Sometimes it's how far the painting is from the bulbs. You know, you also aim the camera down slightly, and then you have to have a program where you can, you can change those convex lines to be straighter.
Olya Konell 1:08:55
Okay, good tips. Yeah, no, this is really good. Good. Good tips. And for anyone that doesn't have. I mean, it's not in the budget to get the bright, to get the umbrella lights, which they are very cheap, or fairly cheap on Amazon. But you could also take, if you buy the bowl, buy a good bulb, and you know, those, just any thing that will hold that bulb, you can rig up using coat hangers and stuff, and then use parchment paper. And you can layer your parchment paper in the right amount of, you know, one layer, two layers, depending on how much diffusion that you want. And then you can use different colored parchment paper. Some is white. Some has a little bit of a warmth to it. But I've I the very I saw a video about that, and I did make that, like many, many years ago, that was my first photography lighting setup. When it was just started, I had, didn't want to spend the money, and I was like, Ah, just gonna do what I can with what I have, plus a couple of minor additions. And now I have lights and stuff. So. Ah, but yeah, so it is possible, no,
John Lasater 1:10:05
it's really frustrating not be able to get, like, you know, the color can be off just a little on a photo, and you're just so disappointed, you know. And how do I adjust that? And it's, it's been a constant struggle, and, yeah, and it's at some point, it might be a good idea to go to a professional. Here's the thing is, I do think about the future. I won't be able to give my kids a really big estate, you know, but what I can give them is paintings, and I can give them photos of my paintings. And I've seen, I've seen this where there was a man that was an art director at the company I used to work at. His name was Darryl Hill, and he was pretty famous in the early 2000s I would say, like he was in all the magazines advertised and took great photos of his work. And then he passed away around 2010 and his his wife, was able to take those photos and continue to make reproductions and sell them. And so that was, that was one of the best inheritances he gave, you know, to his family, was this opportunity to continue to use his images to to enrich themselves. And so it's not a bad idea, you know, I I keep thinking, Man, if I ever can get beyond being a middle class artist, I will, I will go to that expense, you know, and make sure I have great photos of my work. So yeah,
Olya Konell 1:11:37
and quick question, photos of work. How do you prefer to store your photos? Because I'm always afraid, and I've had this happen once. I've lost images because I was transferring and I thought they transferred, and they didn't that the files were there, but it didn't finish anyway, so I deleted something prematurely, so now I back everything up. Well, what are you do you do you only use a hard drive? Do you do double up on things
John Lasater 1:12:04
I do? You know the cloud is, is probably your safest bet. I still have not. I haven't trusted that fully, like I would prefer to have them on external hard drives, and so I have two external hard drives. They're both, like, you know, two terabytes, or something like that, and one backs up the other. Okay, so one of them's a backup of my computer, and the other one's a backup of the backup.
Olya Konell 1:12:33
So smart. Okay, that's good advice.
John Lasater 1:12:37
Oh, we'll see. I've never had a I've never had a loss, you know if, if, if this building caught on fire, I guess that's it. I'll lose all of our family photos. I'll lose all my my painting photos. So, yeah, I don't want that to happen. So probably be a good idea to go to the cloud with a third backup, a
Olya Konell 1:12:55
third backup, which you Yeah, you could probably set that up to have a that folder that has them on your computer to go to something like a Dropbox, where it automatically updates as you add them. Yeah. So as kind of as we're wrapping up and landing, the landing the plane, I wanted to ask for last words of advice is there. There's only one thing that someone could take away from today's conversation, what would that piece of wisdom be?
John Lasater 1:13:26
Oh, it sounds so cliche, but just, you know, if you're, if you're pretty new at painting and and you feel like you got a lot of value out of this conversation, I would just say, you know, a lot a lot a lot of people are afraid to really step into the water, you know, like they kind of, they, they remain at the outskirts of the pool, and they think I might be an artist, but I'm still waiting to find out. Is that what I am, you know, what, if I'm laughed at? What? Because this is, you know, this is one of the most What is it about? About people, they're afraid. They're afraid of of folks laughing at their paintings, you know, of of people looking at it and thinking, Well, you know, because there's a lot, there's a lot of lot of, Man, I'm really losing words.
Olya Konell 1:14:23
It's like vulnerability people are afraid of. Thank you.
John Lasater 1:14:26
Yes, it's a really vulnerable crowd. Even the even the best artists you know, friends of mine, are scared to death. They're like, What if I lose this? What if I can't keep it up. And so I say if you, if you're drawn, if you're drawn to this community, you are an artist. Okay, you've probably heard people say you're, you're only an artist if you're really good at it, you know? But that's not true. I think that that you're part of this community, and so. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's a good idea just to step in and pour yourself, especially into the history of it, like, find out why it is you're attracted to it. Find out who it is you're attracted to and and become a real student of it, just because it's going to enrich your life, if nothing else, but participate in it too, and try to make your own paintings. But you know, don't I guess our culture really teaches to be to try to be original as soon as possible. But I really think that's a fallacy that came out of the 20th century mindset out of that philosophy, you know, post modern philosophy, but it's, it's, it's a way more rewarding experience if you become a part of that long unbroken train of history. Go back and look at the Roman period and the frescoes and and and become to admire those and realize man. Even in the Roman days, there are people that understood form and drawing and and color and, yeah, just become a part of this sort of unbroken history. And and just become an artist, whether you ever achieve what you want to achieve. You know, just really throw yourself in.
Olya Konell 1:16:30
Yeah, that's great advice. It's, I was gonna say it's almost like when you are questioning whether you're an artist or not. You're having an experience. You're questioning who am I? You're having a Who am I moment, and who am I moment? You know when you're figuring out who you are, you know knowing your like you said, your heritage, your lineage, learning about that lineage of artists is a really I can see how that's a big part of helping you figure out who you are. And I think that's a beautiful thing. You know, as human beings, we long to belong to a family. We long, whether it be, you know, our genetic family or not. You know we belong to belong to a group. We long to belong to a group. There's that sense of longing, you know, to and so that connection and that just I can see how going traveling the route and going full circle and then coming back, can really help an artist find themselves, find
John Lasater 1:17:32
Yeah, that's a great yeah, you're right. The opportunities that are right around you, the art centers and the art groups and the art associations and the plein air events are great way to meet people that are like minded, and it's one of the more spiritual communities that I've ever been a part of, where you just feel a connection to them instantly. And, yeah, I'm just as close with the beginners as I am with the experienced painters. I love that really tried to align myself on social media that way as well, not to show favoritism to my, you know, just to the safe experienced painters. But I really enjoy just anyone who wants to be a part of of painting, because we're a very niche group in our culture. Yeah, very niche, way more than we know,
Olya Konell 1:18:27
yeah. And like you said, being an artist is truly the best life. And kind of, when you when you mention history, historically, like, what remains of ancient civilizations? What remains? It's the art, maybe some ancient writings, but truly the art. So as an artist, you are part of a small group of people that have literally helped write history. So you painting that mountain. You know, whether we're, who knows how long the human being, you know human beings will be around for but generations later, somebody will say, Wow, that mountain used to look like this, you know, or before this huge fire before it blew up, whether it was like Mount St, Helens, you know, think of all the people that painted Mount St, Helens, before it it had erupted. So, yeah,
John Lasater 1:19:16
the kind of love that mountain inspired, yeah. I mean, like that, the emotional connection people have to what they paint, you know, as well, is very interesting.
Angela Agosto 1:19:25
Yeah, this will be the hieroglyphics of the future, what we're leaving behind. Yeah,
Olya Konell 1:19:30
exactly, yeah, wow. This is, this has been fantastic. And those are beautiful words of advice to our audience. And I know everybody in in the comments. Appreciates it. I'm sorry if we didn't get to everybody every single question, but I encourage you to track down John on his in his Facebook group. If you really want to connect with him, you can connect with him through, you know, just social media. Give him a follow. It's a free way to support. For each other, and, and, yeah, I and I hope if you missed any portion of this, whether the beginning or the end, we will have the recording shared next week through the email that I will send out. And again, thank you. This has been fantastic.
Angela Agosto 1:19:40
Thank you for joining us today. Bye.
John Lasater 1:20:22
Yeah, really connected with you guys. That was very enjoyable. Thank you so much.
Olya Konell 1:20:25
This has been fun. Yes, you have a great art spirit, thanks. Well, Angela and I are amateur artists. I mean, when I say amateur, we paint, not as our profession, but we do. We So, and that's and that's a thing with a lot of us here at BoldBrush and Faso, they're married to an artist. Are an artist, part time artist, dabbler, you know. But like you said, that still makes us an artist, so we appreciate that. Thank you. Kathleen says, love this session. Enjoyed the talk. Thank you for a great presentation. John, this is great. I love his philosophy. If anybody has any other comments you want me to pass on to John, feel free to drop them in the chat right now. I will grab them and email them to them after this session. So if you have anything else you wanted to share, go ahead and do that as we as we are on our way out. And if you email me, I will pass it on as well. So if you didn't get a chance, alright, thank you everybody, and wishing you all a great rest of your week. Thanks. Bye
John Lasater 1:21:27
Bye, thank you. All right. Thank you. Bye.
Share this post