Mark Laguë 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 Mark below. Please keep in mind the transcripts are generated by AI so there may be some typos.
Creatively,
Clint Watson
BoldBrush Founder & Creativity Fanatic
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Olya Konell 00:00
Well, first of all, welcome to BoldBrush. Live today we have Mark Laguë. Am I pronouncing that correctly? Mark, actually, it's legu Lagoo. Oh, my gosh, shame.
Angela Agosto 00:10
I used to always say that either. Oh, okay,
Olya Konell 00:14
forgive me. Oh, sorry, I'm sorry Mark Lagoo and Angela, who is our Artist Relations Director, I'm going to bring Mark on here in just a second. So one of the first things I like to do is first say who we are and what we do, before we dive right in so BoldBrush, we are a company. We offer free and paid resources and tools for artists. Our tools are website building tools. So we have Faso, which is fine art studio online, where we built our own website builder. It's very much plug and play. It's for the artist that does not want to spend too much time building out the design of their website. They want to launch it within a few hours and have it ready by the end of the day. So and then we also offer artful Squarespace by Faso. So artful Squarespace is a little bit different. We'll share links for that. It's Squarespace under our umbrella. So it allows our artists, it allows artists to have a site, but take advantage of all of our marketing resources and education, because that's one of kind of the big things that we offer is we have the BoldBrush circle of marketing, and it is a place where you can go get a marketing calendar, learn about art marketing, connect with other artists in the chat, ask questions, you know. So it's like a community of artists, kind of like our own little social platform, per se, but with educational stuff. And so that is what we do and what we offer. And I'm going to go ahead and brain bring Mark on. So let me remove my spotlight here, Mark. Thank you so much, and again for joining us. And apologies about the mispronunciation. I usually clarify that before we go live, but I would love for you to just take over and share a little bit about you know who you are, what you do, and then we'll kind of dive into some fun questions.
Mark Laguë 02:16
All right. Well, thanks for having me. I'm from Canada. I'm from Quebec, Montreal. I've been doing this for God over 30 years. I guess I grew up in the West Island of Montreal, which like suburbia. I guess I'm one of six kids. I I kind of always knew I wanted to be an artist in some form, even though I didn't have any real strong influences in my life, just growing up with kind of sports and stuff in in the West Island, which neither of my parents, either they were very supportive, but it just wasn't something I was around. It's just I was an obsessive drawer from kindergarten, you know, so and then I ended up in school, whatever to kind of kicking around, and ended up in the in the animation industry, which was great, because at the time, I I didn't even really necessarily want to be a painter. Really, it really, sort of was kind of like a real epiphany. Just kind of, I found this book painting what you want to see by Charles Reed, who's my favorite, probably one of my favorite painters, and that just opened my eyes to, oh, this is something that you could actually do. So I mean, I guess that was before I was still in school at that time, I guess. But I still, you know, anyway, I just sort of randomly, haphazardly, before I even graduated school, ended up in the animation business, kind of a very small company, just so I was doing everything in animation and learning a lot and really enjoying it and and so then I kind of moved on to a much bigger, more established studio, and ended up becoming like a background artist, which just in terms of just getting in your like your piano scales, you know, like the everydayness of putting in eight hours a day, just just working with gouache and acrylic and and watercolor and different things that just that just really sort of it was, it was kind of the perfect thing, you know, because it was, it was a decent paying job and surprisingly secure. My timing was very good, because animation was kind of booming at the time, and it was never, animation was never my passion. Most of the people I. Worked with, you know, lived and died with it, but it worked out well for me, because, you know, I didn't, I didn't, you know, I didn't get, get too, too deeply invested in it, you know, it was just a job. I mean, I did my best and everything else. But some other people would, you know, if they had a disagreement with the director, they'd get all upset and everything and but I always had it in my mind. It's like, I want to become a painter, so that's what I did in my time. You know, outside of the animation studio, even at a point, I rented a studio space in the same building where I was working in animation. And that's why I really started to, you know, work from life, working from models, and working from, working from, you know, still X, whatever. I wasn't even that concerned about subject matter as much as just, just getting in the reps, you know, and and even all the while, you know, in public transit, constantly carrying a sketchbook. And you know, at the beginning, it's certain, it's so it's so necessary to work from life and to learn, you know, the number of people I would draw from, you know, unwittingly, from behind or from the side on a bus or whatever, you know. And I still do that. If I'm waiting in an airport or something, it's, you know, I don't think anyone's ever mastered drawing to the point where it's like, okay, I got this now. So all that, during all that time, I started to because, I think because of the Charles Reed influence, and a few others as Olten Zabo and Frank Webb, these, these watercolor artists. I had taken Dave a little bit with oils, but I really threw myself into watercolor. I mean, I love that, you know, the the lack of toxicity, the trends to the portability and the quickness, I think that sort of, that sort of started my, my, you know, my inclination to get loose with my work. Because prior to that, when I was a teenager, I would just do these, these ridiculously rendered, sort of pointless and hatch things just from a record cover or whatever, you know. And to me, that was, that was the important thing, you know, it couldn't be detailed enough, but this, this, especially Charles Reed, kind of opened me up to the notion that, no, you can kind of put yourself into the work, you know, with, with by, by loosening up. And I've never really loved that term loosening up, because it kind of equates with sloppy sometimes. And it's not really the case, you know. Anyway, that's something I preach with students constantly, is do a lot of beginnings, beginnings, beginnings. And that's the sketches I would do on the bus or, you know, even just going in my studio after working in animation, and just putting a bunch of bottles on a table, and just do, do five or 10 beginnings of that, you know. Anyway, I'll let say I started entering shows in the US, and it was in one particular show I won an award, and they offered me to come into the gallery in Richmond, Virginia, brazier. They've since retired, but that was my first US gallery and and it was with the economy. It was good at the time. I good success right away. So it went once. I left the animation. I left animation in 2003 so I never looked back. You know, it was my first year outside of animation. I made more than I had in my last year in animation, you know, save for 2008 and nine, those years when, you know, but even then, there probably wouldn't have been any work in animation anyway. So, so that's, I mean, that's basically it. And
Olya Konell 08:52
how did you get how long? Because you're doing a lot of workshops now, you know, one of the ways that you are passing on your legacy is through these, you know, through the your educational resources with other artists, kind of like instilling the importance of what you did in the beginning. You know, share a little bit about that before we kind of dive into the artist questions, like, if I, because I'm also an artist, if I wanted to learn from you, what's the best way of doing that. I know you have something in May. Let me pull it up. You have the Lost edges workshop in May, the power of consolidated values. And that's may 6 through May 16. So it's a week. But yeah, tell us a little bit about that if you can.
Mark Laguë 09:38
Okay, it's, it's, actually, it's like 12 hours. It's twice a week for two weeks. So it's, yeah, four sessions, like three hour sessions. And initially, when I, when I started it, I did four of them in 23 into 24 of. The last one I did was probably maybe April of 24 and it really went well, I really, it's, you know, I was, I was constantly saying to students how there's really, and I've done a lot of in person workshops over the years, and mostly in the US and as as great as they are and can be, there's virtually nothing safe for the notion of, you know, you can, you can never replace being together in groups. You know, the energy you get from that. But save for that, there's absolutely nothing that is, you know, that you can't get in the online one and beyond, you know, especially with the technology we have now. And, I mean, that's one of the, one of the upsides, I guess, of the pandemic was it kind of forced everybody to be in a position to be able to accept a workshop like this, or to, you know, to have the technology to to to take it in, you know, whereas prior, even five, seven years ago, you know, I could have this, but you'd really be limiting your audience, because no one had the bandwidth or whatever it took to so, you know. And so yeah, it's
Olya Konell 11:25
and I love that. You You know, I've seen a lot of artists do workshops, and you can see different skill levels on the tech side. And because you come back, you come from a very, I would say, you know, with animation, there's a lot of technology involved, even though there's a lot of that, you've always been kind of exposed to what's new, and you've definitely kind of, you've grabbed that, and you've incorporated that into your teaching. So like, you can share your screen, you can share multiple things, which, when you're learning online, it totally helps to have that. So I love that you offer that, you know, to your students and people can participate. You know, where, wherever they are in the world. We have dropped that link for everybody so you can grab that if you want to learn more. And I didn't mention this in the beginning, but I did include it in all my emails. This is an interactive session. So what I want y'all to do, and I'm going to start us off with a couple with with another question. But what I want you to do is, first of all, we believe there's not one way to forge, you know, an artistic career. So we start out with hearing the story of how the artist started. Because we all have unique stories, and you have a unique story, and you know, the best way to learn how to do something is to watch somebody else doing it and succeeding. You can listen to every guru in the world, you know, but unless they're actually living it and doing it, it's not as valuable the information. It doesn't have as much weight. So our hope is that by, you know, being able to connect you with Mark today, you can ask him questions that are relevant to you, and maybe glean some information that you can then apply to your artistic path that you are forging, which is unique to you. So feel free to use the Q amp a box drop your questions in the chat covering the topics of art, creativity and marketing, and then I'm going to go ahead and pull some up, pull some that you guys, some of you submitted in advance. So,
Angela Agosto 13:22
yeah, there's already one in the Q and A from Donald Yatomi, actually, yeah, I know Mark, if you do, you do mentorships, he says. And he wants to know if you do mentorships.
Mark Laguë 13:38
See, that was, it's something I, I dabbled with recently, because when during the workshop and the the workshop format is, it's really great in the sense that there is a lot of one on one, and like, especially with the the like, when a student would submit a work to to critique it. I on my iPad. I would, I would, I would sort of make adjustments to it, and that would usually take me about 10 minutes. I would do that between the classes, and then I would take that. I would record it on my iPad. I would take that and shrink it down to two minutes, and then I would play it in conjunction with the students work, plus my the adjusted work, and the student could ask questions in real time and but all the students would benefit from it. So when some students were kind of inquiring about possible mentorships and everything, it's kind of like I, I kind of came to the conclusion that it's, it's just not really efficient, because, in that sense, it is, there is, like I said, there's plenty of one on one. And I do limit, I limit it to 15 students. So. And I think there's so much value in in that one on one for the other students. Because if I'm just demoing, and I do, I demo, but like, I'll demo for 20 minutes and then go do some student critiques and then demo again. So it's not all, you know. And yeah, sure, you can get a lot from me demoing, but a lot of times it's like, don't try this at home. I've been doing it for 30 years, you know, kind of thing. So for the students to get that and then seeing other students work, and they can see a lot of themselves in the other students work, you know. And, and I don't, I don't, I don't say it's an advanced class, although there are so I've had some very, very accomplished painters take the workshop, which is great, because everyone can learn from them as well. You know, all I stipulate Is that you, you, you have some experience with, you know, painting a medium. It's not medium specific. I do. I do pretty much all the demos are oil, I might do a Dave, a little bit of watercolor. So, just to bring this back to the mentorship thing, it's, it's, I kind of came to the conclusion that this workshop is very mentory, yeah, yeah. And to do, I did actually try it, you know, the one on one thing. And, I mean, you know, it's, it's, obviously it has to be, fair, quite expensive, because, you know, an hour of my time with 15 people versus with one, you know, obviously it's and, and I guess I've found that it just becomes a bit of an echo chamber, you know. And so, you know, even if the student comes armed with a million questions, I found just, just in my experience, you know, they, they, they end up getting so much from the other students. And I'm not giving that much more than I would if they were just in the workshop, you know, in terms of getting more, yeah, therapy, yeah, yeah, certainly. I just mean, like, even within the one on one time, you know, it's so
Olya Konell 17:07
well and the one on one is limited to only the scenarios and questions presented by that one artist, and sometimes, exactly, from personal experience, sometimes you don't know what questions to ask. You don't know what you don't know. So the beauty of the small groups that you do is you get to learn what you don't know, and somebody else might ask a question you don't even think of, or you might see something that you haven't done yet, but you were about to do, but now you know not to do. You know what I mean. So it that's, that's the I see what you're saying. But great question, and yeah, makes it so much more affordable. Second one we have is, does he write his artworks on on the back of the canvas? Is what I'm guessing, or black canvas. Black.
Angela Agosto 17:48
It could be because of your what you have in the background that we discussed earlier that it looks black. I think maybe they think that's a black canvas. Okay?
Olya Konell 18:00
What do you use? White canvas? Or do you prep your canvas? I guess. Do you use? Well, the work
Mark Laguë 18:05
I have here beside me, yeah, that's just cropped that way because there's nothing that's on masonite panel, okay, which is what I use for everything. I'd say this is a big one on masonite panel. It's probably a, it's probably a 36 by 24 but anything 3648 and bigger, I use stretch canvas, okay, and I ship it by rolling it in a tube, taking it off the stretch of bars and rolling it in a tube. I'd prefer to work on Masonite, just in terms of scrubbing and scraping and like I have a on my easel, I have two easels of one set up for for smaller work, where I have all my multiple cameras set up for teaching, and I'm my bigger counter balanced easel that is for larger works. But unless I'm using a canvas on the larger counterbalance easel. I have a board there which has kind of screws and things set up so I can place my it's only, it's eighth of an inch thick Mason that I'm using, or maybe 316, whatever it's it's quite thin. So if, especially for a larger one, it tends to be not very it gets a little too Yeah. So I have these large boards of press wood that that it sits on,
Olya Konell 19:29
yeah, no, that and you already answered. And you know what kind of mediums you use, I do have somebody that submitted a question in advance that wanted to know from you what has been your most effective marketing tool.
Mark Laguë 19:43
Huh? That's interesting, because the landscape has obviously changed in the however, if you count, if you count when I left animation in Oh, three to now, that's what, 22 Years, but I've been doing, I've been, you know, selling work and stuff while I was still working animation. So let's say I've been, I've been actively doing it for, for, well, probably closer to 30 years, obviously. I mean, I remember the time when to enter a show, you had to take slides with, you know, take slides with your camera, send the slides by a snail mail, wait for a response, and you get a response, then, yeah, build a weight out of wood to ship one paint anyway. In terms of marketing, although, you know what, then I'd say maybe it was, there was, in some ways it was easier, because magazines were such a thing then, you know, and to get, like, I got a few articles early, and a couple of covers, you know. And that was, that was a big deal, yeah, that one, that cover you just put up there, that was, that was just, it's actually for the May issue. It's not even may yet. So that one's very new, and it's great artists and illustrators that are in there, in the UK and, you know, but let's face it, like magazines aren't really a thing anymore. So in pre websites, even, you know, you just really counted on your galleries to to get it out there, you know?
Olya Konell 21:16
Yeah,
Mark Laguë 21:19
so, you know, it's, I mean, social media, obviously, is the thing. I mean, we discussed this prior to going live here, that, you know, the way the algorithm works and the way they suppress now, it's tricky. It's tough to stay ahead of that, you know, it's, it's, I mean, there's, there's, there's all kinds of webinars just on that, you know, like people, people who, who show you how to sort of, sort of trick, the trick, the algorithm or something. You know, I'm just in the end, though, in terms of marketing, I remember, this was Frank Webb, fantastic watercolor artist who I met. I took workshop from him in, like, in the 90s. He's since passed away. But he was just, like, just, just be consistent. And, you know, put out good work. And if you, if you put out good consistent work, it will get noticed, you know, yeah, regardless. And that's really, you know, from from the start, like I said, my first break, if you will, for lack of a better term, was just entering these shows that I would enter, you know. And this was, I think it was the oil painters of America regional show, so it wasn't even the big one, you know. And one of my paintings won an award. I don't even remember what I remember it was Everett Raymond Kinstler was the judge, a very, very respected, mostly portrait artist, but fantastic painter. And because of that, the gallery contacted me, and I was like, Oh, I don't know. I'm in Canada. Can I even do that? You know? And like I said, I got in that gallery, and they were, they were a really good Gallery, and, and it caught fire right away, you know. So and from there, others from just from that, then, and this was, nobody had websites then. I mean, this was probably, I'm going to say this was 2003 I mean, I guess they existed, but nobody really, you know. And just from that, you know, other galleries started to, to inquire, so, yeah, it's really, it's really getting out there. So
Angela Agosto 23:27
kind of entering exhibits and shows you think about it kind of put you in the right place, you know, kind of the gallery like it led you the fact that, yeah, Everett Raymond Kinster, yeah, he was one of our artists who I know. He passed during the pandemic, I believe,
Olya Konell 23:45
yeah, there's, you know, you bring up a good point, and I'm noticing a pattern. It's almost like, you know, an artist has to be aware that things change, and accept that as a fact, and be willing to pivot. And the magnifying glass moves. So the magnifying glass, you know, back, you know, when you started, you had to do this to get noticed. And then the magnifying glass shifted, and you could really, you know, to get noticed, you had to be in the right place at the right time to be under this magnifying glass. And so, you know, as far as where it is today, I've heard a lot of artists still talk about entering shows and entering contests, because the magnifying glass is still there, because now those things are online. They're getting featured online. The portrait society, other, you know, painting societies all have social ins, you know, they have their own platforms now, so they're able to spotlight their winners and and it's, I guess you know what you're saying is like you have to find that, you know, just looking at your story, you've kind of been following that magnifying glass per se.
Angela Agosto 24:54
So, yeah, and I was going to say, adding to what you said about online shows, it makes it easier. Because, like you were saying earlier, Mark where you had to, you know, get the slides, you had to mail it. You had to do it. Or sometimes, you know, you have to go to these shows and take the artwork or ship it. And now, if you do it online, they don't require any of that. And I know we work with a lot of like OPA and a couple of other art societies, and they do everything online. They'll even some of a few still ship us the actual lookbook from all of the you know, artwork that was exhibited in the winners, which is really nice, but a lot of them lately have been sending me digital copies of the lookbook that we can share. And they share it with all of the artists, with their, you know, collectors. We get to share it as well. So it's something still really relevant, but just a lot easier to get your work in there at a lower cost, because you can do it all online. Yeah,
Mark Laguë 25:48
well, especially just to give a little plug. So right to to BoldBrush and Faso, the that that art competition has always been my favorite. Oh, and because of they were, they were probably one of the first to to just, just send it digitally, and you're not sending work, the work can be sold. It doesn't matter, because that's the thing right now. And I haven't entered a show like that in years and years and years, and just from what I'm what I'm gleaning from a lot of artists online, some of them are just kind of, some of the bigger ones, even it's gotten, I'm not going to say scanny, but just outrageous slide fees, or whatever you call that, like the, you know, the fee for for entering, you know, entering paintings, and then you have to ship the actual painting. And if it doesn't sell, you have to pay to have it shipped back. And so it's become a bit like, yeah, you have to be careful. That's just
Olya Konell 26:52
so it probably would be better for a newer artist who's working on mastery, who feels they're ready to start, you know, entering that look for free ones like the BoldBrush one is free. There's a lot of other free ones look for online,
Angela Agosto 27:06
We mentioned a couple of free ones that other artists have shared that were on here, share with Susan Lyon, or those on there. I will share the links in chat.
Olya Konell 27:13
on there. And then maybe local community. If your local community has a vibrant art scene, and there's some galleries putting something on, see if you can enter something locally. Is probably a lot easier when you can just drive down there. But you said something important, and you said mastery and folk, if you, if you're if you focus on making really good art, it will get noticed. And that is true every I have not seen a really good artist that at some point in their life, just by doing the bare minimum posting, whatever, the right person will see incredible work. Like you can't ignore something amazing, you know, even if you get a glance of it. You know, it might take longer if you're not a marketing expert, but it will get noticed. And I think that's so important to highlight for the audience. I wanted to ask we have another question. This is different. This is focused on his he says, hi, hi. Oh, I can't talk. Hi, Mark. My name is Art, and I'm a photographer, and have encountered artists that over paint photos and create a painting like piece this. This makes for possibly a more marketable art piece. I would like to ask you, if you have done this, and could you offer advice about it as a less accomplished to a less accomplished painter? So they Yeah. So they take a photo and they over paint it. I think, you know,
Angela Agosto 28:33
I've seen some artists do that, where they end up making a painting out of the the actual photo, on the photo itself, like they'll enlarge it. So I guess, wanting to know if you've ever done anything like that, maybe to practice or
Mark Laguë 28:47
no, and I don't, I don't disparage or disrespect it in any way. I mean, I don't think you can call it painting per se, although doesn't matter how it's labeled, I guess. But especially with me, and that's, it's a big part of my my teaching, and the whole kind of lost edges concept. And this is something I know my wife's cousin, whatever takes, takes workshops all over the place, and she, I think she does a lot of that with photo stuff in it. And anyway, she took one with this very prominent painter who doesn't, doesn't do the photo thing this. This is a very, you know, prominent painter who's in Arcadia gallery and, and she was just kind of mentioning that, like, you know, he will use, he will use photo reference to, like, he will project photos as to, you know, to, and I was like, Okay, I mean, there's no rules, you know, sure, but my, my response to that is certainly what excites me about the work, is like, um. Um, getting those, those passages and areas with the Lost edges and everything that's all rooted in the drawing, you know, and in and in knowing how to draw and and those, those 40 years I've been doing it from back on the busses, you know, just that, that, that, that's where I see those relationships and things you know. So if you're, if you're going to project what the camera sees onto, you know, then that that's a different thing. I guess, you know, it almost in my mind, it almost taps into craft, as opposed to, as opposed to, and I don't want to use pretentious terms, you know, high brow or anything, and, and, you know, I just, I just for, and I think that students who are taking these workshops are looking for something else, and there's nothing wrong with that, you know, just don't, just don't confuse it with, you know, because that's, you know, one of the artists that inspired me the most when I was in school. Still, I used to go to the library and just pour through the books. Is like you would do on someone's website. Now, you know, as honor, a dome French painter from he was actually an illustrator as well, but just his, his line and his his his ability to draw and to capture, sort of the weight he would draw these barristers, these judges and things, you know. And that's sort of just really like, I was like, I'll never be able to I'll never really know how to paint until I feel really comfortable with drawing. You know, it's not just a step you can bypass, you know. I want to go right to color and value, you know. So I don't think that, or know if that answers the question or not, but no, no,
Olya Konell 31:46
and that's what she was looking for is, or that the artist was looking for your your your thoughts and your suggestions. And so that's great advice to focus on. You know, your recommendation would be to focus on those core skills, unless you're looking for that other thing, which makes complete sense. And I think here's the thing I wanted to add, that she mentioned that, or sorry, the artist mentioned that they were seeing other artists do something. And I wanted to point out, just because somebody's doing something and it's working for them doesn't mean it's going to work for you. And I think focusing on your uniqueness, your unique way of how you view the world, your unique like your art. You know, looking at Mark's art, it has a very unique signature to it, a handwriting per se, like you could figuring that out, I'd say, is more important than seeing what's trending and what sells, because then you kind of, yeah, you if you focus too much on what other people doing what's trending, you're going to lose yourself in the process. You'll never know what what you really have to to to offer.
Mark Laguë 32:56
But there's one, sorry, but that's that's really interesting point, and it's important. And just going back to Charles Reed book that I got when I was, you know, very young, and just wow, you know, I was so inspired. And probably for the next year and a half, everything I did looked like a poor man's version of a Charles Reed, you know. But there's a lot of value in that, especially when you're when you're that young, you know. But at a point you're absolutely right. And even painters, even to this day, you know, painter will inspire me, and you just, you'll see, and it's like, oh, okay, I'm going right home now, and I'm, that's what I'm going to do. And you try. And, of course, it's a disaster, you know. So I think the only thing that with experience comes is that now I know, like, I won't even bother because you absolutely soak it in, take it in, you know, by osmosis, whatever. But don't think that that, because that's what makes that person's work, that, you know, and even, even just down to the technical aspects of like, how you lay out your palette and how I use my paper towel and everything. And, I mean, that's why, with the multiple cameras in my workshop, you can see everything that I'm doing. It's like, I see how other painters do it, and painters that have been doing it as long as I have, who I really admire, you know? And it's like, oh my god, like that makes, doesn't make any sense at all, you know what? I haven't seen anyone who does it just the way I lay it out, lay on my stuff, you know. So it all is just, it's just the reps, it's the doing it over and over again and and not never, sort of just assuming, oh, well, that guy does it. So that must be the way to do it, you know.
Angela Agosto 34:35
You have to find what works for you, like you said, you know, comparing to other artists, you found what works for you. And there's
Olya Konell 34:41
one question that came up in the chat. I'm going to throw it out now, but I'd like to jump to it later, because that way, if you have to move it, somebody asked if there's any way you're able to pivot your camera later and show your recording setup. They're just curious of how you have your camera set up, if that's for your when you do your you don't. I don't want you to miss anything up now. Yeah, we can do that at the end, right?
Mark Laguë 35:03
I can probably do it because if I, if I engage my iPhone, I can probably use it as a camera through the camera anyway. I can possibly, yes,
Olya Konell 35:11
we'll save it for the end, because I don't want to mess anything up. But some, yeah, yeah. So for those of you, we'll try and if something goes wrong, at least it's at the end. But we had
Angela Agosto 35:25
so one that I wanted to say, because it was kind of on the topic of what we talked about, what you paint. But they want to know is, how do you choose what to paint, and do you ever keep in mind the buyer? Or is it just what, what what catches your eye, or what you're interested or inspired in? That's
Mark Laguë 35:41
an excellent question. One thing that I've rest, I think all artists wrestle with from day one, you know, I worked in animation. That was my job. I didn't care what I was doing, because they were paying me, I would just do my best. And that was that, you know, but then when it comes to fine art, you know, it's like, Oh, you don't want to sell out, right, like, but what is selling out? And, I mean, I've read, I've read the bios of all of them. You know, Michelangelo, Leonardo, all of them. He more recent painters. And like the one common through line with all of them is they all did commissions. You know, commission doesn't need to be a dirty word, you know. As long as, as long as you you know, keep I will do commissions, but I have certain parameters, certain lines I won't cross, you know. So in terms of, like, Can an artist who's doing it full time and making a living from it, just paint what strikes them in the moment, every moment of every day. Of course not, you know, but one thing that's interesting, and like, even recently, you know, I'm just Well, because last year, you know, I kind of just went through this little phase of, like, I was just into Gatorade bottles, you know, painting Gatorade bottles. You can see them on my site,
Olya Konell 37:00
and still life. Yeah, there they are,
Mark Laguë 37:03
yeah, and more, Stella, Stella, art bottles, whatever. But it just, is just what I you know, people weren't asking for that. It was just, it was just something that, and they actually, it's so turned out they sold, like hot cakes. But that's not why I did them, you know. So you know, in terms of my galleries, you know, yeah, the, you know, yeah, can we get more Paris stuff or whatever, you know? And it's like, that's fine. And it's, there's, you know, to me, every painting I start, I forget what it is anyway. It's not, it's because there's not a lot of iconography in my work. So, yeah, it's really, and that's another thing I took from Charles Reed, you know, I'm really a visual painter. You know, to me that the joy and the passion is in how I'm arranging things. And it comes back to the lost edges idea, you know, like, and now you see all these portraits recently, I just kind of gotten a little, kind of just excited about that. It's just this guy. I'll give a plug to another artist here, Bryce Cameron Liston is his name, and he in on his Patreon page. He'll, he does these photo shoots of models, and every month he'll drop a new photo pack of all these models and great stuff with great lighting, you know. And like, I love painting from life, going to the model sessions. But like, sometimes, if you go there and, you know, you don't get a good position and relative to where the model is and the lighting is crappy, and it's like, you know? So sure, yeah, you always paint from life, if you can. But this, this is amazing stuff, like, anyway, and a great resource. So it's just kind of spurred me on to do all these quick little portraits. I'm just having a blast with them. You know, is there any, is there any commercial value to them? Probably not, but, you know, and that's I've got my small easel going where I'm doing these, while I've got a bigger one on my main easel that I'll be shipping. And, you know, I ideally, ideally selling. But anyway, I hope that answers the question,
Olya Konell 39:01
yeah, and Clint, who is this? Who is the founder of BoldBrush? He writes about this a lot, the importance of play. So for an artist, there's always going to be the, you know, I feel, I feel like what you're doing is you're playing. It intrigued you, you wouldn't, you know, you have that play, and then you have the other things that you're working on, but that kind of answers a question about commissions, you know, or kind of brings up, sorry, brings up the next question about commissions. Carol writes, I've changed my art focus to doing commissioned portraits, and find it difficult to reach out to market for my work, I belong to gallery and usually offer my landscape work, which sells there. How do I update my website to market to reach more portrait consumers? I should be noted that I consider portrait to include not just loved ones, but cherished objects and places as well. Do you have any advice for Carol that you think might be helpful? Huh? That's interesting. Thing.
Mark Laguë 40:01
I mean, I remember when I was really before I was starting out, like literally sitting in the mall and doing pastel portraits of people, like from life, and that was a thing, and in the 80s, I guess. I mean, I never really. I mean, since then, I have never considered myself a portrait artist, and I certainly have never, I'll say I don't know that. I would have great advice. I mean, from one of the best ones I see on Instagram, I think it's Jen at something she does dog portraits, which sounds no who you're talking about. They're really good. And there's their paintings, though, you know, that's the thing. Like any a portrait, still a painting, you know, it's just and that's why I kind of like just playing around with the the ones that Bryce Cameron Liston posts on his site, because they're, I don't know these people. I'm not concerned about a likeness. I'm seeing them as a series of relationships and shapes and things like that, you know. And it's like I could turn it upside down and do it as a as an abstract painting, you know. So this, this person with the question about how to market like portraits, you know. I mean, you know, some of the, the top, top portrait artists, I mean, you know, they, their, their prices are astronomical, and, you know, depends how academic it's going to be. I don't know what kind of work if it's or if it's more, you know, a little looser, a little more sort of Impressionist. But, I mean, I guess again, social media is the it is like, specifically Now Instagram, because Facebook is, is it's not that useful anymore. But that's, that's about all I can say. Because I've never, I've never actually tried to market portraiture.
Olya Konell 41:56
So I mean, and I I can confirm with with you on that I used to do a lot of portraits, and one of the things that helped me, like you said, was social media and leaning into the thing where people want, if you just have to get started, because what happens is, the more that you do so somebody gets a portrait from you, that's going to bring in A couple more people that also want a portrait from, from, from you. So it's always harder in the beginning to get your first few portraits, but once you get them, somebody goes to that person's house. They see it. They want their dog painted. They want their child painted. They want to gift it. So if you can just keep pushing and get through this first hurdle, a really good time to market is the six months leading up to the holidays. I know it's a push, but if you can, you know, just really get that message out that you're accepting holiday gift commissions up to a certain date. You know, give yourself realistic timelines. That is the good time to get that first batch, and then it makes it easier. You'll have more orders in January and so forth. People will start planning ahead for birthdays, for Mother's Day. You know, it's great for that, but yeah, and social media to get that first batch, to tell people that you're doing this, for sure, there's okay so there's somebody asking, so this is cool. So Donald ya told me, says I recently left the video game industry and adjusting to full time painting. Do you miss the animation industry?
Mark Laguë 43:35
No, no. Great. It's interesting too. Because, like I said, I left the industry in 2003 I got out just under the wire, like I never did a digital background, you know, I was, I always, only ever was just playing around with gouache and watercolor and whatnot. And like I said, animation wasn't my passion for people, that it was, you know, they, they they loved the process, they loved the work. They loved the end product, you know. And it never really interested me that much so, you know, and the grind of a job and everything, I don't miss that at all. Honestly, I, I'd say, I don't know how long far back this goes, but I physically could not do that. I would be absolutely unemployable, you know, not to say I don't work hard. I work very hard at what I do, you know, to the extent that this is work, and yes, it is work, but just to be, to be, you know, answering to others and whatnot.
Angela Agosto 44:39
Yeah, animation, yeah, my daughter's looking at that. And I think oliverson was on here. And he's a great he's an illustrator and and also he did animation and he teaches, and now they're requiring you, it's like 2d you know, where you have to draw and render the animation. It's kind of a kind. Mean, less and less. So they expect you to do the 3d animation. So I know my daughter's like, I don't like the 3d so she's steering away from that now, just because everywhere that's the job market, oh, gee, not really 2d Yeah,
Olya Konell 45:16
I wanted to bring up edges. So, because that's a couple of questions on that. Yes, yeah. So how? So here's the, here's the first edges related question, how little edges can you show and still read your subject? How do you decide which edges to lose? What do you look for in reference photos? I don't know if you can Yeah.
Mark Laguë 45:40
To me, it's kind of the whole ball game. That's why I need my workshop after that. And like, when I, when I did the four workshops last year, I was kind of thinking, I'll come up with another thing, you know, like, for next year, for when I do and I just couldn't, you know, because that is the thing for me, you know, and it's, it's kind of the hardest thing, but it's easiest thing at the same time, but it's, and that's with students and everything else. It's, it's, it's a way of seeing, you know, it's a way of just, just to to, I mean, I'll just give a I'll give a sort of example, like, let's say you have a still life set up, and it's an apple, and the Apple has the shadow side into the shadow itself, you know. But between the edge of the apple and the shadow, which is all reading, if you squint your eyes down, it's all reading. Is one thing. There is a little bounce light, you know, that is separating it, and yet it's there to be seen. But if you truly, truly squint down and and push that, that goes away at least, at least in my mind, I make it go away. But you see, with students, they'll, they'll pick on that thing. And it might be like the red, the dark red of the apple and the the shadow, whatever, even, even if it's a black and white or whatever. But to, to keep that as all one piece, they will, they will assign that a separate value, and it completely, completely shatters the integrity of, of the of the consolidation, you know, but they're there. But I see it, it's there. And I'm like, I grant you, it's there, but be really honest and really, really, really imagine that it's that it's like, be be able to render it ineffectual or unimportant, you know? And that is the hardest thing. And you see, like they'll, and when they start their first foray into trying to lose edges, they'll kind of, they'll kind of, it'll be very forced, you know, but then they'll miss other ones that are really, really but, you know, again, when you've been doing it for as long as I've been doing it, obviously, and that's why I don't, I don't pretend. I mean, that's probably one of the first things I say to people like this stuff is hard, you know, it's, it's not that. So that's great, you can, I mean, that actually, the one you just put up there, the with the tomatoes, I mean, that's a, that's a very good example of, of like the where the shadow side goes. I'm sure there was that little bouncy reflection there, which might have been a little green or something, you know, but, you know, in this case there is, there is a little separation there. But if you squint, it reads as as one thing, whereas it's just a matter of learning to not like like, and it's where, like, the question was, how do I choose where my edges go? It's like, I want to, one day, you know, do that painting where it's just one value, you know, like you've, or you've maybe just to, you've managed to lose them all, and just just, I just take great sort of joy, and in, in, in that, that, you know, the least information possible, but it still reads, that's a Stella bottle, you know, yeah.
Olya Konell 49:08
And so I'm so I'm on Mark's website, and so it has a feature where a person could hit zoom, which I love, because you can see those I love seeing the grittiness of the canvas, and the brush strokes like, like, the, you know, you could see where the brush exactly how it went, and I'm seeing what you're talking about. It's like, there was probably a line there, and, but, oh yeah, you, you, you do. You brought it down to, like, how much, what's the least amount of information I can put on this canvas to still make this, to render and use.
Mark Laguë 49:44
You said there was a line there. That's the one thing. And I think it was, I'm not sure who said it, but lines don't exist in nature. That is, they're a construct. They're they're a concept and a construct we use to define things, literally, to define. Things. And so like the edge of that bottle, which you only read the edge of that bottle because I gave just enough information on the curve around, but all that whole, that whole vertical down, there's nothing there to distinguish it, other than where it just picks up a little bit at the where the light hits at the bottom. And that's enough for the eye. And that's, that's the kind of work I want to look at, you know, when I'm, when I'm looking at, like, contemporary work. I want to, I want to, I want to finish the parts I'm, you know, I want to. I want to calls
Olya Konell 50:33
in the process. Yeah, yeah. I love that. That's, you know. And I, when I read that question, I was like, this is a hard question to answer and and you did it so beautifully. So, yeah, I mean, so thank you. There was, there was a gallery question, and I know we're kind of approaching now, and I'm welcome. I'm if you are in a hurry, we'll end well, we'll end promptly. If you have a couple minutes, we'll grab a few more questions. I can stay okay. So somebody asks, How do you find galleries or outlets to represent you? Do you have any advice for an artist doing that today?
Mark Laguë 51:12
Again, when I started out, it was a different world, I suppose. And like I said, is that I guess it sort of does still exist. I mean, in that case, I was showing in a couple of galleries here in Montreal, actually, one in Ontario, sort of, I mean, really small time stuff, you know. But it was, it was good. It was, you know, it was helpful just in learning the logistics of framing and all of it, you know, and pricing and all that. Now, if I kind of always instinctively knew that the US was going to be necessary, and it's not just because it's 10 times the population of Canada, it's just there's sort of a collecting culture that exists there that just doesn't really exist here, and I don't even know why? I mean people, especially Montreal, it's a culturally, you know, amazing city, and we've got 10 millions of galleries and everything, but I get maybe just the kind of work I do. It's anyway. But I that was that, that that award I won at the gallery in Richmond, Virginia, and they contacted me. So just in terms of that, and, you know, they get like, I said the economy was good at the time and everything else, so that, literally, it prompted, prompted a Tennessee gallery to contact me, just because they knew the the Virginia Gallery, and then California, and then Colorado, and then do it. Just within about a year and a half, it's like, okay, that's, you know, I was, at that time, I was probably, like, regularly supplying, like, seven galleries with with quite a bit of work, you know, I guess, yeah, and then 2008 you know, the whole great recession, kind of, you know, in a way, it was, it was, it was fine that it sort of, you know, it just sort of pruned the tree of the lesser galleries. And, you know, don't underestimate it. I'm sure it still exists now, you know, the number of times I was scammed bad galleries, you know, just, well, my Arizona gallery, that was a good gallery, but they retired. So the guy next door and I'm in here in Canada, so I didn't travel there, you know, they just took over the paintings. They've been in business for a while. And next thing, I get a letter from a lawyer's office. You know, the guy just took off whatever. He probably sold a bunch of works and just never paid me. So, you know, that's why I'm the galleries I'm in. Now I trust them implicitly. You know that, yeah, that took some time, but then that's my The question was, how to approach or get into galleries. That's, that's how it worked for me back in, you know, over 20 years ago, I don't know. I mean, just just websites, and the online factor has always been a challenge for galleries. You know, it's the whole thing artists selling on their own, and that, no matter how much you know, and I sell stuff through my Faso site, like I'll do my November sale, you know, but it's really just small stuff that the galleries aren't interested in anyway, you know. Yeah,
Olya Konell 54:27
so well. And we have heard
Mark Laguë 54:29
the only insight, sorry, oh, I
Olya Konell 54:32
was gonna say we, I was just gonna we've heard that from other artists that the website is a is best to sell the smaller pieces because people are more likely to spend x amount of dollars without touching or seeing something. And if you have more expensive pieces, it really does, like benefit you from being in a in a gallery, it's a lot harder to sell something to a person that has never physically walked in and seen it. And so that's where that but, and mean, I guess if you were to try to get. Into a new gallery today. What would be the first thing you would do if, hypothetically,
Mark Laguë 55:09
yeah, I don't know, because I honestly, like, you know, it's the galleries that I'm in are very well established and everything. So, you know, I It's hard to even hypothetically say what I would do, because, you know, once, once I was already, I already had my foot in the door before all this technology. So
Angela Agosto 55:38
probably that you still do that's still relevant now is keep in communication with them, like because you've been with them so for so long, you probably have a good relationship with them. And check, I think I've heard several other artists say that's important, so that you know nothing bad happens and you kind of are in the same wavelength about your art, you stay relevant with them, so they continue to sell your stuff. I think that's still you mentioned you've been with them for a long time, so I'm assuming that relationship helps. Yeah. I mean,
Mark Laguë 56:09
I'm especially terrible at that there. My wife always bugs me because I don't keep in touch with people. They they always have to come to me, kind of thing. I'm kind of the same in my galleries, which isn't good, you know, and I'm probably, it's probably, it hasn't helped me, I'm sure. But,
Olya Konell 56:26
yeah, I think, you know, I think people that work with artists, and I speak from this, from this perspective of Faso and BoldBrush, our customers are artists. We kind of know the artist personality. We know that artists can be a little busy, aloof, focused as they should be, and I think, I don't think they hold it against you, like you said, it might help you, but they're the fact that you have these long standing relationships speaks to the fact that they value the relationship as well. So but I know I appreciate your honesty and the fact that you're like, Hey, I got my foot in the door early. So one person asks, Mark, I love your style. Do you mean that the current art market is worse than before? Could an excellent painter like you make a living only by selling at galleries? Only? Do you have any suggestions to artists, tough ones,
Mark Laguë 57:29
yeah, I, I feel very fortunate. I have, I have made a good living just selling to the galleries and the small ones on my own, for sure. I mean, when, when the, when the economy is good, you know? I, I kind of, I mean, just to rewind a little bit, I had, I had some issues, some customs issues, when I went to go teach a workshop. This is probably more than 10 years ago now. I was, it was in Nashville. I was going to go and I anyway, I'm not going to get into the details of it, but I had some some issues with with customs, so I don't think I taught a workshop in the US since then. And there's only been in in recent times I really come up with a good, I good way of doing it online. All that to say, I mean, the teaching was never a significant, significant part of my income. And, you know, Prince, there's prints and things, but that's, that's, I even just recently sort of started getting a little for a but one of my galleries was kind of like, yeah, you know, if, if a collector who's bought that work that you're selling as a print. So, you know what? I kind of, I understood that, so I kind of shut that down just in terms of other avenues to to, you know, make money at this. It's, it's possible, absolutely, it's, it's a doable thing, you know, you have to be sometimes, I think it's like, oh, maybe I'm not producing enough work. But then, just to come up with a folder to do this, you know, I'm just going back through the thing and kind of looking at them as slide is like, geez, you've produced a lot of work over the years, you know? So it's, yeah, the consistency is being consistent and everything else and finding again, that's one thing I would say, whether it's people who buy directly off me or even through galleries, almost all of my collectors collect multiples of my work. You know, there's not, there's not as many as many of them as you'd think, but the ones that are there usually even if they say, like, that's it, that's the last one in the. They'll oftentimes re emerge, you know. So that's the case with an artist, but
Olya Konell 1:00:07
yeah, no, that actually, it lines up perfectly. There's a saying we've heard, and we've used your next collectors probably your your last one. So the person you sell to your the person you sell your next painting to is probably your last one. The value of that can't be understated, and you don't need that many of them, like you said, to keep you going. And I want to add to our artists listening. Keep in mind that when it comes to art marketing, to put in perspective an art. Artist marketing their work. Think of a celebrity marketing their movies, or celebrity marketing. You know that the artist is just as important as the work, and so they're, you know, a lot of people forget that part, and they forget that everything that we do online or offline is technically marketing, basically meeting people at an event, at a dinner, at a community event, traveling, shaking hands, saying you're an artist, posting things on like everything that we do, when you become an artist and you decide to sell technically, everything that we do to meet people could potentially put us in connection with a future collector, you know, somebody that says, well, you're an artist, let me see your work. They check it out. They want to buy something, you know, whether they go visit that gallery in that community, or whatever it may it may be. So what people do is going to be different, because we all like to do different things to connect with people, you know. So it's
Mark Laguë 1:01:46
and openings are, yeah, I must say, just for me, I guess I'm introverted or whatever, but openings are, are like, like, pulling out teeth. They're terrible for
Olya Konell 1:01:59
me. So many of artists feel that way, so you're not alone. And if you're feeling that way, I mean, Mark, you've been at this for so many years, and it's still like bullying. So
Angela Agosto 1:02:10
Well, remember, I won't mention who, I'm sure you remember we had an artist who's he's an extrovert. He does it all like acting and painting, and he's so nervous before an opening, like an exhibit or a solo show. It was shocking. That was shocking because I can definitely understand I'm an introvert myself, so I get a little bit anxious before the webinars. But when he said that, I was like, what I mean you literally? I think it was actually Aaron Scher. I'm just going to say his name. He that he does these like acts in like shows, yeah, Shakespeare, and he said he gets really nervous before something like that. So I was, I was taken aback. Yeah, you're putting
Mark Laguë 1:02:50
yourself out there. You really are, you know, probably more so than even acting because, you know, this is different. This is
1:02:57
Yeah, it's true. Yeah,
Olya Konell 1:02:58
you're putting your true self out there not a person, yes, exactly, yeah, yeah. Good way to see it, yeah, yeah. And, and, you know, thank you so much for all of your insight. We still have a ton of questions. I can always pass any on that are inquiring about lost edges or anything like that, if you'd like. And we have a couple people asking about things on their Faso site. Just so you know, we see your messages, we're actually going to follow up with you afterwards so we can, you know, better answer that more specific to you, I'll shoot you an email so we do see that. But no, this has been fantastic, and I do want to ask, is it possible for us to see your camera set up for anyone that's is,
Mark Laguë 1:03:46
yeah, let me see if I can get my my if I can get my iPhone connected to my, yeah, my E cam here, which I should be
Olya Konell 1:03:56
able to do You? Do you use OBS or some other studio camera arrangement system, but it's called Ecamm live. Oh, okay, ECAM live. Okay.
Mark Laguë 1:04:07
It's really fantastic. For some reason I always have to try to make my iPhone go away from it, but for some reason it's not taking to it now. But
Olya Konell 1:04:17
yeah, if it doesn't, it's okay,
Mark Laguë 1:04:21
unless I can do it with, you know what I could do with? I could do it with my iPad. I don't know, because it's plugging but you know
Olya Konell 1:04:28
what? Maybe, as I say, if you want to do this, like in your Instagram stories, and say the same thing, we can tell everybody to go to your Instagram and it will be in your IG stories or something. I
Mark Laguë 1:04:41
gotta learn how my daughter's when she set me up with Instagram, and she's all about stories. She still is, you know, but like, yeah, that's something just never, never really understood even how really can come
Angela Agosto 1:04:51
and film, your film, yeah, your setup, and you can talk about it, and she can put that in the stories.
Olya Konell 1:04:56
I would love to see that, yeah, I would love to see that. Yeah. And so honestly, I encourage you to experiment with stories too, because that's kind of like it's, it's stuff you could share. It doesn't have to be perfectly curated, because it disappears in 24 hours. So it's nice to give people a little snippet. And I think I look at those more, because I want to see the candid stuff, you know, like, Oh, what do you got going on over there?
Angela Agosto 1:05:23
I know my daughter always does it. I'm like, where was it? She's like, Oh, it was 24 hours ago. You missed it. I was like, what I mean, she's traveling. She's like, that because it's gone recorded. And she's like, I just did it for stories. I was like,
Olya Konell 1:05:38
yeah, yeah. Yeah. Everybody has different preferences, but I Yeah. Or if you make a post out of it, give us a little tour anyway. Just go follow mark and when, and if he does that, you'll see we
Angela Agosto 1:05:53
had a lot of questions on technique and skills. Yeah, Mark's workshop to learn all of these things from him. Yeah.
Olya Konell 1:06:00
So there's a lot of questions about technique and skill, and I would encourage you to, you know, if you can check out the workshop, and if the timing isn't right, make sure you're you connect with him, either through his website or through his social so next time he does something or, you know, post something of interest, You can kind of take advantage of those opportunities, but or maybe comment on his post and ask a question. So, you know, maybe so. But before we kind of wrap it up, I want to mention, if anybody wants me to pass a message on to Mark, I thank you or anything, drop that in the chat, I will grab those and send him an email and get those to him. So if there's anything you want to pass on, feel free to take a moment to do that. And our next webinar will be in May, on May 22 with Sarah Sedgwick. So make sure you got make sure you guys attend, and for those of you that want to go back and re watch the recording of this one, we'll be shooting everybody an email with all of Mark's links as well. And that way, if you didn't grab the workshop link or didn't grab something, you'll be able to find that afterwards. So Mark, thank you. Thank you so much.
Mark Laguë 1:07:21
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. It was great. This is
Olya Konell 1:07:24
fantastic, and we wish you a wonderful and creative rest of your week and until next time to everybody. So thank you, everybody, folks, thank you.
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