Noah Buchanan on BoldBrush Live! [July 17, 2025]

Noah Buchanan 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 Noah 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

Welcome everybody to BoldBrush LIVE today. We have Noah Buchanan with us. He's our signature artist, and we are going to be tackling your questions, or he's going to be helping us tackle your questions about our creativity and marketing with us. We also have Angela Agosto. She's our Artist Relations Director. I'm going to go ahead and do a quick little intro of who we are and kind of what we do, because we get this question a lot. First of all, BoldBrush is a company that offers tools and resources to artists. So resources include these webinars. We have a podcast. We have the newsletter@boldbrush.com with inspiration and tips and things like that. And then, as far as tools go, we offer tech tools for building your artist website. The main one is the main website builder is Faso, which is one that Clint, our founder, built from the bottom up. So it is a very plug and play site for the artist that doesn't want to spend too much time designing and updating their site and focusing more on painting. And then we've also partnered with the ability to offer Squarespace sites, Artful Squarespace by FASO, and that gives you the most advanced Squarespace plan at the most at a very discounted rate. For this is best for the artist that maybe is doing workshops and wants to create memberships online and have a way to process those transactions all from one area, and maybe have a little bit more design flexibility. So that is, that is the two of the tools that we have in our toolbox, amongst other things, like our marketing resources, where we help artists learn how to sell their work. All of our members get access to the BoldBrush circle of marketing, and that includes our marketing calendar, education, resources, support in other areas as well. So rude that's a little bit about us and who we are and what we do. And this is why these webinars are so important, because a chance for us to connect you with artists that have traveled, you know, they've come a long way. They’ve built a reputation. They have, you know, they sell work, they work with galleries, they sell online. And this is an opportunity for you to kind of figure out what works for them. Because the most important thing I want to highlight is everybody does things differently, and if you hear something that doesn't align with how you want to do things, that's okay, but you might hear something that does connect with your personality and how you want to do things. And then we're hoping to kind of give you that inspiration and real life advice from somebody who you know is actually doing it, and I'm going to bring him on right now. So Noah, welcome. Noah, alright, thanks. We're thrilled to have you join us. I would love for you to just kind of jump in and tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do, especially if there are some people that you know maybe haven't met you

Noah Buchanan 02:56

yet. Hi, I'm Noah Buchanan. I live in Santa Cruz, California, and that's where I have my studio as well. And I'm a, I would consider myself, you know, classically minded, classically trained artist and working in drawing and painting. And my journey started out at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. And I think that you know the kind of this, the tradition of that school as America's oldest art school, and having a strong connection to American art and further back American arts roots and in European training, I think that really just got into me right away at an early age, and stuck with me. And so all of those artists that come from that tradition, you know, everybody like Thomas Aikens and Mary Cassatt, you know, they really got into my kind of, my guts as a painter. And further back, you know, the greater artist tradition of coming from Caravaggio and Velasquez and Rubens, that's very much what I am looking to emulate, but obviously in a more you know, contemporary mode. At the same time, I think very much a part of what I do as an artist is is to teach and to further their tradition, and really in the act of teaching, it's sort of an ongoing, it's a research, you know, it's a delving deeper into these practices, making discoveries, you know, on a daily basis, about about how to do them and what they mean, and deeper levels of symbolism within the practice of of working in this tradition. So I think, in a nutshell, that's, that's kind of who I am as an artist. And I a lot of folks tell me, when they look, you know, at my work, have an initial glance at my work. They they can see those influences come come through pretty loud and clear. I think.

Olya Konell 05:00

Think, yeah, and I was just gonna say, you have it your signature style, you know, I It's interesting how we connect, we, we connect with the artists that came before us, in a way, but that brings out a part of us, like we, we've already had that in us, so you've clearly already had that in you, and then you connected with, you know, these influences, and they're just so prevalent in your work, just that your use of color, your choices of the blues, you you know, just like, it's like, you're, I have a friend that used to in Russian say it, but he was like, it's the artist handwriting.

Angela Agosto 05:40

Every artist has their unique handwriting. So you definitely, too, in the in the body form.

Olya Konell 05:43

Everything, yeah, and in the though, the one thing that we appreciate that you are doing is teaching, because as artists, artists have a long tradition of learning from, you know, existing artists that are that have come before them. I mean, historically, that is how artists learn. You can go to art school, but you continue learning by connecting with artists. You continue taking workshops. And so we've shared some of your listing. So we have your workshops. There's a couple that are coming up. And so we'll kind of let you speak to that in September. So I'm gonna go ahead and pull it up on my screen. Me. So I'm on Noah's website, on his Faso site, and I'm going to go to connect and then workshops and classes. So if you guys need to go back to that, and it's in September, on the sixth through October 11, correct?

Noah Buchanan 06:37

Yeah, that's right, yeah. And that's that is a live online class through the New York Academy of Art that I've been teaching. They occur in six week increments, you know. So they meet once a week, and my class is set on Saturdays, which is really nice for a lot of folks are able to take the class that way. But it is a, it's an academic figure drawing class. So I try to cover all the bases, you know, everything from classical proportion, basically need to know anatomy, which is really all we can do in six weeks, and light and shade theory for artists, and dealing with drawing the figure in relatively short poses, like, you know, which would be like A one class session pose, versus, you know, protracting a drawing over to class meetings, plus the week between, you know, so long pose versus short pose. So I try to, I try to fit a lot of material in, and we've set it up myself in the New York Academy. Have set it up so that this class actually alternates every every other sessions. So for example, fall session one will will be figure drawing, but then fall session two will be portrait drawing. So there's a lot of interest in in portraiture. So the the class format is the same. A lot of the techniques and topics that I talk about, tactics, you know, that I talk about in drawing are the same. The materials are the same, but the focus is obviously shifting from the full figure then into just honing down on the head, the structure of the head, the anatomy of the head, facial proportions, and things like that. And that's been that seems to have been working well for folks who there is such a strong interest in just the head, you know, and portraiture, and it really deserves its own course. So we're alternating now every other, every other term.

Olya Konell 08:25

And I have somebody asking the Saturday, since they're on Saturdays, are these classes recorded, if the person can't make it live?

Noah Buchanan 08:33

Yeah, that's the best question, because they are recorded. And a lot of folks do choose to to use the class in an asynchronous mode where they are enrolled in the class, and they are really just logging in later at their convenience and clicking on the link for the recording and working through the class in that manner. And it totally works. I mean, I think that I can imagine, if you're just working through the recording, it would feel like you're in the class. I mean, I don't see how it would feel any different, because you're watching this live demonstration under going underway, and you're you're listening to students ask questions and being answered, and it would feel like you're working through it in real time. And, of course, you have access to all of the reference images and things like that that we're all working from. So absolutely all sessions are recorded, and a number of folks do choose to work through the class asynchronously, or a lot of folks are kind of doing a hybrid thing where, you know, they're coming to half of the classes in person, and then the other half, you know, for whatever reason, they're picking up from the recordings.

Olya Konell 09:40

Yeah, that's and that's awesome. This is where, this is where I love technology. Is the ability to connect and learn. And when I first saw that, I was like, Oh, darn. Like, such a good deal, but it's so far away. And then when I actually clicked on, I was like, Oh, wow, it's online. This is fantastic. This is the one thing that the whole 2020 did for us. Is it? I think it really launched. Allowed us to it is kind of fast track, the ability to connect across the world a little bit faster and better, in a way that is helping people.

Angela Agosto 10:11

I think the beauty of recordings is that you can do it at your own pace, like you said, you can. They can follow along. They can hear students, but then they can pause and maybe try out the technique, or whatever it is you're doing? You know, resume the recording, or rewind or whatever. So, yeah, I do love the recording. Now, do they have access to the recording for a certain time or is it the whole six weeks during that time period? Or how long?

Noah Buchanan 10:32

Oh, you know, that's a question I always mean to get a harder answer on from the New York Academy, I think that it's, I think, that they have access for two weeks following the termination of the last class. So, wow, I think that's right. It might be, it might be a month, but I think that it is. It's a reasonable amount of time, but it's not, you know, it's not indefinitely. So, yeah, I think that there's enough time, though, that people are able to finish the content and work through the course to completion.

Olya Konell 11:03

That's awesome. Yeah, I actually

Angela Agosto 11:06

I'm sorry I just said. I did share the direct link that.

Noah Buchanan 11:10

Oh, thanks, Angela, yeah, thank you.

Olya Konell 11:13

And I did see so we do have an art related question from John, how do you achieve your color tonality? Your work has a tonalist quality. Are the colors muted with compliments or by adding black? Great question.

Noah Buchanan 11:25

Good question. John, thank you for that color tonality. My colors aren't muted with black. I would say they I'm usually, I think, one habit that I have when I'm mixing color is, and I share this with my students a lot frequently. You know, because color mixture is such a is such a challenge for folks learning to paint, and wherever they're at in their practice with painting, I often say, you know, if you're trying to to to raise the value, brighten the value, try to use white as your last resort, and then try to use black as your last resort for for darkening of value. And that doesn't mean that I don't use those. I mean, I absolutely do rely on black for a lot of things, but I think that that's just like a simple rule of thumb that can help to achieve richer color, color that feels, you know, juicier or more alive, more delicious. Yes, but occasionally black is the thing to do. And I do. I have black on the palette. I'm also, I'm sort of opposed to the idea that we shouldn't have black on the palette simply because of, I feel, you know, a sentimental relationship and feeling towards the old masters, where they did have black on their palette, and they used it and relied on it. You know, we know that Rembrandt used black. We know Velasquez used black, and Caravaggio star used black. It's an important color. So I think that for me, the secret to color is, is to to realize that, you know, it's getting all of the credit. You know, color is getting all the credit, but really value is doing all of the work. So I'm always, I'm always telling friends, students and you know, just anyone inquiring about color, that the more you can tune into value and controlling value the tonality of it. You know, in other words, does it? Does it work? Does the painting work as a black and white photograph? You know, if you're, if you're photographing your work in progress in black and white, something I do a lot, is it still holding up? Is the form still working? And I think that a lot of students that I work with, I'll do that. I'll look at a painting with them, and I'll photograph it in black and white. And like, you know, it becomes all chopped up, and the color stops making sense in terms of its tonal behavior, you know, and we see a bunch of patchy, choppy form, and, you know, it reminds the student that, oh, I need to be controlling tonality if, if the color is going to work. So my strong belief is that, if the value is working, the next thing that I think about in the hierarchy is, you know, after the after. The major issue of value, the next big thing is temperature. You know, whether, whether the feeling of the color is warm or cool or neutral. You know, so warm being the colors of fire and orange, red and yellow and cool being, you know, blue and silver and gray and black, and then neutral, being anything that's in the green hue or or violet purple hue. And I think that if artists can control their tonalities, their values, and then assess temperature, that the color takes care of. Self, that's my big secret, right there, is that I don't really think about color that much when I'm painting. I don't think about what type of orange is this, you know, or what can I do to make this, this violet, you know, more chromatic or less chromatic? What I'm really doing is I'm trying to get the value right, and then I'm trying to acknowledge the temperature, you know, does it feel warm? Does it feel cool? Or is it somewhere between? And I feel, once I do that, I kind of let the color go off on its own, you know, like I give it free reign to do whatever it wants to do. And I when I'm mixing color on the palette, I feel that I'm sort of in this subconscious state of I'm not really consciously present with the actual color mixture on the palette. I'm just kind of letting it do what it's doing, as long as I'm in control. I'm very conscious of the value and the temperature, and beyond that, the, you know, the the actual selections of the colors off the edge of the palette, like, you know, taking this, let's say up some Burnt Sienna and some cadmium lemon. I'm not really thinking about, Oh, I need that. And I need that. I'm just feeling warms and cools and neutrals, and I think that I love the sort of organic results that come out of that. And yet they're organic, they're wild, and yet they're still under control because of the value slash temperature issues.

Olya Konell 16:22

And I've pulled up on my screen, kind of one of your posts that I really like, when you were talking about getting the, you know, that base in first you get, getting the tonality right, and then adding the temperature, and just looking at the blush on her cheek, you know, and the warmth that you you know, this is, I think, like, a really good illustration of what you just talked about. And I'll share the link to this Instagram post. Oh, thank you. Is quite beautiful, but I, you know, the way you describe it is, yeah, it's, I see what you mean, and then you're kind of mixing. You're just focusing on you're looking at it. I need more warmth here. I need more cool here. I need to, you know, adjust those, yeah, yeah.

Noah Buchanan 17:03

And this graphic is, I think, gets to the heart. I see Christine Cassidy's asking, Do I start with a grize to establish the values? And I think there's a the term grisaille. I love the word grisaille, you know, it's a French term which means grade. And I've noticed over the years that a lot of artists have kind of a different relationship with the word grisaille and what it means. And so it can mean a lot of things, you know, like for me, grisai was introduced as just using black and white, and so just painting in black and white. And oftentimes a lot of artists will, will do that as an under painting, you know. They will, they will make a black and white painting to completion, to resolve the form and the tonality, and then paint full color on that. I do something similar, which some people call grisaille, you know. And I think some of the images you've pulled up there, only, I think, show that under painting stage, like, Yeah, like that one. So I build an under painting out of a couple of layers where there's a an earth tone, transparent wash at first, which I call an imprimatura. Again, that's another term that kind of has some various usages. And so for me, that's what, how I define imprimatura, is that sort of earth tone wash, like in this painting that Olia has up where in the lower portions of the figure, in the figures shirt, or in the hair, it's very, you know, earth tone and washy. And I'm building up the the the form and the drawing and the tonality of it in that washy state, which I call it in premature but then I'm working on top of that when that dries. I'm working on top of that with just lead white. And I think I sometimes I just do it in lead white, and applications of lead white that are somewhat transparent, somewhat opaque, that that sort of in between state and modeling the form in the light mass with a method known as velotora, you know, which is in another Italian term, translating to to make a veil, you know. And so we're, we're pulling this white, milky layer on top of the imprimatura, and together, they coalesce to create this wonderful feeling of almost fully resolved form and a tonal map of the structure. And I love working in this method. This, you know, it's a very, very 17th century. Sometimes you see it maybe a little bit in the Renaissance, but kind of more coming to life in the in the 17th Century and Baroque period. So for me, that's kind of my that's my underpainting. What would be the equivalent of starting with a grisaille? And I've had other artists look at that and say, Oh, so you do grisai For underpainting? And I say, Well, okay, you know, like, if that's how you define grisaille again? Right? You know, it's interesting. A lot of these historical terms have, they have so many understandings of what they mean Exactly. And I don't feel dogmatic that, you know, oh, this is what it means, and this is what it not doesn't mean, you know, because I have, like, very close painting friends who like, use it differently and and I really admire and respect what they do. So I think it's just interesting to look at the the sort of range of how some of these terms get used,

Olya Konell 20:30

and people kind of they tweak how they do it, but they still use the term, and then it just takes on multiple styles or multiple meanings of how it's done. That's right, yeah. And John says, nice. Thank you for the detailed answer. The imprimatur is an awesome key, I believe as well. So

Olya Konell 20:51

this I, and I want to just to jump into this, because I know a lot of artists do have questions. So when it comes to selling your work, you know, you know you went down a specific path, and you, you know you to where you are today. What are some key things that you feel help you get you, I mean, get your art out, out there. You know. What are some non negotiables, things that you do now and maybe highlight a couple things, maybe that you did early on, because that way connects with where people are in their journey.

Noah Buchanan 21:27

Yeah, I'm thinking back to, sort of when my I started to get my artwork, you know, out there, so to speak. And this was, I'm trying to think of the of the, you know, where we were on the timeline in terms of the advent of the internet, because I think for a lot of artists, it's different, you know, like some of my heroes, like, like Bo Bartlett, Vincent desiderio, I mean, they were coming up in the 80s, and it was just about sending out your slides, you know. I mean, that's all you could do. And you could network with galleries and and try to try to do it that way. And I think I that was really hard. I mean, I have a lot of respect for artists. They're sort of pre internet, because now, you know, we have the internet, and it's so much easier for us to just, you know, start that journey of putting your work out there. But I'm thinking back to my first steps, when it wasn't common for people to have their own website. You know, this was, like, I think, around late 90s, and I started to show with the gallery. And so to me, that was, that was the way to do it, you know, was it was getting your work into a gallery of some level, you know. I mean, I mean, we aspired to the top blue chip galleries. You know that you hear about in the world, but, but we knew that, you know we were, we were starting out early. I'm just when I say we, I mean my my friends in art school, and myself. And so I started the show with a little gallery in Philadelphia called artists house gallery. And it was, it was sort of secretly affiliated with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. So basically, the rule was that, if you had gone to the Pennsylvania Academy, it was kind of an open door, you could show there. And it was, but it was a real working gallery. You know, they, in other words, they put on solo exhibitions, group exhibitions, the works were for sale. The gallery took a commission. I think it was a very it was a very supportive commission, because they knew that they were, they were helping emerging artists to to launch their career. So I remember they took a 40% commission, and they gave the artist 60% so I see and that was great. I started to show with them and I was surprised at how, you know, it gave me a working knowledge of how this works. You know, the whole package of making a batch of paintings over this course of several months, or maybe even a year and a half, let's say, then learning how to ship the work. You know, because very often the gallery you're working with is not in your hometown. You know, if you don't happen to live in a big city, then you're either shipping your work or driving it a fair distance. So I, you know, learned how to pack my work properly and and what was the best, most affordable way to ship it, and then making sure that it arrives at the other end, in a, you know, in a really pristine manner, because it's got to be ready to hang on the wall. And then, you know, the the just the, you know, the having the experience of, of working with the gallery and being flexible with with them, if they want, if they have a client, they think they can sell a painting to but they need to adjust the price, you know, is this whole, whole lesson in learning to be a little bit flexible. I think that while that's a really effective way is, you know, working with the gallery, because they have access to, you know, a whole host of people that have bought paintings from them in the past and are looking to buy painting. From them in the future. And of course, it's people that you would not have met otherwise that it it just sort of, you know, it opens you up to to the world in a way that you wouldn't have been able to access otherwise. So I think that going the gallery route is, is it's, it's challenging. It's hard to to make that foothold and make that connection and have the door open. But it's, it's very rewarding when it does, it's, it's difficult though. I mean, the galleries are, you know, they, they take their time getting to know you. They're, you know, they want to make sure that that's a good fit for with your work and their gallery and that they can sell it. You know, I think a lot of times artists think about galleries just as a way to get the work out there, and it's like a miniature museum. And I remember, that's how it was in my mind. As an art student, I was like, I don't really care about selling it. I just want my work out there, and I want to feel like I'm exhibiting this work. You know, I'm, I'm putting all this effort into making the work, and I want to see and feel it exhibited and, you know, appreciated, and I want to hear people's comments on what they how they feel about the work. But of course, the gallery is, in the end, it's a very commercial thing, and they need to sell the paintings. They need to pay their rent, you know? And suddenly you find yourself in a relationship with a gallery where they're saying, you know, we would like you to paint this, or we would like you to paint that, or do you know this painting over here that you did? Can you do another one of those? And suddenly, you know your your studio life starts to change, because you find yourself, you know, not just following your own whims of creativity, but saying, Well, I want to make the gallery happy, and they really want me to do three more of these types of paintings, so I'm going to do those, you know. So that was kind of the first, the first steps. But moving further along in in the timeline, I think that as soon as the internet made it easier for artists to have websites, I and I'm sure I'm just parroting what so many artists would say today. But you know, having an online presence is, is absolutely it's more than required and necessary and needed. It's, I mean, it's just everything. I mean, you you have to have that online presence. You need a website. You need to be have a relationship with at least one or if not several, venues of social media, and to be comfortable working with it. You know, I feel like artists that that did that part earlier, you know, that got their website going, that jumped in at the ground floor of Instagram, you know, without hesitation, I feel like they did very well, you know. And I I rely on on social media a lot, in terms of, principally with Instagram and a little bit with Facebook. But I remember feeling that I was resistant to Instagram at first, you know, when it first came out, I thought, oh, that's silly. I'm not going to do that. And I really regret it, because the, you know, the folks that that got involved with Instagram early on, it really helped the the their notoriety, their, you know, their outreach and and, of course, as Instagram evolved, it took on all these algorithms that restricted people. So I think, you know, those are the, the most essential first steps that an artist should go through to to help, you know, to help their work find a place in the world. It's really, in the end, what's happening, you know, is, is getting the work out there.

Olya Konell 28:48

And I think sometimes artists, when they hear, you know, advice, like you just shared it, and I'm talking to the audience right now, if it feels overwhelming, just a reminder that you don't do all things at once. You know, before you do any of that stuff, you need to focus on the work itself. Make sure your work is you know, you've achieved the level of mastery that you feel comfortable with. To start putting your work out there once you're in that place, and if you're not there, we have so many great resources of how you can find workshops in your area and do all that stuff, but once you're there, one thing at a time, you know, don't try to do it all. Get one plate spinning, learn one like, no as it Get, get your site up, get your artwork photographed, get your bio written, then you start sharing it in other places. And it's not just online, too. You can participate in different organizations, and that probably helps too, you know, being a part of different groups, being associated with different organizations, because, you know, they have their own social presence. They can feature you on their site. You know, there's opportunities to network. You know, where you're kind of partnering, and I don't know, do you. You, are you a part of any groups right now? I mean, I, you know, are you members of any associations? Things that you think have you know, are would help artists today?

Noah Buchanan 30:11

Yeah. I mean, I, I became a member of the salmagundi club in New York. I think it was in it was 2021, I became a member. And I love the club. I mean, it's been, it's been wonderful for, yeah, for, you know, to have an affiliation with with a historic club like that, oh yeah, for a lot of opportunities for exhibitions I've had. And then through those exhibitions, I've had sales of paintings, which then lead to, you know, new client relationships. So I think that's a wonderful one is, you know, artists looking to tap into, you know, a wonderful historic tradition. Check out the salmagundi club. I'm it's, it's not only is beautiful building in New York City with all this historic tradition and but just, you know, a huge house of wonderful artists, both you know, older artists, younger artists. I think the club, at this point has a really rich, diverse membership. But yeah, so I do belong to the salmagundi club. I think that's the only one that comes to mind off hand in terms of organizations that I belong to, yeah, and

Angela Agosto 31:25

And it's great to go to New York and you're in California, but it's, you know, you get to spread your reach.

Olya Konell 31:29

Yeah,

Noah Buchanan 31:31

yeah. I when I'm in, when I'm in New York, I usually at least spend a few hours at the club, because they have a beautiful historic library, the salmagundi club, and it's over 150 years old. It's, you know, it's kind of the traditional looking 19th century library, with the wooden paneling. And you know, bookshelves, floor to ceiling, and you know, old tables, old lamps filled with art. They often have little exhibitions going on inside. And if you remember, you can just go and sit in the library and study or work. You know, bring your laptop, and I always take advantage of that. And as it happens, I painted the the library doors of that library at the Selma Candy Club, in commemoration of their 100 and 50th anniversary, they had a a competition for a commission to paint the library doors with allegorical figures. And so I was, I was selected to to to paint the doors, and they're some of my favorite things that I've ever done. And I love going to the library to, you know, not just to sit, you know, in the library and soak up the atmosphere. But it's just also exciting to see my paintings on the doors and, oh yeah, when people are visiting New York, I often say, you know, if you have time, you know, check the salmagundi clubs hours so that, you know, end up with a, you know, closed door. But you know, and just head in and then announce yourself and ask to go up and see the library, and you'll see my, my paintings on the doors there,

Olya Konell 33:04

yeah, and it's a historic, I think it wasn't Norman Rockwell. He used to, yeah, yeah. So there's just a lot of rich history. There a lot of

Noah Buchanan 33:14

rich history, yeah, a lot of, a lot of famous artists, members and and presidents and, yeah, Norman Rockwell was a member. He used to they used to have a little apartment on the very top floor of the club where Norman Rockwell would spend the night when he was in the city.

Olya Konell 33:28

So yeah. So if you visit, you can definitely sense the energy and just the artistic vibe. And you know that is something that I think is so important, is to have for artists need to have artist friends, and artists need to have an artist circle of connection. Because if you is, especially if you're not somebody that went through the traditional route of art school, because if you've gone through, you know, a formal education, you kind of come out of it with it. You're kind of born into it, almost. You're birthed into this life, right? And you already have, you know students, you know that you were in school with. You have connections built. And I think those connections help artists network, learn about new opportunities, recommendations to galleries. You know, I'm sure there's a lot you know is, is there anything you know, is there anything in particular that you think, I mean, that helped you get into that first gallery, or get, you know, get into, oh, yeah, can you Yeah? Is there anything in particular that,

Noah Buchanan 34:36

I mean, it's all, it's everything that we do as artists. I mean, it's so imperative that we keep our connections alive with, I think, not only our teachers that we've had, but then all of the people that you know, inevitably, an artist, is going to be in a classroom at some point, or hopefully a lot you know, and that might be at a university or an art school or an atelier. Okay, those people that are shoulder to shoulder with you, I've found, and I've noticed in other people's lives, I mean, they become so powerfully important in shaping your your career, because they are the ones. They pull you along to be in an exhibition that they're curating, or they're they're showing at a gallery already, and they they recommend your work to the gallerist, and then now it becomes your gallery. You know those connections are so important that you know to foster, to keep your relationship alive with your your previous your former teachers, your current teachers, your your peers that are in your classroom with I know that, as I mentioned, the artist house gallery was like when I was very young, and it was like my fledgling gallery. And then after I went to grad school, I remember, while I was studying at the New York Academy of Art in graduate school, a very young Dan Thompson had just begun teaching at the New York Academy while I was still a student there and and Dan had been showing with John Pence gallery out here in San Francisco. And I was, you know, I was just working on learning drawing and painting, but Dan came through my studio and said, you know, have you thought about showing at John Pence gallery and in San Francisco, I said, you know, it's, it's a roster of artists that I think you know, you'd feel really comfortable showing with. And so when, you know, when I was all done graduating, and all the dust had settled and I had ended up relocating out here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I called up Dan, you know, and this is to the point of the question. And I said, does that, do you still think that the John Pence thing would be a good fit? And he said, like, absolutely. And then, of course, I said, Well, can you help me make an introduction? And he did. So. I mean, you know, there, Dan was a, was a teacher at the New York Academy, you know, I used that connection. I took that offer. He introduced me to the gallery, and I began showing. And I showed with John Pence for 14 years, wow, till he retired at the age of of his in his mid 80s. You know, he continued to be a working, selling gallery and gallerist up through his mid 80s, and then retired and closed the gallery, unfortunately, but I guess the point of that is, I mean, use those connections.

Olya Konell 37:25

And if you don't have them, make them. Make

Noah Buchanan 37:30

them. But, and that's another, you know, credit towards to graduate school. I get a lot of a lot of questions from artists, both undergraduate students or just artists in general, that say, you know, should I go to grad school? What's the point of it? You know, they'll say, like, I don't really want to be a teacher. Is there any point to go to grad school? And I often say, um, yeah. I mean, you're going to make connections that will define your career. I mean, you're going to make new friends, you're going to have new teachers. And these people will open doors for you, or just pull you along for the ride. They're gonna grab you by the collar and say, Hey, you're gonna be in this group show with us, you know? And then, because you're in the group show now, your work is in this catalog, and because your work's in the catalog, some new client sees it and commissions a big work from you. And you know, you could see how it really becomes the path forward. It defines the direction that your artistic life is taking Absolutely

Olya Konell 38:21

yeah, and thank you for sharing that, and I was trying to figure out how to properly formulate my question, so I'm very grateful that you actually picked up what I was getting at. And I wanted you to speak on that, because something that we always say is when I know this is our creativity and marketing conversation, but marketing is literally everything that we that as artists do, to connect with other human beings, to share their work. So it's not just online. It's the conversation you are having after class. It is the you know relationship that you have with your art teacher. It is be you know. It is literally all of those things you know that help kind of build the path forward, and it could you, you be, you know, you could even go to barbecue, because a friend invited you, and somebody asks, what do you do? I'm an artist. And there you go. You met an art collector because now you're showing your work on your phone, and they're just fascinated, because people are fascinated by artists. And so, yeah, that's it. Really is everything. It really is such a broad you know, how an artist markets their work? There's so many ways of Connect, making those connections. And so, yeah, yeah, there's a question from John says, How often should a decent artist present new works on public platforms? Is there an ideal or expected frequency of production debut to help capture public attention on various media platforms?

Noah Buchanan 39:49

Thanks, John, that's a great question. That's I, you know, I think on that question a lot myself, because I and I'm going to answer that in my. My own opinions on it, but I think that that is an ever changing, slippery, you know, slope of algorithmic mystery. You know that Instagram being the one I'm thinking of the most for artists you know, more than any other like, you know, like, like x or or Tiktok and those kinds of things. But, you know, Instagram is kind of our ideal platform. And I know, you know, they're constantly changing their algorithms, and they're not telling us what those algorithms are, so we have to guess at it, and people have theories, and so anyway, all of that aside, because it's really that's unknowable, right? And they're going to keep changing it on us. I think it's totally fine, and I would recommend that, especially if you're really trying to make a foothold in social media, post once a day, and I don't think that that's going to be perceived as that's not going to be, you know, annoying to an audience, or they're not going to feel like your attention grabbing or something like that. I think that that's just very standard and normal. Other artists might have other opinions, and they might be right, but what I notice is, is that artists that post every day, probably just once a day. You know, there the interaction with their platform and their offering on social media is, you know, it's very active and alive, and there's a lot of feedback, a lot of comments. They're keeping a steady stream of new followers coming in, and so that, but that your question was tied to, like, you know, how much, how do I create content, or how much content do I create? And I think there's, there's savvy ways of doing this that you know, because you're not a machine, you're not going to be able to produce a brand new painting every day, obviously, you know, and my paintings take way too long to make, you know, I wish I was a faster painter. So you'll notice, if you look at my, if my Instagram account, you'll notice that a lot of times I'm posting details of paintings, you know, like just the head study or just the head detail of a painting. Sometimes it's just a demo from a class that I did a lot of times, if you scroll through, you know, multiple layers or multiple lines, like scrolling down through my social media, you find that, you know, I will have posted an image of the under painting at the very beginning of the painting, and then further along, the next phases of the under painting, and then details of that painting as it gets finished. And then eventually, like a big reveal where, you know, I post the whole painting and say, you know, I'll say, and I'm excited to reveal this painting now that it's been varnished and photographed, and, you know, I've been working on it for a long time, so you can find ways to meter out your your your actual material offering that you have in your studio, the paintings and the drawings that you're making, you can find ways to meter that out in a way that's fun for the audience, you know, to see details, to see stages. And I think that artists should not feel embarrassed about reposting things. I mean, if, if you have, I just did that the other day. You know, I have a favorite painting of mine, and I know of of just the audience have, have always loved this, this painting I did of my my stepson, Kai, is standing on a rock in red shorts. And everybody loves that painting. It was in the National Portrait Gallery in London for the for the BP Portrait Award back several years ago, and, and it, you know, it's, it's a favorite, and it's been, I mean, I painted it in 2018 So wow, that's, that's seven years ago, right? Yeah. But I just, you know, I thought, you know, hey, let's just post it today for fun. And everybody likes it, you know. So circle back around to old things. I noticed artists go through phases where they'll do a little chapter of like they'll show, you know, here's my early work when I was, you know, in art school, we'll just, let's just go through all that work and present it kind of as a fun chapter. So find ways to sort of meter out postings and offerings that would be once per day, and I think that's, I think that's good advice, but I'm not an expert. I'm not an expert on social media, because I, you know, I'll look at what other artists have accomplished on social media in terms of their following and their interactions. And there certainly are artists that are more savvy, but I definitely go through phases where I don't maybe post as often, you know, like, there'll be little dry periods. But then I go through periods where I'm posting every day.

Angela Agosto 44:50

You gave us a lot too, because people are always asking, What do I post? What do people want to see? So I love that you say that you do, from the understudy to, you know, pieces in the floor. So that gives them a lot.

Olya Konell 45:01

Lot of you know, daily posts, a lot of material to post. Yeah, and one of my favorite things that artists do, I'm going to spotlight myself again so people can can see, is like with this painting here, you instead of just, instead of posting just a single image, you created, almost like a gallery experience, because when a person looks at a painting, they look at it from a distance, and then they get up closer, and they, you know, they'll actually, it was this other post, they'll zoom in on a different part of it, you know, and you know. And then you'll have information on it. You You turned one painting or one portion of the painting into, like, multiple This is the post I was looking at. So you have the full painting, and then you zoom in on the hand holding the pair, because that's what our eyes do. They kind of circle through the different details and and what this does like you can take one painting, make a bunch of little crop different sections of it, when it shows up in people's feed, they might see this first, they might be intrigued, and then slide to the next one, and then they'll keep looking and and Instagram, if you if somebody looks at this post, at two out of the 10 images it will Instagram will try to show the other images to them later in their feed, because they know that they're interested. So, oh, yeah, I didn't know that. That's great to know. Yeah, so carousel carousels are better than single images because it increases the likelihood that somebody will see that same post multiple times.

Noah Buchanan 46:34

Oh, that's good to know. I didn't know that. Thanks, Olya, that's great. I mean, I like to do the carousels because of what you described. The reason is that you know, you imagine when you go to a museum, you know, you see the master painting there on the wall, and it's exciting. There's the whole thing. But then, of course, you walk in and you want to see how they painted the hand, and then you notice some little detail down in the corner that you know, as you're walking away, like, wow, look at this little key on the floor, and look how beautifully it's painted. So you want to give the audience that experience too through social media. So it's a fun way to do it. Oh, yeah, you know, you get to spotlight little things that they wouldn't, maybe wouldn't have looked at otherwise

Olya Konell 47:11

they wouldn't have noticed, or the way that it's cropped or shows up in their feed. And it's really simple. It doesn't take that much work, you know, aside from deciding what you're going to feature, I have another I have another question that I want to jump to, because I don't want to. There's multiple questions here. So Dwight asks, I'm an admirer of your work, particularly your multi figure paintings. I agree. Yes, they're incredibly compelling, and I'm fascinated by how you bring them to life. Could you share a bit about your process for develop developing multi figure compositions? I'm curious. The first one is, do you typically work in series or on multiple pieces at once? Do you use digital tools or initial sketches for planning or planning when composing? How do you balance elements like figure placement, patterns and overall visual impact as a figurative artist myself, I deeply appreciate any insights you could offer. Thank you.

Noah Buchanan 48:05

Wow, that's an amazing question. Dwight, thank you for that. That's like my favorite question to go into. But that's really the whole thing, isn't it? I mean, that's the entire for as far as our craft, and if you're interested in figurative painting, and especially using multiple figures. That's like, the whole journey is figuring that stuff out. So, yeah, to work through the parts of the question, you know, do I typically work in this, in in a series, or on multiple pieces at once? I used to work on just one painting at a time, and I'm not sure how, but over the years, like, as you can see in my studio now, there's like, there's like, I guess four paintings out. There's, you know, one here, there's one there behind me, there's one there, and there's a big one on the wall here. And I somehow wound up working on three to four paintings at a time, unless the work is very big. So I have, like, two, I've done three pretty large paintings and and two of them are in the Seven Bridges foundation in in Greenwich, Connecticut. And, you know, they're around eight to nine feet tall, and they have many figures in them. So if a painting is on that scale, my painting symphony is is about eight feet tall, and it has 27 figures in it. I mean, so something like that. It's just, yeah, it's only that, you know, you're only going to work on that. But for some of these other figure paintings that are, you know, have three figures in them, or two, I'll work on, you know, three or four at a time and but I think the most important part of Dwight's question is, do I typically no, no. He said, What was the part about the I'm looking through the question, I use digital tools or initial sketches for planning, and I think that is the secret. Is that the very beginning of a multi figure paint. Painting, you know, any kind of ambitious figure painting, like, yeah, like you're pulling up, OLIO is pulling up my Symphony painting. Is that it, you have to start really small, really small, you know, like, I'm talking like this painting began as a little scribble on, you know, like a piece of paper in, like, a Moleskine. Think about a Moleskine journal as, as the, as the, the method of working it out, because, you know, the small one that everyone has, you know, like, it's, like, I don't know, like, eight by four or five inches and and then within the pages of that, you're, you're coming way down within that. So I'm only using, I'm putting a little scribble in the center of a Moleskine sketchbook. And so the actual, the very first scribble, the first envisioning of it, is probably only, like three by four inches or something, and you're just working in these tiny scribbles. And I saw my first, that's my first entry into to the birth of a real painting is as a little scribble where I'm not even really sure what I'm scribbling. I think, you know, I might be scribbling a little figure, and then this figure is interacting with that one and and, you know, and I'm sort of changing the idea as I see it takes shape on the on the page, and in that small format, and sometimes the chaos of those scribbles and just ends up authoring like a new idea that, you know, what was supposed to be, you know, a couple figures over here ends up becoming like a tree. And I think, oh, I need, I need a tree here, you know, and and it, it births all these new ideas. Well, taking that little scribble and then enlarging it, maybe just a little bit, and then refining on top of it. So a lot of times I'll, I'll take the little initial scribble, I'll take it to my little printer at home and ask it to blow it up by 150% or something, or 120% so now it's a larger scribble. And I'll put tracing paper over that, and I'll and I'll redraw on top of that. And of course, at this stage, I'm just drawing in strictly an invention, you know, just imagining figures and, you know, and things are still very fluid. I could change things. I can move things, but that going slightly larger and revising on top of the first scribble, things start to take a little bit more focus. And the you know, the picture starts to become more clear, the figures and their poses start to become more clear. And to make this part a little more concise, I'll do that step maybe three or four times, where I keep going a little bit bigger and refining. And after about three or four iterations of that, I'll often feel like it's time to bring in models and have them try to take some of these poses. Inevitably, they can never really do the poses that I have in my in my scribbles, but they can do something like it. And sometimes what they're doing is better. Sometimes it's not. But I, you know, I compromise and I adjust, and I start to redraw this from the models poses, and then I come up with, eventually, you know, refining those, those poses and those drawings, more and more, I'll come up with, you know, what was historically known as a cartoon, you know, a line drawing where all the figures are in their places, and that will be greatly enlarged and transferred onto the canvas. The part about the digital tools, I think, is an important part. I do know a lot of artists that are using Photoshop to, you know, to assemble components of for compositions like they might take a photographic reference of a model here and there, and then they can Photoshop, and they can change the sizes and overlap them in different ways. And to be honest, I wish I was better at Photoshop, because I would probably do that. So if you're doing that, if you're using Photoshop to assemble your compositions, um, more power to you and congratulations. I think it's a great thing to do. I am very and again, it's not a it's not a judgment thing. I would use the Photoshop if I was better at it. I know how to use it a little bit, but I'm not very good at it. And I try, but I'm just not that good at it. I do a lot of, you know, drawing from invention and then, and then I those become drawings from models. And then I will, I'll cut those out with just like a, you know, exacto blade, and then I'll collage them together with with other figures that I've done the same thing with, you know. So I'll draw this figure, I'll draw that figure, I'll print them out, and then I'll cut those figures out, and I'll collage them together. So I can put this one here. And then what if I bump it up a little bit? And then I realized, oh, this figure needs to be a little smaller, so I'll reduce it on the photocopier. And I do a lot of adjusting of the placement of the figures, the sizing of the figures through collage. But I, I would say that I'm. Um underneath it all. Because, you know, the next part of Dwight's question is about, when composing, how do you balance elements like figure placement, patterns and overall visual impact underneath it all? I'm always working on what Juliet Aristides calls a harmonic armature in her, her fabulous book, classical painting atelier. It's one of her great books that she's done. She goes into this concept of a harmonic armature, which is really, you know, taking the rectangle that you're working in and cutting it up into all of the, you know, unseen but inherent geometry that's there, like, for example, starting with the diagonals of the rectangle, but going way further, you know, the diagonals, the horizontals, the verticals of halves, thirds, quarters, you know, and all and cutting it up with all of that, and using that grid, for lack of a better word, but that chaos of all this geometric interaction as a way to coincide your composition, your design and the placement of your subject matter, coinciding all of that with the geometry of the rectangle, I think, is imperative to do in order to compose well. So, yeah, aside from all the collaging stuff I talked about and making sure that it all has some marriage, some harmony and interaction with the geometry of the rectangle and all of that goes away later. I mean, the geometry is obviously unseen when the painting is done, but it's there, you know, the location of someone's head, or, you know, the edge of their face, maybe touching, like the 1/3 line of the canvas, or like a hand up in the air is at the intersection of this diagonal and this diagonal, you know, so using the geometry of the rectangle in any way that I can To coincide the design and the placement of subject matter that's really important to me. I will say that in terms of digital tools, I don't because I think it's probably on everyone's mind right now.

Noah Buchanan 57:19

I don't think that I'm comfortable with the idea of using AI to to generate or propose, you know, any, any elements of the design. I don't feel comfortable with with that. I don't know that I ever will. I think that I want all of the components to be I want to be in control of placing them and that, and that might, you know, that might contain errors on my part too, you know, like, maybe, I'm sure AI could do it better. But I if it, if it contains human errors, I think that it should contain those human errors, you know, and that's part of the artistic experience, 100% Yeah. But I've seen artists out there, you know, you're using AI to, like, to help them compose and generate an image, and then they, then they just use it as reference and they paint over it. And I'm not going to say that they shouldn't do that, or that's bad, or that's less than, you know, a work that's made it in just a more, you know, straightforward, traditional manner, because, you know, maybe it seems, maybe it seems strange now, but, but in 100 years, it might seem like, oh, that's fine. That's not cheating. Because, I mean, nowadays, we accept photographic references so readily. You know, I use photographic references in case that's one of the questions out there. I work from life a lot. I work from my drawings a lot, and I work from photographic references a lot. But that's, you know, working from photographs is so readily accepted, even by, you know, dogmatic Atelier artists that I know that, you know, they trained and everything was like you got to work from life, and then once they're out working in their career, they're working from photographic references too, but their skills were founded on working from life. So my point with that is that, you know, there was a time when working from photographs was kind of verboten for a lot of folks. Now it's, you know, we get it. We it's not we understand it's necessary. And nobody really puts any judgment on that. So it might be the same one day for using AI, I don't know, but I just have to say, I'm not really comfortable doing it myself. I don't, it doesn't feel I want a more genuine feeling about the work I'm making. And I feel like the AI would author things that I don't want it to author, even if it's better, you know, like, I'm sure it would be better, but I don't want that. I just I if I want my any any errors on my human part, any mediocrity, limitations that I have as a person, I guess I have to accept that that's going to be part of the authenticity of it.

Angela Agosto 59:50

That would take away from like, what Olya said earlier, like, that's your signature, and by doing AI, maybe would perfect it and take out a little bit of you.

Olya Konell 59:57

It. Would change it. There's I, I think. The, I think it's a very human it keeps the art human specifically. A really good example is, you know, you look at a beautiful person, you know, and even a beautiful person, there might be a little imperfection here and there, but if you but that makes them them, that makes them beautiful, you know, like the Roman nose or the, you know, there's certain features that people have that but if you, if you were to have aI edit their face, it would make them look different, different and, and, and I feel like I recently read an article about it was for had to do with writing. But there's a lot of writers that are now infusing their writing with a little typo here, or, you know, not traditional spelling of something that they you know, they're not overly stressed with the punctuation, because that differentiates their work from an AI written copy, you know what I mean. So yeah, and I, we talked about this before the webinar. When something becomes super common and readily available, the opposite the anticipate, you know, the complete opposite of that becomes more rare and more special and more sought after. And I think that's how we humans kind of gravitate. Yeah, there's always those two extremes. There's a, I know we're a little bit past the time, and some people had to jump off. But there are a couple questions that I want to grab if you're okay with it. Out of the Yeah, please. Um, do you think it is essential to narrow your work on your website to one genre? For instance, I have a landscape portfolio in a figure portrait portfolio.

Noah Buchanan 1:01:39

So landscape and figure, I think that is, maybe that is wise to sort of have two tracks. But then my concern with that would be that you know you're, you're does. You're kind of dividing your followers into, you know, into half, so that you you know the the size and number of your following content is smaller for both of those, you know, like you have 5000 on this one and 5000 on that one, and you could have 10,000 and I don't know how the algorithm algorithm works, but I feel like accounts that have these bigger followings Get more promotion, you know, and more attention. So again, I'm not an expert in how their algorithms work, but that would be a concern. I've seen artists do that, and it's kind of nice to see it organized, and it's, you know, there is something satisfying about seeing this organized, streamlined offerings, where it's just one type of content, and then people can really focus on what you do. But then again, if you're I feel like, if you're doing portraiture and you're doing plein air painting landscapes, I feel like if, if they're done in the same style and tradition, you know, I feel like those, those could be nicely alternated every other one, and then alternating them every other one, that makes a continuity. And in the the the person who's, you know, absorbing your content, who's, what's the word, you know, they're consuming your content. They feel like it's cohesive, because you're you're creating a regularity out of the postings

Olya Konell 1:03:23

of the pattern that you've created. And then, like on your website, you could just have two different collections. You could have portraits and you can have landscapes. And that's true. They go to your site, they can have a little bit of both, and especially if it's in the same you know, oil painting, or if you're a watercolor artist, watercolor, there's that medium that ties it together, plus the style that's right, I feel like artists, maybe we overthink that, and we should just just create and just put it out there and try to organize it in the best way possible.

Noah Buchanan 1:03:49

Yeah, just create it out there. But I think it does help to have that organization,

Olya Konell 1:03:55

yeah, to have that, it also creates a sense of professionalism, you know, and it, it's almost like, you know, there's that same dress to impress. Well, there's always the, you know, create and organize to do the same thing as essentially, so absolutely, yeah, there's a question here are galleries pre I cannot say this word prejudice.

Noah Buchanan 1:04:22

Prejudice. Just prejudiced, okay, prejudice,

Olya Konell 1:04:24

yeah, against showing artists who did not attend art school. Do you think?

Noah Buchanan 1:04:30

Um, I don't, I don't think so. I think that galleries are very you know this, the singular concern in their mind is going to be the sellability of the artist. And sometimes, you know that, a lot of times it has to do with their content, and there's their skill level or their style. And sometimes a lack of skill is the style you know, like deskilling, the work is the style and the flavor of the artists that. Selling. And a lot of times, I think that that kind of outsider character, you know, who's like an artist who, you know, didn't go through the system and just figured it out on their own, and it's kind of a rogue, you know, I think galleries kind of really enjoy selling that and building up a mystique around that, and so it might actually be be helpful, but going to art school sure helps with, you know, not just the formal aspects of making art, but as we mentioned earlier, the connections, you know. So if you're in a gallery, you've probably got into that gallery because your teacher helped you, or one of your peers that you were in school with helped you.

Olya Konell 1:05:42

So it's, it's almost like, yeah, they're not prejudiced, but be going to school gives you an advantage of getting in to begin with, just because of those connections. And you could use those same connections if you didn't go to art school. And you reestablish those artist relationships, you you know you find art mentors you know that are in galleries, and they may recommend you, so you can kind of work backwards a little bit to to have that those relationships.

Olya Konell 1:06:13

Let's see, there's a payment question. So I think this one I'm going to answer because, or we can both answer from Dylan, how do you get to the fine art payment protection features for protecting artwork. I know how to go to E commerce and access people. I just want my art protected in general when you sell from and this is why it's so good to have a website. When you sell your art through a website, you know, there are, you're selling through a secure channel. If you do something like take a check or what, that's when things get risky, or if you're doing, you know,

Olya Konell 1:06:53

you know. And I think the question is, like being able to do a secure payment transaction, PayPal is secure, stripe is secure. So what? Whatever your website offers, that's the only way I would accept online payments when it comes to selling online. I don't know if you have recommendations, but that's the benefit of a site. It gives you that protection when it when it comes to and this is a question for you. Noah, do you find that you sell, like some of your bigger pieces? You're going to sell those kind of through those in person relationships? That's not going to be a random online purchase, most likely, right? Yeah. So maybe smaller things, smaller sketches, prints, if you had them, that might be easier to sell, but your site still serves as a way for your collector to go look at things if they're not local. Yeah, that's true, yeah. So I hope that answers. It wasn't a very I just wanted to address it. I you know, I didn't want Dylan to feel like we ignored his question.

Noah Buchanan 1:07:55

Yeah, I think I know that I have a Faso website and which I love. And one of the features that has that I've I have used in the past, is the linking it up to stripe. And people are able to make payments through stripe, and then stripe, you know, is able to deposit money directly into your bank account, so that that seems to protect all the transaction aspects of it,

Olya Konell 1:08:21

yeah. And stripe now allows you to take in person payments too. So if you're at a live such, you know, show, or you're selling to a person in person, you can swipe their card.

Angela Agosto 1:08:31

It's even what we use. We use that as well, like when we're doing videos, and we have the video store, that's how we would also take payment, because it's just secure and direct, unless you know when it's been successful once you get the notification, then ship your paint. Your painting. Don't do it before.

Noah Buchanan 1:08:46

Yeah, don't do it before. Yeah. 100% yes.

Olya Konell 1:08:51

As kind of as we wrap things up and land the plane and and I wanted to get some last words of advice. If there was only one thing that someone could take away from this conversation, what would that piece of wisdom be?

Noah Buchanan 1:09:05

Oh, boy, I think thinking, I'm just thinking over all the things, and we've talked about

Olya Konell 1:09:13

a lot different stuff, yeah,

Noah Buchanan 1:09:19

I I'm not sure I feel like. I feel like, okay, so based on what we talked about, because I almost want to say something new, but

Olya Konell 1:09:29

you can, you can share something. It doesn't have to be something that, that we maybe,

Noah Buchanan 1:09:34

yeah, I think, I think, you know, with the the old, the all the questions seem to orbit, and that's the whole point of the webinar. Obviously, it's like, you know how to be successful as an artist, how to how to market yourself successfully. But the underlying thing that's sort of unsaid is that, and some of the things we talked about were social media offerings, like, you know, do I do this or do I do that? And maybe, actually, Angela might have talked. Talked about it, but the you know, the work has to be strong and has to be good and has to be it has to be cohesive. You have to have your your not only your the way that you make your work has to be has matured and developed and taken shape, but also your themes and your your your methods and your your message, I guess, is what I'm trying to find. We have to spend years honing that. So that's the most important thing. I feel like when, when the work takes on mature level of clarity in it, not only how it's made, but the messages, the themes behind it. A lot of the other things fall into place. You know your audience falls into place. The gallery wants to show your work. The people looking for you on social media fall into your you know your offerings because you have this clear theme. I think that's the big unspoken step that we all need, is spending those years of of finding that voice, and not only in terms of, you know, poetically what we're saying, but then how poetically it's expressed on paper, on Canvas, how it comes out. You know, I feel like that's really the gem at the core of the whole struggle, the artists, the artists journey, you know, to be, to be a successful artist, or to be, you know, what is success, to be a working, living artists that supporting themselves on their work to make all of that work, you know, we've got to have that clear voice, and that, that clear delivery of the voice through our brushstroke, you know, or or pencil stroke, depending on what you're using, or both. I think that's, that's an important thing to remember, you know, so put, put, put those years into refining that and and the rest, we hope, I think, will fall into place for all of us.

Olya Konell 1:12:14

Percent. It's a, I don't know if we had an article about this or somebody else said it, but it was like mastery before marketing, and focus on the mastery before marketing, because once you have those things lined up, everything else becomes so much easier, and you don't have to work so hard. You know when at them, you don't have to work as hard on the marketing, because it's you can stop people in their tracks just by sharing a simple image. You know, it's, it doesn't have to be so much effort, yeah, and that is so valuable. Yeah, yeah. I very much appreciate all of your wisdom that you've shared. And just being so authentic and honest and sharing your process, I've learned. A few things I know the audience has,

Olya Konell 1:13:04

you know, having these conversations are so valuable because

Olya Konell 1:13:10

there's, you know, there are so many marketing gurus out there, but I think real life is such, such a better teacher. Real life experiences. You know, real life advice. I used to love sitting around the table with all the adults and listening to them have conversations and perk up my ears. And I feel like this is a different way of doing that. And we want to thank everybody that attended. We appreciate your time, and we will have the recording out for anybody that tuned in late in about a week or two. So we'll email that to you, and we'll include all of the links we shared as well. So if you forgot to grab something, I'll make sure we include that in that follow up email with it so

Noah Buchanan 1:13:49

Thank you, Olya and Angela for having me. It's been really fun.

Olya Konell 1:13:52

It has. Thank you so much. Noah, many blessings to you. I hope you have a wonderful rest and creative rest of your week, and we will see you all in about a month. So thank you. Bye!

Angela Agosto 1:13:58

Thank you, Noah! Everybody, take care. See you next time! Bye!

Noah Buchanan 1:14:06

Take care. Thanks, bye, bye, bye, bye.