Helviblog

Guerilla Marketing

07/13/2014

I am represented in a gallery called Off the Walls Gallery, in Shelton, Washington. Shelly, the owner did a cool marketing venture, where she put out glittery pine cones in the town and they had a tag on them to bring them to her gallery and the finder would get a gift.
Loved the idea!
How to make that work for me?
Hmmmm....

Let's see.
I use house paint as my medium.
House paint comes in cans and the paint store always gives you a wooden stir stick with each can of paint.

I try to use recycled paint - but I can never find used black paint,
so I have to buy it new.
I was at the Miller paint store yesterday and he made me my black paint and then asked if there was anything else I needed.

Yes.
Why yes there is.
I would like 50 stir sticks.
Please.

OMG.
Stir sticks are cheaper than penny candy!
  They charged me 6¢ each.
A bargain!
Oh, I DO love a bargain!

There they are!
All fifty of them!

I painted the advertising sides black.

Then I painted white stripes on them...

I wrote on the back of each one, a note to the finder of the stir stick.
"Return this to the Helvi Smith Studio for a Free Gift! 1914 Elm Street - www.helvismith.com"
Yeah.
50 times.
I wrote that.

I happened to have an empty can to carry
them around in.

Ya know, I have the BEST friends!

I called Kathy, and on 30 minutes notice,
asked her to help me hide
these around town.

She said yes!

Here we go!

Kathy even carried the bucket for me!

I am curious to see how many make it back to the studio.
I am guessing, maybe 10-15.
Let's see!

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Where do ideas come from?

07/08/2014

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When the woman who does my hair is washing my hair - I am looking at the textured ceiling. I see a 1940's woman wearing a long dress with slit up the side and the dress has padded shoulders and she is wearing a big hat with
a huge floppy brim.
And over there, to the right, is an alien with big wonky eyes.
Yep.
I am an artist.
I see art everywhere.
Pouring cream in my tea in the morning. Oh!
The glorious swirls!
Inspiration is everywhere.

Look at this!
My husband brought this to me tonight. It was in the driveway.
An oak leaf with oak galls on it.
Stunning!

This was a still life painting that just turned out butt-ugly.

Time to change it up. So the tool of change came to save the day.

No going back now.

I really liked this little Rothko painting that was part of the painting.

I half-liked this table too. But not 100% loved. So it had to go.

Now two painting opportunities from one awful painting.

Bye bye Rothko.

Bye bye table.

Hello, uh whatever...

Oh. I made swoopy shapes that looked a little pod-like. Nice surprise, that...

Pods. Definitely pods.

This is an approximation of how the painting will look when stretched on bars and ready to hang. It will measure about 30" X 25". Titled, "Pods" and free shipping in a tube. $325 - paypal is accepted.

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A Series of sorts...

07/05/2014

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So, most days, I am alone in my studio, painting, listening to music, checking Facebook, puttering, painting, checking Facebook, painting and Facebooking.
Is that even word?
Facebooking?

Here is what I have been
working on lately...

Click on the photos for comments on each one.

Here is another one:

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Paint Paint Paint

06/23/2014

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I pretty much paint everyday.
That means I create a LOT of paintings.
A lot of artists that I know want to know HOW to sell more art.

Me too!

I have an art page on Facebook.

I have and esty shop too.

I started an artist networking group called The Green Cab.

We, Cabbies, as we call ourselves, have a Facebook page too.

I am in several art galleries and in several gift shop/galleries also.

I have my own studio/gallery.

I post on Instagram often.

Print All Over Me - this is something new for me. Pretty cool...
Artwork gets printed on clothing.

I work very hard at
marketing my work.

But, I could use some help.

That is where YOU come in.

I am asking you to kindly share my Facebook page or Instagram account - or my website and blog with friends whom you think would like my art.

Thank you.

Every share will ring a
bell in heaven for you.

Or something like that.

:)

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Life is never still around here

06/09/2014

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I saw some still life paintings while I was out cruising on the internet tubes. So, me being me, I decided to give painting still-lifes a try.

So I began...

Click on each thumbnail for the blow-by-blow art action!

Still Life at Night.

This one is drying on the porch. I don't like the red flowers - so that part will change.

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Who does not Love?

06/03/2014

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Around my little town - there is a movement. A real love movement. There are Love Rocks being made and placed around town to be "discovered" kept and loved or passed on.
So it got me to thinking about painting hearts...

The above paintings are listed on Etsy.

Working on some little hearts...

Worked on some long hearts...

Working on some Big Hearts....

Yep. Hearts. Lots of them.

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The Big Time.

05/09/2014

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I never have small goals.

Only big goals.

My goal is that within the next 3 years, I will have art in many fine galleries across the US and that I will be making a fine living.

Watch me go.

Look at this big ugly 70's painting a friend found for me!

I cleaned it up and started in!

Did I mention that this is a big painting?
I had to put in on the porch of the studio to dry.

**********************************************
While this is drying, I will take this time to say that I have found an art mentor and she is one BADASS mentor. I will go in February to her place and get some great painting time and mentoring along with 4 other artists. It is such an opportunity and it is gonna be GREAT!

Notice that bottom right circle thing? It gave me grief. I must painted that 10 times to get it just the way it should be.

I found a stencil set at Goodwill and decided to put the word - OK - on the canvas.

I try to be pretty "green" in my life and my art.
This was a second hand canvas painted with reclaimed house paint and I used vintage masking tape to tape off the frame when I painted the canvas.

EPIC FAIL on the tape part!

That OLD masking tape was so awful. I spent almost more time getting it off the metal frame than it took to paint the painting!

Next time - it is BLUE painters tape.
I will go buy it new.
Yep.

I have been working on a whole new series of these fabulous circles with one word on the painting.

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Be not afraid

04/25/2014

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You may be surprised to know that I do not like everything I paint. I have a stack of do-overs that mock me from their place in the back room.
Sometimes a do-over does not even get a chance to go to the back room before I have to make it better.
Somehow...

Ummm, yeah... not exactly what I have visioned in my head.

The tool of "change."

Fearless now! No going back!

Now I have two pieces to play with!

First victim!

Some odd painted white shapes....

What was I doing? The ugly painting cut in half was getting uglier!

Flowers. Yeah. Flowers can cover up that ugly!

Kinda looks like a face - with flower hair.

Ha ha! I showed that ugly canvas who is the boss!
But now, I have to take care of the other ugly half. My work is never done!

I showed that ugly canvas a thing or two.
Or ten...

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How it goes...

04/15/2014

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I really like just testing myself to see what I can do.
Here is a test drive for you through my though process this time around.

I saw a painting of flowers in a bowl.

Hey!

I have bowls!

I like flowers!

I have collected these vintage enamel bowls for a long time.

They are Cathrineholm
designs from Norway.

Tried out an idea on the iPad....

I thought I would paint an idea of a vintage grass cloth wallpaper on the canvas.

Not looking so good here...

That orange was just not the right color.

I painted the orange over to a deeper color and put in the pattern.

Used my paint filled squirt bottle to go around the shape of the bowls again and outline the diamond patterns.

Added the greenery.

I had to leave this to dry last night and it really bugged me, cause this looks pretty ugly in this stage.

Here is where I went lickety-split fast to add the flowers.

I did not want to overthink the petals - so I made myself go fast fast fast!

Then added another reddish color on top of the first petal speed fest.

Added some lighter orange highlights and then used the black squirt bottle of paint to quickly add a flowery shape to each red-orange splotch of flower.

I like it!

I put it out on the front porch of my studio/gallery to dry.

Now I am off to make more!

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Where have all the flowers gone?

04/08/2014

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At first - it was just trying stuff out on the iPad....

Then painted the idea....

Then, it is just my nature to keep going and experimenting!

In progress.

This painting has been hanging around mocking me - so I decided to paint it over.

That cat is so much better as flowers.

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<< Previous

Here is another one:

So I began...

Click on each thumbnail for the blow-by-blow art action!

Still Life at Night.

This one is drying on the porch. I don't like the red flowers - so that part will change.

Working on some little hearts...

Worked on some long hearts...

Working on some Big Hearts....

Yep. Hearts. Lots of them.

Look at this big ugly 70's painting a friend found for me!

I cleaned it up and started in!

Did I mention that this is a big painting? I had to put in on the porch of the studio to dry.

Notice that bottom right circle thing? It gave me grief. I must painted that 10 times to get it just the way it should be.

I found a stencil set at Goodwill and decided to put the word - OK - on the canvas.

Ummm, yeah... not exactly what I have visioned in my head.

The tool of "change."

Fearless now! No going back!

Now I have two pieces to play with!

First victim!

Some odd painted white shapes....

What was I doing? The ugly painting cut in half was getting uglier!

Flowers. Yeah. Flowers can cover up that ugly!

Kinda looks like a face - with flower hair.

Ha ha! I showed that ugly canvas who is the boss!But now, I have to take care of the other ugly half. My work is never done!

I showed that ugly canvas a thing or two. Or ten...

At first - it was just trying stuff out on the iPad....

Then painted the idea....

Then, it is just my nature to keep going and experimenting!

In progress.

This painting has been hanging around mocking me - so I decided to paint it over.

That cat is so much better as flowers.

I post on Facebook all the time about what I am working on. Click on the BLUE link and check it out!

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Did I mention that this is a big painting?
I had to put in on the porch of the studio to dry.

Ha ha! I showed that ugly canvas who is the boss!
But now, I have to take care of the other ugly half. My work is never done!

I showed that ugly canvas a thing or two.
Or ten...