Online Art Gallery - An Aspiring Artist’s Lifeline
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008For a upcoming artist, finding an Art Gallery to show his creations was a pipe dream unless he or she was familiar in the art circles, had a rich patron who could give him a fillip or was a genius. But even geniuses in the field of the fine arts are not discovered overnight and come into their own rights after a relatively very long spell, and some after their times. To become familiar, the budding artist should have started somewhere and there lies many a woeful tale of a vicious circle.
This was compounded by the fact that art is a matter of personal likes and dislikes. The beauty of a piece of art is only in the eyes of the beholder. As such an upcoming artist needed someone to push him along, a Godfather, so to say. Or he had to be a genius, but the history of art has a long list of those geniuses for whom recognition came late. So, even if the new artist did find a small gallery, in some Godforsaken alley or bye lane, it was not his to decide whether it was worth hanging on above ones’ mantelpiece.
This scenario underwent a drastic transformation with the arrival of computers and the advanced programs that ran them and ran on them. Almost anything was possible on the computer and it came to the aid of the budding artist in the form of the “Online Art Gallery”. Not only did the computer change the way art was displayed and sold, it even changed the concept of art. Digital art was added to the existing forms and Abstract art became more abstract and less understandable except to the enlightened few. Computers also spawned more artists.
The Online Art Gallery set about making changes in the fortunes of these artists. These galleries could feature just about any aspect of the fine arts. All an upcoming artist had to do was to create a portfolio of his works and upload the same to one of these galleries. Even the traditional galleries now put up information on their paintings, sculpting and other works on online art galleries. Paintings of old masters, paintings of aspiring artists, sculpting, digital art, photographs and videos - all of them can be displayed in an online art gallery.
An aspiring artist can use the Internet to display his wares. He can create his own web site and put on show all of his creations. Being his own web, site he has total control over it and it is left to his whims and fancies as to what he wants to exhibit and what he does not want to. But this will involve either building the web site himself, provided he has the technical know how to do it or getting a professional web designer to build one for him to his requirements. An initial investment of some sort is essentially required.
An alternative arrangement would be to subscribe and join any one of the many online galleries that offer their services on the Internet. There are galleries that host ones paintings or other such works free of charge. These free sites have limited facilities and offer space for a limited period of time. Others charge a fee depending on the nature of the services offered and the popularity of the site, ranging from a few dollars to a few hundreds. Once uploaded, they are there for the world to view.
An Online Art Gallery permits the addition and deletion of paintings, a statement from the artist, details of the artist and his other works and contact details. Some of these galleries even handle the sale of an artist’s painting and take a commission on the proceeds of the deal.
An online art gallery is thus a boon to an aspiring artist. He gets the required exposure, in fact world wide exposure, and the opportunity to sell them online. All he has to do is paint the next Mona Lisa.