Daydreams about finding a gallery that wants to sell your painting don't usually get as far as dealing with the practicalities of that business relationship. Will you insist on a contract? What will it say? Have you even heard of the term "consignment sale"? (Which at its most basic means you give a painting to a gallery for free and they try to sell it in return for a commission of the selling price.)

One of the books I've been sent from Allworth Press, The Artist-Gallery Partnership (Compare Prices) provides detailed information on what to expect from a gallery and an analysis of a typical contract. It's aimed specifically at the USA market, with chapters covering state-specific laws. With a list price of $20 it's not cheap, though it is considerably less than the hourly rate of a contract lawyer. Read my review...

The second Allworth Press book is The Artist's Guide to Public Art: How to Find and Win Commissions, by Lynn Basa (Compare Prices). Again it's written for artists working in the USA but many of the principles will apply anywhere. Neither are lightweight reading, both are heavy-duty art business books. Uncreative as the business side of managing an art career may seem, you neglect it at your peril.

See Also:
• Six Steps To Selling Consignment
• Beating the Wal-Mart Mentality from About.com's Guide to Arts/Crafts Business

^{Image: © 2008 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}

It's the first of December, so it seemed appropriate to highlight a Santa painting from the Painting Forum. Jeff said his aim was for an "oldy-world feel" and he'd love to hear people's thoughts on the painting. He says:

"I had an awful time trying to photograph this. I just finished working on it and, being that the paint is wet, it’s giving me a lot of reflection in the wrong place, like Santa’s left eye. It looks quite odd in every photo I took, but not in person."

Add your comments on the forum...

See Also:
• Christmas or Holiday Card Painting Project
• Ways to Make and Paint Christmas Cards

^{Image: Gus and Santa Claus © Jeff Watts}

One advantage of this time of year in the high northern latitudes is that it's easy to watch the sunrise. And yet again nature showed me that if you just keep looking, spectacular and unexpected things will reveal themselves. Such as the sun turning a bank of clouds pink behind a dark band of clouds, as the photo above shows. Why would I bother inventing a scene for a painting when imaginative skyscapes are presented to me?

If I were to paint this, I'd start by painting the pink all over the canvas. Then I'd dab on some blobs of titanium white and several of Payne's grey, then use a dry brush to swirl the paint and mix in a bit all on the canvas.

See Also:
• How to Paint Clouds Wet-on-Wet
• Tips on Painting Realistic Clouds

^{Image: © 2008 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}

It’s to be expected that there will be ups and down in your level of artistic creativity, that some days you’re full of new ideas for paintings and your brush just flows across a canvas, and that other days your brain feels dull and nothing seems to work the way you intend it. But there are also personal and personal factors that can cause you to end up having more dull days than creative ones. Here's my list of five easy ways to ruin your creativity, and you can add your thoughts on what destroys your creativity to my article here.

See Also:
• 5 Ways to Ruin a Painting
• 5 Ways to Damage a Paint Brush

^{Image © Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}