Online Art Gallery - An Aspiring Artist’s Lifeline

Posted in Home Improvement
by Kathy Austin

Long before the advent of the Internet, Art Galleries were the haunts of the rich and the famous and it was populated by paintings and sculptures of famous artists and sculptors. Art is very much a personal choice. A picture that one might find to be extremely artistic might not appeal to another. This is more so in the case of Abstract Art. The meaning attributed to a painting by an artist may be quite in variance to what is felt by the viewer of the same.

Art Galleries were patronized by the rich and the famous for only they could afford the wares of these galleries. “Terra Firma” Art galleries were and are practically the exclusive place for the exhibition of the paintings and the sculptures of famous artists and sculptors. Only under extremely extraneous circumstances could an aspiring manage to get his foot in.

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.

On an online art gallery an artist can put on a new painting on display or remove one. Some of these galleries handle all the logistics of displaying a painting and its sales. Since most works of art get sold from under the hammer, these galleries handle these details; from conducting the auction, packing and dispatching to billing and collecting the proceeds from the purchaser. Once the sale if effected, the gallery deducts a percentage of the proceeds as service charges and the artist gets the balance.

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.

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