Highly accomplished African artists invite portrait commissions of couples and families for Valentines Day

February 2, 2015 mariekazalia 4 Comments

Highly accomplished African artists invite you to commission a portrait of your family members and loving couples for Valentines Day. Commission a pregnancy portrait. Give the gift of a personalized fine art portrait of your wife, husband, or partner. Commission an original fine art portrait for your wedding anniversary. Collect portraits of your children as they grow. Commission an African artist to create a portrait for you to give as a personal one-of-a-kind birthday gift. Commission a personal business portrait for your office wall.

“In all fields of the visual arts, but perhaps particularly in portraiture, the experience of contemporary African art is revelatory. Created in often challenging circumstances, the work is striking in its technical accomplishment, its honesty and integrity.” Dr. Keith McFarlane PhD

These commissioned portraits are real fine art, affordable, and one-of-a-kind. Your portrait may be a hyper-realistic pencil drawings on paper or an oil painting, or even a painting in other fine art materials. Portrait artists in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and other African countries will be happy to consult with you one-on-one to determine the best options for your needs.

Artists such as Theophilus Boateng Kwaku Sarpong of Ghana, Elijah Mutua from Nairobi in Kenya, and Anton Kilian from Port Elizabeth, South Africa are just a few of the many artists available to create your portrait.

Africa was chosen for the opportunity it affords to provide collectors and art buyers with affordable fine art original portraits and to bring much-needed support and financial benefits to emerging artists in Africa( one US dollar is far more valuable in Kenya or South Africa than it is in the USA itself.)

To commission an art work, or request more information, contact Dr. Keith McFarlane, via email here . If you’d like to telephone to discuss a portrait commission, please keep in mind that Amsterdam time is about 6 hours ahead of your time zone in the USA. Here is the phone number to call: +31 20 89 32 791

African portrait artists work from one or more digital photographs that they receive via email from anywhere in the world. Size, materials, price, and delivery date are agreed upon in advance. Negative Entropy / the ArtWorld holds the funds (payment in advance) pending satisfactory completion of the commissioned portrait. Funds are released to the artist only on buyer’s approval. To commission a work, or request more information, contact Dr. Keith McFarlane via email here. If you’d like to telephone to discuss a portrait commission, keep in mind that Amsterdam time is about 6 hours ahead of your time zone in the USA. Here is the number to call: +31 20 89 32 791

Commissioning a foreign artist for a portrait, and the artists accepting foreign commission involves a high level of trust on both sides. Recognizing this, Negative Entropy / the Artworld created a service that will safeguard the money while at the same assuring the quality and delivery of the commissioned art work. By acting as a trusted intermediary, the Artworld makes it possible for the direct commissioning of exceptional young artists by international buyers. It will do so, in line with the Artworld’s philosophy, at very low-cost. Visit this page for more on the commissioning process and terms.

Dr. Keith McFarlane PhD is an Amsterdam, Netherlands based scientist, physicist, and IT architect, as well as a published poet, arts entrepreneur and founder of Negative Entropy. McFarlane is the designer and developer and owner of the ArtWorld app. Download the app (free of charge) from the Apple App Store here.

The ArtWorld app, which creates a window on very affordable original art, expands its services to facilitate commissions of portraits.

This service will deliver almost all the portrait price to the artist. Bank charges and a very small commission ( 5%) levied on the purchase price will be charged to the artist to cover administrative expenses.

The Artworld app is about helping and giving back while engaging with artists aesthetically, intellectually and practically. “I’m very interested in the development of ideas, whatever the discipline: poetry, physics, app development, philosophy, literature and fine art. You name it . I write well, am a well-published if rather traditional poet and enjoy the role of curator and literary editor. I bring a particular talent for empathy and objectivity to my subjects, and with the visual arts, while having no formal education in fine arts, I hope to bring a freshness and a candor of approach,” says McFarlane.

For details on commissioning a portrait click here.

Art Business

Metrov: Commission A Portrait to Rival #AndyWarhol

January 31, 2015 mariekazalia 1 Comment

Born in Los Angeles and schooled in art at UCLA, Metrov began his career in New York City doing illustrations for major publishers such as MacMillan, McGraw-Hill, New York Magazine, and ultimately Push Pin Studios, the only graphic designers to ever exhibit in the Paris Louvre. He eventually segued into Fine Art painting after studying with Prix di Rome scholar, Gilbert Stone. Metrov began doing portraits of celebrities and international socialites. He quickly became renowned for his uncanny ability to capture his subject’s “spiritual essence.” “It’s not something I try to do, it’s simply what comes naturally. Some have called it a psychic ability,” says Metrov, now living and working in Santa Barbara, California, America’s “Côte d’Azur.”

When Margaux Hemingway saw her finished portrait, she couldn’t stop crying for an hour. Ben Vereen stood speechless before his likeness. Mick Jagger hired Metrov to paint his wife, Bianca. Metrov began competing with his neighbor, Andy Warhol, as portraitist of New York’s elite high society. Growing restless, however, with static artwork, Metrov became fascinated by the potential of motion pictures to be “paintings that moved and made sound.”

“Margaux” by Metrov (1977)

After spending many years in the motion picture business, Metrov once again began accepting portrait commissions in 2012. His style has evolved over time, but his art, whether digital (as seen below) or photographic with synthetic polymers, continues to reflect his subject’s inner nature as well as their common human struggle to balance the often chaotic energies around them.

Digital portrait of the artist’s wife, Dr. Maureen O’Brien (2014)

Metrov was recently invited to conduct a public portrait session at the Santa Barbara Museum of Contemporary Art as part of Marinella Senatore’s, highly acclaimed “Building Communities” exhibition. The event was a huge success. Some of the portraits from the exhibit may be seen on his website: http://www.metrov.org/mcasb-portraits/

To learn more about this exciting opportunity to commission Metrov for your portrait, please contact Marie Kazalia via email here.

Funding, Grants, Grants for Artists

Our New Visual Artist Promotions Scholarship Fund Campaign

December 1, 2014 mariekazalia Leave a comment

Artist Promotions Scholarship Fund–let’s give artists what they need–time, funding, visibility–

Normally, we spring fully developed programs on our readers. But with this one, we are letting you in on the project and getting feedback as the project develops.

There is no shortage of artists around the world who would love to receive funding for exhibitions. There are many exhibition spaces who want to work with us, as well, so that we can assist artists to successfully show in their programs. The need is clear and present and made apparent to us daily.

There is much to be done. Guidelines and procedures need to be discusses, drafted and put into place within our project plan.

The first action phase of this new scholarship program is fundraising. We need donors, supporters and backers to create the scholarship fund. To support our scholarship campaign click here.

Help us get the ball rolling!

We’re using the Megafounder platform that takes 0% of funds raised and allows for an ongoing campaign with no all-or-nothing goal amount to set and reach, and no ending deadline date. We expect such lack of restrictions to allow our project to evolve, change and mature. Your web and mobile donations to our scholarship fund are processed via Stripe, which accepts payments from users globally in 139 currencies.

Artists around the world need support. Our new scholarship has no geographic restrictions. We understand, that in the Bahamas, where one Bahamian dollar equals one US dollar, there may be less need. But in Argentina, where it takes $8.52 Argentine Pesos to equal one US dollar– ( The currency symbol for the Argentine Peso is the dollar sign the same as it is for the US dollar)–the un-equal currency exchange rate my cause hardships. If an artist in Argentina wishes to participate in an online US-based exhibition opportunity that requires a submission fee of say $35.00 US dollars, the artist will have to pay $298.20 Pesos to participate. In the Czech republic it takes $22.34 CZK or Kruna to equal one US dollar. So that $35.00 fee comes to $781.90 CZK. Both relatively large amounts of money in those countries. Perhaps you’ve never consider this before, but now you get the idea of how even paying a relatively small amount in US dollars can be a huge limiting factor to artists outside the US wishing to gain more international visibility.

The goal of our scholarship fund is to remove limiting fee obstacles for artists. With this new scholarship fund we will use monies raised to pay the exhibition fee for a select number of international artists, as well assist artists with promotional and other expenses.

Artist Marketing Resources will be administrating this new scholarship fund for visual artists, working in conjunction with ArtWorld and Exhibitions Without Walls. We will offer a portion of our scholarship fund to cover the submission fees for a limited number of photographers and digital artists wishing to submit their art for online exhibitions with Exhibitions Without Walls. The scholarship fund also seeks to assist artists working in all media to exhibit in a physical gallery space in Amsterdam, New York City, and other locations via the ArtWorld exhibition projects. There are no fees to exhibit with the ArtWorld exhibition program.

We understand that some artists may be unable to participate due to the expenses to ship their artwork to gallery spaces and to travel to attend the exhibition to meet with gallerists and collectors. The goal of the scholarship fund is to provide needed assistance to artists.

As we said, the first phase of this new scholarship program is to raise funds. Help support artists here.

Once a balance of funds is available we will begin administering payments for artists as these funds allow. Follow this blog for updates and calls to artists for future funding opportunities.

Artist Promotions Scholarship Fund.

2 images of ball rollers via freedigitalphotos.net

Art Business

Two Artist Resources that Defy Categorization: Works.io and Art360 Gallery

November 30, 2014 mariekazalia 1 Comment

From first view, the Art365 Gallery website has the look of an online art magazine, IMO. Although they refer to themselves as both an online art gallery and an art blog. You’ll find Featured Artists, Galleries, Glass Artists, and Art News.

Visual artists and glass artists are invited to submit for a permanent spot on this site.

– Send a text in 300-500 characters about you, your artworks and perhaps a few words about your art technique.

– A link to your website/Facebook page.

– 6-8 quality images of your art.

They will rewrite a unique text about you and your art, show the best of your artworks and link to your website and Facebook fan page from their art blog (it’s a 100% free service). You’ll find the full details on their website.

Works.io is a sophisticated artist driven platform with a professional portfolio and CV tool for emerging fine artists to create online visibility.

Works.io is something like an artist directory, yet, when artists sign up for free they have a dashboard allowing them to add images of their art, their exhibition news, and more. Works.io also offers a monthly selection of emerging artists with more extensive text about each artist showcased. Works.io selects sophisticated art in low-key tones for their feature.

These relatively new sites have been added to our 57 page e-list of art magazines, blogs, and artist directories.

Alternative Exhibition Spaces, Art orgs

Win-Win Program Offers Emerging Artists Ten-Day Exhibition in Amsterdam Gallery

November 15, 2014 mariekazalia Leave a comment

Keith McFarlane is based in Amsterdam and is the owner and Developer of the ArtWorld app–an app for art collectors to connect with artist (available on iTunes here). Keith asked me to share the news of the Win-Win Program at the Window Gallery in Amsterdam.

Here is what Keith wrote:

Artworld both supports and works closely with the Window Gallery in Amsterdam. The gallery, owned by Ella Arps of Arps & Co, is well-known for its innovative Win-Win programme. The programme offers emerging artists from across the world a ten-day exhibition here in Amsterdam. The idea behind the programme is to win exposure for the artists and to bring a new and fresh perspective to the arts’ community in Amsterdam. There is also a charitable element: artists must make a donation to an international arts’ educational charity TeachforLife. And they may take part in the Netherland’s Overdekunst (About Art) programme, whereby Dutch schools are given a budget to buy original artworks by contemporary fine-artists. Win-Win artists will feature in the Overdekunst catalogue for one year (commissions apply to any school purchase).

Many recent Win-Win artists now participate in Artworld, among them Xavier Yarto (Mexico City, Mexico), Esra Kizir Gökçen (Istanbul, Turkey), Maša Gala (Ljubljana, Slovenia), and Marta Brysha (Tasmania, Australia). It has been my pleasure to meet all of these artists and to see and to study their work!

For artists seeking a first international exposure, an opportunity to travel and spend a few days in The Netherlands, this is a very personable, or as the Dutch would say gezellig, and intimate experience. The costs for the artist are shipping, own travel and accommodation. Arps & Co provide the gallery, local publicity, insurance, framing, hanging, and advice about the Dutch market. It truly is a Win-Win!

I think this is an excellent opportunity for international exchange, one, moreover that has a personality all of its own: quite unlike the aggression and competitiveness of a large exhibition. It brings a rounded sense of the personality of Amsterdam and of the individuals that take part.

I would like very much to see this idea extended to other small galleries with an education and charitable interest internationally. And I wonder whether funding could be found to bring talented and emerging artists from countries and circumstances where international travel and shipping would otherwise be beyond their reach? This might be done independently, for example in South Africa, India or East Asia, but it might also bring such new talents to Amsterdam. If you’re interested, then you might contact Arps & Co directly. Alternatively you might contact the Keith McFarlane, editor@negativeentropy.net. I will do what I can to connect people who are interested.

And if you’re an artist wishing to take part in the Win-Win programme and to visit Amsterdam, then contact Ella Arps at info@arpsgallery.com.

Art Business

Artist E-postcards: Elinore Schnurr

November 13, 2014 mariekazalia 2 Comments

We’ve sent out artist e-postcards to top art galleries currently reviewing work. The e-postcards are e-mailed individually along with the link to the artist’s website. There are two e-postcard marketing option for artists. Click here for details on E-Postcard Marketing Plan A. Click here for E-Postcard Marketing Plan B.