New Website

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Casey Klahn

New Website

There ought to be artwork on each page, available works and a biographic entry: I know.  All in due time.

My flat File Sale of unframed works has begun!  Here is the first offering.

The idea is that you e-mail me if interested.  How to purchase my artwork. Also, patrons do message me on Facebook for purchase inquiries.  More to come!

An Artist In Winter

Casey Klahn at Work

Please go here to see all of my available works at once.

Silver Forest Clearing

Silver Forest & Clearing
Pastel
6 3/4 in. x 5 3/5ths in.
Casey Klahn

This is the last image in a series of three. The others were Experimental Colors, and New Pink Ground. I photographed them on the easel and posted about them here.

Remember that Monday is go-to-market day for buying fine art. My originals that are framed and available are posted at caseyklahn.blogspot.com.

Art Market Monday

Turquoise Forest

13" x 9"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn
$700
Shipping Included + Tax (%7.7)
Buy This Original Pastel

The audience at The Colorist has increased recently, and I'd like to take this chance to introduce my art. The following brief describes the abstract foundation of my work.

Gesture and intuition combine in my abstract art. Intuition, not intention. Color choices are simply not derived from nature, but from internal sources.

"Automatism" is an old term that could be applied here. Drawing for drawing's sake, without idea or content. Color has it's own intrinsic purposes and reasons - ideas of it's own.

Am I controlled by my medium? Perhaps, but no more than most.

What are my ideas? To express color as the dominant element in the formal qualities in painting. Color can be the strongest element, and I think that in this age we have yet to plumb it's complete depths. No content; no meaning. No subject, other than red and blue. Yellow, green...these are my subjects.

With a hat tip to Joanne Mattera for the title idea. She is running a great series entitled Marketing Mondays, which is of interest especially to artists who market their art in today's economy.

Cup of Joe Update

Cup of Joe, anyone?

Best to stay warm in this winter of spotty electric power, and heavy snows. I saw my life flash before my eyes the other day when that power pole split! Then, I realized it was just an arc of electricity shooting up from the insulators. Today, the furnace repair man will come to look at our oil furnace. I hope he can get that back up to speed, especially with temperatures under 20 degrees F.

I'm almost finished with Blogging Tips for artist bloggers. I promised to "type" my own blog, which I have done but haven't finished the copy on that post. One blogger friend has The Colorist designated as an "e-zine," which is close, but I have a slightly different take.

More Coffee? What else has been keeping me busy has been my return to the studio. After being sick, I am now able to re-start my productivity. Last year's art had its ups and its downs, but mostly I wasn't that active in the studio. The three months leading up to my December operation saw no artwork created at all.

I choose to see the good in this. Cup half full. No, I mean is you cup half full? Here's more coffee.

I have been in the searching stages to define my art directions, and the break gives a time for reflection. We'll see what happens. I am happy to be getting some blue landscapes finished, as well as some still life works. Photos pending. For purchases please look to my blog, Casey Klahn dot blogspot.

And on the Internet and blogging front, my ArtSlant profile continues to grow and receive viewership. The blog Pastel is featuring a series on how to draw/paint trees. The latest installment, Tree Admiration, takes you on a chef's tour of different artist's styles and how they treat trees.

I found Pam Farrell via Joanne Mattera, and she has a series of studio visits posted as the ISBP (Interactive Studio Blog Post). Studio inspiration, anyone?

Finally, I want to make sure you know that two local pastellists are now writing blogs. I enjoy exhibiting with these two superb artists, and I know you are jealous of my getting to view their art booths at the fairs. So, to make it up to you, I provide you with these links to their new blogs. Marla Baggetta blogs here, and Sheila Evans here. Enjoy.

More Art Blogging Tips

Ponte Vecchio - Old City
@7" x 6"
Graphite on 70gr. Sketch Paper
Casey Klahn

Being an artist blogger is a many-headed hydra. Just like the traditional art gallery, you want to understate your presentation. Be fully functional as a sales vehicle, and yet keep a lid of decorum on it. The theory is that fine art is an exceptional thing - not base like most commodities or products.

Self-representing, but not grasping


This explains, in part, why art galleries can seem ostentatious and off-putting. (It wouldn't hurt the gallery staff any to greet each patron, BTW - just my 2 cents) Art bloggers, prepossessed with the rank of the fine artist, must not turn around and trash the reputation of the fine arts. Art blogs, like all Web 3.0 entities, suffer from the canard that new media has a lesser status. That is changing, and we art bloggers must be the agents of that change. High quality, but also revelatory. Decorum, without being stodgy. Self-representing, but not grasping.

self-importance and über-angst


Having said all this, here are some tips for being read. Previous posts in this series are here: Art Blogs & Art Blogging. What good is it to write and post, but not be found by your public? Don't do your own patrons a disservice, and stay hidden under a front of self-importance and über-angst.

Think of ways to get links back through your blog. Each page is a unique web entry, and you want readers finding your content throughout your blog. Organize and label your entries, and offer easy access to them. Do place active links within your posts to recent posts in a series. Remember to stay topical with internal links.

You'll notice that I use blogger's picture tool in order to create internal links in my sidebar. How to choose content for internal links? Your art, in it's different genres or mediums, is a good place to start. I offer My Drawings, My Artworks and My Abstracts. When I notice an unusual number of hits coming in for a certain search query, then I offer a tool for my readers to pursue that subject. Leonardo da Vinci, and Jackson Pollock are examples. Don't worry, though. I won't be creating a Teri Horton button soon. Another good internal linking system is the blogger recent comments tool.

I also list external links that are related to any other presence that I may have on the Internet. The Fine Art Department is a collaboration blog where I am featured, and Casey Klahn dot blogspot is my art-for-sale site. An artist profile and community website that I participate in is ArtSlant.

One major outside feed to The Colorist is my second blog, Pastel. It maintains a purpose and a life of it's own as a low key blog focused on the art and medium of pastelists.

meaty art and artist content


My favorite way to drive traffic is with meaty art and artist content. The Artist's Traits series was a recent lengthy thread. Past threads have included famous artists like Mark Rothko, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri Matisse. You need a true and genuine interest in your subjects, and these modernists are my favorites. A contemporary favorite artist is Wolf Kahn, and I once did a series of drawings after his style.

Winter Yard Birds

Winter Yard Birds
Photo: Casey Klahn

The little ones are climbing the trees. Cooped up and stuck in snow world for a couple of weeks, and today makes the second day they should have been back in school. Canceled.

Personal subjects in art blogging are a matter of taste, I think. Is it the right subject matter? Isn't it supposed to be about the art, after all?



Your Blog Style: Lifestyle, Art Form or Spare?

The answer lies in your own style. Some artists thrive by blogging about their life as well as the studio, and it is a very successful strategy. A perfect example is Tracy Helgeson, who just completed a month of daily postings challenge. Of course, having the world's yummiest studio, a beautiful farm house in upstate New York, chicken-coop full of joy, and fantastic colorist oil paintings doesn't hurt her profile, either. Her blog style has created a story line that is compelling, and authentic. Yours will be your own individual story, of course.


Tracey Ullman with a paintbrush


This leads to another style of art blogging: the art blog as an art form. First in mind for me is Jafabrit's Art. Jafabrit tells the story of an artist's life but keeps it stylized by writing spare, centered copy. Her work is dramatic, with skulls, ravens and crows, and screaming faces on rocks. Her humor is dry British wit, but tends towards the outlandish kind. Think Tracey Ullman with a paintbrush.

Corrine (Jafabrit herself) knits tree ware, gives art to the cosmos on Fridays, and commiserates with her greater art community in her Ohio locale. Well, actually she does this worldwide, too. Her "Your Documents,Please" piece has circled the globe, and don't forget these blogs go out to the world wide web. As an added bonus, because her blog is an art form, she peppers the format with music widgets, talking heads, and occasional videos - always funny. I consider Corrine's blog, and her art, to be absolutely among the most authentic and original out there.

If you are considering the absolute, most spare art blog that you can manage, think twice. The SEO gods want you to add copy to those pictures. This is the way their robotic algorithms compute. Picture...BZZZZZt-TzT (flicker, sput); Words...HzMMM nng- BTZ, AHHHHH. And the SEO deities like certain words better than others. Call it alms, or perhaps a dogma. My favorite SEO tripwires are Donny Osmond, Michael Jackson, Terri Horton, Vincent van Gogh, pastel, you get the idea. The problem is, these words don't all fit my narrative, except on very narrow occasions. OTOH, the posts live forever on the net, and garner traffic in perpetuity.

I will back up and say that images have their own pathway to the search engines such as Google Images. Here is a little research on this. Also, learn a bit about the alt attribute, and the title attribute of your images.

have a tissue handy as you cry at the results

If you have been blogging for a while, try a search of Google Images with the search query as your name, or as the name of your blog. Have a tissue handy as you either laugh or cry at the results. But, copy is still king on the Internet, since the default page on Google is text based.

Anyway, my vote for the best spare but extremely effective style is Robert Chunn's Alla Prima. Cunning and colorful still lifes posted on a consistent basis are his fare, but he has a program far more thoughtful than art only. Robert posts an art-related quote with every post, and try that sometimes if you think it is easy! Additionally, his spare motif includes his sidebar design. Precious few widgets, text all lined up and justified, and links. That's it. Think that's all? Have a closer look at his links - very exhaustive and organized. The outcome is a blog that very much matches Chunn's art, and tells the story he's after.

And you thought daily painting was the only format for art blogging! What is your art blog style? Next time: more tips, and types of art blogs.


Monetize Me, Bro:

Visit my profile page at ArtSlant here.

My art for sale is here.

The Latest FAD

News Flash!

THE FINE ART DEPARTMENT

FOR ALL YOUR AFFORDABLE ART NEEDS

The latest "FAD" is the new blog idea:
The Fine Art Department, created by the wonderful Tracy Helgeson.

Her cunning idea is to create a small and intimate space to show some fantastic artists who sell art on their blogs. With only about thirty or so artists at The Fine Art Department, it isn't difficult to find your Christmas gift of fine art or craft. My own art is presented there, and if you wish to buy, just find my sale blog at caseyklahn.blogspot.com.

Many of my readers over time have wondered if I even sell my art via the blogs. The answer is yes, but until now I have been very subtle about it. Call it a "fine art thing". I am very much "for" capitalism, and every artist has to earn a living somehow, but we tend to place our life's work on a pedestal. If you are someone who has never bought an original painting, do not be afraid of artists! We think of ourselves as regular people, and to tell the truth, my collectors over the years have either been friends, or else they become such after we get acquainted.

Washington State Art Blogs

I am trying to keep track of the art bloggers (and Wordpressers, etc.) who blog from Washington State. Today, I add two new links, and I have to say that I am surprised that I didn't know Rachel's blog existed! Rachel is (IMHO) a rock star whose work is highly prized in the Northwest and beyond. Why didn't I know about her having a blog? How many other Washingtonians are out there blogging away in hiding?

Local Bloggers:

Robert Chunn, of Alla Prima, in Seattle. I linked him once before, but forgot to highlight him as a WA blogger. See his great link list, even though I'm not on it (hint), it is a work of art in itself.
Rachel Maxi
Seattle Sketcher, who is part of the Urban Sketchers.