The Brand New Look for 2017

BRAND NEW LOOK

 

I know, I have promised a brand new look and feel to the website for more than a year but it didn’t quite happen as quickly as I had hoped!

I have a million excuses but the main one is time! It takes ages to write a blog post, do the research, post it, and promote it, and every time I thought hang on, I have a minute here, someone handed me a pencil or a brush and well you've all been there!

I also wanted to do some research around how it should look, and what people wanted from a website. In the end I decided to take the bull by the horns and get something done. It didn't help that the day job has been frantically busy and I'm still writing two books and looking at a business venture for artists! Why did they only make a day 24-hours long?

Finally, here it is! Firstly you will notice that I have stepped away from the usual boring white pages, and have gone with what they call a responsive layout. Hopefully you will have noticed that the pages load much more quickly, and the site automatically changes size no matter whether you are viewing on your phone, tablet, or desktop!

Everything is still here! If you are viewing on a mobile device you might not see the side bar straight away but if you click on the top left hand corner you will see some lines stacked on top of each other, press this area and the sidebar will appear. Truly magical!

You’ll also notice that the layout is also much cleaner, no extra-long lists of pages down the sidebar, instead just click on archive on the left-hand side (in the sidebar) and you will see the word archive. Everything is there, and you can now search for posts using either the sidebar tags or the search option at the top of the page.

Subscribing is so much easier too! All you need to do is click on subscribe in the top right of the page and enter your email address. You will never miss a post again! I never send out spam, all you will receive are updates as and when a new blog is posted. (Once or twice a week).

If you have the News360 App installed on desktop, phone, or tablet, search for BeechHouse Media and add it to your home feed. News 360 is available on Windows Market, The Play Store, and the App Store. It is a great news reader and you can also set it to display news from only the people or topics you are interested in.

There will be more new features coming soon including a couple of brand new pages which I hope you will enjoy, and once I gain some traction in my brand new Facebook Group ‘The Artists Directory’ there will be a page for that too and will feature visual artists who promote their Facebook Business Pages in the group. 

You can find the group here  and you can join the Artists Exchange here where you will find links to my other group, The Artist Hangout!

One of the new pages will eventually be a directory of art, but not the directory of art you will be used too. My new directory will be continually evolving and will give artists an idea of which subjects, mediums, colour palettes, and supports, are selling better in different countries, areas, and regions. It’s a mammoth task pulling together the information but I am at least on the way.

So what else is changing?

You can expect to continue seeing practical advice and tips but you will start seeing even more art and technology related news too. Being primarily a digital artist I get to use a lot of technology and I often Beta Test new apps, technology, and programs for creating art. Lifestyle topics will also become much more of a feature throughout the new look blog.

I will be writing some shorter posts in a series called Quick Tips and these shorter posts will also have some worthy art news items you may have missed.

I am also in the process of creating a directory of art galleries and museums from around the world. As some of you already know I have Crohn’s Disease which is a hidden disability so I will be focussing especially on those galleries and museums that are accessible to people with both obvious and not so obvious disabilities and who often hold special events for people with disabilities such as ADHD.

My Art

I will be talking about my art much more, the processes behind it, the things which inspire me to create what I create, and I will be showcasing new works as they are released and maybe a few works in progress too. For those who got in touch with me when I decided to remove the old gallery pages, don’t worry I have something special lined up.

Some of you already know that this year I will be entering a gallery space, details are still in the works (these things take a lot of time) and I will be opening up two new online outlets too. Both of the online outlets got in touch with me towards the end of last year to ask if I would be interested in becoming a featured artist, and after much consideration I will be uploading the first works soon and opening the stores.

One of the new outlets will feature exclusive art which will be sold only as signed limited editions and on some exciting new mediums which are not available anywhere else. Stay tuned for more information.

I will be retiring a few of my earlier works in the coming months, and there will also be a new structure on my Pixels site which will become category based. So if there are pieces you would like to own, now is the time to do it! All of my work through both Pixels, Fine Art America, and Zazzle comes with a 30-day Money-back-guarantee. You can see the entire range either on my Fine Art Store page on this site or head on over to my Pixels site here. 

Exciting Times!

I am excited about the new layout and hopefully I will be able to do much more for the arts community moving forward. I know I am going to be even busier than usual but art and my fellow artists are the two subjects I am most passionate about.

After just over thirty years of producing art professionally I hope that what I have learnt over those years will at least help a few of you out. It’s a tough business sometimes but it’s also one of the best businesses anyone can be involved with whether as an artist, collector, or just someone who has a love for the arts.

For now I am keeping the AdSense ads in play because it is one of the ways that I can afford to keep maintaining this site. Hopefully though they are not as distracting as they were on the old site. I have weeded out some of the categories of ads so you should now see more relevant ads.

Thank You!

I want to also say thanks without it turning into some kind of award ceremony. Without you I would have given up about a week after starting this blog!  I had just come out of hospital and I was amazed at how quickly people started to visit.

I know many of you on social-media and I would like to thank you for all of the likes, loves, wows, comments, and support you give me on there too. It is very much appreciated.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being such loyal readers, great friends, and remarkable artists.

M.A