Hello fellow artist!

Here's a list of some of my favorite things:

Mediums: I don't use just one particular oil paint, but I am partial to particular mediums. When I use water soluble oil paints, I like to use walnut oil. And when using traditional oil paints I like the lean and fat mediums from Chelsea Classical Studio.

Oil Paint: While I just wrote that I don't stick to one brand of paint, I will often encourage artists to try out Geneva Paints, made by an artist in Austin, Texas. This paint has a lot of unique properties, including self-leveling and vibrant color rendition. However, I don't consider it a beginner's paint. It feels like painting with melted chewing gum.

Favorite Brushes: Hamburg Premier Professional Handmade Brushes. I generally use filbert brushes.

My camera! It's a Sony Alpha a7R II mirrorless digital camera with a Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens. I use this camera to make all of my fine art prints. The resolution and color accuracy are amazing.

Art to Print Course by Laurie Ann Gonzales. I took this class to learn how to make my own prints. I don't consider myself a technical person, and this course walks you through each step from beginning to end. I still go back to it from time to time if I'm having some sort of technical problem. Here's a link.

If you are looking for a company to make and drop ship your prints for you, I recommend Giclee Today.  The quality is very good, just be aware that shipping can take up to 2 weeks. That's one of the reasons I switched to doing my own printing.

Website hosting: In the past I've used GoDaddy, Squarespace and Wix, and while these platforms often offer more flexibility on how you want your website to look and offer a slighter easier user experience, if you want to actually sell your work Shopify is hands-down, without-a-doubt, the way to go.

Wholesale: Are you looking to work with small brick and mortar shops? Here's a link to Faire. I've just started working with them, so I'll report back. I had tried to get on with them earlier, and for whatever reason, couldn't until a friend shared her link, so here I am passing it on.

Shipping: I have a highlight on my Instagram stories called For Artists that walks through some of the products and services I use for shipping.

Much love, Mary