by Carolyn Edlund
Video rules online and in social media. Artists are using this format in different ways to share their work and engage potential customers.
Michael Hartstein’s work is shown in a gallery setting in this video.
Video is an outstanding way to share visual stories with your audience. They grab attention easily and work to convey your inspiration, technique, concept and more. Let’s look at several artists who use videos in different ways to engage the viewer and offer a deeper experience.
Painter Michael Hartstein has placed videos on his website for different purposes. On his Home page, a header invites the visitor to his Online Art Gallery. An accompanying video above the fold displays his work in a virtual gallery setting. Hartstein created the video using Envato Market‘s small art gallery template. This introduction gives a high-end feel to his work right out of the gate.
Below the gallery walkthrough, Hartstein has placed another video. This one focuses on artwork in situ, showing various paintings displayed in room settings. They serve to give site visitors a preview of how the work may look in their own space. He used PhotoShop Premier to create the video, which is hosted on Vimeo. An embed code pulls the video to his art website, which was built on Artspan.
Video of Michael Hartstein’s art in situ
A third video on his Home page serves the purpose of introducing him as the artist. Created using still shots on the online editing tool PicMonkey, this video has a voiceover recorded by Hartstein that tells his story in his own words.
A Video Gallery page on his website contains a number of short videos, also pulled from Vimeo. Each one is a vignette that shares his inspiration, describes his style, or uses humor to connect with the viewer. These videos can also work perfectly as social media shares.
Other examples
Professionally taken video is useful in art marketing for a number of reasons. It can introduce the artist to their audience as an evergreen message that will last over time. Photographer Karen Hutton uses one on her About page titled Framing the Journey, which is worth a visit.
Artists can use video of work in progress to deepen the viewer’s understanding of the complexity and skill involved in their technique. They may document exhibitions, artist’s talks or interviews, or even introduce a new medium, such as this video on augmented reality.
Other artists use videos for the purpose of driving sales, or promoting income streams. Painter Bibby Gignilliat effectively uses an introductory video to promote her art classes and workshops.
Video usage has spilled over from marketing into direct sales as well. Livestreamed video is a major trend, having picked up speed during the pandemic, and continues to dominate. See our free Quick Start Guide to Running Live Art Shows for more information on livestreaming and how to get started.
Tracy Ellen Fine Art Video website
Artist Tracy Ellyn maintains a website specifically for videos of her work. She explains, “Art videos have recently allowed me to show many more pieces in a series than a page on my website. There is no cumbersome text. There is just the art, plus the music that gives the mood of the series. If someone likes a series, I can refer them to more pieces, and we can converse about which are originals, which are signed prints, what sizes they are thinking about. Art videos are a great way to fit in a lot of visual information, a lot of mood, and very little text, in one space.”