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 Done this Past Month |
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The new text boxes are live. The most immediately obvious difference is that the icons are placed below the text box. The most important differences are that you will be able to copy over documents from Word and not lose the formatting. Also, all icons appear for Mac users. The text box is fully compatible with Macs.
Work on the database has resulted in faster image uploads. That is, visitors will see your images more quickly. It has also meant some improvement in the time necessary for members to upload images.
New portal: Art in the UK. http://www.artspan.com/art_in_the_UK
Coming: Art in LA and Figurative Painting. Also, to be launched in a day or two, a Portals Menu page.
Work in Progress: work on the database and on the RSS content feeds (see below).
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Coming for Visitors |
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We are expanding the portals, both in numbers of portals and in the content on them. This is key to making Artspan a serious destination for anyone interested in contemporary art, most especially collectors. Integration of RSS art feeds will go a long way towards making these portals regularly visited as there will be fresh content on an almost daily basis. The programming to allow us to correctly categorize and assign the feeds to the right portals is well underway. As a side benefit, the portals are increasing our rankings for key art terms. For example, we are now ranked #10 by Google for “painting” out of 143 million results. The more content and links we generate for these pages, the better our rankings will be and the more traffic we will generate to Artspan and to the member sites.
The other important current initiative benefiting collectors is the revamping of the Artspan search functions to bring visitors more intuitively to the desired search results. The new searches will allow the visitor to define searches beginning with broad categories such as Painting, and then refining that search by medium (for example, oil), Subject (could be landscape painting), and region. The new Artspan search should be ready to go in a couple of weeks. It has required considerable reworking of the database.
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Coming Upgrades for Members |
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As a dividend, the new structure of the database will allow members to specify an image for each of the categories and genres they work in, thus allowing us to include relevant images in the “Featured members” section of each portals. Until now, members have only been able to select one image for all directories and portals
We also have other items that members have requested. The first that will be addressed are blogs and watermarks for images. We have not believed the latter was important given the low resolution of Internet images, but members have requested this, so we will do it. Also coming are video and audio upload options. Finally, we will work to make the site admin a little easier to work with.
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Later in 2008 |
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We want to provide additional sales channels for members. The first will be artspanShop.com and will include most items on the member sites. These items will be placed on a separate site with a shopping cart and separate search functions. We don’t have a projected target date for this, but it is likely to be introduced later in the year. We have to make sure that adequate resources are dedicated to the Portals before taking on additional initiatives.
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French Canvas – Link for Free Sample Canvas |
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I wrote about French Canvas in the last newsletter, but their website had not been redone at that time to offer easy ordering of free canvas swatches. For painters, the quality of the canvas is a key ingredient in their work. Thus, before ordering a new canvas, you will need to have a sample to examine, and this can now be ordered at no charge here: http://www.frenchcanvas.com/freeswatch.asp
As I said last month, I have visited French Canvas (they have a banner with us) and am impressed with both the quality of their pre-stretched canvases and the attention to individual orders (large custom sizes and more). Please take a look at their website and their offering. They can do a lot, to your order, so let them know what you need. Here is their website, http://www.frenchcanvas.com.
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Featured Members |
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| Iacopo Pasquinelli |
| Paintings and Photography |
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| Art has always been a part of my life. I began designing as a child and have continued to draw and paint as an adult.
I studied for two years at the studio of painter Tiziano Bonanni and later continued to paint in my own studio, experimenting with different painting techniques to achieve desired moods. In the past couple of years, I have decided to devote more time to building my art career, which has proven fruitful....
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| Benjamin Shamback |
| Still Life Paintings and Life Drawings |
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| “The still life paintings address the relationship between support, paint and process. The intense realism of these paintings is intended as a contrast to the physicality and harshness of the metal. I am drawn in every painting, to the tension between the conveyance and clarity of information and the conceptual and technical potential of paint . |
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Legal and Other |
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Copyright 2008. Artspan LLC. All rights reserved.
All /images are the property of their respective owners. The opinions expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect those of artspan.com members.
Thoughts or ideas for future newsletters? ask@artspan.com
Technical questions or problems? www.artspan.com/help
Visit www.artspan.com today! |
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