By Laura Grice
Painter Valorie Preston can create a work of art with just a few brushstrokes. And with her virtual gallery, art lovers can enjoy her work with just a few keystrokes.
Preston, a Glebe artist whose art is displayed at several Centretown locations, started her virtual gallery about a year ago. (www.valoriepreston.com). Along with images of her paintings, the Web site has information about how to buy her work and where it’s being exhibited. She says her sales have jumped, because people can see much of her work in one place.
“I wanted to maximize my promotional ability,” says Preston. “People can see some of my work at a show, and then they can go to my Web site to see my other work.”
David Rimmer, owner of After Stonewall, a Bank Street bookstore that displays Preston’s paintings, says he often directs interested customers to her Web site to see more. “I think it’s quite marvellous,” he says.
Adrian Göllner is a Centretown artist on the board of directors for Artengine (http:// artengine.ca), a publicly funded, Ottawa-based virtual gallery that receives grants from sources such as the Canada Council for the Arts and the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton. Göllner says virtual galleries allow artists to display their work on an ongoing basis.
“Keeping what you do out there is very important,” says Göllner.
But ongoing publicity means ongoing costs and most virtual galleries can’t rely on public funding.
James Brunton, co-owner of Gamma Ray Productions, a small, private art gallery on Somerset Street West, says although he and his partners “love the idea of a virtual gallery,” it would be too costly to turn their modest Web site into an extensive virtual gallery.
He says they’re operating the gallery “by the seat of our pants” and can’t afford to pay for extra space on their Internet server.
“We can’t spend all this money on virtual galleries,” he says. “Are we willing to pay another $50 a month?” Brunton says no.
Preston says her biggest costs came from setup and registration fees. Now, she pays $40 a month to keep her site going, plus the cost of getting new works scanned so she can add them to the gallery. But she says it’s a worthwhile investment.
“It’s an interesting and ongoing way (for artists) to show their work to the public.”
The virtual gallery also exposes Preston’s work to a much wider audience.
Preston says that although all her customers want to see the real paintings before buying, they’ll often use the virtual gallery as a starting point to find something that catches their eye.
She thinks that will change.