Can you trust what you see on screen? When it comes to the colour of something it’s really difficult to get accurate representation of real world colours onto a screen. Take a look at an image on a website on different screens – PC, laptop, tablet, phone – each one will display a slightly different colour version. So you can imagine that it’s a huge challenge to convince art buyers that the image they’re seeing on their screen is a good representation of the work they are buying. Obviously it would be ideal to see the artwork in real life before purchase, but that’s often impractical. So as an artist, my aim is to get good quality images so that the photographs are an accurate depiction of my work.

I try to take good quality photographs at home. To reduce glare as much as possible I find somewhere with northern light on a bright but overcast day and set up the artwork flat against a white/light coloured wall (blu-tack comes in handy to hold it flat), then set my camera up on a tripod so that the lens is at the same height as the centre of the painting. My camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70 Compact Digital camera. I change the settings to make sure that it’s on the highest number of pixels (12mb), no flash, lens aperture to f/5.6,  ISO 80 (to allow maximum light), minimal zoom and then set it to take on self timer for 10 seconds so that there’s no shake. Try to get the painting in the centre of the viewfinder with the edges as straight as possible ( i.e. not fisheye). Take one, take two, take three. Then use a photo editing package to crop it neatly and adjust any colours or greyscale balance using the painting to check against – it’s not perfect but it works for most screen images – I wouldn’t make a print from it though!

Once I have a good quality image I can downsize it without losing too much of the colour and detail for use on the web

What about getting prints made?
If I am having prints made of my paintings the best way to ensure accuracy of colour is to have them professionally photographed using studio lighting and colour calibration. This method also means that the ‘feel’ of the painting, in terms of texture of the paint and canvas or board, is retained. Simon Nottage at Bollington Print has captured all my paintings for prints and you can see the level of detail he has achieved in this image enlargement. The original painting is West over Eddisbury Hill, acrylic on canvas 500 x 400mm.

Having accurate colour calibrated monitors also means that I can check the on screen image against my original and ask Simon to make any slight colour adjustments if I don’t think they are 100% correct.
Remember: “It’s much better to photograph the painting before it has been varnished, to avoid too much glare from the lights,” advises Simon, “and definitely before it has been framed!”

Interested to hear any tips on getting your paintings into digital format.

Having thoroughly enjoyed my solo exhibition at Tegg's Nose Country Park I now find myself wondering "What next?" and realise that this is probably something I should have been considering  several months ago. Still, new to the idea of being a full time artist, I'm learning as I go and have spent my time researching ways to promote my work both in the real world and online. In January Ashurst Emerging Arts Prize held an online talk entitled' How to Grow your Art Career' which was very useful and makes me realise that I have to dedicate more time to promotion and discussion as well as to painting.

My current thinking is that I would like to find a suitable location to exhibit later in the year and concentrate on generating some new works and entering some of the many art competitions and prizes available. So far I've entered the Ashurst Emerging Artists Prize which, in early March will see 25 artists go through to the final - as yet this work has not been made public, but as soon as judging has finished I'll post an image of it. Deadline was 28th Jan and entry fee £20 per work.

Every year I'm determined to enter the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition with a view that at some point, even if many years away, I will get chosen to exhibit. The very lovely, Grayson Perry is coordinating the 2018 exhibition - such fabulously decorated pottery and textiles... and the frocks... Oh! My ears and whiskers! This year's entry had to be something I painted recently as I was too late to generate anything new, what with half term looming, so this colourful painting of Hen Cloud is my 2018 submission. Deadline for the RA was 14th Feb and it was £35 per entry.

Next will be an entry to Jackson's Open Painting Prize - deadline for submissions is March 16th at £5 per artwork and up to 5 submissions allowed. I'm painting something new for this but might enter something that already exists too.

Closer to home, well my home, is the Visual Art Open in Chester - deadline 28th Feb and £15 per artwork - which sees the winning artist receive £1,000, a solo exhibition, inclusion in the Chester Arts Fair in 2019 and a commercial mentoring package. So just one day to get this submission organised then!

And finally for this post, there's the John Moores Painting Prize by The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool which has a November deadline and is £30 per entry.

The theme on timings seems to be 'winter' so I'll be setting myself a reminder to 'crack on' in summer and autumn so as not to miss the deadlines next year. Would be grateful to hear of any other UK art prizes too!