How to wrap and pack pastel paintings for travel and/or shipping is a bit of a niche topic - for everybody but artists who work with soft pastels and/or charcoal.

However it deserves a dedicated page - and now it's got one.  Last week I set up a new page in the Shipping section of this website - dedicate to how to wrap and pack pastel artworks for shipping.  

Objective - your pastel artwork gets to where it needs to be in one piece and with no "pastel drop".

It includes advice and links to information from people who have packed and shipped pastel paintings all over the world.

It's also relevant to all those returning from summer holidays with pastel artworks packed in the bottom of their suitcase. The principle is the same - and if you follow it you'll have no accidents to either artwork or the rest of the contents of your suitcase!  I've brought pastel paintings back from Greece, France, Italy, Bali and the USA without a problem. You can too....

Image: part of The Concord Meadow by Childe Hassam gouache and pastel on canvas

The Best Art Business Books for Artists is the new home for information from another site I developed with the same name. It's a work in progress at present but now has enough content to make it worth highlighting and my other site is about to be closed down.

Initial categories cover:

• Short Art Business Guides - for a quick read
• Starting Out - for those who aspire to an art career
• How to have a career and make money as an artist
• How to sell your art 
• Understanding Art Galleries
• Copyright
• Art in Transit
• The Artists' Resale Right
• Art Legacy Planning

Interestingly most of the books on the new page are EITHER new OR new editions of books that have been around for a while.

So much has changed in the past few years. In particular the emphasis on business online is now much more important. 

I'm finding that I really need to look long and hard at content as I do the transfer - and I'm needing to buy new editions of books I've loved in the past.

Plus I know than a few authors have recognised the need to update and have new editions in the pipeline.

​For example, a couple of days ago I was contacted by Caroll Michels - author of How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist (a book I really rate!) - about the NEW edition of her book which is published later this month. This has got a LOT of new content to reflect the changes in the workings of the art market and the new challenges for all artists - even established ones. For example:

• the use of social media and website development as marketing and publicity tools – what works and what doesn’t work;
• the confusions between the “art-buying public” and the “consumer market”;
• neighbourhood gentrification and the growing challenges of securing a reasonably priced work/live space; and
• the pros and cons of the new business models for artist career development.

So I hope you'll join me in my investigation of what's currently on offer and the best books about the art business for artists which offer both great content and good value for money!

There's a lot more to come and this page will be continuously updated over the next few months - and years!

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I'm also interested to hear about what new art business books you've been buying and getting value from.

If you'd like to share your recommendations with fellow artists just leave a comment on this blog post - or contact me and give me a recommendation.

If you are a self-employed artist living in the UK and earning income from your art, this is a little REMINDER that The deadline for paying tax for the 2016-17 tax year is 31 January 2018. 

​If you haven't yet started - or completed - your tax return then now is a good time to find that file with all your invoices and tax receipts and get stuck in!

That's because the fines for late filing of your tax return AND payment of any tax owing kick in after 31 January.

​These are the TOP FIVE most frequent questions which get asked about tax this month

• Do I need to fill in a tax return?

Check if you need to fill in a Self Assessment tax return

• How do I know how much tax I owe?

NO NEED TO WORRY! When you fill in a tax return online, it automatically works out and displays how much tax and Class 4 National Insurance contributions you owe. It will also allow you to print your calculation.

• How do I register to send my return online?

Register for and file your Self Assessment tax return DO IT NOW!

• I’ve lost my User ID and password, what do I do?

Watch the HMRC YouTube tutorial below to find out:

• When does my 2016/17 return need to be completed?

Your online Self Assessment tax return needs to be in by 31 January 2018, otherwise you will receive a £100 fine.

Which brings us back to where I started!

​If you need any more help, you can try looking at my page on Tax Tips for Artists . I can't promise it has the answer to every question but it will probably steer you in the right direction. (Please note I do NOT offer advice to individuals and information is offered without any liability.)

I'm going to be updating this page in the near future while preparing my Tax Tips for Artists talk on 5th March 2018 for The Heatherley School of Art in Chelsea - which is free to anybody who wants to come (but there is limited seating!)

Finally here are some of my past blog posts on the topic of tax

• Ten Tax Tips for Artists - some of which are reminders for me! Plus some links to guidance on what to do and what not to do!
• Ten More Tax Tips for Artists - Round about this time of year - just as I'm submitting my tax return to Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs, I write a blog post about tax - for artists.
• Do Hobby Artists need to complete tax returns - reasons why people who are not full time professional artists living in the UK might need to complete a tax return.

You can also find more GENERIC help on the HMRC YouTube Channel.

Here's their Self Assessment Video about the weakest excuses and worst expenses they've had from taxpayers!

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I've always maintained that Damien Hirst's real talent lay in marketing and selling. For me he is a classic example of an artist whose ability to work out how to market his art - and to manipulate the art market for his benefit - considerably outweighed his talent as an artist.

This article is a "must read" because it highlights how Hirst has fundamentally challenged the notion of:

• how art is sold
• the role of the art gallery
• the relationship between artist, art gallery and art collector
• how much the artist gets when his or her art is sold to a collector

It also focuses on the fact that by moving art sales to "direct sales" between artist and art collector, a considerable amount of art market data has moved out of the reach of those who purport to know about 'value'. All they know about now is the amounts which are in the public domain because of art sold at auction. That's not always where the important sales are done any more.

Hirst is obviously an artist operating at the very high end of the market. He's ripped up the rule book and started to reinvent the art market.

After partnering with an auction house in 2008 to create a gigantic sale of his work, in 2017 he partnered with a Francois Pinault (the French luxury goods billionaire) and took over two museums to create an enormous thematic show and made the Venice Biennale an explicit commercial venue for buying art.

One has to ask to what extent artists operating further down the food chain can do the same thing:

• make what they want,
  
• sell it where they want - and
  
• dictate their own prices?
  

To my mind it's perfectly possible - but only if artists hone their marketing and selling skills as well as those related to creating art and partner with the right people and platforms.

We've already seen it to some extent with the achievements of those who have created a credible art business by selling direct to collectors online.

Now we need to see whether artists start partnering with venues to sell their art in new ways - just like Damien Hirst...

Like I said - it's a recommended read for those who acknowledge that marketing has a lot to do with how value is created in the art market.

There is an imminent threat to all artists, art galleries and photographers that have been using watermarks to protect images with a commercial value.

Images have become bigger and increased in importance within the web. The emphasis is on images looking good and helping people navigate the web (if you like this - then how about more like this?)

For all those artists using watermarks to protect their images - you need to be aware that Google has worked out HOW TO REMOVE THEM! It recently presented its findings at the presented at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference. (Why they think they have the legal ability to alter your image without your permission and reproduce it is anybody's guess!)

Below is the video produced to explain the CVPR 2017 paper "On the Effectiveness of Visible Watermarks". It also explains that they worked out how to remove the vulnerability of images to this sort of watermark removal process.