Last year around this time, we put out a call to artists over 60 (not knowing at all what we were getting ourselves into). We received more than 600 nominations, and the resulting article, "Splendid Over 60" in the March 2008 issue, featured the work of 21 stellar artists.

We're bringing it back for an encore! If you (or someone you know) are a fabulous artist 60 or older, we want to know!

Feel free to nominate yourself—we won't think you're conceited! (But please don't have all your friends, relatives and neighbors e-mail us. This isn't a popularity contest—we only need your name once for you to be in the running.)

And because our intention is to showcase artists unfamiliar to us, we ask those artists who were among the 2008 crop of "Splendid over 60" and/or have had their work featured in The Artist's Magazine within the last three years to give others a chance.

How to enter: Send five to 10 images (on a CD, as slides, or visible on a website) and the artist's name, birth date and contact information (e-mail, phone and/or mailing address). We regret that we can only return materials if they are accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Do not, under any circumstances, send the only existing copies of your slides or prints!

The deadline for nominations is October 1, 2008.

E-mail your submission to over60@fwpubs.com, or mail it to:
Artists over 60
The Artist's Magazine
4700 E. Galbraith Road
Cincinnati OH 45236

We ask, too, that you please refrain from calling or e-mailing us to check if we received your submission; we cannot respond to every submission. We will get in touch with the selected artists by the end of October.

Make sure to read the March 2009 issue of The Artist's Magazine to see who makes the cut!

The Artist's Magazine is happy to announce our 2008 All-Media Online Competition! You can compete and win in seven categories this year: (1) Oil and oil pastel; (2) acrylic; (3) watercolor; (4) pastel; (5) mixed media and collage; (6) graphite, charcoal and colored pencil; and (7) digital art! Click here to learn details about the prizes and how to enter.

Hey, folks! Just snuck back on the blog to post this preview video of ArtistsNetwork.TV's new workshops, which are going live very soon! In this one, contemporary realist Sharon Sprung discusses and demonstrates how you can paint realistic skin tones:

• Painting valued at $3,100 turns out to be a Rembrandt self-portrait and sells for $4.5 million at auction.

• A great profile of Marlene Dumas.

• A neat website from a neat illustrator (via pica + pixel).

• Just for fun: the sky from above (via Coudal)

Want the whole world to know about your latest project or prize-winning piece? We just put up an article to help you maximize your exposure: Write a Press Release in 16 Easy Steps.

Michael Chesley Johnson takes the pain out of writing an eye-catching, concise press release with these tips. I couldn't agree more with some of them—like #4, "Give a precise location." You wouldn't believe how many press releases I get here at The Artist's Magazine that neglect to say what city and state the event is happening in.

The 11th tip is also important—keep it short! You've only got a few seconds to catch the interest of the editor or writer. No. 15 is a good one—make sure you're sending the release to the right person. Don't send a news release about your pastel workshop to a magazine or blog that only writes about digital art. And sending a release about an event happening in two weeks won't be of any use to a magazine that comes out quarterly.

Have any of you had particular success or spectacular blunders relating to press releases? Post a comment about it!

If you're trying to promote yourself as an artist, you gotta have a website. Or if you don't have a website, set up a blog you regularly update. But if you can't commit to posting frequently and HTML makes you dizzy, there is another option: the photo-sharing site Flickr.

The site is great for casual photographers—uploading party pics or snapshots of family members has never been easier—but it also can work as a networking tool for artists and other creative types.

As long as you have digital images and internet access you can make use of Flickr. You create a username and homepage for yourself on your site (your "photostream") that displays your most recent pictures. (Or not—you can make pictures you want to keep to yourself private, or share them only with users you allow.)

Having a photostream is a great way to show your latest work, or even your works in progress. Some artists like to share pictures of their palettes, or of their studios.

When you upload a picture, Flickr automatically resizes it, and you can add "tags" to it—words to describe the image and its content. For example, the artist has tagged this painting with terms such as "daily painting," "acrylic," "dinosaur" and "wood." You can also add your photos to groups, which is great way to get more traffic on your photostream.

I also like using Flickr as an image host—by linking to the resized image in my photostream, I don't have to worry about having the actual files on the computer I'm using to post images on my blogs. (Including this one!) You can also think of it as an external hard drive—when you upload images, you're creating a backup file. Very good in case of computer meltdown!

A basic account on Flickr is free, or you can pay $24.95 a year for a pro account that ups your storage limits and removes ads from the website. I've had a pro account for about three years now, and it's been well worth it.