Featured Etsy Artist: Elizabeth Graf Fine Art

Featured Etsy Artist: Elizabeth Graf Fine Art

1. What is your shop name and what do you sell? Elizabeth Graf Fine Art. I sell original oil paintings on canvas

2. What is your shop URL? http://www.elizabethgraf.etsy.com/ ORhttp://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5629664

3. What is your blog URL? http://www.elizabethgraf.blogspot.com/(Note: this blog is brand new and I still have to learn how to set it up and actually use it)

4. When did you start selling on Etsy? I started setting up my site on Feb. 17, 2008 and it took me several months to figure it all out, including designing the banner and putting my work on the site. This was during the economic downturn when things were a lot slower (especially sales). I also during this time learned all about treasuries and now do lots of them continuously. My actual first SALE occurred on Sept. 11, 2008.

5. What is your favorite thing about Etsy? Besides designing and posting treasuries and networking through them, the wonderful support I have gotten from other artists and the conviction that I want to make my Etsy selling experience work, so I don't have to leave my studio! I love supporting other artists and when you are networking back and forth and making other artists happy (by putting them in treasuries), there is an excitement to being an "Etsian". It is a very special place and I am glad I found it! I also sometimes send a screenshot of the front page to an artist I recognize or who's work I admire -- just because AND I heart a lot of artists' work and shops, sometimes an artist who hasn't sold yet just to boost them up. I believe in mutual support!Also, what I have learned by looking at other artists' work -- it is priceless! (I sometimes take out old paintings and finish them with new vision).

6. What is your favorite thing about what you sell? My love of color, the texture of the paint and the joy I get while painting them. There is always a new painting on my easel -- I have a huge body of work.

7. What is your favorite item in your own shop and why? The painting "Plumeria the Beautiful" -- it pops out, it is complete and it is colorful and has wonderful texture.

8. What teams do you belong to? The Design Style Guide (search for interiordesignteam), VAST (Visual Artists Street Team) and Gallery United

9. What is the most fun thing you do to promote your shop? Treasuries

10. What are some of your favorite finds by other sellers on Etsy? Painted palm fronds by http://www.srallsmith.etsy.com/ (very unique -- her name is Suzanne too), paintings by Debra Linker, Amy Giacomelli, etc., etc. (the list is very long -- I won't list them all here and if you are not mentioned, don't fret, I like your work too), work by ImagineStudio, painted gourds, all mosaics

11. What do you do in your spare time? Besides work in my studio and read the internet, I garden and for 2 1/2 years have been helping my husband renovate our house -- I do a lot of "men's" work other women would not consider doing.

12. What blogs do you follow? I am not a blog person -- I comment on team forum threads and that is about it. This doesn't mean I won't be one in the future, it is just that I would rather work on another painting rather than deal with blogs BUT I spend a considerable amount of time on Etsy almost every day -- convo'ing people, working on treasuries, putting up new work and adding new pictures to my site, renewing items, etc. I have to admit that I don't understand blogs...I need a crash course.

13. Do you have anything else you would like to share? I have been an artist all my life since I could hold a crayon and I am very persistent in creating my work -- I have never stopped painting! I am always so inspired and it just keeps getting more so -- I feel that I walk around with a glow in my face and eyes because of this.I am very grateful to be an artist because I always have something wonderful to do. Being one also inspires me to collect beautiful objects that appeal to me (right now I am painting a TY brand stuffed red cardinal on light blue cloth that I will put on Etsy in the next day or so). I hope very much that I sell MANY paintings through Etsy -- I have quite a collection and I am always ready to make a deal! Thank you for reading this.