Gill Bustamante – paint large semi-abstract landscapes and wildlife paintings
Gill Bustamante www.gillbustamante.com
What is your name and what do you do?
My name is Gill Bustamante and I paint large semi-abstract landscapes and wildlife paintings. My painting style is one that has developed over quite some years and I hope reflects echoes of the nature and landscapes that I see around me.
What is your story and what motivated you to start the business?
I always loved to paint and draw and so I have always done that. I did an art foundation course at Chelsea in 1979 and completed a fine art degree in Brighton in 1983. I have always maintained my living as artist by producing illustrations, murals, animal portraiture, art tuition etc. I sell art regularly online and in exhibitions.
My painting method involves walking through countryside and then painting from memory once I am home. I use photos as references but mostly I see what emerges on to my canvas when I think about a place. It helps to capture the essence of it and I find it fascinating as a process (I call it ‘memory impressionism’). My message is that there is magic all around us and that we live on a beautiful planet with beautiful landscapes and nature and that we need to cherish it.
What challenges does the business face?
Like most artists, I have found my own method of operation by doing what I want to do but by using whatever existing marketing methods are available to me. These, of course, have greatly changed over the years since I first wandered out of art college in the 80’s. The internet has been a gamechanger for artists as anyone can now post art online. The downside is that there is massive competition and you have to keep trying to keep up with different galleries and computer jargon and marketing methods.
What are the opportunities the business is facing?
The upside of being able to sell online is you can sell from home and reach anyone anywhere in the world. Being able to have your art found by anyone anywhere in the world is a great opportunity.
What is your advice to others about the business?
My advice to other artists is very simple: 1. Become really good at what you do and develop a style and originality that is unique to you. 2. Make a website or open an ETSY store and promote regularly on any social media or other platforms you like. 3. No matter what is happening in the world or economically keep producing good art and keep promoting it on any channels available to you. The two actions alone will keep you going.
Although I was a student at Chelsea the ‘traditional’ art world left me cold. I disliked the exclusivity and the gibberish that many artists felt they needed to come out with it in order to be taken ‘seriously’. You don’t have to be clever or deep or significant or serious. You just have to honestly do what you like to do. (Like Grayson Perry who I think is wonderful as he has helped bridge the gap between a pompous art world and real people).
I try to be real as you may find out for yourself one day if you come across me thrashing about in the undergrowth of Sussex wearing a silly hat, covered in cow poo, eating a scotch egg and talking to myself.
Gill Bustamante www.gillbustamante.com
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