Ask The Artist - Your art related questions and responses by Teresa Bernard.

A. For insurance purposes you should first have the painting appraised by a certified art appraiser. This should give you an idea of how much insurance to carry on your painting.

A. I've been painting for most of my life and do not have the strong odor problem you describe. As you can imagine I have quite a number of oil paintings in my home and art studio. Most artist grade oil paints do not usually have a strong odor once it dries. Even before it does dry the smell is often very minimal. When there is a smell in my art studio it is from wet paint, odorless mineral spirits used to clean my brushes, or the varnish I use to finish off and protect my paintings. Once everything dries the odor dissipates rather quickly over the next few days. Oil paint made in other countries may contain chemicals and additives, not present in American made artist grade oil paint, which could account for the strong odor. I wish I could answer your question better, but I simply do not know how long it will take for the odor to leave since it is a foreign created painting. I do expect that it will though. Until then you'll just have live with it or get rid of the painting.

A. 1) First and foremost do not varnish any oil painting that hasn't had at least 1 year to dry. You might get away with varnishing a painting after only 6 months of drying time, but that is if the paint on the canvas is thin. On thickly painted canvases, under layers of paint could take up to a year to completely finish drying. The reason it is important that the painting be completely dry before varnishing is any under layers of paint which are not completely dry might mildew and damage your painting.

2) I use a mixture of demar varnish and artist grade odorless turpentine. You can experiment with the mixture depending on how much sheen you want the painting to have. The more demar varnish you use in your mixture the shinier it will be. Do not use 100% demar or the varnish on your painting will never dry. Do not use less than 25% demar or the painting will have very little protective coating and will require more coats of varnish. Some artists like using a 50-50 mixture. I use 2 parts demar to 1 part turpentine. It takes a couple of days up to a week to completely dry depending on the weather. I have found this mixture brings out the colors as they were when the painting was wet and adds a nice sheen.

3) I usually varnish multiple paintings in a session. Make sure you have good ventilation when you varnish your paintings. Let the first coat completely dry and then add another coat. Make all your brush strokes go in the same direction for the first layer. Let it dry, then apply another layer of your varnish mixture with all the strokes going in a cross direction. Example... all strokes would go across the width of the painting in the first layer. For the second layer all your brush strokes would go across the length of the painting. Strive for good even and complete coverage with each layer. Repeat the two layers if needed. The criss-cross fashion of your brush strokes will help to ensure good coverage of varnish on your painting.

4) I tried to locate the Web site I used when I first had questions regarding varnishing a painting but I guess it is no longer online as I was unable to find it. The following link might give you some actual "how-to" steps, but says nothing about the type of varnish to use. http://painting.about.com/cs/paintingknowhow/ht/Howto_Varnish.htm

A. I once had an art teacher who was adamant about his students taking our own photographs to use in creating our paintings. Taking my own photos wasn't always practical for me. I think his issue was copyright law, therefore, to satisfy my art instructor I started asking the photographer for permission to use their photo when I did my paintings. As a courtesy to the photographer I think you should ask permission if it is possible to do so. I have never been turned down and I found most photographers were flattered that I would want to do a painting from their photograph(s).

This is my take on the issue... not a legal one.

Keep in mind taking a photograph and doing a painting from it changes the original representation of the subject matter in the photo. Depending on your painting style, sometimes it changes it a lot. Often artists who paint from photographs have to make design decisions about the composition of their paintings. They add to, subtract from, or move around the elements in the photo as they are creating their paintings. These decisions on how to handle certain aspects of the subject matter is how you develop your own style. It also keeps you from infringing on another's copyright as it creates an original painting that is uniquely different from the photo. As you use photos to paint your paintings from look for ways to make changes that will improve upon what is being pictured in the photo, this should cover you regarding any copyright infringement issues when using another photographer's photo.

A. Yes you can make a living with your art. Thomas Kinkade does. Bob Ross did. However, to make a living with your art, you must have a lot of exposure. You also need to have a product the public wants. In addition, you have to be determined and have a stubbornness to succeed, so you never give up. You might want to check out this course: How To Sell Your Art Without Selling Out. It is written by a fellow artist and offers some very good and sound advice on selling your art.

A. You need to be informed of the realities of an Internet business and what it will take to accomplish your financial goals for the future. The potential is out there to make a handsome living on the internet. I know because I've built and maintained many successful sites for online business owners who are very successful selling their wares online. If I had not witnessed it for myself I might not be so convinced of it.

I own another Website that I built for my retirement, so I do understand your goals for the particular site you want to build and what you need it to do for you. I have had that site online since January 2007 and for several months prior to its launch date I did my research into what products to sell on the internet that would offer the best possibility of meeting the finical goals I've established for the site.

To answer your question, you need to understand two things:

1) You can not be a success on the Internet simply because you are trying to sell something you love and believe in. You need to do your market research and sell what people want to buy.

2) Just because you build it does not mean people will come. It takes a whole lot of hard work to be successful online. There are no shortcuts no matter what anyone tries to tell you. It takes just as much "business savvy" and effort building an Internet business as it does a "brick and mortar" one. Most of that effort will be spent in getting traffic to your site. Without traffic you have no customers to buy your products.

So if you do the market research to find just the right product to sell online and do what it takes to get exposure for your site then you have a very good chance of having a successful Internet business you envision. Be sure to check out my Website Portfolio for more information on how to set up a Website.