Internet scams pulled on artists.
So here we are artists and self supporting individuals using the internet to get our art to collectors. 
Many artist don't realize how many low life scum is out there waiting to rip them off.

Case in point. It's been going on for awhile that that sort of low life scum pretends to be art dealers, collectors etc.
They send out an e-mail to an artist, pretending to be interested in buying their art.

I have long been aware of these rip off low life scum non humans and their daily attempts to steal from hard working, unsuspecting, trusting  people.

Needless to say,  I am very careful when I get these e-mail. Sometimes you can tell right away that something is not right and your little antenna goes up, putting you on alert. Sometimes (because they are getting more clever and deceptive) you can't tell right away.

Here is an e-mail that I received:

From: susan george
E-mail: sussygeorge@gmail.com

Question: Hello .im an art dealer .I would like to know if the (Swamp Sunset $1200) is still available for sale .kindly get back to me with an email.best regards

so naturally I responded. This particular message could have been a legitimate interested buyer.

On 11/25/07, ginette@ginettefineart.com <ginette@ginettefineart.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Susan,
>
> Yes the Swamp Sunset is available.
> Would you like to purchase it?
>
> Kind Regards
> Ginette

Today I get this response:

Needless to say this is definitely coming from a low life, no good, scam artist. I'm happy to say that I never fell for this sort of scam, because of my business background I can usually detect when someone is not legitimate. There are red flags to look for, 
but I do know artist myself that have been scammed this way, and knowing how most artist struggle to make an honest living with their art, I have zero sympathy for these low life scum nonhumans. 
I hereby put of curse on this individual/s and hope he/she will soon die a painful long and slow death. 

To learn more about these types of scam here are a few links. Start Here - Expert Advise - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Today I worked on this Watercolor & Ink. Listed on EBAY, but if you don't have an EBAY account you can also buy it direct. Just contact me HERE 

It's called "The Spirit of The Okefenokee" I love the way it turned out.

My Basement Oil Painting Studio is making progress. The walls, floor and the ceiling have been painted with waterproofing primer. The floor will be painted with American Tradition paint color is: Mark Twain House Olive. That will happen over the weekend. I have more electrical outlets installed, many at the ceiling so I can plug in heat gun or such and don't have cables on the floor. 

I use closet shoe organizer for paints, brushes and such. See picture to the right. It works great. I can see the paints I have and it's flush to the wall and won't take up too much floor space.

I'll post more in the future as it all comes together.

My basement is being converted in to an additional studio space, just for oil painting. I've been struggling with limited space as many artist do.

The basement had to be cleaned and lots of stuff that was stored in it had and still has to be removed.

So this is a project still in progress. My new oil painting studio space should be finished by the end of this year. In a few years I really want to move. Somewhere in to the country where I can have more space and land. Until I can realize that dream I will work from two studios in my house. One on the first floor that will be used for my watercolor work and the downstairs for my oils. Many of my newer works are large  the new larger space is a must. The ceiling is low but I can manage. 

One major factor was lighting. I invested in Full Spectrum lights 6500Kelvin  48" long Fluorescents with a CRI of 98 the highest I could find.  Diameter T8 (1 inch). I will have 10 / 2 tube ceiling light fixtures. Six have been installed so far and the light is amazing. It was worth every penny. The bulbs  are Lumichrome and I got them from budgetlighting.com. They shipped fast, packaged well and all in all I would buy from them again.

I will post some more pictures, some of how the basement looked before and progress pictures.

I have to say the best part so far are the lights. I was skeptical but I'm sold. I was weighting different full spectrums lights many recommended 5500K. I'm happy with the 6500 they provide a light that is almost identical to cool morning light. It's very easy on the eyes no glare and represent the colors in my paintings just as they look when viewed in daylight. I know I will be able to work late in to the night and not know the difference. Another factor is they do not put out any heat. All of the lights are Energy Saving.

The whole basement will be painted white with waterproofing paint. There won't be much fancy ceiling or otherwise flooring etc. I will be splashing and the last thing I want to worry about is messing anything up.

The picture above was taken without flash with the new 
Lumichrome lights installed. Nice pure white clean easy on the eyes light.

This picture below was taken before the lights were installed without a flash.
The light is yellowish and hard to the eyes.

The picture below was taken before and had a flash.
A sump pump has been installed just in case of any flooding.