Sunday 8 November 2009

It's Oh So Quiet

It really is quiet on Boogie Street, isn't it? I'm sorry about that. The changes in the weather and the clocks have, as always, produced a downturn in my spirits. I'll get over it, but for now I lack the drive to get much done in the studio.

Which is not to say that I'm absolutely idle. In addition to a bit of tinkering with one or two unfinished paintings, I'm currently working on a commission. But it's a secret commission, so I'm not at liberty to say anything about it or to show its progress. Frustrating, I know, but I can't take the chance of the recipient seeing it here before its completion.

Unusually for me, I've also designed and had printed (by Moo) my Xmas cards, which puts me well ahead of the game compared with any previous year you care to name. This ought to ensure that, for once, my friends and contacts should receive a Xmas card from me before New Year's Eve.

Wait, there's more. On the reverse of the Xmas card is my contact address, of course, and also, this year I've included my domain name - www.harrybellart.com - but don't go clicking on it just yet. That's the point. I don't have a website to attach the domain name to. By putting the domain name on the cards, I figured it would spur me on to create the website, so that's something else occupying my time. At the moment I'm considering a site using a Clikpic template. If anyone has any reasons why that shouldn't be a good idea, I'd be grateful for any information.

8 comments:

April Jarocka said...

Well, great to know you are going to have a website, which I look forward to visiting. All the best!

harry bell said...

Thanks, April. I'll announce its existence as soon as its done.

vivien said...

have you looked at the free Google sites? they are really good, and easy too, and you can point your domain name to it

harry bell said...

I didn't realise they did them. Thanks, Vivien, I'll look into that.

ian said...

I use clicpic for my web site and have had no problems with it.

http://www.panchromatica.co.uk

It relies on Paypal for the shopping cart though, which means that when you sell multiples at different sizes as I do, it gets complicated to add shipping. If you are happy to add x% that's simple but otherwise it gets complex. Have a look at mine for how I tackled it.

In the meantime you could probably forward your domain here or to your axis profile. My domain based on my name is forwarded to my Etsy shop.

www.ian-bertram.co.uk

ian gordon said...

You can of course configure your domain name to direct people to your blog in the meantime. Which is what I've been doing with www.iangordoncraig.com

But a proper website will be nice to see. I used to have one with my domain host, but it was dreadful to use when compared with the flexibility of the blog html. And blogger does bring a certain degree of traffic.

I tried MyFace (sorry, MySpace) in the past, again because of the traffic. But I think that's more for musicians.

I await with interest to see what transpires.

ian gordon said...

Just seen a free artists website created using this:

http://www.wix.com/

they have a special template for artists. It was very impressive, but I haven't had a go yet myself.

harry bell said...

Wix is certainly impressive. Thanks for pointing it out, but I can't help feeling its use of Flash is, well ....flash. Maybe a bit too busy for what I want.