I will be at Conestoga this weekend, with art in the show. I’m in the process of filling out umpty zillion bid sheets by hand. Most of the pieces I’m putting in the art show are original watercolor paintings that are 2.5" x 3.5" inches. This format is the same size as a trading card, and is known as ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals).

If you look on Ebay or Etsy, you’ll see ACEOs in many media, from painted to collaged to sculpted to sewn, and offered as originals or as prints. Personally, I’ve grown weary of prints of any size. It’s way too easy to dash off any number of prints on a decent color printer, and hard for me to justify charging the going rate for them.

But originals… that’s another animal entirely. Even though I sometimes do several if these tiny paintings with a related theme and color scheme, each one is unique — drawn freehand on 100% cotton acid-free watercolor paper, inked (sometimes), painted with artist-grade paints, and matted to fit a standard 5×7 frame.  Because they are small, I can charge about the same for an original that I do for a larger print.

I will be doing a panel / demo on Sunday morning, discussing ACEOs as a phenomenon and as an affordable way to collect original art.

See you there? (And don’t forget — Yard Dog Press has its own track of programming. Come see us, and buy our books!)