Mark Golden on Paint

No….. I’m not talking about a new acrylic gel with exotic properties, I’m talking about finding the appropriate voice for writing about our Company. I received two comments this week that were on extreme opposites of their advice about our “Just Paint” Newsletter. One customer writes “Your ‘Just Paint’ newsletter on Color mixing is poor; we’re not chemists, just artists who want to know about applications not complex explanations.” From another customer talking about my lack of new posts in this blog writes; “…you could post your editorial/column from the latest Just Paint here – it was fabulous, entertaining and educative.”

We are now working on our 29th edition of this effort and I must admit we have similar debates here about the tone and content of the newsletter. But each time we conclude that first, we write what we are passionate about. Second, we don’t write unless we are willing to put in the hard work and research required to assure ourselves and the clients we serve that we are providing the most complete information we can deliver. And third, that our work addresses some of the most important questions we receive from our customers in a complete manner.

I realize that not every article will address the concerns of each artist. But over the 15 years of this effort I am confident that there will be information that serve each artist’s needs, other than ‘how-to’s, how to paint’. I am very grateful to our Director of our Working Artists Program, and to North Light Books for publishing the wonderful “Rethinking Acrylics” http://www.amazon.com/Patti-Brady/e/B001JPCIJG. But even in this book, Patti does not give lessons on how to paint, but a clear exploration of how acrylic materials can be manipulated and controlled by each artist to their own creative ends. Similarly, Nancy Reyner http://www.nancyreyner.com/books-dvds/ with her books “Acrylic Revolution” and “Acrylic Innovation” again provides insights into the materials providing critical tips and techniques for exploring our products, but again NO typical how-to’s here either.

Why are we so obstinate in not directly addressing the needs of some artists to make something, a flower, a tree, a dog… something!!!

We are Paint Makers not artists. Our job, as I see it, is to make the highest quality materials we can. Our responsibility to our customers is to provide them with the most accurate information on how these products will perform. There is not enough room possible for all the applications and implications for their use to explain on a label, so we take the time to write and explain those uses and nuances that artists will confront as they work. We have also worked diligently over the last two years to provide more visuals as to how our materials perform both in Videos on our website as well as the Youtube channel. (Recognizing the visual artists learn best visually… duh)

When we began Golden Artist Colors, we committed ourselves to describing the colors with their chemical names. Many people felt that these names were too complicated for artists. We felt that by calling these products by their correct names we would reduce the confusion as to what they really were. As I see other serious artist paint companies have followed suit, I felt our decisions to treat artists as bright and informed consumers was confirmed.

Similarly our efforts in our ‘Just Paint’ serve the same aims. To treat artists as intelligent and wanting the best information for serving their clients in the most professional manner.

So to those customers that feel our ‘Just Paint’ is too technical we are delighted to offer you other resources. For now, our Newsletter provides a resource whose tone and voice continues to be at least my ‘Happy Medium’.