Dear Artist,

Thanks for subscribing to the "Robert Genn Twice-Weekly Letter." I sincerely hope you get something out of it. By subscribing you have joined a worldwide art community of creative people. We are mostly painters, but there are also a large number of sculptors, writers, photographers, and to a lesser degree collectors and art dealers and others who are just interested. Many subscribers are art students--often encouraged to subscribe by their instructors.

Under normal conditions and depending on your time zone, your letters should arrive in your inbox early Tuesday and Friday mornings. The letters can always be expected to be about the same length. I don't want to waste your time. Also, if the subject of a letter doesn't interest you--just delete it. The next one may have more value to you. Also, if you wish to unsubscribe at any time it can be done by simply going to unsubscribe@saraphina.com or by clicking the "unsubscribe" button at the bottom of the twice-weekly letter.

I started writing these letters in July of 1999. My idea was to form a community that would help to empower others with the same interests. In those days the letters were once every two weeks. I thought then that I might soon run out of things to write about. Now I realize by the material that comes in, and the needs and interests of people like yourself--we're not going to run out soon. It's been a real learning curve. While ours seems a simple business, there's just so much worth knowing. I'm finding a great deal of it has never been properly expressed before. I hope you'll stay around for the adventure.

If you're looking for back issues of the letter, there is a letter archive. There you will also find print-friendly Letter Collections containing all the letters in a given year--indexed and paginated one to a page.

One of the great values of this letter is the illustrated responses. We call these the "clickbacks." We generally try to keep them to about ten or so for each letter. They give alternate ideas and systems--contributors' information, inspiration, art research, experience, stories, or arguments. You can access these responses by clicking on the URL (web address) after the main body of my letter or through the clickbacks archive. If you wish to correspond just reply to one of my letters or drop me a note: rgenn@saraphina.com All letters, whether immediately published or not, are carefully archived for potential later use. We edit practically all letters for clarity and brevity--so you don't have to put up with an aimless forum where people just like to hear themselves think. Time and again artists write to remark on the quality and imagination of these responses. For those who see fit to respond, readers appreciate if you include your email address and approximately where you are located. Inclusion of your email address may invite other artists to write to you. However, if you tell us you do not wish a letter published, or you wish to write or be included anonymously, we will respect that too.

Many responses are illustrated with subscriber's works. We are building a terrific archive of the work of members of our art community. Many of these we just go and find on the Internet. We really appreciate when you send examples of your latest.

If, at any time, you wish to look at past responses, you can go to the Clickbacks Archive. There is a vast amount of information and artists advice here. We have developed a subject and author index for these. You can go to our own search engine and put in a name--even your name--and see what you come up with.

The most popular page on "The Painter's Keys" site is the Resource of Art Quotations For researchers or artists just looking for inspiration this is the world's largest art quote collection--online or in a book. It's entirely the work of volunteer subscribers and new quotes are going in almost daily. All entries are searchable by author and subject. One word of caution--don't try to print it all out--you will run out of ink if you do.

Another valuable resource is the page called Art Studios Worldwide. This takes you to a small but growing selection of rental locations suitable for artists or writers. There are castles, monasteries, retreats, and picturesque and economical B&B's--for the most part they have been discovered and used by myself or recommended by trusted colleagues and members of this community.

If you have an art-related website, please consider putting a link to it on our free Art Online Directory. Here you can include direct links to the people who handle your work. In comparing ourselves with other art websites, we are far ahead of the pack in attracting the repeat attention of search engines. This is because there are so many artists' names, new material, and so much non-commercial content already on our site. Frequently there are over ten thousand unique visitors per day to The Painter's Keys website. We want to pass this valuable situation along to our community. For a very reasonable annual fee, we also provide a Premium Link Service. This includes even more heightened visibility and four illustrations of your work. If you give us a test in search engines you will find that artist's links on our pages very often appear with a higher ranking than the artist's sites themselves.

I also want to mention what we don't do: We don't generally mention local arts happenings, shows or events. We try to be non-commercial. In the letters and responses, the only time we put a directive to someone's commercial site is when it's thought to be of direct value to other artists. At no time will your name or address be given or sold to anyone for any nefarious purpose. You will not be contacted to purchase anything. Also, if you copy the letter or the responses to a friend or fellow artist they will not be automatically subscribed. They have to do that voluntarily at http://www.painterskeys.com/subscribe/

We have a team that looks after the Painter's Keys Community. The individually personalized letters are sent out automatically under the management of Constant Contact, a trustworthy company we have chosen for delivery of the twice-weekly letter. Andrew Niculescu is webmaster and manages the design and development of the website as well as the insertion of Premium Links in our artist’s directory. Michelle Moore edits and assembles some of the clickback material and handles the free links on a daily basis. When mail is overwhelming, as it sometimes is, my studio assistant Sarah Garland reads, sorts and responds to some of it. But even when I’m away from the studio I often look at all of it. The entire operation is subsidized by my painting. The twice-weekly letters are written by myself and are not contracted out to others. The whole thing is a joy. I'm deeply honored to have so many friends with the same concerns.

About myself: I'm a full-time professional painter--always have been. I still have time to read almost all of the correspondence. I have a computer in my studio and a laptop when I travel. I've written books on art and from time to time I do seminars and workshops. You can find out more about what I do by going to the Robert Genn Album. You can see examples of my current work by going to my own website.

If you don't receive your letter regularly, please let us know. Sometimes emails "bounce back" for a while and subscriptions get chopped. If you change your email address, please don't forget to let us know. Sometimes when people subscribe they fail to get the letter right away because of spam filters on home computers or host servers. Please make sure we are "accepted." We want to keep you included.

That's about it. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me at rgenn@saraphina.com. I'd love to hear from you.

Robert Genn