Mandy Budan, Artist on the Cutting Edge of Fine Art Promotion

Mandy Budan works up a design for a new landscape painting, a finished floral in the background.


Pickering resident, Mandy Budan is a perfect example of the new wave of artists who have turned to the internet for the marketing of their work. She and most contemporary artists now not only automatically establish their own web sites but use fine art listing sites such as Saatchi Online; the auction site, Ebay; the handicraft store, Etsy; social networking sites, Facebook, MySpace and even Twitter; and business professionals network, LinkedIn. And, typically, set up their own blogs and and send out e-mail newsletters to connect with the elusive fine art buyer.

Budan began with Ebay three years ago, posting tiny original artworks called ACEOs (Art Cards, Editions and Originals) for auction and did okay with sales for a short spell until the market became glutted and sales dropped off. Next she joined Etsy, posting prints and notecard reproductions of her paintings which turned out to be quite profitable, although time consuming, what with the preparation of the mounted prints, shipping and handling, etc. For her fine art originals she markets from the web site she created herself; and, most importantly, from a blog she established that permits her to post works-in-progress, as well as interact with potential clients via a comment wall and newsletter. And she’s seriously up to date by having followers of her art on Twitter.

Budan was born in Toronto and studied art at Northern Secondary School. Although she was mad about fine art, she “got cold feet” and enrolled in the graphic design course at Humber College and established herself in the advertising industry. Ten years ago, her sister and mother bought her a set of acrylics and insisted she get back to making art. She has since established a unique style she calls “abstracting the landscape”, acrylic on panel board paintings composed of medleys of flat areas of colour that appear to be abstract but read as representational. She and husband, Steve, a software developer take field trips and gather photo reference she uses as inspiration for her paintings.

Some recent developments: a selection of her paintings have been added to the Hallmark Cards data base for use for card creation. And she has been picked up by the bricks and mortar Mayberry Fine Art Gallery in Winnipeg.

Mandy Budan’s paintings can be seen at www.abstractlandscapepainting.com