We all love looking at other peoples work and we learn so much about our own work by doing so. No-one works in a bubble, we are all influenced by what we see around us, our life experiences and the art we encounter. We can seek guidance from other artists work when we have a practical problem such as colour or composition, we can also learn a lot about our chosen subject matter by seeing how other artists have approached it, not to copy of course but to be informed, educated and enlightened.

I heard an artist say recently that she felt she should avoid spending time on Pinterest. But I would argue that’s missing the point, we shouldn’t avoid it instead we should learn how to use it effectively. If we want to be the best artists we can be we need to know about our history, our craft and what is happening in the contemporary art world. We need to see the rubbish as well as the excellent, and learn how to differentiate between the two. We need to see how our tastes change as we develop, how something we thought fantastic a few years ago now seems trite and formulaic. Because that means WE are getting better, becoming more discerning and informed.

Of course it can be a distraction from what we are trying to achieve, can be a time eater and a rabbit hole, and I would not advocate anyone spends more than an hour or two a week on it, but used well it is an incredible tool and I would like to show you how……..

For those who don’t know Pinterest it is an an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information on the internet using images and, on a smaller scale, GIFs and videos. You can set up an account with your email address and search for anything, recipes, photos of cats …………and ART!

Once you have an account you set up ‘boards‘ for each area of interest, a bit like a photo album, and you can have sections within boards … These boards can be public so people can find your collections and maybe follow if they are like minded, or they can all be private so only you see what’s in them. You can ‘share’ any board with anyone by sending them an email invitation, but they need to have a Pinterest account as well.

As you find images and save them the Pinterest algorithms will invite you to see other images below any image you enlarge. Underneath is ‘more like this‘ these are images that are similar to yours in some way.

Here’s one of mine…

And this is what turned up when I scrolled down…Its always a joy when a ‘hero’ turns up! It validates my work when its compared with artists whose work and professionalism I admire. Of course there’s work there that is hard to find a connection with but hey, that’s the nature of algorithms!

How do I use Pinterest effectively?

I mentor artists 1-2-1 (please don’t ask me as my waiting list is huge soz!) As part of the process I have a private Pinterest account, and they each have a private ‘board’ within that account. Only I and the individual artist can see that board but in it we can both save images. I can save images of artists I think they should see, they can save images of artists they admire, and add their own work simply by uploading it. All of these images can be put into their own separate ‘board’. The result means I can see the work they are making as they progress through the mentoring sessions so that when we meet on Zoom we can discuss the work easily. It also means that if we scroll down we can see who Pinterest decide to compare their work with, and we can discuss those connections. Its enlightening and really helps the artist reflect on their progress. It was a delight this week to see a mentorees collection from the last couple of months and easily see how far she had become. Seeing them small on the screen really showed the recent work has the consistent confidence she has been looking for.

As a tutor for each course I teach I have a Pinterest board where students can find the images I have shown them in my studio. This saves them time, encourages them to find more and make their own connections.

How do I use it as an artist?

This is broadly is similar to how I use it when mentoring and teaching, but with a few additions. How often have we made a piece of work we consider finished but are still slightly unsure? I have a private board called ‘ are they up to scratch? By that I mean if my work was in an exhibition with art I have found an affinity with, would it stand up? Simply put; is it good enough? If I put a piece in that board with work I admire and stand back, its clear within seconds if its good enough to share company with the rest in this virtual ‘exhibition’ . If its not its back to the studio…

Sometimes I will use this idea just for my own work, for a virtual ‘solo’ show to see how they hang together…..is one a weak link, are they too same-y, have I been bold enough, have I achieved my intentions? Nothing leaves my studio that I am not happy with so…… are they up to scratch?

Pinterest is a great way to uncover what I like, what fires me up. I will spend an hour or two just grabbing images without thinking too much, just let my instinct guide me, and then stand back. What do they all have in common? I did that recently with these and found a strong interest in shapes, structures, monochrome and line. This only works of course if you take the time to reflect on it, to seek out those connections and consider what they mean and how you can follow a line of enquiry.

As an artist you can use Pinterest to showcase your work, to point people to your website. I’m not great at that, and should probably use it more, I’m also not good at taking down really old work but as I said before its sometimes good to look back and see how far I have come! BUT be aware that any image you post as public can be saved, shared and copied by someone else, if that concerns you either keep your images private or watermark them.

My friend Elizabeth Schowachert uses it a lot to sell her handmade brushes, making sure each image has her logo and layout to give her work an identity, and including short videos of her brushes in action.. She has written an article about how artists can benefit from it as a marketing tool here

So in conclusion please don’t avoid Pinterest, use it effectively as a reflective and analytical tool. Regard it as an online gallery or museum. Limit the time you spend on it and check you are using it to being informed, to find your own path….. as its true what Picasso said ” all art is theft”