Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, March 24: Many artists from the state, not content with the limited response they get locally, are now making use of the internet to reach out and connect with a wider section of customers globally.
Also making use of this platform are several e-commerce portals, which are looking to capitalise on the positive response that different regional art forms from across the country are garnering worldwide.
The portals are tying up with the artists to sell their works of art, in a mutual benefit of sorts.
Shilpi Agarwal, creative head of indianartideas.in says, “We are trying our best to promote the regional art form from various states across the country. We have many collections from Orissa too which is only helping the state in promoting its art and culture to the rest of the world. The main advantage of these sites is that unlike exhibitions, artists do not need to pay anything in advance. We just take a small margin from the customers during the sale of their
products.”
“We have many artists from Orissa who have tied up with us to sell their work online. We have been getting a good response from art aficionados from across the globe who visit our site often in order to order some works of art from the state. More than 400 people visit our site every day to choose among a wide variety of art,” said Vishal Singhal, Co-founder of Artzolo.com.
Many similar online shopping portals are proving to be a boon for many artists from the state who want to broaden their prospects and are unable to afford a shop to sell their works. A few of the most popular art forms available on these sites are tribal paintings like Saura paintings and Santhal paintings besides several other art works from the state.
Another artist from the city, Raghunath Sahoo says, “I often make paintings inspired by village life and childhood. I meanwhile also sell my products in the city, but online portals have helped me in increasing my prospects. I have observed that now the online demand for my products has been on the rise. I see a very bright future for such online portals which sell paintings and other art-related works.”
Suraj Pattnaik, another artist who is fascinated by oil and acrylic painting, says the whole process is very convenient. “The best part about these sites is that after you submit your work, you don’t need to bother about its management unlike an art exhibition or a shop in a city. This has made the life of sellers and buyers much simpler. Artists can now easily reach out to various states and countries while sitting even in a remote village,” Suraj says.
“Selling our products in small towns is often beset with challenges. For people like us, online portals have proved to be a boon. Now, we are able to sell products to people living on the other side of the planet, all for a small commission which goes to the website. This has really revolutionised the whole industry and has made the whole process much simpler,” says Amarendra Maharana, a painter from Keonjhar.
Customers too have the advantage of browsing through a wider collection of artworks available online and choose whatever takes their fancy, all at their own sweet time.
Sujata Das, a B Tech student from KIIT, says, “Online shopping of artworks has been an amazing experience. The best part is you can go through a wider collection without having to visit different shops and you don’t have to worry about annoying any shopkeeper. They even deliver the products at home.”
These sites also offer details on artists whose work is on display. The profile section talks about the artist’s background, such as awards won if any, and other details about related products.