Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Philip Salamone. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Philip thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

I actually think a name doesn’t matter too much. After awhile, those are just syllables with an association. For us, I wanted the name Atelier in there, to evoke a more traditional approach to drawing and painting. Atwood came from the neighborhood we were previously in. Hence, Atwood Atelier. We have since moved, but kept the name.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a classically trained artist working in charcoal, oil paint, and watercolor. I primarily paint portraits and figures, but I also work on commissions spanning a variety of mediums and subject matter. I also teach drawing and painting at Madison College, and also at my school, the Atwood Atelier.

The Atwood Atelier not only provides instruction in realistic, representational drawing and painting from life, but it is also a gather place for artists seeking to paint in this manner. Four times each week, the Atelier offers open figure drawing and painting with the live model. Building this community is important to my goals of furthering the arts in my community and also to being the best artist that I can.

One thing that might set me apart from other artists is that I work primarily from the live model, as opposed to from photography or from imagination. I recognize that this does not matter in the end, and that everyone has to do what works for them. Ultimately, most people don’t care how a piece of art gets made. For me, I find much more challenge and enjoyment in working from the live model, and I am fortunate that I was able to build this community of artists that makes this more affordable. I love it because I am able to get to know the models, and also because with a live, moving model, there is more of a sense of urgency, and more of a sense of life, vitality, and energy to the painting. Additionally, I don’t see a lot of watercolor portraits from life. This is a big challenge for me, and is one of the reasons that I wanted to pursue it.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I have found the best marketing strategy to be to market to the people who already buy my product. I do this by providing the best product and service possible. I can certainly advertise on social media or put up fliers, but I live in a relatively small city (Madison, WI), and even though it is an artsy town, the art community is somewhat small. I know that if I am the absolute best teacher I can be, that people will return to my classes, and will also tell other people in the community. Similarly, I know that if I make the best work that I can, and give people a very positive experience when purchasing, then they may return to purchase more work or tell a friend. I am not sure if this is the fastest way to grow a business, but it is a sustainable model. It is also the only way I know to approach what I do with integrity.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Some of the most difficult years for an artists can be the first few years out of art school. After I left the Grand Central Atelier in New York City, I moved to Madison, WI and began renting a studio, making artwork, and running figure drawing sessions. For work, I was able to get a job as a taxi driver, since I had been a delivery driver in New York while I was in school. In those years, cab driving paid my bills including the costs of models and studio rent. Slowly, my paintings got a little better, and the community who attended my studio got larger. I also picked up some small teaching positions, and my teaching got better and word of mouth spread about my instruction and also the figure drawing sessions at my studio. As more teaching opportunities came up, and more people began attending my studio, I was able to slowly work less and less driving cab.

I am not sure if there were any key milestones. Rather, it seems like it was just slowly doing the things that I knew were important to make art more of a career. There was no instance of meeting the right person, or someone discovering me or anything. It was just one painting after the next. One semester after the next. And trying to be very objective and analyze critically the work I was making and what I needed to do to make this business a career. I was very thoughtful about being the best teacher and artist that I could be, in hopes of building my skills, getting more jobs, and building a positive reputation in the community.

One thing that was helpful for me was that I did not want to make taxi driving a career. If I had a well paying job that offered benefits, it would have been easier for art to take a backseat. This helped motivate me to live the life I wanted to lead, since the life I was leading at the time was not “good enough.” Also, it was very helpful that I had a job that could work around my passion very easily. Taxi driving was easy to scale down, so that when I started making more money on art, or received some large jobs, I was able to work 4 days/week instead of 5, etc. and it was easy to take days off or take long breaks while at work. It also wasn’t a job that I took home with me, and I had no obligations after I punched out.

All told, it was a lot of years full of self doubt and little money and no guarantees that anything would work out. But having few other options, having a day job that was flexible, and being patient and doing what I knew was right, pieces slowly started to come together.

Contact Info:

• Website: philipsalamone.com
• Instagram: @philipsalamone