In 1997 I had been publishing Australian Artist magazine for 13 years. From its very first issue it immediately became the best-selling art magazine in the country available by subscription and on the newsstands. The existing magazines in Australia at the time were mostly low circulation journals focusing on art criticism, art history and museums—hardly a mention of the living artists creating great paintings in the here and now. And certainly nothing about the inspiration and technique artists used in making their work.

Such was the success of Australian Artist, the magazine for artists by artists, that I got to thinking it might be a good idea to extend this winning concept to a wider audience. Today Australia, tomorrow the world!

Vincent Miller, founder and original publisher of International Artist

 

Looking at the artists’ magazines being published in other countries in 1997 I saw that, while each publication covered their local artists well enough, that’s where they stopped. I had a gut feeling that practicing artists around the world would be more than interested to see what artists in other countries were creating and all the different subjects and techniques they were using. That’s when I decided to take the plunge and launch International Artist magazine to a worldwide audience available by subscription only.

I knew I needed three things if this new magazine was going to work:

First, was to have an initial presence in the major English speaking countries. It needed to succeed here before we spread it wider. I traveled to America where I incorporated a business and found a company that could handle North American subscriptions. Then it was on to London to find a company there to handle European business affairs.

Second, was to make sure the new magazine’s editorial content would feature the best artists we could find from each country. I already knew many of the world’s best art tutors and invited them to write articles for the first issue. Every one of them, without exception, gave generously of their time and talent. One can see who these wonderful human beings were when you look through our early issues. During this time I also found outstanding editors on the ground in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, I knew I had to get the first issue of International Artist directly into the hands of working artists so the magazine could speak for itself. The first issue had to convince readers that they would like to see the following issues, otherwise there wouldn’t be any more. To this end, we set about collecting the names of artist members from many art societies and clubs around the world. The plan was to print copies of the first issue in Australia and then airfreight them to North America and the UK to be put in the mail to reach those art society members whose names we might have received by the deadline. In a few short weeks, many of the world’s art societies had sent us the names of tens of thousands of their members for our database. When we reached 60,000 we had to put a stop to adding names because we couldn’t afford to print and airfreight more than that.

In Sydney, our whole team and my family worked feverishly on the first issue. At last it was printed and airfreighted. The magazines landed safely at their international destinations and the 60,000 copies were mailed out to the artists as planned. Everything went off without a hitch, which was a good omen. Now the waiting, the worrying and the sleepless nights began. Would the recipients of the first issue respond at all? Would the first issue be received with a bang or a whimper? The prospect of losing the money spent on producing the first issue was too horrible to contemplate. Days went by and then the first subscriptions started trickling in. Then it became a torrent and then an absolute avalanche! International Artist magazine had arrived, and not only in artists homes but in their lives.

Such was the demand for International Artist that it wasn’t very long before we had to make it available on newsstands worldwide and moved printing and distribution of the magazine to the United States. While looking for a printer there, I was lucky enough to find Wendie Martin who was to become invaluable in sourcing suppliers for the ongoing production and distribution of the magazine. As you know, Wendie, along with Adolfo Castillo, is now the co-owner of International Artist Publishing so she has been associated with the success of this magazine all along the way.

I’d like to thank everybody who helped make IA the success it is. From the very beginning 25 years ago in 1998, right up to the present day, there are thousands of contributing artists, loyal staff, repeat advertisers, hundreds of thousands of readers and many friends too numerous to list here.

Although I’m no longer around to thank you all personally, you know who you are and you also know that I couldn’t have made it happen without you.  —