This painting's from a dozen or so years ago, and working from a live model is still one of my favorite things to do. The collector who had purchased this asked several years later if I'd take it back in trade for another painting, since he was re-doing the room it was in. What do you say? Are you offended? Is art (if this is art) so expendable? Would you make the trade? Are we just decorating houses? Matching sofas? Maybe it's just that I consider paintings to be 'too' special. I don't know....... Paintings from friends or ones that I have purchased, even if I have no place to display them, cannot be discarded, at least not by me. It seems they are a part of the artist, a part of their very soul. I even keep the hand painted cards I receive.
On another note, I can easily pitch out my own paintings when they are pathetic. An Ohio artist, Judy Anderson, (who recently spoke at our Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society meeting) calls them 'barkers,' aka dogs! Pretty accurate. Once my sister rummaged through my trash can and retreived some of those dogs, framed them, and I still see them them hanging around her place, even though I've supplied her with better work. I know --- one man's trash is another's treasure.
"MONA LISA SMILE" Transparent Watercolor on 140# Arches CP 22 x 30" SOLD
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4 comments:
Sandy, I fully relate. but I have learned to accept that people who are not artists tend to see paintings that for us are pretty much soul-on-paper, as decorative objects. And once they do not the sofa, they can be changed or discarded.
It's a beautifully sensitive painting!!!
Well, if you trade - make sure he pays the extra cost for the 12 extra years of experience you now have as an artist.
Nava is right - people who don't paint see art as decoration, like the draperies or upholstery, they can be changed without much attachment to them.
Your sister may have gathered up those "barkers" because they were better than you thought - or because her sister painted them and to her, that said a lot!
I did not trade. I thought it was tacky that he even asked. He considers himself a collector of art..... Hmmmm. And thanks, Nava, for the comment- so true.
Maybe it can be set up somehow so we're able to take our computers/cellphones/clothes/cars back to the store after we use them a while and upgrade/change styles. I'd rather be painting tho, than shopping any day!
Well, we have to have compassion for those poor people who see artwork created from the heart and soul as nothing more or less than a sweater - when one "wears out," or becomes "out of fashion," you get a new one! How sad that they can't see the pricelessness of something created by an artist.
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