Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Updraft 8x10

$375 unframed plus $8 shipping
$425 framed plus $15 shipping

Done from the paddleboard excursion. that paddleboard gets you into places you just couldnt get to on foot. i removed the high-rise bridge in the distance and made this painting more universal, but it was painted near north topsail.

that thought will make a good post about the two sides of an argument about whether something thats recognizable has more appeal than something thats generic.

here are what i think the two opposing ideas are and how i deal with it.

first there's the school of thought that says the minute you make something a definate place that you've taken away the universalism of it. that would equate to a smaller, more highly defined group of people who would want the piece. flip side is it creates more interest in that select group BECAUSE it is that place.

second school of thought is that by keeping things generic that it could be discerned (mistakenly) to be anywhere the viewer might imagine that it is. this will open up the flood gates of people who might want it. flip side of that is most galleries have a niche buyer who wants something from that particular area where the gallery is located. and if its not from the local area, (done by a local artist even) they arent really interested.

so we painters struggle with titleing things because the minute we put "Surf City Marsh" we are making a choice of which buyer we are after. if we call it Morning on the Marsh and leave out recognizable landmarks we are also coming down on one side of the debate instead of the other.

my take is that i want all my paintings to sell. other than making great bonfire tinder in the fall unsold paintings dont taste good so i cant eat them and the electric company sends them back to me still demanding their money when i try to pay them with my unsold artwork. so what i do is a little of both. recognizable stuff and titles that commit it to a specific place and undescript titles and places. if i'm asked is this such and such place i under-commit blaming my supposed graduation into senior adulthood (see below) or my whiskey soaked youth for the lapse in memory.

this morning i was informed that i'm a "senior"speaking of that... dont you hate when youre not old enough to be eligible for senior citizen discounts but you see ads with pictures of late forty somethings looking for love on the internet, and it says "seniors dating site"?

didnt that twenty something ad agency person know thats not the way to advertise something to my age group? in my mind seniors are ALWAYS older than me!
that would be like me writing one that shows pretty twenty something pictures and saying "childish youngin's website" How many of them do you think would want to go to that site LOL
youre only as old as you.....are

3 comments:

Roxanne Steed said...

Couldn't have said it better myself. I live in an area chock full of "SCENIC" recognizable places...and yeah, what to leave in, leave out and TITLE...adds to the challenge. Guess there's no right answer on this, but I find myself improvising as I go.

and how did AARP suddenly know everything about me?! HA!

I'm really drawn to the color in this big- expansive sky btw!!

DGehman said...

A point I never thought about - has something to do with my stage in painting, not yet gallery-ready.

Bridgeless, your marsh could easily have been the outflow of the Essex River north of Boston. It's a marsh we saw yesterday on a less-than-exciting river cruise - but one that was filled with subjects more than suitable for painting.

In fact, I'm willing to bet your marsh could be anywhere along the Atlantic coast of the US, at least north of palm treed lands.

Perhaps a more relevant question... if it's a scene you saw by paddleboard (and possibly boat) - and similar to a scene we could have seen only by boat... is there a huge market for marsh paintings? Or is a marsh painting only for boat-owners?

Might be moot - person owns a boat probably has disposable income...

mike rooney studios said...

dave- youre right. this scene could have been anywhere along the intercoastal waterway and is generic enough to appeal to just about anybody who loves this landscape. thats alot of potential buyers