In my last blog entry, I talked about the fact that there are more painters today than ever before; there are also more art shows and art festivals than ever before; and it seems that we may have reached a saturation point in terms of interest on the part of the public. Which lead me to ask the question ’Is The Art Market Dead?’.

Today, I’d like to expand on that a little bit, in terms of other factors which make it more difficult then ever to sell paintings. And that is the overabundance of cheap art everywhere you look. You can now buy very nice (and inexpensive) reproductions on canvas just about anywhere; I’ve seen them at London Drugs, Home Sense, Rona; everyone is jumping on the bandwagon it seems. And then there’s Ebay where hand-painted canvases start at $1. I can tell you right now, you can’t paint a painting for $1 in cost of materials, so how can anyone sell paintings at that price?

Of course, you have to know what you’re buying. The nice prints at Home Sense are printed by the thousands and shipped everywhere. For all you know, everybody else on your street could have the same print in their living room. As to the $1 paintings, most of them come from China and are copied from other artists and painted assembly-line style, so while they may be ’hand-painted’, they are certainly not original works, nor are they one- of-a-kind works.

Have you heard how these assembly-line paintings are made? This is more or less how they’re done. They’re painted in a large room with several artists. One artist has a brush with blue paint and he paints a patch of sky on painting after painting. The next artist has green paint and he dabs on some trees, painting after painting. The next one adds mountains, flowers, etc. etc. You get the idea. They may produce 100 paintings that day and they are all very much alike.

I think the bottom line is this: there is something special about owning a hand-made, original, unique piece of work made by the hand of the artist, a piece that includes the artist’s blood, sweat and tears, and a little bit of their soul. Not a copy of it, but the real thing. That has to be special. That has to give the work more value. And in the end, that’s what we’re selling, that uniqueness, that personal touch.

Suzette

"What makes art so wonderful is that each piece we create is like a signature. A reflection of our personality and our life." (Mary Susan Vaughn)

I am a baby boomer. There are many many of us around the same age and therefore around the same time of life, ie retired, or soon to be. With so many of us of the same generation, having lived a similar kind of life, and having arrived at this time of life when our children are grown and have left home, and contemplating retirement, many are now looking for something meaningful to do. From what I can see, many of us have taken up painting with all the passion and gusto that we used to reserve for family and job.

What does this mean? In my observation, it means that there are more and more painters all the time; most of them take it quite seriously; and everyone wants to show their art and hopes to sell it.

And it follows that there are more painters, and more paintings, and more art shows and art festivals, than ever before, but not necessarily more public . There seems to be a decline in interest in art shows and art festivals. There seems to be a decline in sales.

The people who come to art shows, it seems, are mostly artists themselves. They can appreciate the art but are not likely to buy anything generally. Besides, so many have arrived at a time in their life when they’re downsizing and have no room for more art. I hear this all the time: ’I love it, but where would I put it?’.

While the purpose of making art is not simply for sales, let’s face it, we paint because we love it, an occasional sale is still a necessary part of the process. It not only boosts our egos a little bit, showing us that our work has value and we’re not doing it for nothing, it also helps pay for the surprisingly expensive process of producing and marketing our work.

Furthermore, putting on art shows, or participating in festivals, is an incredible amount of work; it is demanding and very tiring, mentally and physically. Physically, there’s the packing, transporting and setting up, not to mention taking down. But there’s also meeting the public and talking about your art and your methods, all day long. Believe it or not, it’s hard work and it’s difficult to maintain your energy and enthusiasm throughout the day. To do it all for no sales is very disheartening.

So, is the art market dead for most of us who are not famous painters whose works sell themselves? Gosh, I hope not, but I do believe that it is more difficult then ever, and that there’s no real answer to this, other than: paint for the love of it and try to get better all the time. Try to do it to feed your soul, if not your pocketbook.

Suzette

"Meeting the public is hard work and it takes tough people who are determined to survive and thrive... Art shows are high stress times for all of us, partly because many things need to come together in a very short period of time and partly because showing one’s craft taps deep into the hopes and fears we carry just beneath the hard shell we have all evolved to deal with the business side of art." (author unknown, quote provided by Jerry Conrad, WA, USA)