Oddly enough the small ones take longer to do.
The final version of Autumn Deck
This is 11x14 matted image 5x8
Artists in the NE forum - show us your work
That's beautiful, JoAnn!!
Liza - somehow I missed seeing your painting of your Granddaughter and Peanut until I scrolled back up and noticed it. It is so lovely!! I am really amazed at the quiet talent of you all. I'm having to look at threads so quickly, I'm missing lots of things and also wishing I had more time to comment more thoroughly to each of you. Wow!!
Great, JoAnn! I love mini paintings. My mother used to do some now and then.
Karen
I love your watercolors, I agree the miniatures are hard to do.
wow..thanks Jan. I feel the same about your painting.
I used to do mini painting too. But then I grew...
Neat thread. I've posted some of my stuff over in Artisan's, but will stick a few in here, too.
This is a quilt I did for a friend of my daughters new baby girl. The tulips are colored pencil, the rest of the fabric is hand dyed using a shibori technique.
Here is a doodle in fabric inks
and one last, the piece that I made for Janet, UniQue Treasures - we did a trade, I got a lovely garden nymph.
Nice Kathleen!
Victor, are you going to post them?
Lovely stuff, everyone. I am most jealous of the watercolors - I've always wanted to work in watercolors, but have never mastered working on paper. I am getting better at fabric. . .
They're really small.
Lovely, Kathleen!
Victor - we all have magnifying glasses......! LOL
Great stuff, Kathleen. I didn't know you could do colored pencil on fabric. It doesn't wash out?
Karen
PADDLE WHEELER MILLERSBURG FERRY
Central Pennsylvania in oil. October colors. The ferry is still in use.
This message was edited Oct 5, 2008 12:05 AM
WOW! What talent we have here!!!
Great news- I was just accepted to a artisan sale!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's Nov. 21 in So. Hamilton, MA., @ the Pingree School.
I mainly make pottery, but I got on this bird house gourd groove last year, and I just couldn't stop making them! Funny how that spirit dictates what we need to create versus what we think we want to create!
And a couple more...
One is just a painted gourd (not a bird house) and the other a bowl made from a gourd.
Last one. Does anybody have any ideas on how to price these??
P. S. To brag a bit, the gourd bowl in the last shot won me a 1st prize at the Topsfield Fair last year!
love those bird houses.... no clue how to price them... but I will take the one on the left in your first photo
:)
doc, that is wonderful.
the colored pencil was heat set with an iron and doesn't seem to wash out (I tested on two different piece before the quilt), but will rub off - go figure. I used Derwent Inktense pencils on that.
Ah, pricing, not my strong point. I've sold two fabric pieces for around $150. each. I got $90 from the galleries after their commission was taken out. Mostly, I give things away.
I'm not good at pricing either. I made a bunch of gourd birdhouses with my neice. What a hoot! I use leather paints on them. They came out great too.
Doc - fantastic painting! Let's see some more.
Very nice Kathleen - I have pruchased two of Janet's garden sculptures too. She has their pictures on her website. Maude the Golfer and Fishes in the Garden.
Kathleen, thanks for answering my question. I have done a lot of work in colored pencil, but never tried on fabrics.
Jax4ever, I love your gourds. Those are fantastic! I think pricing would depend on how long it took you to make them and how much you think you would like to get for your time. However, having done many craft fair myself, I will tell you that you can never get what you really want for your time. People just don't want to pay what it's worth, unless you happen to get lucky and have a big following and demand for your work. That usually entails having something different, but then the copycats will soon follow. It's more difficult for them if you have something that's tough to duplicate. Good luck! I hope you do well.
Karen
Google "decorated gourds" and see what others are charging.
Karen is right ,artists work for $2.00 an hour.
Thank you all for your compliments!!! I never actually counted how long it takes to paint one b/c I do it in stages.
My dad is a professional painter. I mean abstract expressionist, not houses ;0)
He sells a lot of work, but he did teach some, too. He is 81 and still at it! If I knew what I was doing, I'd set up a web site for him. I never asked how much he made "per hour"; he just said it was what he "had" to do.
I've seen lots of snooty craftspeople (mainly potters, like me) charge outrageous sums for ho-hum work, and they site how they don't work for "peanuts" and deserve a professional wage. Well, they wind up not selling anything! They are correct; we should earn more, but people will only pay so much.
I am in such awe looking at all this beautiful artwork....you folks are so talented. Thanks for sharing and putting up a thread like this.....just amazing!
Don't mean to stomp on you guys but.
I was one of those snooty potters and while "clay" was "the thing" to collect I made a very good living at it.
My hourly wage was $50.00.Thats not clear profit mind. Its costly to travel to art festivals and produce a professional brochure, ship lots of pottery to galleries, fire the 50 cubic foot gas kiln, etc.
I cant count the number of times I explained the simplest accounting for people who asked why pots were so expensive.
I explained" Take what amount you and your spouse make and deduct 2/3 rds of it for the business. My garbage bills and taxes are the same as yours" I got the impression the public thought artists lived in the woods and made things out of air which costs nothing.
The life style is what I wanted and I enjoyed it eeeemensly
When the collectors went to some other craft( glass) to be exact ,I had been in pottery for twenty+ years.
The market determins what is being bought and what things will sell for.
so is the name...look at some of the artists now that have a following and what they get per item. Thomas Kinkade....actually, that totally kills me. Between the price he gets for an original and then what he sells his prints for!
Oh, Anita, don't even go there - I can't stand his stuff!
ge is right, it's all about what you need to make and what the market will bear, and right now, that's a very tricky problem.
Dont get me started on Thomas KinKaide(sp)
What makes me really angry about him is some of the supposed originals are really factory reproductions.
The image is printed on "canvas textured paper" and then printed.
Some one of his lackies goes down the line and swoops a dash of white on the fences and clouds so they can offer them as hand painted.They don't say whos hand and what part is real paint.
Friend of mine went to an opening of one of his galleries when he was really cranking them out and saw a semi loaded with stretched on frames canvas papers. He was standing next to a rolling pallet with a marker ,signing them on the back, when he was done with one pallet full the helpers rolled up another, all he did was stand in one spot and move his pen.
The lines to get into the gallery to buy what they thought were sighned orifinal painted pieces , was block long.
I don't know what the public was paying per piece but with an assembly line like that he must have been doing gangbusters.
He was on NBC being interviewed and was asked how much did he make from the QVC channel alone.
He replied"one million dollars a day"
I like my standards and ethics,just turning out honest paintings.
How much an artist makes is not a testiment to his genius.
I didn't know, and I'm not surprised. His art is meaningless anyway. Not worth our thread space.
You're right, boojum. Only 'real' artists here, not phonies like Kinkade. I remember meeting an artist in Reno, NV who had a lot of her work in galleries in NY in the past. She was rather snooty herself, and thought she was really something special cause she was showing in NY. Personally I thought her work was 2nd rate. Didn't seem special to me. Beauty is truly in the eyes of the beholder.
What I think think is crazy is that an elephant in Sparks, NV at John Asquaga's Nugget was making paintings and they were selling for $1,000. Then there was this guy who would throw paint in the air behind a jet engine and let it fly onto a canvas, and he was getting thousands for his paintings. I even heard of someone making art out of feminine hygiene products (not used, thank God!) and selling them for big bucks. Art really has no rhyme or reason. Hey, maybe I should splatter a bunch of paint on a canvas with the help of a high powered fan and sell it for thousands myself. Hmmmmmm............
Karen
The work wouldn't be nearly as satisfying to bring into being if you depended on gimmicks.
If when you described your work the first scentence is "an elephant did it"
"I let the fan do it"
"I painted my body and rolled on the canvase"
or the thread about "artists maddness." where the artist made use of his torso "
Unfortunatly the public wants the element of entertainment in what they look at, the fools who buy work like this find out the piece tires after all their friends at coctail parties have heard "the story" and they soon consign it to the basement or it goes to a garage sale,or worse yet gets donated to a silent auction.
I have never seen works like these in any important collection.
So investors are passing it by.
ge1836, I didn't mean to call you "snooty" if you were getting the prices that you asked for. You go!!! I mean the marketing-illiterate artists who don't understand that their work is over-priced for what they're selling. I have heard them say that they paid $$$ for an MA in Fine Arts, so they want more money for their mediocre hand-thrown bowl than someone who doesn't have a degree but produces the same bowl or a better one. Believe me, I want the absolute max I can get for my work, but I have to be careful of pricing myself out of the market- then I make $0!!! But then I have to cover my costs... tricky. It's not like being a lawyer, who can charge more per hour b/c of their law school and years of experience (then we just have to hope they're good). An artist has to develop a style and following to charge big bucks, not rest on what school they went to.
I partly agree with you.
I knew potters in school with me who didn't make really imaginative work and commanded the same prices as others whos work was technically better.
I also believe the pottery comming out of the same school now days is not as good, and I don't know where they are selling.
I still live where I went to school about 37 years ago.
I go to the openings at galleries and to the student sales and believe me the quality just isn't there nor the imagination.
Many artists I am still in touch with are doing well with work thet sells over $600.00 to $2,ooo.
I am semi retired now and just want to sell enough to pay for materials.
I was an older student so I am 15 years older than my contemporaries, that 's why they are still selling at the big outdoor festivals, and I'm just showing in galleries.
It's just too strenuous a job to haul and pack and drive anymore.
With the last (only, actually) child now out of college, I was going to attempt the craft fair circuit. I am too old (47) but I don't have any obligations, and I wonder what kind of money I can make out of it. I really can't bring myself to make the "Granny Grabber" blue, ducky-and-bunny stuff I see EVERYWHERE, so I wonder how I'll do. It is a lot of schlepping, but I don't want to return to the soulless cubicle life, either.
Apologies to those of you who like duckies and bunnies!!! (I love live ones!!) Also, the blue I describe as "Granny-Grabber" is the grey, flat blue that's kind of depressing. I prefer a nice rich cobalt.
Jax, I have done the craft fair scene. I feel I'm too old for that now, too. It's a lot of work! There were too many times that I left disappointed with sales (or really lack thereof). You just have to have the right thing that will grab people's attention. If you can hit on that, you're good to go, at least until people get bored and want something new and different. It's all about fads. They come and go.
Karen
If you want to do Craft Fairs ,start slow and do three to see how sales go, and if you really like it.
Its my opinion that its not the way to make an income anymore.
Most of the artists I know are quitting because the entry fees are astounding($400.-$1000. per booth) Thats for a fair that draws over 50,000 people in a weekend.When sales dont make expenses its time to re evaluate.
I would stay away from the "dog and pony shows" These are the ones that are run by volunteer groups. What a nightmare, thats how I started in 1973, gave up on them after two years and went for the major shows with professional promoters.
A small show takes just as much work as a big show .The difference is a professional promoter has a advertizing budget and the know how to bring in a big gate. You need a big crowd to encourage sales.
Volunteer run events dont draw as many customers because there arent professional marketing people working for the group.
Guess I'm rambling.
Your gourds are great, hope you find the shows that "Pay off"
This message was edited Oct 7, 2008 6:41 AM
Ditto..........the dog and pony shows comment. The sale of professional arts and crafts is developing your own following, salesmanship, entering and wining competitions, promotion by others, ability to create professional quality work and presence in major gallery shows regional and national followed by presence in major arts and craft shows so the public can hob knob with you. Throughout all of the above is the necessary ability to maintain a positive attitude and ability to avoid the trap of talking down competitors while sharing your true excitement for your work as well as that of your peers. Somehow throughout all of the above progression your followers will be your best customers and promoters. One by one doors will open when the real you shows up and continues to grow in all ways. If the real you does not like all of the above while growing into promotion and recognition......................well that is a major and worthy discovery each individual must one day discover and adjust to each in his or her own way.
Very good advise.
Something else you touched on is showing up and being consistent.
It's so hard for artists to develope trust with the public.
Somehow there is an element of "congering" that is a subtext with the public.They see our clever creations as some sort of magic.
I finally came up with an explanation for myself when people would ask "how to become an artist"
I just reply "we are wired that way from birth"
The distrust issue is why I get so burned up by people like Thomas Kinkaide, he dupes the public in a big way and it reflects on all of us, continues the trickery concept.
There was a local man who bought a gallery and proceeded to reproduce all the artists work who stayed with the gallery.
He even sold repros on line along with copies of Monets he made and peddled as originals.
Someone bought an online "original" and turned him in to the feds. Thay closed the gallery and confiscated all the digital stuff.The guy was sent to prison.Who would buy an original Monet for $2,000.00 and not be suspitious anyway.