What to do with'em all?

[brianvds]

Well, I threatened to turn my mini-pictures into greeting cards, and so I did:

Put them up for sale on a local online store, but if they don't, they're easy to give away.

Downloaded Krita, and today started the long learning curve. Judged by what I have seen online, it has almost unlimited potential as plaything.

 

[Artyczar]

I hope they sell! They are beautiful.

 

[Dave Woody]

I did think about doing a coffee table book...

 

[Dave Woody]

Most artists have storage "problems," me being one of them. I look to donate some of mine to hospitals, but of course, I look to sell them first. I have done both. Out of the 1000+ pieces I've done, I still have a good 200+ still sitting wrapped in my garage. That's a lot of art! I have three stacks of flat files and three heavy duty shelving sets, and a little bit of wall space in my studio. Yes. It's a problem. I paint over old pieces once in a while too. I also have a good amount of my work at my gallery, and it sucks when they want me to take some of it back because I am never sure where to fit them. I've also lent pieces off to university offices (2 years, 5 years, etc.) to get them out of my hair for a while. I'm always trying to think of what to do with the work because, like Wayne said, you can't light them on fire.

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Ok ... this collection makes my surplus a very small problem....

 

[Dave Woody]

...thanks everyone...I have started a process...listing my collection of those painted on paper, the one's painted on board and those painted on canvas.

The ones on paper I will frame.
My plan is to try and sell them at car boot sales. A little collection of paper board and canvas one week at a time.

 

[brianvds]

Well, I promptly fell out of love with digital painting again. You simply cannot get the same textural effects with it that are possible with physical media. I was reasonably satisfied with the digital pseudo-pastel thing; perhaps I'll do more. But this brings me straight back to the original question: if I'm going to work in physical media, what do I do with all the clutter?

One partial solution is simply to work on the small side, which is what I like to do anyway. This one is all of 4 x 6 inches, and one can comfortably fit a year's output in a shoebox:

Dirt road, Gauteng. Acrylics on board, 10 x 15 cm.

Got the reference from Google Street View: I decided to go armchair-travel along the route the school bus took when I was in primary school about a million years ago. It all still looks very much like it did then, and it brought back many memories.

 

[Artyczar]

Really nice piece Brian. I know what you mean about digital media. I use it as a tool, but I don't have the patience or affinity for it.

I wish I could fit all my output into a shoebox.

I've been working on paper again lately, but then I realized that it's not exactly much better when you have to frame them for display. It takes up just as much room as canvas and panel and they are more fragile at times (depending). And, a lot more expensive in the long run.

I am trying to work smaller however, even though I still have a few large blank canvases here. I've been turned down from galleries before because my work wasn't big enough, so you just can't win.

 

[brianvds]

Really nice piece Brian. I know what you mean about digital media. I use it as a tool, but I don't have the patience or affinity for it.

I wish I could fit all my output into a shoebox.

I've been working on paper again lately, but then I realized that it's not exactly much better when you have to frame them for display. It takes up just as much room as canvas and panel and they are more fragile at times (depending). And, a lot more expensive in the long run.

I suppose paper or cardboard take up very little space if you put them in a flip file or something, but indeed, that way no one sees them.

I am trying to work smaller however, even though I still have a few large blank canvases here. I've been turned down from galleries before because my work wasn't big enough, so you just can't win.

Galleries, like publishers, tend to be clueless about what the public wants. Anyway, almost everything I have ever managed to sell, I sold on the web, where smaller is better.

 

[john]

Beautiful painting Brian.

Yeah, like Ayin said I think digital works well as tool for basic sketching of compositions etc but the physical presence of acrylics and oils is hard to beat. One of my favorite paintings is a 6x8 inch impasto oil. It's just there, small but has an attitude.

Something to think about is that you can paint small, take a good photo, and have it printed for the customer really large on canvas.

 

[brianvds]

Beautiful painting Brian.

Yeah, like Ayin said I think digital works well as tool for basic sketching of compositions etc but the physical presence of acrylics and oils is hard to beat. One of my favorite paintings is a 6x8 inch impasto oil. It's just there, small but has an attitude.

Something to think about is that you can paint small, take a good photo, and have it printed for the customer really large on canvas.

Mine can withstand being enlarged a little bit, but not much.

Anyway, the experimentation with digital painting was a good thing. I think I learned from it, and it is fun so I'll probably do more. But I have begun to notice that even art intended for reproduction, such as illustrations, looks better when done in physical media and then scanned. Makes me think AI has some way to go before it is really going to compete human art out of existence.

 

[JennieJo]

If you did people would take them and sell them on eBay and such...with the cost of shipping you can't send them any distance without major cost and even for free art people would not accept the cost.

I figure I destroyed over 2000 over the last 5 years.

That cost is a huge problem, if I want to send anything overseas. Inside Australia not so bad.