Art Sale On

Landlord is selling my house!!!

Therefore
SALE at www.arts-fine.co.uk
UPTO 75% OFF
MY PAINTINGS.
The Sale has ENDED. But my prices are still good.

Yes my landlord is selling the house I live in, therefore I have to move out and this will cost me money. So for a short time, and before I have to go into hospital for my heart problem (nice timing landlord). I am having a massive sale. If you ever wanted one of my paintings now is the time to buy it. Some are less than the price of a Print.

Do people buy paintings in a recession?

Thoughts about Art in a recession.

1. Art is a luxury item
2. In hard times people spend less on luxuries.
3. In hard times people like cheap up lifting entertainment.
4. So entertaining art may sell better to the public.
   
5. Some people do well out of a recessions and become wealthy.
6. Wealthy people like to buy luxury items.
7. People buy art as investments.
8. Buying good quality art at a low price in a recession may pay off at the up turn.
9. Original famous paintings are a safer investment than bank notes which devalue over time.

On the whole I feel that the higher end art market for well known and good quality items will either not change or actually increase.

The lower end art market for amateurs and production line paintings may decrease as the majority of customers will be watching their wallets. This could mean an increase in print sales and entertaining light hearted art, but could just mean less art sold to the general public.

If anyone has any thoughts, figures or info on this I'd love to hear about it

The 'Art' of Hanging Pictures Like a Designer

You have just found a beautiful painting that you know would look wonderful in the living room. So now you have it at home and you hammer a nail into the wall above the couch and hook the painting over it. Easy! Pleased with your purchase you stand back. You tip your head to one side and then the other. Then you squint at the picture. Something is definitely not right but you can't put your finger on it. If you've ever found yourself dissatisfied with the appearance of the art or family photos on your walls you're not alone. Many people make the same common mistakes that the eye can read as awkward but the individual does not know how to fix. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when arranging art on a wall:

LARGE ART:

Large artwork will be a focal point so you should be careful to place it in an appropriate area. Where does large artwork look best? Try over a couch, behind the dining set, over a fireplace or on a feature wall. A feature wall is where the placement of furniture or the layout of the home naturally guides the eye to a wall - a great place to feature art.

SMALL ART:

Try to group small pieces if possible. Using similar or matching frames and mounts make this look more pleasing. Otherwise anchor the small piece visually by hanging it low and close to furnishings so it doesn't appear to be floating on the wall.

GROUPING ART:

Whether you're creating a grid of equal sized frames or composing a collection of various sizes the rule of spacing is the same. Try to have them spaced approximately 3 inches apart. Try positioning them on the floor or a table to get a pleasing arrangement before placing the nails and measure carefully before making any holes.

HEIGHT:

Artwork should be hung with the center of the picture at eye level. That means the center should be about 60 to 66 inches from the floor. If you've visited a gallery you will see that the frames are not lined up by their top or bottom edges but that the pictures are all centered at the same height.

If the artwork is usually going to be viewed sitting down (as at a dining table or when viewed beside a couch) you would hang them at the sitter's eye level instead.

Artwork behind a couch should be no more than 8 to 10 inches above the back of the couch.

With these easy tips you should have no problem creating wonderful arrangements that will have designer appeal.

Article by Artyprints june 2008
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Anyone can be an artist

Can anyone be an artist. The answer is both yes and no.

Because the question may as well be can anyone become a rocket scientist. First you must have the desire to be a rocket scientist, if you do not have the desire you can never be one. Second you must train or act on being a rocket scientist, it is not enough just to want to be one. Finally you must find other people that recognise you as a rocket scientist. If what you do doesn't appear to be rocket science maybe your not a rocket scientist.

So it is with art. You must desire it, do it and then be good enough at it that others must acknowledge that you are in fact an artist. It also helps if people will pay you to do it, but this is not as important as the first 3.

So yes "Everyone's an artist."
But only if they want to be, do it and are hailed as one.

Samuel Durkin

Why Duchamp was Lowering the Bar

Duchamps Urinal "Fountian"
was by some been hailed as genius.

For those who don't know about this piece, its basically a urinal bought from a builders merchant and signed R Mutt, which possibly means poverty in German, but it could just be a mis-spelling of the Mott a sanitation manufacture. (Duchamp says it was the second) Duchamp entered it into a gallery and called it art.

This then was the start of the end. If we can take any object and present it as art anyone and everyone can become an artist. Skill, technique and even thought can be entirely removed.

For some this was a liberation, and allows anything to go. But the real effect has been that many see this form of art as an insult to them. It asks a great deal more from the audience, than it does from the artist. Who didn't make it, but just chose it.

What it really does, is it lowers the bar for entry so anyone cane say they are an artist. This on the face of it, sounds like a grand utopia of free expression. But what it has lead to, is that since anyone can be an artist, it's more important who you know, than what skill you have. To judge what is an isn't good looses it's importance and the power of the buyer to declare something art has increased. Ironically this is probably the last thing Duchamp would have wanted being a socialist. But this piece handed the Capitalist of the Art world, a fantastic gift of power.

This effect is essentially an emperors new clothes and puts off the real people. By inference it means that those who declare they "know" about art can feel superior. But if everyone can make invisible empty art, then how can we choose what is to be the great art? We can't, because we are not blind, and we can see that it takes no skill. But for those who wish to pretend to see the invisible clothes of this "art", they will have to pretend to keep seeing them, teaching others to see it and convince us we can see them too. They must do this or they the loose value of their worthless art.
This leads to the trade, publicity and inflated price of this junk art. It comes from the same place as the tulip mania effect that happened in the Netherlands in the early 1600s. Deluding art students, critics, gallery owners and dealers to make, buy and sell rubbish to each other. However just like the tulip trade fell to pieces when people realised that a tulip was not worth a years salary, this art can only have value while we keep being deluded that it's worth anything.

In the mean time the internet has burst the art world wide open and those who used to hold control over what is and isn't art are slowly losing to the people. Now artist's all over the world show their art to real people ready to spend their hard earn money on art they like. This could mean the end to art movements and the true liberation of art.

Of course If you do like Duchamps urinal and the concept is of course more important that the object, you can pick one up at any builders merchant and a permanent marker from the stationers next door. It should cost about $201/$402 ($2 for the marker). Sure you can't buy the "concept" or the "statement" it made. But if concept and statement where all that was needed to make a piece of art, then a fart in a bath tub is of equal import. (and some fans of Duchamp will probably agree that it is...) We can all do it, but I thought it and If I sit in a gallery farting into a bathtub, or better still employ someone else to fart in the bath tub, it makes a statement about something (make up what ever you like, the artist can't be bothered). But the real statement that it makes is I'm a pretentious (insert your expletive here) with no respect for my audience.

But I'm sure the circus will continue and we'll keep seeing rubbish displayed as art. All the while sensible people will buy art that took some kind of skill to make.

I love painting

I love painting,
but I never find it relaxing. After I finish I'm always drained mentally and physically. For me a painting is a battle of wills between image, paint and the inner critic. I want to see the paint, I want to see the image and while I must listen to the inner critic I must also ignore him.

It is the fight, the battle that keeps me coming back. Winning is creating something worthwhile. Fail and face the darkness that cannot be faced. The stakes for creating art cannot be higher.

Samuel Durkin

The Mechanic by Cathie Tranent

The Mechanic by Cathie Tranent
In the moment his hand closed around his weapon,

His mind readied itself for the battle.
Man against the machine. Cathie Tranent

What I love about this great piece of Photography/digital art is the almost metallic feeling you get from the skin, the hand looks like its almost cast in iron. Not only be a mechanic, but mechanical. Yet it is the battle with the machine that is our society, the wrist is exposed and vulnerable to show us the human. To fight the machine we must become the machine and then be greater that it.

The photo is enhanced using only the traditional photographic tools, (although within photoshop) of dodging, burning and filters. This gives the photo power and a professional legitimacy.