Headless

What does a man see in an erotic image - is it different to what a woman sees? I think it well may be. This week I took some of my latest erotic drawings to a gallery where I'm hoping to get my pictures hung. This gallery features a lot of good quality artwork but erotic art is new to them. I was happy with the quality and standard of the artwork and would have been delighted if the gallery had accepted them then and there, hung them on their walls and a week later said they'd sold them all and could I produce another 20 images because they were so popular (well, I can dream, can't I!???!). But the gallery owner didn't say that, what he said was that he wasn't happy with the generic faces I put on my drawings. Not even the fact that I might only put in the mouth and an eyebrow, even that was too much. Because it was "somebody" even then. What he wanted was them to be headless, ideally. Just torsos. Ok, I can do that, no problem. But I'm not convinced he's right in his decision. Because, for me, the image is made by the emotion in the picture, and that is depicted usually by the face. To me, to make them headless renders them just as a body - just a pair of tits, or an arse, an item, a characterless, faceless "object". And I think that's the difference between men and women - women want the emotion in the picture, men just want the item. I shall be interested to see how the pictures come out - and if they're accepted at the gallery, how they are welcomed. And if they do sell, who buys them. Just men? And what the feedback is. Because I'm not convinced, not at all!

This weeks image is with head (!) and is another of the white on black drawings with just a hint of red - this time at the mouth, as the woman is putting on her lipstick. She's wearing a black slip, with one of the straps fallen down over her shoulder, one of her legs raised up, the other on the floor. I think the pose makes her look a bit sluttish - isn't it only bad girls who wear scarlet lipstick? Maybe. I like the shapes of her body against the black background and black underwear. Its called "Lip service" and I'm happy with that as a title.

Right, better get my rubber out and remove some heads - decapitations here I come!! :)

Alchemy

I've been searching for a long time for a gallery. One that's right for me. Because I don't fit the criteria of most galleries. I'm not a traditional artist and I'm not contemporary either. I love doing erotic art and painting fantasy, but I enjoy painting old buildings, tigers, cats, dancers and horses too. But now I'm in the Guild of Erotic Artists, and it is an outlet for my erotic art, I felt it was time that I found another gallery for the vanilla stuff too. And with that in mind, I've spent this last week searching for possible places. Cities are the obvious place to start, and I'll look further into them in the future, but sometimes the less obvious places can yield interesting results too. And there was one place on the map that seemed to have what I was looking for. So that was where I went over the weekend, to see if my hunch was right. And it seemed it was - a small town just far enough out of London to be in the commuter belt, so there was money there. A town that had an individual feel to it, with unique shops with their own personalities rather than the faceless sprawls that most towns have become with all the same national names plastered up and town the high street. A town that had a nice ambiance to it, so the people were happy. And better still a town with a number of art galleries, which meant that the people not only liked art, but bought it regularly enough to keep the galleries in business. I liked the look of the place and started my search. I had done some browsing on the internet before I went, and there was one particular gallery that had really caught my eye, and that was the one I found towards the end of the day. It was purpose built, bright and fresh, had good artwork at reasonable prices and I liked the guy running it - we had similar forthright personalities and as we chatted both said that the other seemed to be saying all the right things. And even better, he said that the artist set the retail price and he took 50% commission. Other galleries I've spoken to have asked what I as the artist want, and then add a whole load on for themselves. So for instance if I wanted £300, they'd sell the painting for £2,000 and to me that's a lot of a difference! So, to hear this gallery owner say that he wanted 50% was very fair, to me. And he seemed to be good at his job since he'd been in the business over 30 years, and had a lovely light and airy bespoke building for his gallery with the no doubt costly overheads to go with it. So he looked at my website as I looked at his gallery which gave us both time to decide if we wanted to do business with each other. It seemed that we did. He asked what sort of art I did, and I said I was an erotic artist but I wasn't looking for an outlet for erotic art as I have the Guild of Erotic Artists gallery for that, but intriguingly, he wasn't at all interested in my landscapes or animal paintings, he was actually looking for an erotic artist as a client of his had suggested only last week that he sell more erotic art! And then a few days later I walked through his door! A good sign for us both! So after he'd looked at my website, and decided exactly what sort of thing he was looking for, he's asked me to go away and do some fresh artwork on that theme. How exciting! I shall love doing that for him, but it'll take a while to think of exactly the right subject matter. And if he likes them, maybe that will lead on to bigger paintings based on them. It all looked very promising. Especially as we discussed an up and coming artist whose artwork I like, mostly for the colours he used in a set of paintings I'd seen, and its those colours the gallery owner wants for the artwork he wants from me - again, a good sign! And to add interest for me, this artist regularly sells his artwork for £6,000 to £13,000. A bit more than I sell my artwork for at the moment - although I'm working on it! LOL The gallery owner asked me what I wanted as an artist and I said cheekily to be "Rich and famous!" and he laughed and said that I could be famous and I could make him rich! His cheeky response made me laugh out loud delightedly!


This week my spiritual healer friend referred to me as "The Alchemy Artist" because I was taking some of my old mediocre paintings and painting over them to produce far better paintings - or as she called them "breathing new air over them and re-creating them as masterpieces of mystery and magic" - I love that idea! She tells me that I should believe in myself and my talent and magic can happen. I believe it. And I hope so. I think I've had some of that this week. Having said that, for magic to happen I've got to work for it. It won't just appear. I've worked hard for how far I've got todate. I have to continue working hard for the next batch of magic - but I think it just might be in a little town I visited yesterday..............

Whats in a title?

I visited one of my favourite galleries yesterday, always a joy, and lovely to see their latest batch of paintings. Some I really liked, some were mediocre, a lot of them were tastefully arranged young women with only the hint of nipple on show - any bums, crotches and full breasts were covered artistically (and disappointingly) with a cloth (unlike my drawings!). But what I was struck by was the naff titles of the paintings - they were something along the line of "garden", "beach at sunset", "picking flowers". And didn't, for me, involve any emotion in the painting, as they were actually of a beautiful girl, or a couple of pretty girls, within the garden or beach setting - so, if they had been something along the lines of - "Julia in the garden", then I'd have instantly had an affinity with "Julia", or if they had been less personalised but perhaps invoking an emotion - like "picking flowers for mum" or "Sunset thoughts of my lover" then I'd have been happier with the painting. But, I suppose for a lot of people, once they've bought a painting and hung it on the wall, what does it matter what the painting is called?


I can agonise for days over the title of a painting, sometimes taking longer to think of it than it actually took to paint it! And on the whole I like my titles (I'm not saying they're the best in the world, because they're not, but hopefully they convey something into the painting through them). Although the fanny paintings that I'm currently working on will be called something along the lines of "fanny 1", "fanny 2", "fanny 3" etc that is ONLY to protect the identity of the person behind the painting, and not because of any inability to think of a title on my part.


I have painted lots of watercolour paintings of tigers. I love tigers. I love their bright dramatic colouring, their stripes, their menace, and the whole cat thing about them. So the first tiger painting I did was quite naturally called "Burning Bright". The next one I did was called "Tiger bright" then followed "Spitting mad" since the tiger was all teeth and fury. After that followed "The tiger within" since the tiger looked like it was looking though a wall of water at the viewer. Then came "Cool regard" as the tiger was looking quietly at the viewer, and then came the jokey one which I called "Tiger spotted" since there were two tigers in the painting, one all regal and majestic in the foreground, and the other was approaching from a distance, having spotted him, and it amused me to call it that, as tigers aren't spotted, they're striped (as well you know). So, all tiger paintings, all with titles I was happy with. Then came the painting I did of a tiger swimming. I was really pleased with the painting, it had gone beautifully, looked good, and was technically well done, showing the body of the tiger submerged beneath the green waters. But what to call it? I went though all the titles I could think of ....... tiger swimming, tiger in water, water tiger, swimming tiger...... none of them worked.......... so in the end I called it "Sea for cat" being a pun on the phrase "C for cat" and it amused me to call it that. But I had chickened out of the title I SHOULD have gone for...........it was so obvious, so deliciously apt, so totally RIGHT, and yet I didn't use it!! So, now you're wondering what it is, what I should have called this painting of a swimming tiger?



Yep, its........................................ "Wet pussy"!!!!!!

Money money money

I'm a happy bunny today - I've just been told a local gallery has sold one of my paintings. Big smiles. I'll go and collect my money in a bit - the price of the painting minus their commission. It makes up for the lack of sales last weekend!

Selling art is a funny business. Pricing it is very tricky. I've always tried to be fair with my pricing - selling at the price I consider a good amount for the work done and expertise involved. I have a basic hourly rate in my head that I sort of work around to find the price. Its probably a lot higher than the majority of artists in this locale, but I know I'm better than most of them, or at least I value myself higher because I know I can tackle subjects and techniques that a lot of them can't. I spoke to a botanical artist the other day, who is incredibly talented, and sells his paintings very well. He knows he's good at what he does. He spends hours and hours and long hours on his artwork and works in directly opposing ways to my technique - he will glaze over and over many times on each area of a flower petal, a leaf or a piece of fruit. He wants the finished painting to look exactly the same as the item infront of him, and I think that's incredibly admirable. But I don't paint like that. I use splatter and fluid lines and lost and found edges in my work to show movement and life and much prefer the effect. But should I charge the same price as him? He will agonise for ages over the tiniest piece of colour, I spend ages thinking about the emotional effect my art will convey through colour and line and composition.

A few years ago I joined a local art group and asked the chairman a lot of questions regarding how my art should move forward. He helped me a lot with good wholesome advice based on his expertise and experience. One of the things I asked him was about how to price my work. His advice was "Double it!" which took me aback. "What? Double the prices? Will people pay it"? "Yes", he said, "They will". And he's been right, they have. But then if I join another art organisation which is of a far higher profile (and I'm working on that very thing at this very moment!) do I carry on doubling the prices? I think the answer is probably yes. People expect it. But the work is still of the same quality and calibre as it is now, the only thing that's changed is the price tag. And people will still pay it. I know of an artist who was selling his work through a VERY famous shop in London some years ago, and was asked his price for one particular painting that a member of another countries royal family was interested in purchasing. The artist named his high price and was told to put another zero on the end of it. ANOTHER ZERO????? Yes - it was expected! The price was too cheap otherwise and the prince wouldn't have been interested........ The picture was sold at the higher price. Point made.

So, I think the point I'm making is.......... get me now whilst I'm going cheap ........ so to speak......

Sliding Doors

Last night I was propositioned. Nothing unusual in that. It happens occasionally..... enough to make life interesting anyway. But this was different. Not a sexual proposition - but a business one........

A guy I met for the first time a couple of weeks ago and have not seen since, has offered to go into a business partnership with me. He's willing to invest a lot of money into building up my art business, promoting it and backing me as an artist. He knows, as well as I do, that I'm not going to sell my work in the area I live in, I need to go to London, Birmingham or Manchester - where the big money is, and the people who have the inclination to buy my sort of erotic art go. He's talking about a showroom, where people can visit and where I can exhibit my art properly. And his offer has come at exactly the right time - I've been looking for a good gallery for a while, one that is suitable to my needs, where they can promote my art and I can get a good price for my art, which I know is good, and has appeal to a wide audience. But if I go to a large gallery, they will ask a high percentage commission on my art - I'll be lucky to get 30% of the value they sell it at, my framing costs will also soar and I may get less money than if I sell my art privately. This has always been a problem for me - do I sell my art though a prestigious gallery and get less for it, but get fame and acclaim, or do I stay private and reach a smaller audience but keep a higher percentage of the proceeds? Plus there's my website to consider - technically I'm advertising to the world on it, and although my work resides in other European countries and the USA, I'm not known, as yet, as an international artist. I want to reach a wider audience. If I open my own showroom, I would be doing that and I would be taking the profits (or losses) and would be able to reach a richer audience perhaps, but would they be willing to spend the large amounts a venture like this would need to be profitable?

This businessman is willing to invest a lot of money in me, but he also wants a large slice out of it - he's in business after all, and that is to be expected. But do I go with him and invest a lot of money and maybe make a huge pile of money with his backing, or possibly even lose a lot through unforeseen bad decisions, or do I carry on as I am, slowly building up my business, pushing my work through the channels that are interested, and selling well enough to keep a steady income, but not necessarily a vast one. Or even keep on looking and maybe another offer better than this will appear around an unsuspected corner. Or is this as good as it gets? Should I snap his hand off and get him signed up before he changes his mind? I have to consider all angles, and run the two scenarios as parallel universes - as in the film Sliding Doors - one of these open doors leads to success and the other leads to ignominy - but which is which?

Promotion promotion promotion

Discussing with a local pub landlord last night about my being part of a forth-coming art exhibition he wants to hold in his pub one day in August I realised that I'll actually be part of six exhibitions held locally during August. That's fine, I can fit them all in, and as they're spread over the month, I'm confident I can work out the logistics of shunting pictures around to each venue. But will it be worth it? Will it bring in any sales for me? Will it promote my artwork? Conjour up future commissions? I live in hope that it will. I have to. Its a lot of hard work though, setting up an exhibition. Hanging around to talk to people, to promote what I do. Or else I just drop off my pictures at a gallery, and someone else does the setting up, and I go home, and fervently wait, in hope, with fingers crossed. And when I return somebody might say - oh someone was in asking after you earlier, they hoped you'd be here. And you think, bugger, I've missed a sale through that. But if I went and sat, and sat..... and sat..... at a gallery (and I've done that, on many occasions!) no-one comes in, no-one is interested, until perhaps five minutes before the end of the exhibition, when someone will come in and for the next half hour they'll tell you ALL about their brothers neighbours cousin who is a brilliant artist - have you heard of them? (I never have, but I smile sweetly at them). And then you go home, without a sale. And then you'll talk to someone who's interested in art, and visits art galleries regularly, and they ask where you exhibit, and why haven't they seen your work before? And you wonder why they haven't either, when you do your best to push your art, and exhibit where and when you can, and they've never even heard of you! So what do I do wrong I ask myself? And the answer is probably - nothing. Its just the way it is, trying to sell art. You live in hope that you can paint a picture that someone will like, and want, and want to pay for, and have room on their wall to hang it on. That's why I'd rather do commissions, because then I know I'm painting something that someone actually wants. Exhibitions are basically just advertising the fact that I paint, and what I paint, and how I paint. If I make a sale, its a bonus. Its also good to see what other artists are doing, and meet them, have a chat and compare notes.

So I'm not expecting to sell many pictures in August....... but I live in hope!

Come on down, the price is right

I went to Birmingham today and made my usual visit to my favourtie art gallery there. A big flash prestigious gallery with a myriad of gorgeous paintings and price tags that always shock me. Today they had a sale on so I was pleased to note that one particular painting which had originally been priced for sale at £24,000 was now, wait for it - ONLY - £12,000. Wow! What a bargain I thought and wondered how much of that the artist would actually get, if someone was daft enough to pay the price. They'd be lucky to get a few thousand pounds for that - the rest going to pay the gallery costs, which must be high, situated where it is. But it was exactly the same painting that was apparently "worth" £24,00 one day and £12,000 the next. How can that be???? But then an artist has to get into a presigious gallery to be seen, to get their name known, so that people have heard of them, and want to buy their artwork because they think it must be a better painting because its hanging in a big frame in a showy gallery, when the work is probably just the same as it was before-hand when they were selling it for £400 in smaller venues. The public think they're getting a better painting because they've paid a lot of money for it, and boast to their friends that it cost so many thousands of pounds. But I suppose, the artist needs the big promotion a prestigious gallery will give them, so that it improves their profile, and they get a following of admirers who collect their work or who give them good commissions. So, in this roundabout of artist-gallery-buying public do we all need each other? Does it improve the art? Or just the price of art?

There was actually one particular painting there that I was very enamoured with, and for once it was a contemporary one. It was basically mid blues with a patch of bright turquoise in the centre with three lines of bright red running horizontally through it. I was really drawn to it, because I always am to turquoise, and kept going back to it as I toured the gallery. It had life and vibrancy and I kept wanting to look at it. I almost bought it and might yet regret that I didn't. And that's the way to buy art - because it "speaks" to you and you want to own it so you can look at it forever more, not because the frame matches the decor of your living room, or what the current fashion dictates. I was horrified to hear of a woman once who toured an art exhibition with a piece of her dining room wallpaper in her hand searching until she found a painting that matched it!