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Jenny
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Message
Posted
It's a bit of a bugger, no doubt about it. I'm surprisingly OK about it - actually my wife's more angry than I am. She, in her words, 'won't have it in her house'. So I'm going to parcel it off to work and leave it in the spare office as I've invested too much time in it to take an axe to it or burn it.
Posted
Absolutely dreadful Tony - No, not your work, that is positively brilliant, but to receive news like this is devastating. As Robert says, we can't comment on the likeness, but I have a feeling it will be spot-on, whatever has gone wrong I wonder?.
I always take a 50% deposit on any commissions that I undertake, non-refundable, if they don't like my rules they are free to go elsewhere, but they very rarely do.
Posted
I think that she thinks I was doing it for a bit of a laugh - a semi-casual conversation at our first meeting last year turned into a six-month epic. Oh, and it gets better - I delayed another paying job to get this finished, went back to the guy yesterday and he's gone off the boil now as well!
So where does this leave me? I've got one commission to finish off, then I'm back onto the 'painting for fun' mission. Got a massive car one to work on for myself, so I'll get started on that in the New Year. All good though, certainly losing no sleep over it :)
Posted
You need a bit of advice about setting up professionally - website, contact with galleries, contract for commissions as Alan suggests, with proportion of the fee upfront, business cards, prints: this painting was a valuable learning experience for you technically, but make it a good learning experience from a commercial point of view as well. I think probably you feel OK about it because you know you learned a lot, and you also know you were flying on a bit of a wing and a prayer - hoping your subject would like the painting and be prepared to dip into the bank account, but not really sure at all.
In your place, and if I were younger and wanted to get the professional ball rolling again, I'd look out for any local source of small business advice - some councils offer it, or offer links to those who do. Sometimes the local chamber of commerce can help. There's absolutely nothing wrong with painting for fun - there are no pressures on you, and you sometimes get to sell the odd painting but don't expect to live on the proceeds; but if you want to be a professional artist, and I should say you have the technical ability and painting skill, you're going to need to take a long, cool look about how your propose to get there. Get a bit of practical advice, and if you can, get in with a local gallery (or a national one if you can - not easy) - that way, a lot of the promotional work, which you may not enjoy (I always loathed it!) will be done for you, and ideally all you'll have to do is keep the work flowing.
There are downsides too - the paperwork, the tax return and record-keeping, the time it takes, even the possibility that you'll get bored trying to feed a market: so to start with, you really have to be sure that this is what you want to do, and then be prepared for a lot of hard work and a great deal of patience. There's always a market for exact paintings of cars and other vehicles - I've known a farmer to pay quite handsomely for a painting of his favourite tractor! Though I didn't paint it myself..... So you may need to specialize. Ask yourself what you REALLY want - then go for it bald-headed.
Posted
You, Mr. Jones, are absolutely right. I've always been so half-arsed about the whole thing, as it's been secondary to the day job (and probably will be for a long time yet). I have sold a good few now but for nowhere near gallery prices and I certainly couldn't make a living out of it. It's the promotional/selling part I've always struggled with, so a gallery would be an excellent way of avoiding that grief. Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it.
