Art Questions

A question I often get from a casual observer or contact is whether or not I have any artwork for sale, which is a great question!  About 75% of my art belongs to somebody else within a few weeks of painting it, and some of it, we want to keep in our own private collection (some, I’ve specifically given to Debbie and good luck getting it out of her clutches as she always says, “That one is going in the museum!”).  But, if you’re interested in collecting or owning my art, I have a couple of ways for you to achieve that goal today and a few more coming in 2021...

Today:

Commission:
Today, your best option is to commission me on a piece.  I’m doing a really large commission right now that I am really excited to share with folks in the coming weeks.  When you commission a piece, I ask if you have anything specific you want me to paint, what sizes/dimension are you looking for, are their color schemas that you love, I do some research, I usually do 5-7 test sketches and paintings, sometimes more.  Depending on the size of the piece, I can have anywhere between 25-100 hours into it before the final product is ready to be shared.  I require 50% of the payment up front and if for any reason, I can’t finish the painting within 90-100 days, I reimburse the full amount back to you and we call it even.  If you don’t want to or can’t pay for the remaining portion of the agreement or if you don’t like the final painting, I generally keep the down payment to offset my time and the painting goes up for sale to the general public.  If you love the piece, upon final payment, I will ship it to you.  If you want me to manage matting and framing, I will do that at an additional cost - I have several local artisan framers that I can use.  I will say this: when I paint something, there’s nothing else like it on earth.  Whether it is a masterpiece or just an artistic expression of my rendering of a subject, there is only one.  I’ve lost a lot of good paintings to this or that, it always breaks my heart.  When I paint something, I put my energy into it fully and do my best at that given moment and as such, they’re not cheap.  I wish there was a way to do it more inexpensively, I wish supplies didn’t cost so much (I usually only high-end artist grade supplies) and I wish I had more time and it wasn’t such a commodity so I could paint more pieces but time is the enemy to all things...  I will only be able to crank out so many paintings in my life and i hope that they bring joy to all of the casual viewers and collectors alike!

Inventory:
On the Art Page, you can peruse through my paintings and check on my inventory.  I’ve had some people get mad because they find a painting they like and when they get around to letting me know that they are interested, it is no longer available - in fact, this happens a lot - it’s frustrating for us both.  So if you do see something that you like, let me know and I’ll set it aside.

Pricing:
I mentioned pricing earlier, it is always evolving as my skill and demand for my work increases, the price will also increase.  Art supplies are pricy, no joke!  I estimated, that I can have $200-300 in supplies into a full-sheet 22x30 sized painting and that doesn’t include my time.  But, if you love something and money is tight, reach out nonetheless, I will set it aside for you until money gets better, or we can come up with some good terms, a payment plan, a discount and yes, many times, I’ll just send it to you for free, because my art is no good if it is put away - I want it on walls bringing joy and I figure next time you may be in a better spot to buy another one.  Life happens but an original piece of art, is timeless...

Tomorrow:

So, I have a few exciting things that are beginning to line up for 2021 that I would like to announce here.  First, I am going to be creating a Patreon site that allows you to join into one of several monthly tier programs.  I don’t have the pricing worked out but I’m sure it will be reasonable - maybe from $3.99 a month up to $19.99 a month.  Beyond having more access and interaction as well as other VIP benefits, members will also get 1-2 watercolor or gouache original painted postcards per year, deep discounts on my art work and participate in monthly free drawings.  I may also share videos and other content of me on the Patreon site showing how a painting comes together and much more.  I am working on putting the program together and will be announcing it here.

The second thing that I’m really excited about is going to be the launch of gowatercolor.com, a website that I am going to curate all about watercolor.  I will interview other watercolorists, do watercolor related reviews, share exciting articles, videos and much more.  So keep an eye out sometime in the second quarter for the official launch of gowatercolor.com!!!!

​More to come...