Red Region Inferno

I get asked pretty often why I never sell current works of art.

The reason is simple…
For me a painting is like a person. It takes at least a year to get to know it well.
When I first create something it often seems great, or maybe I don’t like it at all.
After time my opinion of the work usually changes a bit.

I learn to see the perfect parts of my work and the flaws in a different light.
The flaws I must accept, and sometimes I even grow to love them and they become my favorite aspect of the painting.
The opposite is true also.. Those seeming perfect bits that I was so into at first become annoyances or boring.
Yep, just like a person.
The way you see the art (or the person) changes over time.

After I have grown to know my painting I can only then set it free.
It takes at least a year, and sometimes much longer.
Heck, I have a few works that date back to the 90′s that I have never put up for sale.
Maybe I will tomorrow, or maybe I never will.

I realize that many people want new stuff and shy away from the old, so I lose out a lot because of that.
It is part of my process however and is the only way I can function as a painter. I have no choice.

For a while I was painting in the open.
I had a section set aside in the studio and people could watch.
They loved it!
I think every painting I did in that way got at least one offer and often many before I was even done.
Always the answer was “No, check back in a year or so.”
It is strange how people think.
Not many ever checked back.
They wanted it then, as if the waiting would make it have less value.
I guess it is just fate saying that they didn’t need it.
Oh-well.

So…. for you lovers and buyers of my art…
Sorry, but it will be a very rare thing indeed to see an original of mine ever come up for sale that is under a year old.