If you subscribe to the blog and read the email on your phone, and the photos don’t show up, you can see them by going to the blog on the internet. Tap or click cabinart.net/blog, and the latest post is always on top.
When paintings are slow to sell, it is a good art business practice to analyze them. This is best done with the help of someone who knows the customers.
Recently I took a hard look at this painting, one that I had always liked, because I love seeing dogwood in bloom around redwood trees. But what if I am the only one who feels that way? I am here to earn a living, not to paint for myself. (Well, sometimes I do allow a painting to live in my house for awhile, but that isn’t the main point of all the easel time.)
I asked the proprietor of Kaweah Arts why she thought this hadn’t sold yet. She and I have been friends for many years, always honest with one another. I told her that I figured most of her customers don’t even know what dogwood is, because the bulk of them visit Sequoia National Park in the summer when the dogwood isn’t in bloom.
She very diplomatically replied that her customers are interested in the big trees alone. Of course they buy other items, but sequoia trees are what Sequoia National Park was formed around.
Together we evaluated the painting, and then I told her to remove it from the inventory list, because I was taking it back to the easels.
This is how it went.
2 Comments
I don’t think it’s the subject matter, Jana. I think it’s the concept. The dogwood is covering up the tree rather than living in harmony with it. To me, the branches of dogwood look like lined-up curtains across the tree as if they are intent on hiding it. Even with only two rows of dogwood branches left, they still don’t look real to me. I think having a couple that curve out and down would bring mental images of the beautiful bush they come from with its connection to the redwood forest and make the painting something people would want to hang on the wall.
Louise, you are probably correct in your assessment, but for now, we shall see if this version has done the trick. And if not, I will bow to your superior wisdom, since you have never led me astray once!
Comments are closed for this article!