I recently finished up this 16 x 28 inch canvas painting I started when I was in Alabama around 2018. There’s a story behind this unique image!
One morning–very tired–I made it to the coffee maker and as my hand took hold of the pot to begin my morning brewing, it somehow slipped from my hand and came suddenly crashing down on the ceramic tile floor with little pieces of glass all around my bare feet!
I’m not sure what all went through my mind, but “OOPS” was definitely among the thoughts! As I stood there staring at it all, knowing I wouldn’t get my coffee that day and I needed to carefully clean it all up, I felt that the image had a bit of art in it somewhere! So I carefully got my cellphone camera and took several photos directly downward on it all. I liked the juxtaposition of the green and white tiles with the linear element, as well as the strange still life quality of the broken pot with the human element of my bare feet.
At some point around that time I got a canvas and transferred the drawing and threw on an initial start with paint. But since I had other commissions and things consuming my time, this piece sat on an easel in both my Alabama studio and then here in Pennsylvania for quite some time, virtually untouched.
This past year in 2023, at the end of various other painting sessions in my studio, I would look around at other pieces in progress to see what leftover acrylic paint I might use up on something so it didn’t dry up into wastefulness. Here and there I would use up various colors in a slow build-up of the underpainting/structure of this painting.
A few weeks ago, I felt suddenly at the point where I felt I could refine and finish up this painting, finally! And now, it is finished, signed, varnished and ready to find its “forever” home! I have learned over the years that it only takes one person to connect with an original work for some reason and have the vision/impulse to actually buy it! People buy original art because they can somehow relate/find connection with the image in terms of content, color, style and more, not necessarily because it is a “good price.”
Now of course, someone may have their eye on a piece because they want it, but the price is prohibitive. Eventually they may see it has been discounted, and that is the impetus for their eventual purchase. All this to say, as a working artist, I often ponder how to price my art and how to sell it. The previous musings about how and why people buy original art came from a well-respected artist/painter/sculptor that I know and was told to me years back: “People buy art not because it is cheap but because they want it. If someone doesn’t connect with the image, it doesn’t matter how cheap you make it, they won’t buy it.“
I’ve always remembered this–it is insightful.
And with some images, while someone may not want the original or even a print on a wall in their home or office, they may still want it on a notecard to send to a friend!
If you would like to purchase the original, please let me know!
Order Prints or Cards of this piece on Etsy
