Make It An Original

Today I sold one of my original paintings: it was on paper, framed under glass. That in itself isn't unusual, but interestingly I hadn't offered it up for sale before (due to my own emotional attachment to it).  Recently I've been trying to understand the significance of certain pieces to me, and the power of an original painting has to many.

I bought my first original painting twenty years ago ... I had been travelling across Spain and came across an artist in his studio overlooking the sea.  He had a number of pieces on display and I was immediately drawn to an abstract piece, which I couldn't draw myself away from.  It doesn't matter that nobody else has ever loved it as much as me since (in fact, my husband refuses to have it on display in our home because he finds it a little disturbing!).  The emotion, the significance of what I believe the painting depicts, and the sheer joy it gives me every time I see it, has made me love it even more over the years.

The point I'm trying to make is that sometimes we all have an overwhelming, some would say irrational, love for some thing that just 'talks to us'.  It could be a pair of shoes, a bag or even a car.  When it's a piece of art, a one-of-a-kind painting that nobody else has but you, it can feel very special.

So, here I am, many years later and I'm an artist myself.  I have been overwhelmed with witnessing hundreds of customers feel an emotional attachment to my work, and they too 'have to have it'; it is incredibly humbling, I am always appreciative and I can't deny that it took a while to stop questioning customers "Are you sure?".

In the early days of painting, as well as creating so prolifically, I was selling pieces at very affordable (some say cheap) prices. Anyone who wanted to buy something could afford it.  Mostly, I was personally selling to people who had never purchased a painting before; they told me it was the first time they had felt the need to own something that was a true original.  What an incredible honour!!  The lesson I learnt then has stayed with me - I want my work to be affordable to all, and you certainly don't need to know anything about 'the art world' to know what you love.  I thank every single customer that has bought from me.  I also feel very passionately about selling my original work persoanlly.  It is true that some of my pieces now sell for large sums of money, but if you have gone to the effort of visiting me, finding out more about who I am or what's behind my work, then I will ALWAYS find something to suit your budget.  It may be a small piece on paper or a hand-painted ceramic.

I don't expect everyone to love what I do, but for those of you who do, it may be because it's the right colours for you, or because you see something in the piece and you relate to it.  Have the confidence to trust your instinct - like any painting, it's a one off and when you leave my studio with it, know that you will be the one person having that little bit of originality, and a little bit of me (!).