Rarity - My clickback response on Painter's Keys

If you are an artist, writer, creative, dealer or collector, you would be well advised, if you already have not, to put in for your free subscription to Robert Genn's Twice-Weekly Letter. It's a component of his Painter's Keys Web site. Robert is a prolific professional artist and a sage commentator as you will quickly discover perusing his work and clickback archives on the site. Here's what he has to say about Painter's Keys:

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Break at South Point Scotty's Lake of the Woods
Acrylic - 30 x 34 Inches

The September 7 article was titled, Rarity. Here are the opening paragraphs, go to the site to read the full post:

Dear Artist,

For those artists inclined to sell their art, the concept of rarity is worth understanding. "Keep 'em rare," said one of my dealers when he named me "The fastest brush in the West." As part of his ploy, he kept a lot of my stuff in the back room. It never bothers me when dealers do.

From a marketing point of view, not only the work of one artist but also genres of art need thoughtful control. The world is awash with florals. Landscapes are thick on the ground as well. They have to be darned well done or different from the crowd to get noticed. Figurative works are less common, mainly because not many painters do them well. Some might say they are less popular anyway, but I don't think so. Quality in figurative work is elusive.

If you are patient and scroll down through the nine other responses above mine, you'll find what I had to say. Here are the first paragraphs:

What is scarce is valuable is an axiom that holds up well for fine art. I can understand a dealer holding back originals of a popular artist when he knows they eventually will sell at premium prices. The unfortunate fact for too many artists is buyers are what is most scarce. And for them, the print reproduction market holds more promise.

You mention the negative effect caused by an oversaturated wildlife-photo-litho-print market some years ago. That era came to a close just prior to the onset of digital printing technology that spawned today's giclée market. An interesting vestige of that era is Bev Doolittle 's return to the limited edition print market for the first time since 1999. The market reaction is the roughly 4,000 copies of her canvas giclée print in two edition sizes quickly sold out at the publisher level. Despite the optimism it's caused, a new oversaturated, "One for the wall and one for under the bed" art-print mania is likely not erupting.

Go to the site to finish reading both posts. While you are on the site, sign up for your own free subscription to the newsletter. And you should consider either a premium link or a free link to your site. It's a great way to get quality linkage and additional name recognition for you and exposure for your art.

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