Friday 7th November
I mentioned in my blog at couple of weeks ago that I had decided to keep my deep edges on my “Lakes of Lakeland “ series white and had taped them up with masking tape to preserve them whilst painting was in progress.
For many years now, I have been painting the edges on the deep-edged (box) canvases, black. This is a personal choice. Alternatives are used by other artists. Some leave them white. Some choose a colour and some even continue the painting round onto the edge (I personally hate this and with the way I paint would be impossible anyway).
The idea of using deep-edged canvases is that if the customer chooses, they do not have to frame the painting but can hang it straight on the wall. This has been a popular trend in the last 10 years or so. These canvases can still be framed if required, often using a thin strip frame on the edge.
For my purpose, it obviously saves me the huge expense of a frame. I prefer a neutral black colour which I think finishes off the painting and has the added advantage of covering up any marks.
For my new “Lakes of Lakeland “ series for Beckstones, I decided, for no particular reason, to leave the edges white. In order to do this I taped them up with masking tape. Even so, there were a few marks which I tried to conceal with white paint. They looked OK but I’ve never been completely comfortable.
This weekend, with a week to go before delivering the paintings, I made the decision to paint all the edges black, despite having wrapped them all up in cello wrap! My decision was finalised when I emailed the gallery to ask their opinion. They agreed with black.
I had 10 large paintings for Beckstones and 3 smaller ones and 4 smaller ones for OCG.
Painting black edges all day isn’t what some would imagine as artistic endeavour, but I did it all on Monday, in 3 sessions to allow for drying time. I am happier now and they look fine. I’ll just be glad to get these 20 paintings out of my studio and off to The Lakes.
I also at the last minute decided to frame some watercolours for Beckstones as they’ve nearly run out of the ones I took in the Summer. I had 2 larger and 2 small ones from my demo for Longframlington Art Group plus 2 others I had. They needed framing. This was a mixture of using frames I’d got and ordering new ones. Beckstones are (rightly) fussy about the framing. They insist on real wood (not engineered wood or wrapped MDF) and real glass (not perspex). I made the mistake of using some cheaper online frames last time and was soundly rebuked. They have a reputation to uphold. I was in a rush to get some framed but it’s no excuse really. They’re selling my small watercolours for £200+ so cheap frames are a no no. The problem for me is if they’re too expensive I don’t make much money on a sale as their commission is 50%. Buying decent frames online is possible and I can cut my own mounts if necessary.
OCG sell my hand-painted cards at £30 each and market them as miniature watercolours (which they are). They also sell the cards I frame for £50. I’ve got more of both to take at the weekend.
With all the edges painted and Cello wrap removed, I took the opportunity on Wednesday to photograph them all for the Gallery websites. I used Dylan’s iPhone for convenience. I could then re-wrap them all in cello wrap for transporting.
All this stuff is necessary but tedious. It has to be done to make the trip with an overnight stay worth it. Of course, it’s only really worth it if and when the paintings sell. Winter’s not the best time to be selling in galleries but the good galleries do sell all year round.
Jetty Gallery in Oban are still selling my watercolours. They sold 5 more in October. Even Buckinghams are selling paintings but as there’s hardly anything of mine on their website I have no idea where they’re selling them.
I just have to keep on painting and supplying my outlets. That’s what I’ll be doing up to Christmas.