Friday 21st November
I was talking about The Gustav Klimt painting “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer ” which was due to come up for auction in November and had an auction estimate of $150million which would be a record for a Klimt. Well it was auctioned this week a Sotheby’s in New York and after a 20 minute bidding battle made an incredible eye-watering $236.4million (£179m) the 2nd most expensive piece ever to be sold at auction.
On the home front. I sold a large painting (90cmx90cm) at Beckstones Gallery this week. It wasn’t one of my new Lakes series but one they’ve had since the Summer and had a lot of interest in. Funnily, I had a message from a lady through my website this week who had wanted to buy it and was disappointed at being told it had been sold. It’s strange that it’s been in the gallery since July and suddenly 2 people want it in the same week? I think she might have been wanting to buy direct but I don’t do that to galleries and referred her to the 18 new paintings I’ve just taken to Beckstones.
I messaged Bob Corsie at Watson Gallery in Edinburgh last week and was told I had sold 2 paintings. They were sold back in the Summer and the gallery hadn’t informed me. I find that a bit frustrating. Chasing galleries continually for potential sales shouldn’t really be my job (I have 3 galleries who do this!). It does happen unfortunately as cash flow is always a problem but it’s a bit unfair on the artist.
I also believe that they have sold another one that they’ve not paid me for. I’ve asked Bob to look into it.
On the positive side, Bob did give me a commission from a client who wanted a particular size painting similar to one he’d seen in the gallery. He wanted a similar style, colours and textures to the original but a smaller scale. He was wanting this by the end of November which again was frustrating as they’d had this request since the beginning of October! Me and Bob go back a long way and I’m sort of used to this kind of stuff. He does sell my paintings and I put up with the other stuff.
I did the painting on Tuesday. I had to cut down an MDF board to size but I enjoyed doing the painting. It’s varnished and ready to post at the weekend.
With temperatures plummeting I decided to work indoors for the rest of the week and thought I’d make some collaged cards. Using collage paper I’d bought from Temu(yes I know but some stuff is ok) I collaged some Autumn/Winter landscapes. They take a surprisingly long time to do (about half an hour each) so probably won’t be commercially viable but I did enjoy doing them whilst watching “Ripper Street” which I loved and haven’t watched again recently.
I also enjoyed the documentary this week on “Turners Secret Sketchbooks” a fascinating insight into Turner’s life and work through his sketchbooks and seminal works with comments from a variety of people in the art world including Timothy Spall who has extensive insight into Turner having played him in the film “Mr Turner”. I have been lucky enough to see the Turners at The National Gallery and they had some of his sketch books on display. If anyone is interested in Turner and his life and work the documentary is worth watching as is the episode of “Fake or Fortune “ on Turner.