Savvy art article-NY, How to collect art

NYC magazine, Savvy, published a piece which I wrote this morning (east coast time). It's about how to colect art. Have a read of it here.

http://www.24savvy.com/articles/01-07-2010/savvy-art-buying-believe-it-or-not-youre-expert

Here's the original article I wrote:

Art is driven like the clothes business, by fashion. But art, whether it be paintings, film, photography or sculpture, outlasts fashion. Fashion is a churning beast which survives by consuming itself. It's a bad guide for art. Ignore what's popular because it won't be tomorrow. If you are buying art for investment you are always thinking with regard to the future. The best way to understand the future is to relate to the past.

The art that lasts, is the art that touches the human in us. The art that makes us reflect or vibrate. The art that can transfer it's vibration to us. It's the existence of the human in the work that vibrates with us. That vibration is of extraordinary value. The primitive. The human touch. Even Leonardos Mona Lisa is a primitive combination of earth pigments ground and mixed with mediums such as egg, oils and water.

All of that sounds pretentious. How can you relate that to the, day to day and find art of value? Well in short, buy the art that appeals to you. The art which you like, which does not require a story to prop it up. If the story is lost then the work looses it's connection to you and others, so don't let yourself be convinced by a smooth talking gallery owner. Allow yourself to see, not just with your eyes but with your heart, your lungs. Allow yourself to drink in the art.

Then apply your intellect. Start to calculate. Ask yourself about the artist. Ask about their history. It doesn't really matter if they have been to art college. Especially now, when they don't usually teach anything of substance. Your guide to the value of the work is whether the artist is driven. That's what will tell you whether they will continue to be driven. Will this artist continue to experiment. Will they make a mark. Will they inspire other artists. Are they a chapter in the history of art. Are they even a page? Are they sincere?

And if the answer to all these questions is no, yet the work appeals to you, you have still found a piece of art. Not an investment of course but art and art has a value in your life which goes beyond the surplus of coins that flow from the slot machine on the last day of your life.

Some people might remember us by that mass of coin. That slush fund they can cash in on or measure us by. None of that matters to us when we have finished living. The only thing that matters, ultimately, is the vibration of life we attune ourselves to while alive. Live like that and buy art like that and you'll find art that has value and will have value in the future.

Naughty or nice

Happy new year
Hope all went well over the holidays and that the dreaded grip didn't get ya.

A cold got me but I'm using it to great benefit. Time for reflection and contemplation. I'm bed bound, plus my voice has gone all husky, which has a nice effect on my wife :)

Crossroads

OH! what to do?
I find myself at a crossroads!

Recent drawings on the metro

I've been doing a lot of metro journeys and rather than read I've been drawing. It really gives a lot of people pleasure to see me drawing on the train. I'm amazed by how friendly they get when they spot what I'm doing.

Sometimes the subject notices I'm doing their portrait but generally not. Other times people have mistakenly assumed I was drawing them, when in fact I was drawing the person beside or behind them. It's surprising how often they would like to see what I've done. Children are particularly interested.

Women are funny though. There have been a few times when I've been doing their portraits and either they have asked for my card or they have simply passed me their phone number. Hilarious when that happens because I'm not the most attractive of guys, especially by Parisian standards. None the less I take it as a compliment and always pass it to the bloke that looks like he needs it the most. I'm married :)

Here are a few of the recent sketches from November and December 09. I get about 3 minutes or perhaps a little longer to draw these so there's nothing too finished.

Snow and portraits

Hi
It's snowing in Paris. Lovely but it means a total go slow. I'm not feeling very inspired anyway. There seems to be very little feedback, whether it be good or bad from people regarding arts these days. I'm not going to try to do anything for a few weeks. I'm just ging to go with the flow and see what does or doesn't happen.

I've been enjoying drawing people on the metro. Will post a few drawings of them here later. I've also been doing more portraits in oils. That's come to an end for the moment. I won't do any more commissions till January at the earliest. In fact, I think that I'll concentrate on Gravure. I've been missing my friends in the engraving group for some time now and thanks to the fact that I'll be handing the gallery over to someone else in January I'll be free to get back to that. Running the gallery has been so incredibly time consuming. Very interesting of course and I learnt a lot but so many other things that are important took a back seat as a result. What I learnt is invaluable though. It has given me a totally new outlook on art and the art world.

Here are some of the portraits I've done this week. Neither is finished and both were executed very quickly. I'll finish them off later. Oddly enough I've found that instead of speeding up through doing the portrait sessions, in fact I've slowed down. Great way to get to know people though.

Portraits for free - 2

It's been a week since I posted the notice about portraits for free and so far I've done several. There are 3 more planned for this week. After this I'll start looking for a location in Paris where I can work in natural daylight so a nice atelier in a good location would be good.

Here are a few of the paintings so far. 3 hours each which is pretty fast but there's no underpainting or drawing. I just go straight in with the paint.

Portraits for free.

I'm painting portraits for free in the gallery at the moment. If you are interested in coming along send me a message, phone or email. There are only a few days left this week. Most of next week is free. I'll give you the details when you get in contact.

December Exhibition in Paris

The opening night went well. I'm still a bit knackered by it all.
Here are a few pics from last friday. Thanks to Jean-Michel Volat for the marvelous photos.

Standing in the rain.

Burrrr!!! It's winter. I was out in the forest painting yesterday. It was a little overcast but nothing serious. About an hour into painting it started to drizzle. Nothing very heavy. I ran to the house and grabed an umbrella & large sheet of plastic. The plastic was for the easel and the painting. The umbrella kept me dry while I sheltered behind a tree. An hour later, I concluded, it was time to give up pack everything away and get back to the house till it stopped.

However, the time spent waiting for the rain to stop, standing under the tree with an umbrella in the rain, was marvelous. I had a chance to just experience nature. No mobile phone, no people passing, no cars. Just the drizzle, the trees and me. I almost never stop to just experience things. There is so much to do. Even when I'm painting I've often got that little voice in my head judging the work and trying to understand what it is I'm doing so that I can build upon the experience. This was nothing like that. Just calm. Very quiet and respectful. Nothing boring about it. I really enjoyed, just looking at nature, wet and all as it was.

Damian Hirst - Francis Bacon? I don't think so.

Damian Hirst must think that Francis Bacon was a pretty bad painter. He and his PR company are always drawing parallels between Bacon and Hirst. It's constant.

He's throwing tons of money at this new identity of his. So what if the critics dish the work he does. He'll just build more PR and pay for more articles in magazines, do more deals with museums and art galleries. Eventually the critics will bend and their opinion of his work will go from 'it's a terrible mistake' to 'the best thing ever'.

Because once Hirst has brain washed the public, the journalists will, quivering as ever in the face of public opinion and received fact, capitulate and kiss the ground he walks upon. Or should I say water, he walks upon.

The only hope for his demise is if he himself balks at the amount of work & money involved in changing the opinion of the masses. If he finds that actually doing his own painting is too much of an emotional drain. I can easily see him falling back on his minions to create the paintings while he parties. If he hasn't already.

At least he claims he's promoting painting that is supposed to be self created rather than directed.

Inside the brain of an artist

Have a look inside the head of another artist, literally!
Irish actor, Fiona Shaw allowed her brain to be scanned while reading T.S Elliots 'The Wasteland'. The results are remarkable.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2009/nov/24/fiona-shaw-brain-scan

Banksy's wall in Jamaica

I hope this doesn't happen to all Banksys work.

Reasons to be cheerful

Today I went to collect the frames for my December exhibition. The framer did a marvelous job and very fast too. They look great.

After that I went to an exhibition in Baillencourt sur Essonne. It's not a high quality exhibiton, just a local thing but lots of good artists come from all over france to be in it. Certainly it has some good quality work on show.

I got an invitation to a very cool exhibition in Paris on the Champs Elysses next week. Looking forward to that.

Sent off promotional material for the next exhibition in December.

Invited some other artists to show their work in Ireland with a gallery that I work with.

And now I can't sleep because I'm thinking about the show, in two weeks, so, I'm going to do the most creative ironing I can, at 3am :)

Plein air painting

Thank goodness for the great outdoors. I was painting with some other artists in Fountainbleau on Sunday. This is when I'm happiest. Out in nature with other artists. It's really, really great. I wish I could do this every day.

Here are a couple of photos. The painting is in acrylic.

FIAC 09

Some photos from FIAC 09

It was an interesting exhibition. I didn't get to see it for long (very expensive to visit) because I had to return to the gallery before 2pm and the FIAC show opens at 1pm. The que started an hour before.

Ahhh!! the French love a good que. See those smiling faces. I think Parissians are happiest while having a good group que :)

Killing Pelicans............

You think you're responsible. That you live a decent life, which impacts others to a minimum and that you care about nature!

Which piece of plastic, that you discarded, is in these photos?

Which gas lighter?
Which bottle top?
Which item, that you discarded, got kicked by a shoe, got blown by the wind, ended in a gutter, was washed to the sea, is on it's way to the Pacific, to kill a chick, whose parents don't know the difference.

Look, learn, deactivate an action.
http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11

Make the world a better place.

Plein air, sketching, exhibition

Hey, been doing lots of things on the qt. Yesterday, thanks to an artist friend who looked after the gallery, I was able to go out and join some others at Fontainbleau for Pleine Air Painting. It was really a great day. Well worth taking the time out for. I'm a little ill with a cold as a result because it was freezing but I'm still very glad I went.

Here are a couple of photos.

I've also been doing a lot of sketching on the metro in Paris. The portraits above are of people I've seen on the train recently. It's a nice way to spend a voyage. I might take a day out just to do that, particularly on longer journeys, perhaps to CDG airport etc.

There's an exhibition coming up. Yes, my own work at last, rather than other peoples. It's in Style Pixie gallery. A great, off the beaten track gallery which I really like. It has an underground feel to it. The curator is great and the directress is very inspiring.

Some photos of the upcoming exhibition.

These photos were taken today. It took a lot of time to get everything right. The work of a gallerist and curator are not to be underestimated. It's a lot of preparation and my hat goes off to all those people whose jobs I never understood before.

The marketing side of things does take a fair bit of time too but it's easier now, than initially. Once you set the systems in place and have a good guest list thing are easier.

The paintings and fabric designer were chosen to compliment one another. Geometric forms started me off on this track. Then thankfully I found artists whose work complimented that idea. In this exhibition we see a progression from the geometric to the organic while still keeping the sense of sculpture in the images.

I'm looking forward to the exhibition. It should be a good opening and I'm looking forward to meeting the guests.

Stuff of dreams.

The next exhibition is being installed at the moment. It's called 'The stuff of Dreams'.
It should be compete today and the doors should be open in the afternoon but the grand opening is on Thursday at 6pm.

End of the exhibition & the beginning of another

The painting exhibition came down today. Everyone was very happy and there was a last minute celebration. We also sold one more painting. So I'm pretty happy with that. I'd like to thank Raluka, Cyril, Ximena and JMY for participating. It was great.

The next exhibition is of black and white photography. It's called 'Reflections of Ourselves' and hopes to show how much we have changed in the last quarter century. The photos stretch from the 1980's to the present day. Things have changed a lot. In startling but also very subtle ways.

Here's the invite. Hope to see you there.