This is the third image, of artwork of the music called Heaven’s wall. The flow of the music is in place. What is left to do is add three ties, the words, do clean up, and hopefully finish this painting tomorrow. The final step is the clean up process in which I sharpen edges, touch of the paint, and add interest to those areas in the background to improve the contrast of the music and the background.
What else is new is that I worked on the three-dimensional look of the artwork, which is hard to see in the image above. I did spread the paint on thick for my beams and my shafts. I also lifted the musical flow off the surface of the canvas at those spots where I will add the words.
This is not a complicated work, and not a large work, but what I keep discovering is that size means little in these painting. I have this silly expectation that I can complete smaller works quicker, and in that way I can increase my production of artworks. So far I have never seen that happen. It takes about the same amount of effort, and time to produce each artwork no matter its physical size. The larger works do need a little more paint, a little more time to spread that paint, and more canvas, but the materials, and way more important, the time to complete different size works I have found to be negligible. Still, because of common business practices, my charge difference between a large artwork that is six feet in length, in comparison to a three-foot painting, has always been considerably more. That makes obvious sense and is a good reason that I should do larger paintings, which give a greater return for my time spent. In the past I have done larger painting, of course not for the return, but instead because painting big works is a lot more fun to do, and for their greater visual impact. But that thinking, lately, has changed.
I still like painting large works, but lately I have seen a dramatic increase in the cost of shipping of long objects. This has made the pricing of many of my earlier larger artworks a lot more difficult. It is hard to balance what I think is my perceived value of a painting, and the final cost of that painting to the buyer. Since most of my potential customers live hundreds to thousands of miles from me, that extra cost does become a consideration for doing smaller works. Even a greater persuasion for me to produce smaller painting is the reality check that none of my customers, so far, have been collectors.
My current buyers are people who do not want an artwork to dominate an entire wall, like the art for the art itself, and have limited funds. What that means is that they want small works, to a point that even three-foot in length may be too long for their needs. This is all good for keeping my shipping costs lower, but it also does suppress my asking prices.
I understand this art has never been about money, but it would be nice to at least cover my time. Going beyond that, the biggest advantage for painting smaller works may be the practical consideration that they will take up a lot less storage space. That means I can stack more discounted priced artworks, instead of only a few large premium paintings, in my limited studio space. Wow, that is a relief.
Here is a live version from a Bruce Springsteen concert in Perth in 2014:
Scott Von Holzen
aRT iN mUSIC 