A Remarkable Week

Side by Side

Uncompleted original watercolour by Jean Haines

This week has flown by. It has seen me visit three galleries that show my work to deliver new paintings. I also  took some of my collection to a new gallery that will open next week. I knew the owner liked my work but I was surprised to recieve a call  later that same day to let me know  they had already sold my paintings before they had even reached a gallery wall ! This meant a return on my part with another selection for them to show when the gallery opens.

I often have  new artists asking me if they are ready to sell in a gallery. To be able to turn around in this kind of situation and confirm you can bring more work in of the same standard or agree to create more in the future in similar subject themes is expected. I also now have requests from two more galleries for my racing scenes and my dogs are also wanted by another.All this with three London shows to prepare for and my international workshops which take place the week after next.

But this was a week for mainly Spring flower sales and I wish I had more but as I paint from my heart only a few special pieces were available. I don't wish to have hundreds of paintings just  painted for the sake of it floating around in the world. Each painting has to mean something to me. I will have fallen in love with the subject and aimed to capture it in a unique style. I may paint the same subject several times but always aiming for each new painting to be  more unusual than the last. Never the same because the collectors who buy my work deserve to know they own an original..

Years ago as a beginner I did used to paint the same thing over and over again especially if it sold. But I have moved on from being a new artist. I am not looking for a hundred sales. I want magic in each piece. Every painting has to hold that certain something that makes me want to keep it. I also respect the collectors who love my work enough to buy it knowing when they do the original is theirs alone.

The word original is dear to me as an artist and I am sure to the collector too.

A gallery must also enjoy having peace of mind knowing they are the only one to show that particular painting without a million others showing the very same piece at the same time.

Maybe that is why my work is selling  so well. Or maybe it is the way I paint. Or maybe it is the subects.

But what matters most to me is not the selling. It is the sheer joy in picking up my brush. The excitement of always having something new each day to capture in watercolour and the thrill when the subject first appears in the wash.

That I hope shows in my results.

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