I am curious what people think of this. We all talk as though we are so pure to our art. I only sell originals and have more than once lost out on a sale to a big less expensive print. So I thought about it and the fact is many artists are ordering prints from big print houses. Some of them are overseas. I know some artists who do greeting cards and small items with their work on it. Made in China. So isn't this buy sell? I see artists with mostly prints in the booth. Giclee all over the walls but few if any originals. Then I hear the same artist cry Target sells giclees for less. My opinion is Target just gets a better discount because of volume. I am sure I will have a bunch of so called fine artists panties in a bunch over this post. But we have trained the art fair buyers to buy prints. Now that is what they buy. And now they are buying them cheaper at other places. This is just an observation about what hypocrites most of us are.

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  • S Brian Berkun it was good being your neighbor. Hope to see you down the road again. As far as prints or reproductions go. The point I was trying to make or the comparison wasn't about limited prints or having some reproductions in your booth. It was more about the people who are buying prints and also products with their artwork on them from China. And only having reproductions in their booth. To me at that point its a product line not fine art. There is art in every product line. Even buy sell from China. At some point an artist had to design it. So just like I said about clothing I am saying about some of the products at shows.If you are ordering a 100 or more of something at a clip then you developed a product line. Not a fine art piece.

  • Exactly Pat.  It is all a personal business decision.  I made the decision a couple of years ago to have nothing but framed pieces in my booth and only sell unmatted/unframed prints by order.  It works for me.  Other photographers have multiple print bins in their booth.  I don't have a problem with that.  Their customer is different than mine.

  • I am enjoying the discussion, but I am confused. If you choose to sell only originals, kudos. What confuses me is the criticism of those who sell prints. You made your choice knowing the pitfalls. Why should everyone have to take the same risk? I am guilty of making and buying prints. I just can't afford originals, but sometimes an artist's work really moves me and I am happy to have a way to bring home at least a memory of it.  To me, the purpose of art is to create emotion, thought. The way we disseminate it is a personal choice. Buy/sell, however is a different crime, punishable by hanging :)

  • Looks like your post grew its own legs Sean so I'll stay out of the fray! Cheers!
  • I read this article today and found it interesting. Although the Plein Air movement is relatively new compared to art shows, I think you can see the parallel. http://thelandscapeilluminated.com/why-the-plein-air-movement-is-de...

  • Oops, Dover prints, you know what I mean.
  • There are issues impacting every art form and this has been a good thread, even though some of it may be "old news." The person who buys someone else's patterns, traces them and saws them is just plain stealing if you ask me. I never tried to do art fairs with my paintings because of the issues some of you describe. I paint large oil paintings, my smaller works just never seemed as strong or gestural. There are jewelers who buy masses of commercial seed beads but string and weave them into incredible, creative art. In pottery, there are "production potters" who measure and throw the same shapes, using the same glazes, year after year but send in jury images of unique art work they made 20 years ago. A good jury should be able to recognize some of this. Then there are plaster forms you can buy, lay a slab of clay over them and bing! You have a tray. That to me is also close to cheating, it's like tracing. Of course there is a lot you can do with that tray or bowl, but if you can't even make a form on your own, are you a potter, or a decorator or what? I have made a few patterns but for the most part create handbuilt porcelain pieces completely unique each time, with textures I create or find.... Now you can buy from hundreds of wood stamps, you never need your own idea! Show promoters need to let the jury know what kind of a show they want, and find educated juries. And again, if people have to submit a few more images and maybe two views of their booth, maybe the jury can tell how original the artist really is.... I know a "photographer" who maybe took a photo of a chair, then collaged them with Diver prints of birds or whatever, put a "woodblock" filter on the whole thing and really thinks he is an artist - Larry, you would scream! But he gets into coffee shops and sells nearly everything. We all need to keep educating the public or that's the direction things can go!
  • Those are good practices, Edward.  I do small editions also (25 tops) and explain about the value to the collector.  I have upgraded my reproduction presentation recently also.  It seems to make a difference.  And, your point about the small repros is excellent.  I've been doing some small paintings in the last year and lately unstretched canvas, matted and framed.  People really like the idea of an original in that format.  As to "how it's done" -- I have a studio with 3 walls of windows, inside my gallery.  You are so right about people enjoying the process.  To a non-artist, it appears as magic, until they see the process.  Then they like it even more!

  • I've sold both reproductions and originals at shows a lot.  I am beginning to get away from prints/reproductions entirely, with the exception of the larger paintings that I do.  I have found that doing a lot of smaller originals seems to sell as well or better than the prints.  I don't do prints of the smaller paintings at all, regardless of their popularity.  If I do reproductions, they are only in limited editions of 20 and that's the end of it. I tell this to my clients so that the reproductions in such small quantities actually have value, as opposed to editions of 200/1000!  Where's the value in them?  Even those on a tight budget seem to want the smaller originals because everyone has "prints/reproductions" and their walls are mostly filled with them in their homes.  I also try to paint in my booth at every show.  This really draws the crowds in to see "how it's done".  You would be surprised to see how many have never seen someone paint before, especially with the pinstripe brushes that I use all the time.  The prints are also heavy when they are matted and mounted to foam board.  I do completely finished prints ready to frame.  They are professionally matted and mounted to foam core board and shrink wrapped so all they have to buy is the glass and frame.  That also helps with sales.

  • If you are referring to reproductions of my own paintings as a "booth full of cheap reproductions" I think that is a low blow.  Reproductions of work we have done ourselves is NOT buy/sell.  My paintings take hundreds of hours.  SO if I can sell reproductions of them at a lower price point and make the sales, that is my bread and butter.  Many fine art shows allow originals only, and I do those too.  But to call reproductions "cheap" just because they are less expensive than originals misses the point.  And to call purchased frames "buy/sell" is just downright ridiculous.  Buy/sell is when you obtain wholesale knickknacks from China and India, and sell it as art.  "Training people to buy prints and then complaining when they go to Target" is also ridiculous. Those are "posters" (unlimited reproductions) of work by Chinese factory painters.   We sell reproductions of OUR OWN WORK.   Reproductions are "starter art" and many of my student collectors come back and buy originals when they land those big jobs and buy a house.  Reproductions are also great for retirees who have down-sized and no longer have room for large originals.  Where you should be directing your wrath is at the self-obsessed folks who have filled their houses with photos of themselves printed on canvas and calling it "art."  (That's where my print house makes all their money!)

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