Sometimes I get asked that question or I can tell by people's reactions that they believe art should cost less. If you are comparing original art with what you can find at Ikea, you are probably not realizing the difference between an original and a copy. What you can find at Ikea (of Marshalls, etc) are reproductions of works that were intentionally produced to be commercial. On the other hand if you are familiar with buying original art, you probably get the feeling that art is randomly priced. In a sense it is. There is no exact formula to follow when artists price their work. The random factors that come into place could be: how popular the artist is, experience level, how much the artist likes that particular type of work, the size of the work, cost of materials, art trends, etc. Even after taking all of this into consideration, prices seem random. How can an abstract work worth thousands and a landscape maybe hundreds? It's all about people willing to pay these random prices (and how the artist was able to convince them that their work is worth it). I hope I am not making you feel uneasy now. This shouldn't detract you from buying art. Buy art because you fell in love with it. Buy a painting because it speaks to you. You will live with it. You will see it everyday in your house.

I believe that art should be priced honestly and fairly. I believe that art should be accessible to everybody. I price my work based on how many hours I put into it plus the cost of materials (I know some artists oppose to this and I can see why). The type of work that I do takes many hours of hard work to accomplish. People have described my work as "high definition" due to the amount of detail and depth I am able to achieve. The years of experience that I have making art, combined with lots of patience allow me to create the realistic and surrealistic works that almost seem real, not photographic, but real in the sense that something that may be impossible to exist in real life becomes alive and believable in front of your eyes. I think this is what sets my art apart from some trends where art is made fast with the purpose of having high volume of sales. We live in a world where we want everything instant. We have wrongfully learned not to appreciate things that take time to accomplish. While most things of our everyday life are better with instant results, we should learn what types of things are better when the creator took his/her time to produce quality work. Art falls into this category. 

I am going to share a little secret from a friend that does abstract art: She takes about 40 minutes to finish a medium size abstract painting (about 18x24 inches). A lot of abstract artists make a batch of similar paintings in one session. They pretty much create their own assembly line similar to how some towns in China are popular for making tons of copies of famous paintings (you can google it). Now you can question the price of an abstract painting next time you see one. I feel I need to clarify something here: I am solely talking about pricing. This has nothing to do with whether I (or you) like abstract art. This reminds me of this friend that came with me to an art show. She was staring at this large white canvas that had some bold black gestural brush strokes in the center. She said "I like it" and I can totally understand how such gestural work would nicely complement a contemporary interior decoration where furniture tends to be minimalist and the bold gestural abstract art brings a human touch and creates a focal point in contrast with the simplicity of the surroundings. Knowing that my friend wanted to have that painting but probably wasn't willing to pay the high price, I told her "you can do that!" She is not an artist so she gave me a confused look. Then I told her that I could take her to the art supply store to help her get exactly the materials she would need (that's probably the intimidating part for non-artists) then I could show her how to make something like that. Let's be honest here, anybody can smear black paint on a white canvas (even my cat), don't let anybody convince you otherwise.

Abstract art is not the only type of art that some artists do really fast. The trends that I was referring to in my second paragraph range from realism to impressionism, etc., which can also be done in batches in an assembly line format. This type of art can only be appreciated from a distance. Once you get close to it, the painting starts to look sloppy and the subject gets lost. This is due to the fact the the brush strokes were applied quickly and very little or none blending was achieved. My paintings can be appreciated far of close. I pay attention to the smallest details so that if you get close you are still able to recognize the subjects. Blending is one of my favorite things to do. It allows me to create rich tonal variations that enhance the volume and depth. All of this is hard work that takes many hours to accomplish. I do not mind the hard work and the long hours in my studio (my cat stares at me with a look that says "why do you have to work so hard? look at me, I am just chilling here!"). Again, I am not talking about liking or not liking certain types of art. I am talking about pricing. Buy art that you love, and hopefully this article can give you a better idea of what a work of art is worth. Don't let anybody make you feel that "you don't know anything about art." You are the viewer, you are the one appreciating the art. You decide what you like and what your money is worth.

I am going to take a big risk here. I am going to show a sided by side comparison of my "high definition" art with the types of art that I was describing above. Sometimes when my work is half-way done or less it looks like the "fast art" that I am refering to in this article. This is because I apply some initial brush strokes to lay out the overall tones (dark, medium, light) before I do the blending and refining. Sometimes I wonder if I should sell this "unfinished" version (and listen to my cat and go chill with him) but that is not the look I am going for. I hope these examples don't seem as a bad criticism of other types of art. Every type of art has its place and it should be about what you like. Pricing is a different matter and I believe that high skill and talent should be part of the equation. 

My art is on the left with their corresponding close ups. Examples of fast art (by other professional artists, not students) are on the right (or right below if you are viewing this on your phone).

What do you think? Comments are greatly appreciated!

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