20% off all products! Sale ends tonight at midnight EST.
Discussion
7 Years Ago
Do you keep your unsold work for a long time, or do you get rid off it?
Reply Order
7 Years Ago
Until I move or run out of space to store it I guess. I do a lot "culling" however, I threw a bunch of old paintings in the trash a couple weeks ago, will throw away some more soon but it's not because they aren't selling but rather because they aren't up to snuff anymore.
7 Years Ago
Van Gogh sold 1 painting, fortunately for us, he did not throw away ~900 that did not sell :) Don't throw away art it might yet get famous.
TdpArts Gallery Terrance DePietro
7 Years Ago
Forever...one way or another; hook or by crook...How long do I keep that unused sneaker?...That is different, I suppose, the sneaker generally has less memories attached to it, I guess(?)...Interesting question though.
7 Years Ago
"Van Gogh sold 1 painting, fortunately for us, he did not throw away ~900 that did not sell "
Actually you can thank his brother Theo for that. I'm no Van Gogh, never will be, in fact I hope not. If I ever get recognition for my art I want it to be while I'm still alive. I actually think much of Van Gogh's early work could be lost and the art world wouldn't be hardly worse for it. That early art only serves to show us his progression.
7 Years Ago
Usually for 6 to 10 years. Then I either reduce them very cheap, paint over them or donate to a charity.
7 Years Ago
There is not such thing as unsold art. It is just inventory that has not yet sold. There is a buyer out there for everything I have. It just takes longer to find some of them than others.
7 Years Ago
"Van Gogh sold 1 painting, fortunately for us, he did not throw away ~900 that did not sell :) Don't throw away art it might yet get famous."
I don't think Van Gogh made that decision but after his death there was discussion of tossing them on a bonfire. But then again a Van Gogh only comes around a few times each century.
BTW - it was Van Gogh's sister in law who did most of the saving - http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-woman-who-brought-van-gogh-to-the-world-66805589/
7 Years Ago
Oh my, I can't even imagine throwing away paintings! I'm not a painter, but that breaks my heart! I hope you photographed and/or scanned them at least, to save the images.
7 Years Ago
"There is not such thing as unsold art."
Tell that to my boxes full of paintings. Another reason I don't want to collect too much of my own work is I don't want what I leave behind to be a burden to whoever it ends up getting left to. I think it's healthy to go through and sift the wheat from the chaff every couple years anyway. A coworker told me about a family member that died and left an attic chuck full of boxes full of paintings that she had painted throughout her life. Nobody in the family had the space to take all that on or wanted to, every family member pulled one or two paintings they liked the most, then had a yard sale to try to sell as many of them off as the could for $5 each, what didn't sell got tossed in the dumpster...they filled the dumpster.
7 Years Ago
I keep everything I produce including the ones I made when I was in art schools. it is a great way to see how much I had progress. A couple of years ago when I was moving my studio and found one long forgotten painting ( I think it is about 25 years old) and I post it on facebook right away a buyer brought it!
7 Years Ago
Just store them safely so they don't fall on you. One of my mom's neighbors (retirement condos) was an artist and got trapped under a pile of canvases. They didn't find him for several hours.
If he hadn't lived in a place where they check on you every 24 hours, he would have died under his art.
7 Years Ago
I don't throw away paintings...I recycle stretched canvases and paint over them. I painted over almost every raptor....and now, about 25 years later, everyone loves them and wants prints.
So I have upped the life of my canvases to 25 years now and am giving customers a chance to catch up with me! lol
7 Years Ago
I destroy my canvas and board paintings after a while because of storage and will be doing another cull shortly. However they are all properly photographed/ scanned. I do not expect to have such a problem in the future as over the past year I have been using oil/ acrylic paint on heavy watercolour paper. It can be seen that it takes many paintings on paper to equal one canvas (frame) in thickness and I think my efforts look better too on paper. It is also cheaper!
7 Years Ago
Before you throw them away, think about charities. There are shelters for the homeless and battered women, animal rescue organizations and so many more than can benefit from your old work. They sometimes sell them to raise funds and sometimes just hang them in their facilities to brighten things up.
7 Years Ago
I think if you just want to throw your art away due to storage issue, it's better to put it on, say, Craigslist as Free, maybe someone will want it for free and, who knows, maybe later they even manage to sell it (hopefully with your signature still on it). Art buyers work in mysterious ways :)
7 Years Ago
Call me a jerk but I'd rather destroy my art than give it away or sell it cheap, except maybe to a friend or a family member that I know actually appreciates it. Maybe that's why I've been spending more time with photography and digital lately, no physical materials piling up and taking up space.
7 Years Ago
I am not a painter but may try it someday. I can't conceive of tossing out a canvas. As others have mentioned here, couldn't you paint over it? Or donate it so others can use it, and if you don't want your art to appear, you could just paint a huge X or something.
7 Years Ago
If you are talking about images here on FAA then I'd say never. it cost you nothing to keep them here apart from your annual fee. You never know when someone will find an old image that has never sold and buy it.
7 Years Ago
Patricia, it can take a fair bit of effort to recycle a surface to paint over it and even then it's not the same surface as a new one off the shelf. I tend to paint on relatively small, inexpensive panels, (they are archival, they just don't cost much) it's usually not worth the time and effort to recycle them. I do have some larger cradled panels that are definitely worth taking the time to resurface. I tend to paint thick with a lot of texture, it's quite labor intensive and messy to make that surface smooth again.
7 Years Ago
Compare it to authors. How many authors are selling and making a ton of money on all those rejected transcripts from years ago?
You never knew what the future will bring.
7 Years Ago
That would be my entire gallery here. But because I like them I won't delete them even though I can't upload any more work.
7 Years Ago
There are many art mediums. Because of the piece you included with your question, I'll assume you are primarily referring to paintings and drawings. I have some of that but I mainly do photography and digital art. So, I'm speaking more virtually in my case...
Aside from the fact that I'm kind of a hoarder anyway, I also re-purpose and recycle. In case that didn't give you any ideas, If a piece seems stale to you, you might try re-doing it or changing it. I often make different versions of a piece anyway. There are many things I want to try. Regardless of whether it's purchased or not, I know I've been able to improve some things with another attempt.
With that said, I have discovered that some pieces I have created, may have just been done before other things fell into place for me. In other words, since some work was created, I've learned more, developed better skills, better tools, matured, etc.etc. This now affects how I see and how I create in a different way for some things.
I don't restrict myself from going back to a shooting location at another time and try to do a better job if the subject is something that I think can be interesting. Often there will be a whole new perspective there if conditions are different, (weather, lighting, tide, people, growth, season,etc.) plus the fact that you gain more experience that helps you improve with something you're already familiar with.
Sorry if this was a bit of a rambling and may not apply to your artistic medium or style.
7 Years Ago
After my first love of painting, that's part of the reason I adore the digital medium so much—no storage necessary. Canvases are crazy bulky (at least framed ones).
—
Joseph Westrupp, bestilled.com
7 Years Ago
It's not about how old the painting is.
It's about whether I want to keep it or not. I have a few things I did when I was a child... but those aren't for sale or posted on the internet.
I get rid of work I made as an adult that isn't very good IMHO.
I was cleaning out some boxes and ran across some things I did about 25 years ago... that I thought were pretty good. I'm keeping them. Maybe I should post some of them here.
7 Years Ago
All my unsold work after the end of the face-to-face selling season, remain in my shop in Maryland.
The next season, they are dusted off and set in the less important spots in my display, while the new pieces are set up front.
As the season goes on, and the new pieces sell, the older pieces are brought forward.
Without a bigger choice, the procrastinators start buying these "War Horses".
And then the cycle begins again
The goal is for my work to go in one direction , never to return home
7 Years Ago
I might work on an image and replace it - but totally get rid of one - not any of my digital or photographs. I quit doing watercolors because I have no market and you can only get so many under the bed - it's almost impossible to reuse the painted surface - I have painted over the reverse - and sold them - wonder what will be though when at some future date someone has that re-framed. Will they like the older work better than what was bought?
7 Years Ago
Probably one of the most environmentally friendly things I could do would be to quit painting. lol
7 Years Ago
I don't give my paintings away as gifts...the recipient may have different taste and the painting ends up in the trash.
I don't paint over or throw away my paintings.
I have stated in my Will that my paintings will be stored and not displayed for 40 years.
If you don't value your art, your not a true artist.