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Rita Drolet

7 Years Ago

How Long Do You Save Your Unsold Work?

Do you keep your unsold work for a long time, or do you get rid off it?

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David King

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.

 

Etheri Art Studio

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.

 

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.

 

David King

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.

 

Phyllis Beiser

7 Years Ago

Usually for 6 to 10 years. Then I either reduce them very cheap, paint over them or donate to a charity.

 

Floyd Snyder

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.

 

Edward Fielding

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/

 

Rose Santuci-Sofranko

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.

 

David King

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.

 

Alfred Ng

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!

 

Edward Fielding

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.

 

Marlene Burns

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

 

Martin Davey

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!

 

Phyllis Beiser

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.

 

Etheri Art Studio

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 :)

 

David King

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.

 

Patricia Strand

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.

 

Roy Pedersen

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.

 

David King

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.

 

Floyd Snyder

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.

 

Peter Krause

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.

 

Brian Wallace

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.

 

Karen Jane Jones

7 Years Ago

I paint over unsold work when I get bored with it...

 

Joseph Westrupp

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

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

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.

 

Roger Swezey

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

 

Alessandra RC

7 Years Ago

I am not sure what Unsold Work means. Work that has not sold in how long?

 

Roy Erickson

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?

 

David King

7 Years Ago

Probably one of the most environmentally friendly things I could do would be to quit painting. lol

 

Etheri Art Studio

7 Years Ago

@RD Erickson, I'm sure they'll be happy, after all, they got: buy 1 get 1 free ;)

 

Tony Caviston

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.

 

This discussion is closed.