Art Marketing, Croagh Patrick Painting

I have been researching the state of the Irish Art Market, talking to artists and just trying to get a feel for how things are out there. I talked to artists selling on the railings in Malahide, a small but popular town just north of Dublin, and also on Merrion Square, in the city centre. They sell their art there, week in, week out, through the summer months. The season for Malahide is winding down now, but I believe that Merrion Square is a year round event. There is a long waiting list to get on this venue!! Two years possibly...

Anyway I have just finished reading the book "Sold, the inside story of how Ireland got bitten by the art bug" by John Burns. It is a real insight into who is who around the galleries and auction rooms of this city. I have had dealings with one or two of the people mentioned or interviewed in the book. It really is a worthwhile read for anyone trying to understand how the galleries and auction rooms operate. The main conclusion of the book is how the auction rooms are taking over the primary market from galleries where they used to only focus on the secondary market. Now the galleries are changing their focus too, to compete against them. Now galleries are moving more into art fairs to stay ahead of the auction rooms taking their business. In fact, last year I sold through auction, which is exactly why galleries are losing out. I am now more conscious of how this may be bad in the long run for both gallery and artist, as galleries are the main promoters of artists, not auction rooms. However, most artists that sell directly through auction are like me, unrepresented yet by galleries, so maybe the galleries are not doing too bad. I do see though that many seriously successful artists are also selling in auction rooms. The end result I guess is that the market will decide what eventually happens, although some galleries have closed in the last while.

The above is a shot of one of my latest in progress works, of which I now have several. I will post further when finished. Due to learning and changing from this, my painting technique has got faster. I hope that this will still mean acceptable quality, something I have to be careful of paying attention to. The above is an indoor shot and a little dull due to this. It's also underpainting, and needs more colour adjusting. The place is looking at the back of Croagh Patrick in Mayo, from the road to the Delphi valley. The time is middle of summer. If just a few weeks later, the vegetation colour changes a lot! Enjoy and check back to see further progress...