Isalos Fine Art

With our First Annual Holiday Small Works show coming up next month, I've been putting a lot of thought into getting more small or easily affordable pieces into the gallery. It's not as easy as one might think. Established artists balk at creating pieces that don't easily pay the rent. Some people just don't work small, or it just isn't worth their while; after all, each piece of art requires an idea, and that idea gets used-up whether the result is big or small: whether it pays the bills or not. 

Rebecca Daugherty, Shore Trees, oil on paper, 5" x 5" 

To the collector though, small works can be a lot of fun. You don't have to wonder about where it's going to go, and the price is often comparable to a restaurant bill or a night at a hotel. Not only that, but when the season of obligatory gift giving comes around, most of us would rather give or receive something that feels more substantial or significant than this year's version of Billy the singing Bass. And isn't it funny how, when  you get one little piece by an artist, and you live with it for awhile and it just grows and grows on you, that you find yourself wanting another little piece by that artist to keep the first one company. Before you know it, you're a collector.

For this reason, some artists have started taking small pieces more seriously. In a previous blog I mentioned Duane Keiser, who does a daily "postcard painting". For a couple of years he offered them on his website for $100 each, and sold nearly every one. Now he auctions one on ebay every day, and the average price has more than doubled, so he makes a good living from these small pieces alone.

This isn't always welcome news to artists. After all, we've gone to museums to stand in awe of huge works of art, and it seems that, to be taken seriously, artists need to work big. Art students, needing to make an impact, start with a big canvas to ensure that it  gets noticed. This concept is great for the canvas and stretcher bar companies, and perhaps for owners of storage facilities where young artists have set aside their great, unsalable early works. Size might be a likely way to get attention, but some artists are capable of making a big impact in a small space.

Vaino Kola, Roots, etching, 9" x 12" 

Granted, my last blog concerned big, incredible paintings that take months to execute, but it's worth noting that the painter has done plenty of smaller work over the years, which has given him the skill and confidence required to undertake such paintings. As much as I lust after those big paintings, some of my favorite pieces in our personal collection are some of his small etchings.

Of course there's a whole subculture of artists and collectors who focus on miniature art, in which much of the point of the art is that it is small and precious. Different miniature societies impose restrictions on size and scale, and at least part of our sense of wonder is derived from the delicate nature of the work: the tiny brushes, the need for a magnifier to execute certain details.

That's not really what I'm after for our small works show, but I'm open to suggestion. My only guideline is that the work fit easily into average constraints of budget or wall space. I expect we'll have some studies and sketches, some etchings  and other prints, as well as some small maquettes for sculptures. We'll also have fine craft, including pottery, jewelry and turned wood. I will post some of the work here as it arrives in the gallery.

 
Oh, and to those of you who have given me singing fish as gifts: that was just an example. I will cherish those fish forever.