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Two Roads Diverged. One was paved with clear signs.  The other was unmarked and had pot holes. Artists often have to choose between paths…paint what sells or paint my passion? Advice on both sides is open to question as illustrated by two bits of “wisdom” I found in my files. 

Scrap #1: (unknown source)

• Generally speaking, paintings with light colors sell more quickly than paintings with dark colors.
• Subjects that sell sell: madonna and child, landscapes, flower paintings, still life (free of morbid props—dead birds, etc.) nudes, marine pictures, abstracts and surrealism.
• Subject matter is important: it has been said that paintings with cows and hens in them collect dust—while the same paintings with bulls and roosters sell.

Scrap #2 (Andy Warhol)

Don’t think about making art, just get it done.  Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it.  While they are deciding, make even more art.

As an art collector and observer, I do enjoy some of the subjects that purportedly sell…landscapes, nudes, marine pictures, and abstracts. But, as an artist, clearly I’m in the Warhol camp.  Perhaps by default, or maybe by temperament, or possibly because my subject matters. Long ago I decided that I would refrain from indiscriminately painting just any  subject in my world. Rather, I decided that I would paint what interests me most…people. I have consistently painted portraits and groups of people in the public. All of my current cityscapes are populated. So I leave it to my viewers to decide.

But what if I travel both roads? Build a freeway? Or what if the roads converge in the yellow woods and I paint landscapes en plein aire?  No, I will leave that to others. Or, what if, to maintain my focus on faces and figures, I paint beautiful nudes…mermaids by the sea or angels or nudes adorned in flower garlands? This makes sense. But a career of painting idealized women cannot and will not be my brand even though I do occasionally paint nudes. So, I will continue on my path and accept the fact that the bulk of my paintings will never make it to the popular subjects list. But as Andy Warhol said “An artist is somebody who produces things that people don’t need to have.”

However…funny thing happened today.  Painted a nude.  For Sale.