Meeting the artist, I love paintings

"The art game includes connection, friendship, joy, love, sentiment, experience, taste, honor, acquisitiveness, the collecting instinct, social acceptability and investment. That's why the experience is so rich, varied and, yes, mysterious. When leaving my openings and heading for the local bar, I often think of George Bernard Shaw's remark: "When you know the artist you think less of the art."

*Copyright 2007 - Robert Genn.

Painting is a strange business. (J. M. W. Turner)

Ephemeral Illumination

16x20 oils painting on canvas

by Michael Orwick

Available at DragonFire Gallery,

Cannon Beach Oregon

503.436.1533

"it looks like a place I'd like to visit".
(Unknown buyer)

I personally have to disagree with Shaw's remark that knowing an artist leads to thinking less of the art. I am an out going person and I lock my self away for days at a time with just Shamy My faithful Golden Retriever to keep me company. So when I’m doing an open studio or a show opening I love to hear what people really think, it amazes me what different things people interpret in my paintings and how things as straightforward as a landscape have the ability to affect us all so profoundly different.
I love to have all sorts of conversations with people who stop to look at my art--sometimes they are completely unrelated but spur from something that an observer notices or decides to comment on.
I have found that many people buy after the second of third time they meet me and have the chance to share their feelings about my art and art in the more general since.
I not only love painting, but I love paintings I love contemplating and debating them, it gives me a thrill akin to the actual creation of them, and this thrill is what I hope buyers take home with them and share with their family and friends.
I would like to thank all of you who are taking the time to read and share these blogs.

All the best,
Michael Orwick
www.michaelorwick.com

Many Moods Of MT.Hood 2
8x10 Oil Painting on canvas
by Michael Orwick
SOLD



My wife and I are collectors of contemporary art - that is work by living, working artists. The first thing we look for in an artist is technical mastery of their chosen medium. This eliminates about 90 percent of all artists out there, since mastery in art today is not considered too important (though it seems that may be slowly changing). The second thing is that the artist must have a strong personal artistic vision and esthetic; when you see his or her work it must be unmistakably his or hers. Thirdly, the art must speak to us on a gut level. This is purely subjective and cannot be explained. Fourth, we only look at artists who are not yet well known in the art community - they do not have a reputation. This way we are only paying for the art itself and not the reputation. We are not made of money, but are not afraid to spend significant sums on quality work. My wife and I have to agree on any purchase, and we both have veto power over any proposed buy - no questions asked. We both have to live with it, so we both have to love it.
- **Phil Taylor

"Buying is a profound pleasure." (Simone de Beauvoir)

(Andy Warhol) noted, "Success is what sells art."

*To get more of Robert Genn's insight and inspiration for your artistic career, sign up for his twice-weekly newsletter at:The Robert Genn Twice-Weekly Letter:http://www.painterskeys.com/

**Phil Taylor
http://collecting-art.blogspot.com/

http://www.michaelorwick.com/