As an artist, if you could, would you buy your artwork back?

Oooh...

I'd want everything I've ever done back, yes. There are a lot of things out there that I really regret parting with.

There are also portraits OF me which I haven't seen since a breakup which I would love to have.

But the whole money thing... I dunno what I'd be willing to PAY for them. Hmmm...

No. The pieces I sold, so many years ago, are in someone elses' possession and hopefully, appreciated still.

There's one I'd really like back, at the same time I like the buyer just walking into the show and loving it. I guess I want both to be true.

If I am around at the sale, or have any contact with the buyer and remember to ask, I ask for a photo of the painting in its new home. I have photos of some paintings as they moved from house to house.

youre an art stalker osso.When I lose a custody fight for one of my works, its dead to me. Of course I always take excellent pictures.(Actually a friend takes excellent pictures) before they leave my custody

Art stalker, c'est moi!

Ya'll talk about your paintings, I'd rather see them. C'mon, post digitals to the gallery where we can see what sort of paintings you do.

I like talking without seeing almost as well as seeing without talking.

I have batches of paintings to post, and a new scanner. I'm planning to put them on some sites as well as here, have to scan and get the photos in an order I like.

As to here, I want to subscribe for a personal album, but have trouble posting from my home computer, so I have to gear up and post via the work computer, which will post to a2k albums without trouble. Anyway, one of these days I'll post years' of work.

There are only 2 paintings that I bitterly regret
parting with.

Damien Hirst must have huge confidence in his work and
career. Apparently he bought back his work for
vastly more than he sold it for.

s an artist
Lord, when I sell a painting it's like selling my own child. I just purely hate to do it. But there you are - I have to have some space for the furniture.

So I wouldn't really consider buying them back - the space problem is overwhelming as it is.

(I have the same problem when selling or giving away books, but that's a couple of whole other threads.)

oh yes, there are some works I'd love to have back. If i had them all I wouldn' t have room to move so I'll have to meet that rich art-loving millionaire first....

There are some I wish I didn't have to sell, but when someone commisions something you gotta deliver. I do tell the person buying the piece that if they ever decide to get rid of the artwork to please let me know. No one has called me so far so I'll take that as a good thing. Some of the pieces that my family members have gotten a hold of are under strict instructions (and threat of bodily harm) that all art they have stays in the family or comes back to me as they have all been given as gifts.

I can't speak for my wife, as she is the artist in question. But if I had the chance to buy back her work, and I had the money to do so, I would.
She painted 70 works in 6 months, everything from portrates to scenery, some took as little as 4 hrs to paint, some took days. we only have six of her works at home, she sold all her works as soon as she finnished them, the six are the ones she never exibited. She ceased painting when the first grandchild was born... 17 years ago.

Welcome to a2k, Anton and Aldistar..

I did get an old painting back about a month ago - actually, just at the holidays. I liked it in the first place myself (I have a range of opinions about my paintings..) A curator who had arranged a show for me traded me a computer system for one of the paintings, and kept it now about eight years. She had it framed particularly well. She gave it back to me recently because she and her new husband are remodelling his, now their, fifties house as Entirely Fifties. (She is an architectural historian; it will be not just resonant of the time, but true to it as much as possible. So.. I am not hurt, but thrilled.) It was a yahoo moment. I can point out lots of things wrong with the work, right there, for example, where this aspect always bothered me... but still, I'm thrilled. I quintupled the price... (I own, for now anyway, a gallery.)

ossobuco.
I and the rest of my family and friends have tried to get my wife to paint again, she has a remarkable gift in her work. But, alas, she says.... Whatever it was, that enabled her able to paint originanly, is no longer there, the remarkable thing is that she has no regrets.

I sold a mixed media painting on e-bay to see how much it could get. It only got $35, and two people (when seeing it digitally) have told me it was my best piece, and that they would have gone much higher.

C'est la vie (and someday I need to learn how to spell that correctly)

I feel ya anton. My brother was/is a wonderful artist and designer. As a teenager, he competed with adults and won first place trophies for his custom model car building. Year after year after year I begged him to submit some of his designs to a car company but he never did. One birthday, I bought him an easel because he was a master with an airbrush. On another, a drawing table. It seemed he never had the heart to pursue an artistic career. I don't know why but I wonder, deep down, if he regrets it. I can't imagine an artist being truly happy doing anything else.

All of my work is for sale, though Natalie wants to hold on to some. Production so outstrips reductions in inventory that my studio is getting crowded. Its a good thing that we're rich enough that sales aren't financially important to us. Work, that's the important thing.

I'm the opposite, Asherman, in that I really could use the dollars from selling that painting, should it sell, but it is one I really hope to keep.

It is nice, Anton, that your wife is satisfied with her art work, has moved on from needing to do it and can just enjoy having done it. How old is she? She may be a spring chicken yet and find new energy to do it - but that isn't necessary of course.

I do hope to post a batch of photos soon. Right now I have four lined up on a wall at work that I really like together. Keep meaning to bring in film..

She's no spring chicken, ossobuco, 61 this year, but still has the figure of a 30 year old, has the mind of 18 year old, so full of life. She's the envy of all our friends, all her energy is now taken up with her gardens, wich is very extensive, over a acre.