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| Wild Rooster. An 8 x 10 acrylic painting by Mark Phillips |
This is a painting done on an 8 x 10 canvas in acrylic paints.
This fine specimen resides in the yard of an abandoned building just East of the petrol station on Upper Roebuck Street, Bridgetown, Barbados. He rules over 3 hens and a number of chicks and fiercely defends them as they daily forage in the surrounding areas for food.
Barbados has an ever-increasing population of wild chickens (Gallus domesticus) or what we in the country used to call yard fowls. These once domestic chickens have now established a breeding population in the wild and occupy abandoned properties is almost every village in St. Michael. I understand that they have also found their way into areas like Wanstead and West Terrace in St. James. I don’t know if anyone has studied how many of these wild chickens occupy our little island, but they need to be controlled before they become a problem.
In Bermuda, wild chickens cause an estimated US$50,000 to $100,000 worth of damage to crops each year. Crops primarily damaged by chickens include beans, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, strawberries and bananas. There is also the possibility that these birds could act as vectors for disease like the avian flu. Calculations show that if one hen lays 5 eggs, and three-quarters of these chicks survive with 4/5 being female, a single hen can produce 1024 hens in 100 weeks. If the number of eggs increases to 8, the resulting number of hens would be 6564.
I will follow up on this later. (I am working on another wild rooster.) Now on to the focus of this post.
When this painting is completed it will be placed on my website and in my online stores for sale. It will be priced at Bds $180.00 like all the rest of the 8 x 10 paintings in my “Birds of Barbados” collection. This year, I have already sold four (4) paintings in this series at this price. If this collection continues to prove popular, I may increase the price later in the year. This is simply in response to market demand. This will also mean that those persons who have bought at the lower price will now have a product that is worth more on the open market than they had initially paid for it. Their investment would have appreciated!
Over the past few months, I have been approached by potential customers who say, "I love your work. But can I get a discount?" My first response is to ask, "Why?" "Is there a specific reason you believe you are entitled to a discount?"
Sometimes, I am told that they can’t afford my standard price, so they're hoping to get a piece at half my regular price. Sometimes, they even ask me to give them my work for free. "It will be a great opportunity to get your work out there!" they say. This always brings a smile to my face. I have never considered asking Simpson Motors to sell me a car at half the price, or to just give it away for free: "It will be a great opportunity to show off your new vehicles!"
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not insensitive to the financial situation of others. What I do find offensive is the assumption that I so desperately need the sale that I'm willing to be underpaid, which (to me) seems like a lack of integrity on the side of the client. They will say, "You probably have a special price for friends," to which I will reply, "I have many friends and my price is what they pay. I assume you want me to treat all my friends equally and fairly?"
I don't say "no" to people who ask me for a discount. I merely ask them "Why?" because it's quite possible that they have a very good reason! Occasionally, I am told, “I want to purchase 6 pieces, is there a volume discount?
Before I give you my response to this, let me share with you how I see my Art.
Firstly, at this stage in my life, I do not expect to make a living from my Art. I would continue to do what I do if I never sold a piece. And, secondly, and more importantly, I do not have to use a dollar value to validate myself as an artist. I price my Art at a figure that I believe is reasonable enough to allow the average home or business owner to own a piece of original artwork.
That is my aim.
Traditionally, “art collecting”, was an activity engaged in by the very rich. And, because of this, artists set their prices to meet this market. In fact, the international art market is manipulated by rich collectors, galleries and auction houses to meet their own agendas. But that is a story for another day.
This does not have to be so in Barbados!
I believe that you should not have to be wealthy to own and appreciate art.
I have two types of customers.
1. 1. The business owner who purchases a piece of artwork that they like and places it in their place of business. They see it as an investment. They document its value, insures it and places it on the company books as a tangible business asset.
2. 2. The homeowner that sees a piece of my art and falls in love with it because it reminds them of some happy occasion or just because it fits in with their décor. This is not a business transaction but an emotional purchase.
The value of my work to each of the groups is different but I need to be consistent in my pricing. A check of my online store will show that I price according to the size of the piece. Even though I may want my art to sell for as much money as possible, the art is still the same art, it's still just as good, I am still the same artist no matter how I price it. Just because I price something at $20,000 instead of $200 does not make it "better". I believe that if I could get enough people appreciating and attributing value to my work, that eventually my work will be worth something substantial. It may never happen, or it may happen long after I am gone but this is my hope.
Another point on pricing. I do not believe that my art is so unique that I can price it without regard to what's happening with other artists in Barbados or in the art world in general. All art is unique. Every artist is unique. Uniqueness, however, is not and never will be the sole criteria for pricing art.
Now back to the question of discounts. I will not lower the price of my art. It would not be fair to the customers who bought my work at the original price. I will not devalue their investment. However, in answer to the person who is buying 6 pieces. I will invoice them for the full price of the 6 pieces but ask them to pay for only 5. I would “pay” for the other piece. This keeps my accounts balanced and the value of my work remains constant.
I hope that this answers some of the questions that I have been receiving lately.
Another point. Just because I show a piece on this blog does not mean that that piece is ready for sale. Most of the images I use on this blog is taken of an unfinished piece, in my studio with poor lighting, using my phone. Very seldom do they offer a true representation of the finished product. This is purposely done as I know of artists who have had images of their work used commercially without their permission from high-resolution images posted online. Buyers that see my art on Facebook usually comment that they are surprised that the real thing looks better than they expected.
"Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them? But in the case of a painting people have to understand. If only they would realize above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only a trifling bit of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world, though we can't explain them." - Pablo Picasso
“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.” ~ Claude Monet
As always, thank you for reading. I appreciate the comments and the kind words of encouragement. Until next time when I will share some more of my work and a little about what makes me tick, please leave a comment. And, I will really appreciate if you share this post with your friends. To make sure that you don't miss any future posts, Please enter your email address in the subscribe by email box on the right.
Mark Phillips
