The Framers Forum

Hi all

Had an elderly lady in yesterday with 4 beautiful water colours of landscapes that she had painted herself. She was telling me that she had approximately another 40 finished pieces at home that she had done over many years purely as a hobby.

A friend of hers was commenting on the quality of the paintings and saying that she should exhibit them and see if she could sell some.

Question that she asked was should she put a date on them (stated that she thought one of the 4 was painted “about 1999”)...she has signed them.

Any advice please about putting dates on paintings?

Thanks

Tommy

Good Question.

I would never date a painting and always advise artists against it.

A (typical) customer might tend to see 1999 on a painting and think, "That's been hanging around for 20 years and nobody has brought it"
and demand a crippling discount or be put off altogether. Sad fact but true.

It's not until a painting is much older that age adds to the appeal.

Thank you prospero

In my mind I was thinking the same about putting a date on them as it might or would put a lot of potential customers off purchasing them. I did mention it to her and she hadn’t thought about that so I don't think she will date them.

She and her pal were lovely and when I asked “What about mounting?" it was like a scene from a Harry Enfield sketch....”Oohhh YOUNG MAN “...gotta love customers that you can have a laugh with and brightens up the day.

I once had a lady in with a water colour she had done. It was a bit crumpled up and had little footprints on it.
I pointed this out and she said, "Oh yes. My pussy has been jumping on it".

Hahahahahaaaaaa...that's brilliant prospero

when I first opened my own shop, my labels that I stuck on the back of the frames had spaces for invoice number and date, I used these for a while until an artist asked me not to put the date on as when she exhibited them, it dated them and if they never sold the first year it looked like 'Old Stock' when she exhibited them the following years, and I had to agree with her, so I changed the design of the label so it just had my details on them.

Thanks Steve N. Yes I can see that might cause sales problems for your artist.