I was attending an fine arts festival in near Sacramento over the weekend. There was an 'artist' there who was selling 'original oil paintings'. If you looked closely you could see where she was painting oil in small amounts onto a canvas that was printed with an image, dab dab dab. The oil coverage was not even a good approximation of the image, dabs and dashes where the original had streaks. You could clearly still see the printed image underneath on the canvas (and also in the folds of the canvas at the corners. She was asking and getting $650 to thousand$ for these 'originals'. I looked up her 'art ' and found the images in stock photos (http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/tutorials/how-to-see-if-your-photos-are-being-used-on-another-site.html). She pays (I hope!) for the image to be used, then prints it on canvas and then dabs oils on it. Is this an artist? Is this art? Is this really an original oil painting? NO!!!
I understand she exhibits at the Malibu Arts Festival as I did this past year. And also at several others like Huntington Beach. She is clearly not an artist, she is not producing original oils and the patrons are being duped. She needs to be stopped selling them as originals.
The integrity of the participating shows are in question when people are allowed to fool the public into thinking they are 'collecting' fake and bogus art.
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Interesting and yes, deceptive. I'm inclined to say it's a case of Buyer Beware but I do agree that they shouldn't be juried in to any self-respecting show. Thanks for shining a light on this, hopefully they'll be stopped somewhere along the way.
Problem is, in photos they look 'real'. So they are being juried in on the photos, but not in person. I have found that almost all her stuff is stock photos that she passes off as original paintings, and she offers them as prints. Wonder if her prints are made form the stock photo or from her little oil dabs on the stock photo........
Most buyers are not aware of what she is doing and will only see after they get it home and take a real good look at it. I understand that she gets frustrated when someone asked, so you are painting over a photograph huh? "Why do people keep saying that?!? " (quote from another vendor who overheard her). The problem is, the ones asking are artists, not buyers.
When I first started doing shows about 35 years ago, there were a number of oil painters who would buy paintings on rolls that were imported by art supply stores. They would paint over the signatures and sign them and sell them as originals. But in all cases, if challenged, they could demonstrate painting that style. What needs to happen that the artist should be challenged to spend the entire show painting an original that matches what they sell. Howard Alan forces artists suspected of buying paintings to sit there and paint.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
If she actually is good enough to dupe collectors of original art, then she must be pretty dang good. Didn't Kincade do this in giant factories ... Calling it "enhanced prints" or something. You could report this to the show directors, anonomously, or throw water on her, maybe she will melt. I saw it on a movie once
You have to look carefully as it is on canvas and the weave can fool your eye. It was brought to my attention by another artist. She is not putting paint all over the print, just little dabs here and there. I agree, they should be enhanced prints, not original oils. The problem is, the buyers at art festivals are not high dollar collectors, but the average person who trusts that what they are buying is what is being stated.....