Blue Island House ....and Size is everything

6"x6" oil painting titled "Blue Island House", awaiting a new home...
Painting can be purchased for $100 plus $6 s/h: from the artist, Jenny Floravita

24"x18" oil painting titled '"Just Another Perfect Day" drying, awaiting a new home...
Painting can be purchased: from the artist, Jenny Floravita

Usually I let the public tell me what size they would like their paintings to be and they do this by collecting some sizes more often than others. Patterns. You start to learn them before kindergarten and they serve the thoughtful artist well. And for the most part, in the last couple years I've done better with either very small paintings or very large works, with the odd show thrown in that breaks all the rules. That's what I believe my market today is very large and very small, based on public feedback.

Funny thing is that, I find myself painting in a size (24"x18") that I don't normally believe sells all that well for me at festivals. In March, I have an annual solo show in San Francisco at a gallery that tends to sell these medium size paintings. The ceilings heights of many average San Franciscan homes are short and many of the older homes have smaller rooms. Keverne, the gallery owner, prefers medium and smaller works and gets nervous if I show up with too many large paintings, so I'm doing my part now to assure that this doesn't happen. And of course, without a crystal ball it's impossible to tell how many paintings I will need for this show. Usually I sell a few but the year before last, I sold out...around 16 in total. Actually, I had to replenish paintings a few times. Keverne might have jinxed that luck by saying in only a way that she can say 'It'll probably never happen again' but that's ok, I'm going to be prepared for just in case. Artists, this would be a great example of painting for a niche market.

In the past, I've sold lots of exotic flowers with coppery backgrounds through my solo shows in The City. I've also sold some of my contemporary palm portraits in narrow and tall sizes and it never fails that I end up selling multiple Mini-Master paintings to people who see my work on the internet or through my own website. When a particular painting is at a gallery, I simply let the gallery owner handle the sale and make the commission. This way we both win and they handle the shipping.

Here's the other thing that never seems to fail to happen: I sell, sell, sell when I'm in the islands. It's likely good karma and I do try to be good. In March, I'll be going to Kauai right after I deliver the new works for my show. Also, our traveling laptop usually decides to go haywire with broken keyes galore and for some reason, it doesn't like for me to answer emails during this period either. (I'm going to now knock on wood to the awesome gallery sales part but Not for the bad computer luck). Did I mention that artists are usually superstitious? We can't help it! You never know when your next big sale or big month will appear.

So please tell me, what size paintings do you collect? I would love to know!!!


Next artist talk: Livermore Art Association and Pleasanton Art Association/PAL meeting, January 18, 7:30 PM at Cultural Arts Building, Pleasanton

Next show: San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, March 24-28, 2010 at the San Mateo Event Center, BOOTH # 649. More info here: http://www.sfgardenshow.com

To see more, please visit my websites: www.floravitalights.com
and www.floravita.com