Painting things that people don’t like…
You may have noticed a bit of a theme with my art work… in fact a kid said to me the other day, ‘You just paint water and trees’ and they probably hit the nail on the head. One of the things that I battle with, as a seascape artist, is painting things other than seascapes. People generally don’t like it when I do that. I mean it is understandable as you very often only follow someone on social media because you like their aesthetic, but buyers are a bit more complicated than that. Very often artists are collectable because of their name and not just because of the genre of their specific work. I’ve lost count of how many conversations I’ve had over the years with people who say ‘Oh yes, I’ve a Joe Bloggs’ and two of Josephine Bloggs pieces. As an unknown artist, this really presents a problem. I don’t have a name in the art community yet. Maybe I never will. People don’t collect my work simply because they have to have another ‘Lindsay Dudley’. When someone reaches out to me about a piece, it’s because it spoke to them in some way: maybe reminded them of a place they used to go to, or a memory they have (see my blog on commissions). Sometimes they buy my work because I’m more affordable than artists with a grand art reputation, and sometimes it’s because my work matches a space they have. It’s a complex thing.
But painting one thing all the time is boring. I know, I said it out loud. I think it’s clear that I love the sea. I do, I really love it. I spend time by the sea when I can, and one day I hope to move to it. I paint it in all of its forms and I fell like a better version of myself when I’ve had some vitamin ‘sea’ (do you see what I did there? I know my sides are splitting too). However. Scotland is beautiful. I want to paint bits of it that aren’t watery. And some of the other places I’ve been to in the world are also beyond impressive, and I want to paint them too. Actually, I just want to paint lots of things to be honest, even ones I have no experience of. And sometimes I want to just make big marks on a big canvas and not have to make it seem like it’s anything at all. But who wants to buy an original abstract by Lindsay Dudley? I even painted a green wave and not a turquoise one the other day and lots of people on my social media didn’t like it. So what does an unknown artist do…? Well usually the answer is that they paint what sells. It’s an ugly truth but that is the way of the world at the moment. I’d love to become as good at painting people as I am painting seascapes, but no one wants to buy my mediocre attempts at them. Which means I don’t paint them. And I don’t get better at painting them. It’s a vicious circle. Don’t get me wrong, I love painting a wild seascape. I love when other people love it too. I love that people buy them and stare at them on the wall, thinking of a time when they saw a sea just like it. I am sad when people don’t like a piece. But I am constantly reminded of how subjective art is. One piece might be too green for someone, but another remembers a time when they gazed off the edge of a boat and saw an emerald wave one just like it. Some don’t like my rough texture and impasto seaspray; others melt a little as they visualise a wave that crashed over them on a holiday they had. And that’s the beauty of art- there is beauty to be found everything… you just need the right person to ‘sea’ it.
