Two From Pompeii

*

Pompeii- near the amphitheatre, oil on card, 12.1 x 9.5 cm  unavailable

Pompeii- ruins, oil on card, 9.4 x 12.5 cm  -  available

 

Two from Pompeii, with brush for scale

Pompeii in November is really beautiful: there are few tourists and it's a joy to wonder about the ruins imagining life in Roman times.

*

Paintings from this site are available for purchase: please click on the label "sale" below for details.

Three from Sicily; tourism, photography and plein air painting

 *

 

I took the ferry from Malta to Sicily, staying for a couple of days in spledidly sited former Greek Empire city of Syracuse, where Archimedes lived and which features ruins of some importance.

Much of the city has recently been restored, though the place still has some rough edges.

Three from Sicily (Syracuse and Taormina)

 

 

 

 

Corso Umberto I, oil on card, 13 x 9.6 cm - discarded

Greek Amphitheatre, Syracuse, oil on card, 9.5 x 12.6

I met a charming French-Spanish couple while painting here, at this greek Apmhitheatre, which is quite enormous. Thanks to them for buying me lunch. I hope they find this site.

 

View of Taormino, oil on card 12.6 x 9.5 cm    available

 

 

 

 

Taormino is one of those places that is so touristified that it is quite unpleasant, the entire length of the main street taken up with shops selling souvenirs. The tourist industry has this amazing capacity to destroy the places and cultures that it supposedly celebrates: everything becomes commodified, including aspects of interpersonal relations.

The views  from the town, however, are quite breathtaking.

My picture owes something to Kokoschka, the itinerant Austrian, whose painting journeys might become a model for me, along with Edward Lear and the Scotsman David Roberts.

*

Digital cameras have made photography easy, cheap and fast and I see tourists, including myself, wandering about snapping away, scarely seeing the world save through a lens. Given that images of most places tourists visit, quite probably of superior quality, can be found on the web, their reason for snapping must really more to do with the desire to say "I was here", than to record or understand a place.

In the face of this barrage of fast photo images there is obviously place for slower, more considered meditation on places. Plein air painting provides this.

*

These paintings are for sale- for 100 Brazillian Reals or equivalent in another stable currency (at the time of writing this is roughly 58 US$ or 42 Euros or 36 GB pounds). Post, packing and handling are not included.

More details can be found under the label "buying art", below: please contact me with any enquiries.

 

*

Nineteen paintings from Malta and Italy

From top: row 1- Malta; row 2- Sicily (Syracuse and Taormina); row 3- Sicily (Catania); row 4- Naples and Pompeii; row 5- Rome.

Plein air paintings from recent travels, all oil on card. I've included sunglasses and my paint box for scale.

For more detailed descriptions, please see individual pictures, which I shall put online over the next few days.

 *

All these paintings are for sale, at 100 Brazillian Reals- or current US$, Euros or Sterling equivalent (as I write, 100 Reals converts to 59 US Dollars,  43 Euros or 37 GB pounds).

Payment is by cheque or SWIFT or direct transfer from a UK or Brazillian Bank. These prices do not include postage and packing/handling.

All paintings described as "pochades" or "postcards" are priced as above (100 Brazillian Reals or equivalent)

These prices are deliberately low because I am keen to make my work available to those on ordinary salaries and to people who are normally excluded from the pleasure of owning original artworks for reasons of price.

Buying work from this site

Most of the pictures on this site are available for purchase.

The small recent pictures (labelled "pochades") are currently priced at 100 Brazillian Reals (57 US $, 43 Euros or 36 UK pounds), and therefore represent excellent value for collectors.

The prices are set low to encourage new buyers and because I believe original art should be accessable to all.

Packing

Packing is usually 10 Reals for up to 5 pochades. (5.70 US$, 4.30 Euros, 3.60 UK pounds)

Postage outside Brasil

Fast postal rate is 60 Reals (up to 2 weeks) (34.13 US $, 25, 67 Euros, 21.38 UK pounds)

Cheap and slow is 15 Reals (takes up to a month) (8.53 US$, 6.42 Euros, 5.35 UK pounds)

I reccomend the fast rate of postage. It costs the same to send 5 pictures as it does to send one, so it makes sense to purchase several pictures at the same time.

Postage within Brazil is cheaper, but I do not have the prices to hand.

Total

The total cost of one picture is usually: 100 Brazillian Reals + 10 Reals Packing + 60 Reals postage= 170 Reals ( 96.70 US$, 72.73 Euros, 60.57 UK Pounds) .

Payment

In the UK, payment can be by cheque or direct transfer to my UK bank account.

In Brazil, payment can be by cheque or direct transfer to my Brazillian account.

Elsewhere, payment is by SWIFT transfer into a UK account.

Any questions?

Send any enquiries to me at Tadeusz598@yahoo.co.uk or telephone me on 55 48 3223 0461

A path in the woods; paintings for sale

*

A path in the woods, oil on card, 10 x 13.1 cm

Today's picture is straight from yesterday's list (no. 4).

I was totally undisturbed while working except by some midges who seem to hang about in a great clusters near these trees. They are very attracted to black clothes for some reason.

I don't think I have been so happy in the last few years as when painting outside. Meetings with others are so often marred by tensions. My increased inability to handle commonplace social tensions and my consequent preference for solitude is the sign of a failure on my part.

Today's picture looks set to be quite popular and I might do another, looking in the opposite direction.

*

Almost all the pictures on this site are for sale; the prices for these little pictures (labelled "postcards", or "pochades") are about 55US$; postage and packing is an additional 10$.

I can take cheques or direct transfers from UK or Brazillian buyers, or SWIFT payments from other places.

*

Trees behind a fence

Trees behind a fence, 35 x 40 cm, oil on canvas

A small painting (35 x 40 cm), again impressionist in method. I painted it plein air, listening to Roxy Music from the car.

I am priming some board to use as a support for a series of small pictures, about A5 in size. These will be readily affordable to collectors and easy to post. As my pricing is geared to the Brazillian market the pictures are particularly good value to overseas buyers: they will cost 100 Brazillian Reals (about 55US$ , 40 Euros, or 34 UK pounds) not including post and packing. Anyone interested should simply email me for details.

I can arrange framing- it is cleap to get good framing here and worth considering. It would probably cost an addtional 50 Reals, but I would have to check.

I believe in making art affordable, and available to those who are interested.

There exists a great deal of price snobbery in the art world- even a low priced paiting is unaffordable for most people. I think this has the net effect of damaging sales, leading to lower sales overall because it dissuades potential new buyers from entering the market. It seems to me wrong and, more importantly, foolish that an educated person on an average income, such as scoolteacher or book editor, should be unable to afford to purchase original works because of the art worlds pricing structure, which exists to maintain the prices already established artists and sustain the idea of "exclusivity".

The average jobbing artist, who is not a star, then, fails to sell and their work remains in storage for years on end because the galleries, and art world in general have conspired to maintian prices and failed to nurture a low-medium price market.

Or so things appear to me. Perhaps readers have another take on it?