Dorothy Gauvin
Dorothy Gauvin 		Articles of Interest for Artists
by Dorothy Gauvin
Art Gallery Gauvin

To contact Dorothy, click on her photo, which will take you to her web site and e-mail
©Dorothy Gauvin, 2003

It’s A Record!

Keeping Track Of Your Artwork

When we start out as artists, the last thing on our minds is the problem future biographers may have in cataloguing our body of work. Our concern is with making the art, developing our distinctive style, and finding the subject matter that passionately engages us.

Who ever started out thinking s/he would end up another Michelangelo? So, who cares about keeping records of the art we make at the beginning of our career? Let me tell you who will care:

1. The gallery directors you’ll approach to represent you.
2. Clients who’ve become loyal fans and wish to see examples of your early work.
3. Newspaper editors who may run a feature on your budding career.
4. Publishers who may want to issue your work as art prints or books.
5. The Income Tax Department.
6. Last, but not least, those future biographers.

The Future always arrives sooner than we expect. If you haven’t kept an orderly record of your work as you went along, you’d be faced with a daunting task when you need to produce it. And if it’s Number Five who suddenly wants those details, it could be a serious problem.

The records you need to keep fall into three categories:

1. Photographic
2. Ledger items
3. Business records

Because each category holds its own importance to you, we’ll leave the Ledger and Business sections for another article and tackle only the Photographic here.

Whenever you complete a painting you are confident is worth displaying – whether for entry in a charity art show, a competition, or for consideration by a gallery – photograph it! Label the print and put it in a presentation folio or album.

TIP: Never write straight onto the back of the photo, as your lettering will eventually show through. Instead, write the title on a stick-on label and then attach that to the back of the photo.

You’ll no doubt have heard that gallery directors demand a 35mm slide or a transparency (both positive film) for viewing your work. This is not always, or even usually, true. You see, gallery directors have little time to spare setting up a light box or projector to view samples by an aspiring artist. From many years of experience, all they need is a swift scan of a bunch of photos to tell them all they need to know.

In fact, during your early approaches to galleries, a bunch of photos can work to your advantage. The experienced director can lay them out on a desk and see at a glance where your true direction lies. Among the many and varied styles and subject matter you’ll no doubt have presented, s/he’ll note the pieces that have "authority." By that I mean those works which show a consistent and confident display of your talents. If s/he comments on these, you’ll know s/he’s interested. If you take heed of the advice s/he gives, you’re well on your way to a successful career.

TIP: If your aim is to be shown in government-subsidised public galleries, you will need to provide an "Artist’s Statement." This should consist of as much obscure jargon and incomprehensible nonsense as you can dream up. The curator will be comfortable with this, as it’s how s/he has been trained.

But if you want success in the real world, don’t trot out something like this at an interview with a private gallery. Private gallery people are business people. Their job – their reason for being – is to sell art. Their customers want to buy art. High-flown posturing impresses neither of them. While both are interested in the passions that motivate you, their intelligence will gather all that from your work.

If your work really is good, it does all the talking for you.




After your career is well established, clients who have collected your art may ask to see some examples of your earlier work. It’s good if you, or the gallery representing you, can satisfy their curiosity with pictures of these paintings. Some collectors are eager to purchase any unsold pieces from this period.

Features editors on newspapers and journals appreciate pictures to go with any articles they may run about you and your art. In your early days, they are unlikely to send a staff photographer out, so it’s good to have some relevant photos on hand to give them. I say "give them" because, despite promises that are genuine at the time, few press people ever remember to return your material.

TIP: In these days of electronic printing, it’s not necessary to provide transparencies to newspapers, journals or magazines. Ordinary colour photo prints are usually all that’s needed.

Transparencies will be needed when it comes to reproducing your artwork as limited edition prints or as illustrations in a book. By that time, you should be routinely photographing your work in positive film, preferably in the large square format. (The film is then sent to a lab that will make the transparencies.) At the start, it will seem easier to engage a professional but, as always, there are disadvantages.

1. Hefty fees for the photographer and perhaps an assistant.
2. Adjustments to your house wiring and even the installation of blackout curtains if the photographer insists on working indoors.
3. The dire shortage of photographers who really understand the fine points of filming artwork for reproduction, which can lead to disappointing results.
4. The waste of everybody’s time when a sudden change in weather forces cancellation of an outdoor shoot.

My solution was to buy the special camera required, and learn to do the job myself.

Such cameras cost several thousand dollars, but you will soon recoup your outlay in the savings on fees for a photographer. Some photo labs sell second-hand cameras for as little as half-cost. You can do the job when it suits you and the weather. And if something has gone wrong, you can quickly and cheaply redo it.

There are many books on how to photograph artwork, but here are the basics:

1. Best results come from photographing the art outdoors, in morning sunlight.
(A lab expert with whom I formed a telephone friendship over many years as his client shared this tip. He explained that many professionals are reluctant to work outdoors, without elaborate lighting set-ups, because it "de-mystifies" their job.)
2. Discover the best Winter or Summer time for your photo session.
(What you’ll look for is bright, cool light, free of glare. You can fiddle with light meters and instruments that calculate the calories of light for you, but your artist’s eye will quickly learn to make estimations that are accurate enough.)
3. Face the artwork towards North and always in the same spot.
4. If at all possible, rope in a willing friend or partner as your assistant.
(S/he can warn you if a fast-moving cloud is about to obscure the sun, or an insect is flying into frame, or a sudden breeze is causing the canvas to "belly" etc.)

Finally, like many careful artists, I do not recommend using a digital camera for this purpose. I’d need to see a lot of improvement in the technology before I’d feel comfortable doing so. The reason is simple: The quality of reproduction depends on the quality of the original material, whether photo print, negative, or positive film. No amount of "massaging" on any software editor can redeem a poor image. So my advice is to stick with a good SLR camera (with at least one extra lens) for general purposes, plus a square format camera for producing transparencies.

In a future article, we’ll talk about those all-important written records, plus how to keep all your files safe and readily accessible.

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