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McPortraiture
Hi Everyone,
I had an interesting experience recently. I went through the local county courthouse with a couple of judges. Many of the portraits that were hanging were photos that had been painted over. The quality of the paint job varied greatly and it was obvious that they were worked on by different artists, however, they were all signed by one name. The judges agreed those had an artificial look and did not stand up well to some of the fine portraiture that was there,
About an hour after I got home I received a phone call. It was one of those bizarre coincidences that happen sometimes. The caller was none other that the owner of the studio where the painted photos came from. He had picked up my card and offered me a job of being a "portrait painter". He sends out photographers and they shoot the subjects then the photos are printed onto canvas, shipped to the artist, who paints over the photo, signs the studio's name, and ships them back.
His selling point for this job was that I would not have to worry about my drawing skills, getting a likeness, or creating a good composition. He stated he is going to sell these through a ritzy chain store nation wide and that I could be kept very busy.
The Michigan economy is very bad right now and commissions have dropped so I went to his website while he was on the phone with me and looked at the "oil paintings". They were awful. I told him I had worked hard at developing the skills I have and was not interested and that I was bothered that these were being sold to the public as fine art and not painted photos. It was a strange and long conversation with him wanting critiques on his photos and why they did not look like paintings. He went on and on about how successful he is with them and I did have a friend mention she had seen them at a chain store in Chicago.
Anyways, it's a long winded story but I thought those of you out there who put the time into your work would like to know about the McPortraiture that is being offered out there.
Vianna Szabo
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