While some of these might not be real "paintings" as we think of them, a lot of them really are.
The general feeling among the portrait people I've talked to is that this type of work will take a lot of the business at the very low end of the marketplace but will not affect the high end (we hope!) As I said to Gordon Wetmore at dinner at the PSA conference when we were discussing this very question, "Increased sales of Volkswagens won't affect sales of Mercedes Benzes!"
There is a value in having a personal relationship with an artist that can develop the concept and pose along with the client.
How many of the judges you've done, Garth, would go for this type of solution? My guess is none.
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