Things I Learned as an Oil Painter: Thing #19

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Thing #19 is one of those weird little tips that I've been picking up piece by piece as my art career develops:

Sign it on the front and write the title, year and your name on the back.

Let's break it down into thinglets:
  • Thinglet 19a: Sign it. Sounds blindingly obvious, but a huge number of artists (including me and maybe including you) hate signing paintings. I think there are several different reasons for this aversion - mine is that I like to paint loose and signing is like as un-loose as it gets. Other artists have deeper reasons, like they don't want to be the centre of attention or feel that the work is not worthy. If you're very private about your art and  have no intention of getting your stuff out there then you can ignore this post. If you'd like to share your work with the world then the world needs to know who painted it.
  • Thinglet 19b: Use your name. Another obvious sounding one, but unless you're already widely known by a symbol, stick to your name. Again, the world needs to know who painted your art and if they're not "in" on your symbol/code/avatar then you may miss out on something somewhere down the line when opportunity knocks, but doesn't know your name.
  • Thinglet 19c: On the front. It's where people expect to see your signature. If you sign on the side, because you don't frame your work, then somebody, sometime, might frame it and your work becomes anonymous.
  • Thinglet 19d: Title, year and your name on the back. I used to date all my work (down to the month) on the front along with my signature. A wise professional artist told me that people can be strangely fickle and like to buy really old or really new art. Kind-of-old-ish art doesn't really do it for them, regardless of it's other charms. Dating it on the back will allow you to tag the piece for those who are truly interested without putting off the fickle crowd. Putting the title and your name on the back can be handy because often galleries or exhibitors will require this info and its good to have it already there by course of habit. It's also nice if future owners of the piece know the title...
Admittedly I could be biased about the benefits of signing because I have a unique family name: Kelavey. There are only 6 people in the world with that name that I know of. When folks see that name on a painting they can quickly figure out that I painted it (as long as they have access to Google).

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KanatSanat's avatar
I don't like signing because my name doesn't leave much room for the painting :-/