FOLK ART IS STILL ONE OF THE BEST BUYS FOR THE ROVING ANTIQUE HUNTER / COLLECTOR
I COULD HAPPILY DWELL IN A HOUSE FULL OF MAUD LEWIS PAINTINGS
I WOULD GLADLY TURN FROM COLLECTING FINE ART, TO FOLK ART, IF I HAD TO, AS THEY SAY, "DO IT ALL AGAIN." I AM ATTRACTED TO NAIVE, UNTRAINED, FROM THE SOUL "ART WORK," AND I FIND THE CLOSEST CREATIONS IN THIS REGARD, REST WITH THE HANDIWORK OF THE LARGELY UNNOTICED FOLK ARTIST…..IN ANY MEDIUM. I COULD BE WONDERFULLY CONTENTED TO AWAKE EVERY MORNING, AND RISE-UP TO SEE A WALL TO WALL GALLERY OF PAINTINGS, BY LEGENDARY EAST COAST FOLK ARTIST, MAUD LEWIS. OF COURSE I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A FAN OF THE ART WORK OF GRANDMA MOSES, AND OTHERS, WHO WORRIED LESS ABOUT PROTOCOLS OF ART PREPARATION, AND MORE ABOUT THE LIBERATION OF EXPRESSION.
TODAY I ONLY HAVE A MODEST COLLECTION OF FOLK ART, SIMPLY BECAUSE I HAVE SOLD MOST OF IT OFF. THAT'S WHAT DEALERS AND PICKERS DO, TO PAY THE RENT AND OCCASIONALLY PURCHASE SOME FOOD FOR OUR BELLIES. THERE ARE A LOT OF ART PEOPLE HOWEVER, JUST AS THERE HAVE BEEN FOR CENTURIES, WHO AVOID FOLK ART AS IF IT WAS SENT BY THE DEVIL. ALMOST TO DISTRACT US FROM THE SEDATE PRE-OCCUPATION WITH PRETTY LANDSCAPES, AND PAINTINGS OF ROMANCE, AND UNYIELDING SENTIMENT, PLEASURE AND EVEN CATASTROPHE; THAT APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY HEAVEN, TO KEEP US ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW. FOLK ART CONFOUNDS OPINION. AS A COLLECTOR, WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A MAGNIFICENTLY PROPORTIONED CARVED CHERUB, OR A ROUGHLY HEWN, OUT OF PROPORTION, EXAGGERATED DEPICTION BY A FOLK ARTIST. WELL, I'D LIKE TO HAVE BOTH, BUT IF I HAD THE CHOICE, I WOULD ALWAYS SELECT WORK FROM THE NON COMMERCIALLY MOTIVATED FOLK ARTIST. THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PROBLEM FOR ME, BECAUSE HONESTLY, IN NINE OUT OF TEN CASES, THE BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED CHERUB IS THE ONE THAT WOULD SELL FOR A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF MONEY IN THE ANTIQUE TRADE, WHEREAS THE FOLK ART DEPICTION, WOULDN'T FETCH AS MUCH CASH, AND MAY BE IN STOCK LONGER, BECAUSE THERE ARE FEWER FOLK ART COLLECTORS…….WHO WOULD SEE THE BEAUTY AND HONESTY; WHERE FINE ART COLLECTORS, MIGHT ONLY SEE IMPERFECTION AND UNTUTORED WORKMANSHIP. I HAVE SOLD A CONSIDERABLE QUANTITY OF FOLK ART OVER THE DECADES, BUT ALWAYS TO A FEW COLLECTORS WHO HAVE WELL ESTABLISHED INVENTORIES OF SUCH ART AND CRAFTS. IF I WANTED TO MAKE CONSISTENT SALES OF ART, I WOULD DIVERT MONEY FROM FOLK ART TO FINE ART. BUT THEN BEING IN THIS PROFESSION, WOULDN'T BE NEARLY AS MUCH FUN AS IT IS. SO I TRY TO HAVE A BALANCE. I WON'T TURN DOWN A GOOD DEAL ON A REALLY NICE PAINTING, AND I WILL DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO ACQUIRE A FOLK ART PIECE OF FURNITURE, OR CARVING OF A BEAVER FOR EXAMPLE. I NEVER PUT THEM SIDE BY SIDE, FINE ART, AND I DON'T TRY TO CHANGE THE OPINIONS OF THOSE WHO ENJOY FINE ART, TO MAKE THEM, BY PROPAGANDA ALONE, FOLK ART LOVERS. YOU EITHER LIKE THE STYLE, OR YOU DON'T. BUT I WILL ALWAYS HAVE DIVERSITY IN MY OWN COLLECTION, LIKE A WELL BALANCED INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO, AND THE WARES WE OFFER TO PATRONS WILL REFLECT OUR RESPECT FOR ART GENERALLY. THE BOTTOM LINE IS, I LOVE BEING INVOLVED WITH ART AND ARTISTS, REGARDLESS WHAT THE STYLE…..SCULPTURE, MIXED-MEDIA, WOOD CARVINGS, TO THE FINE WORK OF TALENTED GLASS BLOWERS…..THAT I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN PARTIAL TO…..AND FIND HARD TO RESIST. AS FOR MY RESPECT FOR THE ARTS AND CRAFTS COMMUNITY HERE IN MUSKOKA…….I'VE BEEN IMBEDDED AS A WRITER, AND HAVE VISITED THE INNER SANCTUMS, AND OH HOW ENVY THEIR CREATIVE ENTERPRISE.
AS A LONG-SERVING ROVING REPORTER FOR THE LOCAL PRESS, HERE IN MUSKOKA, I WAS FREQUENTLY CALLED TO DO FEATURE STORIES ON LOCAL ARTISTS AND CRAFTS-PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY FOR OUR SUMMER TIME PUBLICATION, "THE MUSKOKA SUN." OVER TIME, I DEVELOPED A KEEN INTEREST IN THIS DIVERSE COLLECTION OF ARTISANS, AND WHAT THEY WERE PRODUCING FOR THE MARKETPLACE. I LOVED ANY OPPORTUNITY TO VISIT THEIR STUDIOS, TO WATCH THE CREATIVE PROCESS AT ITS PINNACLE. IT REALLY DIDN'T MATTER WHETHER I WAS WATCHING A GLASS BLOWER AT WORK, OR A LANDSCAPE ARTIST APPLYING BRUSH STROKES TO AN ART PANEL ON AN EASLE. I WAS FASCINATED BY THEIR WORK AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH THEY CREATED THEIR ART. THEY WERE CRAFTING THE ART WORK FOR THE CENTURIES…..THE ART, ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES FOR THE FUTURE, AND I WAS A KEEN VOYEUR. WHAT MADE THEM ALL CONTENTED, AND PRODUCTIVE, IN MY OPINION, WAS THAT THEY WERE WORKING IN A FIELD THEY FELT PASSIONATE ABOUT, AND FULFILLED TO BE A SMALL PART. OF COURSE THEY WERE WELL TRAINED, BUT THEY WERE INVOLVING THEMSELVES IN A FOLK ART ENVIRONMENT, AND TRADITION, WHERE THE COUNTRYSIDE, THE FOREST, ROCK, LAKES AND SKY WERE SOURCES OF DAILY INSPIRATION. JUST AS IT HAD BEEN FOR UNTRAINED FOLK ARTISTS IN THE PAST. THEY WERE LIVING AS MANY FOLK ARTISTS HAVE, IN NATIONAL HISTORY, BUT WITH THE INTENT OF PRESENT AND FUTURE ENTERPRISE, WITHIN THE BROAD RANGE OF THE ART PROFESSION; HAVING IN DEPTH KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR CRAFT, WITHOUT THE COMPROMISE OF HONEST COMPOSITION….. INSPIRED FROM RUSTIC STUDIOS CARVED ENCHANTINGLY INTO THE MUSKOKA WOODLANDS. THEY MAY BE OUTRAGED AT THIS SIMPLISTIC OVERVIEW AND ASSESSMENT, AND VERY MUCH OBJECT TO BEING PARALLELED WITH UNTRAINED FOLK ARTISTS. THEY ARE ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINION, AS I AM, AS AN ART COLLECTOR. I LOVE THEIR WORK. OUR HOUSE IS FULL TO OVERFLOWING WITH THE EFFORTS OF ARTISTS AND CRAFTERS.
I HAVE A REFERENCE BOOK THAT DETAILS THE STRUGGLE OF ART ENTHUSIASTS AND SCHOLARS IN ENGLAND, TO HAVE NAIVE AND FOLK ART CREATIONS, INCLUDED IN THE ASSESSMENT OF THE NATION'S CULTURAL IDENTITY. THERE HAS BEEN A TRADITION OF FINE ART THAT IS HARD TO DETRACT FROM, AS CULTURAL ICONS, YET THE FASCINATION OF SIMPLE, NAIVE CREATIVITY, HAS BEEN GRADUALLY EARNING RESPECT OF THE ART COMMUNITY, SUCH THAT IT HAS BECOME GALLERY-WORTHY, AND SUITABLE FOR MAJOR PUBLIC COLLECTIONS. FROM BEING CONSIDERED "NOT VERY GOOD" TO BEING CONSIDERED "A REFLECTION OF THE COMMONPLACE TIMES OF OUR LIVES," FOLK ART HAS BECOME, TO SOME DEGREE, AN HISTORICAL MARKER OF CULTURAL CHANGES TO OUR SOCIETY; WITHOUT A SHRED OF ARROGANCE, OR ANY FEELING OF THE FOLK ARTIST, THAT A STANDARD MUST BE ADHERED TO, IN ORDER TO BE ACCEPTED. MOST OF IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE SOLD. IT WAS CRAFTED BY FOLKS AS A HOBBY ACTIVITY, NOT A PROFESSION. MOST OF THE HAND CRAFTED ITEMS WERE GIVEN AWAY, OR KEPT BY THE CREATOR AS PLEASING DECORATION. YOU DIDN'T GO OFF TO ART SCHOOL TO BECOME FOLK ARTISTS. AND THERE WERE FINE ARTISTS WHO NEVER HAD INSTRUCTION, BUT BECAME ACCOMPLISHED; AND HIGHLY MARKETABLE PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS, WHO ATTAINED FINE ART STATUS, BUT NEVER BENEFITTED FROM TUTORING. BUT BECAUSE OF THE CALIBRE OF THEIR WORK, THEY WERE NEVER CONSIDERED FOLK ARTISTS.
FINDING FOLK ART OUT ON THE ANTIQUE HUNT AND GATHER
The antique dealer's and collector's advantage is education. The more we know and the less the vendors are willing to educate themselves, the more likely we will leave shops with wrapped paintings and folk art under our arms. We depend on laziness and lack of due diligence on the part of retailers, and sale hosts generally, because that's where and when mistakes in valuation are made. Most second hand dealers and flea market vendors, as well as yard sale hosts, know a good quality painting from something that is bad art on all levels. I usually expect higher prices on these finer art pieces, but ninety percent of the time, they're still under-priced from the actual market value. So I buy lots of art work. Folk art is far more difficult to ascertain. Even after years of hunting these naive and home crafted art works, I'm still vulnerable to miscalculation. The landscape artist who is poor at representation, but who thinks their work is gallery-material, usually doesn't fall into the category of folk art. Folk artists in history, didn't have any plan to be better crafters than any one else, and they certainly weren't anticipating any major exhibitions…..except possibly, on a stand outside the barn, or on an old harvest table at roadside. The folk art in this regard, was never destined to be considered "great" or "unprecedented," by those who stopped on the way home, to buy a whirligig, featuring two burly gents sawing a log. They would saw faster if the wind was spinning the propellor more aggressively. Many of those buying these items were doing so, to jazz up their lawns, or gardens, not as a major art investments. Well sir, some of these early Canadian and American whirligigs are fetching king's ransoms in the folk art market-place these days…..which I'm sure would surprise the artists responsible……who were just enjoying themselves by creating something interesting.
There are thousands of variations of craft work, that fall into the category of folk art, and naive interpretations. I have bought and sold many paintings from the 1800's, that were attractive and colorful pieces, but as investment art, they were just historical offerings…..that really weren't taken all that seriously. We're a little different today, and the importance of folk art is gaining new significance, to both art lovers and historians……who now agree, on the national relevance of the folk art contributors. It's why I invest, whenever I can, in a quality piece of vintage folk art, and I've often paid more for these, than the more proficient work of trained artists, from the same period in history. The fact that second hand and thrift shops, will have quality paintings appraised, or placed in their monthly auctions, but will dump folk art creations on the shelf with low prices, works for me by golly. I have tried to help some of these thrift shops appreciate the differences between fine art and folk art, but they generally prefer to follow their own internal leadership, and carry on with the same old hit and miss strategy. What this means, is that I can find twenty or thirty exceptional folk art pieces every year, that are of museum quality, and never spend more than several hundred dollars making the acquisitions. Once again, it's important to distinguish bad art from folk art. There are lots of really poor paintings for sale at flea markets, second hand and charity shops, and the yard sale circuit is full of them. These are not examples of folk art, at least in the sense of investment quality. You can search online, the work of east coast folk artist Maud Lewis, or Grandma Moses of the United States. You can look up collections of Canadian Folk Art, and there are many books on the market, that offer research material on collecting these naive regional and national works. There is no reason to be uneducated about folk art, if you're a collector, because today, versus when I began collecting, the information sources have more than quadrupled. But second hand vendors just can't be bothered, and that's to my advantage. And I do benefit. I will show some photos in coming editions (of this blog), of some of my favorite "found" pieces….all by the way, gathered in this wonderful lakeland region of Ontario.
As I've stated previously, art is usually seriously under-valued or grossly over-valued in second hand shops, and at yard sales. When people complain about the high prices, I chortle to myself about their "penny wise, pound foolish" approach. Some of the best art finds I've made, including a Thomas Mower-Martin watercolor landscape, and several George Thomson oils, were priced higher than other paintings in the same environs. What this did for me, was thwart other buyers until I arrived…..and in five seconds per piece, evaluated that, while the prices seem high, fifty dollars for an eight hundred dollar painting, isn't really all that daunting. The problem with a lot of sort-of collector / dealers, is that they get easily thrown off their game plan, when all of a sudden, they encounter some antique or art piece, that is priced more than double parallel pieces in the same shop or flea market. Fifty percent of the time, the art work is just simply over priced based on "pie in the sky" valuations, of what appears to be a major work…..but in fact, is a poorly executed copy. The other fifty percent, means opportunity for art investors to make a shark attack, and even at a higher asking price, the valuations make the asking price a minor issue. Vendors who are worried about losing a major art work by pricing too low, actually overprice to our general advantage. For example, a thrift shop that decides to put a hundred dollar price sticker on a painting, will have turned-off dozens of potential buyers of nice pictures. The first "art shark" through the door, will determined quickly, whether the hundred dollar price tag is justified, or not…..but because it has lasted for potentially hours on the sales floor, with no takers, has in fact guaranteed a roving art collector / dealer will get the chance to take it home for a value price. If you saw a hundred dollar price tag, on a painting you knew was worth a thousand dollars, would you really feel it necessary to dicker on the asking price. The best of the best, would hand over the money, and be satisfied that experience has paid off once again. Keep in mind, in case you think it would be a case of ripping off a charity, a majority of these thrift shop operations, have access to appraisals and also have designated staff who look up art and artists to get their valuations. When it hits the floor, after there supposed due diligence, we're in the clear to buy what we wish. They don't offer any apology for their pricing, which admittedly has been getting higher each year, so they shouldn't be upset when we do our job, of swooping down on the best buys. For me, I reiterate, folk art picking has been particularly fruitful this past year.
I have been at yard sales, for example, when an average landscape painting, has been priced at fifty bucks, and at the most, in normal second hand retail, it would be worth $60. I've then turned to find a wonderful vintage folk art whirligig, in good condition, for ten bucks, that could be worth from one hundred to five hundred dollars. A folk art item with provenance is even better. Art seems to do this to folks. Frustrating them into pricing too high or too low, and missing the whole point of what folk art and naive really mean. I've told you. But I'm not going to educate the whole darn gang, or I'd lose my best opportunities out on the hustings, to invest in old fashioned, culturally splendid, folk art creations….that were created with enthusiasm; and always for "the fun of it," without worrying about the profit margin based on an hourly wage, and material costs. It just wasn't important. That's what I like about folk art. It's as liberating to me, viewing them, as it was to the crafter, creating them.
Thanks for dropping by for a visit today……and what a wet and slushy one it was. I heard gulls out over the lake this afternoon. The harbingers of spring? Geez I hope so. I love the winter season, but this one, while blooming late, has been tough on folks who haven't had really bad winters in a few years. I was getting used to the global warming thing, and was entertaining the idea of planting a palm tree on the front lawn, to test the theory of rising temperatures, and milder winters. I'm going to hold off doing this for awhile. The traditional Canadian winter I knew as a kid, have arrived once more. See you again soon. Drive safely out there!
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