I'm starting to change my mind on this free art thing.
I will always paint for free when my daughter asks me to make her a painting of Demi Lovato - (or whoever happens to be her hero of the time!)
And needless to say, if I can do a free painting for a good friend - and if that saves me the headache of trying to think of anything else to buy for them, then I will continue to do the odd free painting.
But my days of painting on demand just because I enjoy doing it, are fast coming to an end.
I read an interesting article on ft.com With jobs, make sure it pays to play
This bit was particularly instrumental in causing me to adjust my opinion on the subject of painting for free:
My emphasis on the bit where it say's: "If you are paying someone to do something and it’s no good, then you can tell them to do it better." Words of praise are all very nice but how will I ever know if my art is really any good, until someone at least, is prepared to part with some hard-earned cash for it?!!
And my apologies to the Financial Times!
(Anyway, I didn't cut and paste the entire article... 'just quoted the relevant bit.)
And I quite agree with them, in that high quality global journalism requires investment.
So does my art!