On painting

and the job of selling art

Last year I worked on a project creating 100 tiny paintings (6x8 cm to 7x9 cm). I have included a few of my favourites here. I painted in gouache on different types of paper. Later, I varnished the paintings to protect the colours. Interestingly, some of the small paintings perked up and looked as though I had painted them a few minutes ago, and others became dark, dull, and may need to be thrown out. I can only think this had to do with the type of paper used.

I had also thought I could sell my tiny paintings, but have not been able to settle on a price. I have read that if you ask too low a price then your work will not be appreciated or bought, and if you charge too high a price then no one will want to pay for work done by a relatively unknown artist. I have put a few of these small paintings on Ko-fi (link below).

I have sold paintings in the past. My very first exhibition in Jamaica was at Fay Kessler’s hair salon in Kingston. I also showed my work at Bolivar Galleries, in Kingston, and Harmony Hall near Ocho Rios. People in Jamaica, I was told, would talk about having bought an “Allison”.

When I was a student at art college I used to carry photographs of my work around in my capacious, inordinately heavy bag. People would ask me my name and what I did and I would pull out my little photo album and show my work. I sold a few paintings this way. Friends in New York and Rome let me show my work in their apartments, and I sold some of my larger works.

I have sometimes shown paintings with what I considered a high price in the hope that they would not sell, and these were the paintings that sold. This is what happened many years ago at the very first show I had in Italy, at the community art space in Orbetello. Somewhere I still have the lovely article a journalist wrote about me and my art. I had another show in Rome at the Galleria della Tartaruga in Rome, and sold a few paintings as a result of that show. I have also been part of a group show in Gaiarine in Veneto, Italy.

Something that surprised me about exhibiting in Rome, and possibly all of Italy, is that you pay to rent the gallery. They also take a commission for selling your work. You need to find a critic who will write an article about you, and you pay for this too. I was offered space in an art book, but for a price. I found this odd, but I suppose I should have participated and become better known in the same way as other artists. Unfortunately, I still have that feeling that somehow I will be discovered. How this is going to happen I don’t know. I was silly not to have taken the advertising course at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto (now the Ontario College of Art and Design). I would have learned how to sell myself and my art.

Currently my paintings are stored safely in what some would call a walk in cupboard. Some of these paintings are large, which is another reason I have not tried to sell them. How would I ship them? I know I need to work smaller, as I am no longer living close to my potential buyers. Some of the paintings I have sold, and my most successful paintings, were 70x100 cm and larger. I’ll share photos of these at another time.

Continuous learning

When in Rome, I took abstract painting and life drawing lessons with Alberto Parres, who encouraged his students to paint larger and freer. I painted many abstracts of chairs, which I still find a good fall back subject when looking to get back into painting. What I learned from Alberto is that you have to start an abstract painting with a good drawing of whatever it is you are planning to paint. My large abstract acrylic paintings on paper were later mounted on canvas, making the finished painting seem to have been originally painted on that support.

As I also wanted to learn to paint “realistically” in oil, I took lessons near Viterbo, with the painter Rolando Di Gaetani. A group would meet on a Monday to paint together, and Rolando would critique our work. Sometimes he would ask us all to gather around while he corrected something in someone’s painting. In this way we learned a few techniques. It was he who taught me that I can lay down my painting with gouache and then paint over it with oil, after having washed over the ground painting with turpentine. He also taught me that a mix of black painted over the entire painting can make it glow with an inner light.

It was wonderful to paint with others. We would stop for a tea and biscuit break in the middle and talk about nothing in particular. Rolando encouraged us to paint in our own way. He was not interested in having people creating copies of his style. We were a mixed bunch that included a one time opera singer, homemakers, and owners of their own business. Rolando would tell me my style was Expressionist, rather than Impressionist. He was and is right; my palette tends towards strong and bright.

I have struggled with my colour palette in Italy. My art teacher June Hanlon at Servite in Brown’s Town in Jamaica told me the skies in Rome are Naples Yellow. When I eventually travelled to Rome I found what she meant was that the light imbuing everything is Naples Yellow (the name of the tube watercolour from Windsor & Newton).

Even though I have always envied people being able to paint realistically, and I can if I slow down enough, I discovered that the exercise of painting 100 tiny paintings freed me from all my past instructors. I was, finally, able to get back to thinking and feeling as though I was painting from my own heart and centre. This is a lovely feeling. It is why I find painting and drawing more pleasurable than writing. Painting can centre me and brings me much joy. Writing, on the other hand, seems to be able to take over and sometimes I may not remember what year or part of the day I am living in. Gratefully, I am not a writer of historical (hysterical?) romances, otherwise I would be completely lost.

Lately, I have been taking more photographs than attempting to draw or paint. I find that what I consider to be my bad photographs could make good paintings. Am setting these aside to tackle them when I have figured out the how of continuing to paint: gouache, oil, acrylic. The trouble is more about finding the right support. Canvas in the local stores is thin and does not hold up to the way I paint. I may have to resort to ordering on line, which doesn’t bother me at all. After all … here I am attempting to sell myself, and my work to you … on line.

Thoughts on selling

Something I have noticed is the people who actually get to be known have understood that you cannot rely on setting up your website and hoping the world will find you. I see they are making videos, writing more than (my) once a week. They remind everyone constantly that they exist, and they would be very happy if you signed up, hit the like button, hit the subscribe button, bought whatever it is they are selling, or offer to spread the news of their existence. There is something in me (my English upbringing perhaps) that tugs at my inner self telling me that this is not the way, but I will just have to stifle that timid part of me and change.

Why create?

The other thing that may put the brakes on creative work is the knowledge that we are living in a world that seems to be constantly in turmoil. What is the point?

I think it is important for creative people to continue to do what we are doing. Some of us are working towards creating a moment of peace, of reflection, of joy. Others may be attempting to shock us into seeing the world in a different way.

The greedy, I feel, are in the process of destroying themselves. It may be painful for all of us who are not billionaires, but I am certain that a better world is being forged into being through this painful time.

Did we need this uncomfortable period to become aware of what we really do not want? Did we need this fractured time to force us to become aware that we are made for better things? Hopefully we are moving towards a world that is not based on greed and power, but on being able to get on with each other, help each other out, give each other a helping hand.

So… we must keep on painting, drawing, writing, making music, taking photographs, singing, acting, whatever it is that we do to express ourselves, and the way we experience our environment, as the world needs us even more than ever before.

Perhaps, in the end, we should consider using the Gross National Happiness index, like Bhutan, to measure our progress, and resolve to become, or remain as we always were, wonderful, original, kind, empathetic human beings.

Thank you for reading!

You can also order prints from me, which can be delivered anywhere. I have worked with the Print Space and they are brilliant. I printed the Appaloosa as an A4 print on heavy watercolour paper. It is lovely.

Link to my Ko-fi shop: https://ko-fi.com/rdallisoncreations/shop (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)

You can download a digital copy of a few of the tiny paintings for your own use for EUR 10. This option will be available until 31 May 2026.