Today I delivered my September show to the Sheridan Lawrence Gallery and I am pleased that all the little details of completing the work are finally over. Of all of those, naming the paintings is my hardest task, and usually the one I leave until the last minute. Because of this, I never remember their names and usually have to look them up on the gallery website later.
My family says that my painting names are boring, and I have to agree. Basically, paintings need names for bookkeeping and inventory purposes, but there are other reasons as well. Painting names can tell the viewer what the painting is about, if the imagery is a little obscure. Of course, the opposite can be true as well. I once knew an artist whose painting names told a story and none of it had to do with the painting. It made great “point of sale” talk at his openings and was great fun.
GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
I read about an artist who never names his landscapes after the site he painted because he felt it limited his clients. I find it hard to believe that if a client really likes a painting he will reject it because of its location. Of course, since I paint mostly Northwest scenes and exhibit here, I’ve never felt that restriction. I have become very confused about how many of my paintings are named for the same area, however and have resorted to series with numbers.
NUMBERS CAN BE CONFUSING ALSO
My first gallery affiliation was with a gallery just started by two women who had no more gallery experience than I did. They had the artists sign a contract for exclusive representation for the whole state, but since they also sold everything I painted, I never had a reason to object. At the time, my husband and I owned a lot in a community on Mt Hood called “Wapanitia.” Our lot was number “15”, so I painted a landscape of the area and titled it “Wapanitia 15″. One of the gallery owners called me and her voice was a little cool. She said,”The painting is beautiful, but what I want to know is, where are the other 14?” We remain good friends and still laugh about our learning experiences.
My show at the Lawrence Gallery has an autumn theme, so many of the painting names have some reference to autumn. I also have used a couple of names to describe to the viewers what I hope they are seeing. Below is a 48″ x 48″ oil diptych titled, “Window View – The Winds of Autumn”.
