What are you actually buying when you purchase a $100,000 painting?
Heimerman Studio FAQ:
“How do you price a work of art? “
At this point, I’ve heard all the ways you can cut this pie... artists price by the square inch, by a standard created within established group of collectors and institutions, by how much works have sold in auction houses, by historical value, or how simply how much hype can be created (Cattelan sells the “Comedian” a.k.a a banana duck taped to the wall, for $120,000 at Art Basil Miami, 2019 ... and he sells this piece 3 times!) . The value is how much someone is willing to pay, but before you play by those rules, you have to build a more rigid and logical point of sale base.
“How long does a painting take to create?”
It takes months to create a single piece at times. Multiple pieces are in process at all times, and this is just configuring the time a paint brush is physically in my hand at the easel. This is not taking into consideration the tens of thousands of hours before hand I have committed to researching subject matter, studying color theory, building compositions and studying art history through my very unique lens to even beckon an original idea to come forth on the easel.
“How much did you spend I materials.” Or “Is that real gold?”
Oil paint is one of the more expensive mediums in the traditional materials market. It is sold in 37 or 200ml tubes and by series number. The higher the series number the more actual color pigment is in the medium, instead of a titanium white filler. A 37 ml tube of oil paint ranges from $12.00 - $70.00 depending on the quality of the pigment and the maker. Each of my works typically has a starting color pallet of over 20 different colors, sometimes up to 50-60 in a single large work.
Oil painters use oils to thin down the paint, make it move, blend colors and clean brushes. In my studio I use walnut oil and buy it in bulk which cost about $105.00 every time I refill. Additionally I buy odorless natural turpentines and brush restorers to clean out the brushes.
I use sometimes over 40-50 bushes in a single painting. Some of them I buy cheap and throw out after they become ruined, most of my brushes at this point in my career are high quality, hog hair brushes and they range anywhere from $10.00- $150.00 a piece.
Brushes can be reused if properly taken care of but I would say at my painting desk right now there is probably about $8000 worth of brushes on the table, and probably $10,000 in oil paint. But hey, it takes money, to make money right?
Yes, it is real gold. 24 k gold is sold in .008 mm 4” square sheets, and I buy 20 sheets for $78.00 plus tax.
Then you need a surface to paint on, this requires me to hire a carpenter and build the wood frame. I like to stretch the canvas myself and the cost of this will vary depending on the size. Then you gesso the surface and sand between each layer of gesso added. My works are gesso and sanded in 3 total layers, so a process of 6.
“Do you charge by the square inch?”
No, I do not charge by the square inch, although there is a unified price trend as the works scale up in size, some of the larger works take 5-6 months to make, so the price extends to cover the cost of my invested time. Some works are quicker to make, even though they are on a large scale, the piece will have less modeling and layering. These paintings are typically my flatter style of automatic drawing and can be placed on a lower price point, do to the amount of time they take to create.
My premium products are priced according to these perimeters.
They are large! 8- 15 feet
They have 24k gold leaf
They are loaded with high grade oil paint texture
They take hundreds of hours to create
They are original and unique ideas
So what do the materials cost? It’s a tough question to answer, because the math is layered (like the oil paintings ) to actually answer this is a complex question. What did my education cost to get me to this point in my career? I personally spent over $50,000 to study at university. I was raised in a household of artists where my mother put a brush in my hand at a young age. My father paid to further my education in gifted and talented programs from a very young age. What was my parents time worth to give their life over to my enriched childhood that formulated the artist I am today? I have invested another 6 figures into my own Buisness, running my studio, and continuing my education after my formal training. This is a material that must be accounted for, if it wasn’t for my education I would not be the painter I am today.
Lets look at it in a more materialistic way. If I wanted to scientifically calculate how much I actually invested in materials, I guess I could measure the drops of oil paint I used per each square inch and divide that out from the total cost of the color, plus the brushes, plus the oils, gloves, rags, easels, food, tea, music, podcast, and audible subscriptions that provided the needed focus for the work to happen... maybe if I was crazy enough, I could actually calculate this for you. But I am not going to do that, because that would be a total waste of my energetic time, which is my most valuable asset in this industry and my life. It is this life force that calls forth the great works of art being produced within my very studio. .
The time of someones life is way more valuable and expertise is immeasurable when it comes to a dollar amount. Numbers are cold, they are perfect, you see them for what they are. Numbers are not emotional, they do not give back to you. Numbers are rigid as fuck. They do not necessarily equate to the inherent value of the thing, in this case an oil painting. This is why Apple can make so much money. We are not paying for the square millimeters of plastic, micro chips, glass and quartz crystal that it takes to create an actual iPhone. We are paying for our connection to each other, we are paying for the best camera with the hottest app subscriptions and fastest wifi so we can build and record our identity , stay connected and share our filtered selves. We are paying for a record of who we are and how we spent our precious finite life. This is why that company just reached a 2 trillion dollar value. The value is far beyond the product itself.
So what are you buying when you buy a work of art?
You are buying a piece of intuitive knowledge that extends beyond the material world. There is conceptual knowledge, and experiential knowledge. There is knowledge of art history, archetypes and symbols. There is knowledge of technique, emotional availability and openness. There is the single, uniquely created and formed mind that considers all of these moments and takes a moment of their very finite life to express that experience though the simplicity of brush and pigment. Oil painting is a very simple approach for an art making practice with all things considered. A child can be an oil painter. You don’t need much to do it… just some brushes, pigments, oils and canvas. I was that child. It is the brilliance of the mind manifested that creates the true value of an idea in the art work. It is the unique expressive mark, concept and style that says “no” to everything that came before it. It is this rebellion and high amount of consideration for what mark making, story telling and painting could be that creates the art world in its entirety.
Art is priceless. A sacred form of human expression is also priceless.
So the question becomes not what you are buying, but what is the artist willing to sell for. Over and over and over again. The explanation and education to the client is only one aspect of the expertise selling ritual. Great art is an homage to a global experience. An original work from the Heimerman Studio is a recorded documentation of an experience as a female, narrative painter living in the ever expanding technology age.
People love to spend money and make money. Most of us dedicate our lives over to this very position, the idea that money will set us free. In a way it does, money can provide the best life coaches, surgeons, vacations, clothes, homes and educations. Money motivates and shakes the world wide open. Spending money on your art collection adds to the value of your environment.... which is YOUR LIFE! Your art collection adds to your atheistic as a person. It speaks to who you are, what you choose to invest in, what people you are connected with. The artwork itself grows with you as your life grows, like that old tattoo you got when you were younger. The meaning changes with you, you remember the time you collected the piece and as your life evolves and transforms, new meaning will continue to derive from these images. Those of us who are lucky enough to invest, will one day fill our wall so high that our art collections must to be rotated and changed to expand the container of your life.
How much does our environment actually impact us?
We are seeing the numbers of climate change and global warming. We are seeing ugly political systems and old toxic lineages create a world of destruction, harm and disease. Art adds oxygen to consciousness. It’s not the end all answer, we are in a time where direct action needs to happen to create real social, environmental and political change. However art is a universal language that connects us. It soars beyond our rigid systems of structure and control with ease. It has no border control, and requires no actual education to understand it. Art doesn’t care who you are, it doesn’t look at your gender, race, or religious creed. It simply is. It speaks, subdues, calms, awakens and transforms silently and profoundly. It requires no passport, degree, amount of money, success or beauty to see it. A great work of art will move a child to a place of quiet wonder. It is in this transcendence that the adult is reminded of, this child like state of being free from guilt, expectation, and the identity of the self and in touch with who we really are.
So what are you buying when you buy a $20,000 painting or a $100,000 painting? You are buying an idea. You are buying something that only exists once. The original is beyond forgery, it is a single unique item telling the story of human experience made at a unique time in history that will never ever exist in this way again. It’s easy to say you are buying a piece of the soul, but I do not believe that the soul can be pieced, or split or that the idea of selling the soul is real... the soul is eternal. But you can buy a moment of that eternal expression. It’s expensive, and it should be.