This small rock was a huge success for me both monetarily and for becoming known as a rock artist on ebay. I painted it on a whim and figured I’d get a couple bucks out of it. I was shocked at the response I got. There was a bidding war and it sold for quite a lot of money. Soon after, other artists were painting pansies like crazy (one artist even copied a design I did which some would say was flattering but it actually really ticked me off). Of course I painted  more pansy rocks of various sizes and designs and those sold extremely well too. Other artists were giving me positive comments which meant a lot to me. In the back of my mind though, I did not understand why my pansy rocks were creating such a hubbub. I looked and looked at other artists’ work and compared it to mine to see what the big deal was. The only thing I could figure out was that my rocks had great design, color and contrast. The black background added tremendous contrast and brought out the vibrancy of the colors used for the main subject. Other flowers painted up until then I noticed were done in pastels and were very delicate. Mine were bright and bold. Could this difference have created such a stir? I truly believe it did. My painting was not anatomically correct and some artists are better able to paint more realistic flowers but  mine were “different”. Sometimes that seems to be the key. Doing something different in the art world can bring about positive attention. I do not like to copy others or to be seen like some wannabe. Of course there are times when I will attempt to paint like someone else. But for the most part, I stay true to myself and paint what I want to paint – even if it is different – and just hope that someone else likes it as much as I do.

23 Feb This entry was published on February 23, 2012 at 5:04 pm. It’s filed under Uncategorized and tagged contrast, different, flowers, paint, painted rocks, pansy, rock, stone, vibrant. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.