What Do You Do With The Paintings That Don't Sell?

I can't imagine painting over them. I know a lot of people do and mind you, I'm a photographer. I'll sometimes unframe something and put it away though to reuse the frame. I'd do about anything other than paint over them though including donating them to a cause or a place that has empty walls or even storing them myself but out of sight.

I hang about a dozen throughout my home, ever changing them out. I have decent storage in my home office and garage.
And yes, I do paint over them, just as soon as I get over them. I always prefer a canvas with underground texture.

http://www.slowart.com/articles/clutter.htm

One of the things I do with older paintings is take them off the stretcher bars and roll them up. It's much easier to store them that way. I then re-stretch new canvas on the stretcher bars. Some really old paintings I paint over, some I cut up. It all depends on the art work.

I'm still fairly early in my art journey so old paintings usually aren't nearly as good as my new paintings so they usually get sanded down and gessoed over. Most of my paintings are on 1/8" thick panels so storage isn't much of a problem. I tend to paint on the small side too.

I take them off stretchers and roll them up if very big, occasionally I cut up work on paper and collage it - especially if older work and I think I can do better. I've just started here so starting with small paintings.

I too have a good amount of storage. When we moved into our home here in Missouri there was a very large area under our garage that was used as storage. I had it remodeled into office, storeroom, and most importantly a large gallery space with 2 long walls and a short wall for hanging my work. I have in fact sold works from the gallery. As for older paintings, a year ago I had a buyer take a dozen of my originals, several quite large, for his new home. That freed up some space. I have several large works in the entertainment area of the house. We joke that we hang the "real" art on our main floor and I am relegated to the lower area.

For a 5 minute virtual tour of my studio/gallery:

http://youtu.be/SdwRt1Ro5KQ

They make great fire-lighters

Yeah, Andy P. , ... bond fires.

Let's start a trend ... burn 'em, .. burn 'em all. Wait, the Nazis already did this, right? I simply MUST come up with an original idea!

I guess I should never invest in a painting. I didn't think they aged that quickly.

If you don't date them the galleries never know how old are the paintings. I sold paintings I done 10 years ago this year. all you needed is one person to buy it!

I don't usually date my paintings, either.

It's a good idea to try to keep track of where/when you showed a particular piece of art. Some venues have rules that are designed to prevent artists from submitting work that they've recently displayed in other venues all over town.

Otherwise... that's news to me - my experience so far is the galleries in my area don't care how old the work is unless it's been sitting in that gallery unsold for a long time. I've had galleries ask me to come pick up unsold work.

Oh, to answer the question: If I think my unsold paintings are good, I keep them, and eventually show them someplace else... If I think they look like my "beginner" work and they're not that bad, sometimes I donate them to thrift stores.

If they're really bad, as in, I would be embarrassed if my neighbor found it at the thrift store and bought it... and showed it to everyone as an example of my work ... I throw them out or overpaint or (if on paper) recycle them. You can also cut up your bad paintings and use the pieces in collage.

I have never dated a painting, either. I dated a female body builder once. Oh, .. you mean place the time stamp of the year on it. What WAS I thinking?!

I am with Alfred, never date them. You can always paint over them or donate them to a hospital or a homeless/battered womens shelter.

I used to date paintings. They were too square, so I started dating drawings instead. I tried dating a calendar, turned out it had a new date every day, so that didn't last. Then there were the old clothes from the thrift store... they really dated me.

After that I looked for dates in the grocery store, found a few, but they weren't to my taste, so I rounded up a real hot potato for dinner instead. By the end of the evening, I realized the hot potato was really fried, and a bit cheesy, but... it only had eyes for me, so that was ok.

Cheryl, that was the second time today you made me laugh. Thank you.

Yes, I put the year on my paintings. I paint my wife a lot and she has dated me. After 41 years I am quite dated.

After you become famous you can use all the older ones for a retrospective show. My storage spaces are over run with old artwork. Mine are mixed media and collage and many are on rigid panels so rolling them up is not an option. I do sometimes paint or collage over them. My mother used to be a good option when she was still living, she always liked all my stuff I have almost quit making new work because I have no place to put it.....That is why I like digital art and online sales.

I give them away or I donate them to a local charity. There aren't many left.....

Until now I would never destroy them, but I am starting to think that upcycling them into a new piece of art might be an interesting idea...Hmmm...Darice, you've got me thinking here.... I'll credit you if I make a masterpiece, unless it gets upcycled as well.

I paint over the ones I don't like and hang the rest up in the house switching them around.

I never date my work. All my painyings are two years and under lol. Paintings can take several years to sell. I recently sold one that is 5 years old. I will paint over one if I think it's not salable or up to snuff. I would never paint over a painting because it has passed the two year mark. Just don't enter it in the same show or gallery. Many of my paintings take 3+ years to sell. I'm lucky as I have lots of storage room.

My parents are now living in a retirement village - condos. Everyone there in one way or another had to come to grips with downsizing. Some did a better job than others. Across the hall there lived a couple who were artists. Every square inch of the condo was filled with canvases that they couldn't part with. There was a small path down the middle of the room for travel.

Eventually one of them got sick and had to move to assisted living. One day the other half of the pair missed their typical visiting time. Eventually after a few hours went by someone thought it a good idea to check in on him. They found him trapped under a tremendous pile of canvases.

Sometimes I give them a new life, Here is one of my watercolors before:



and after under the knife:



if they are on canvases you can turn it into floorcloth.

Edward, that's how I want to go. headline: Old Painter Killed By His Own Bad Art

I wish it was as easy to reuse unsold framed photo work as it is to paint over a canvas. I am out of wall space, and have dozens of them stacked up.

Valerie. Have a clearance sale.... I did that last summer and it went over fabulously.

Store them in Your garage. In some years Your children can sell them to the Museum of Modern Art.

Here's a really radical idea:

Digitally scan all your paintings at very high quality resolution, post them all on the internet for anybody to use in making transformative digital works, and discourage more artists from creating entirely new, completely self-generated work. If art is becoming trash, then we can recycle it this way.

Of course, this requires our relinquishing the long-sacred grip on the idea of individual ownership of visual "property".

This is better than mass fires to burn them, which I could see happening in the distant future (or maybe not so distant).

At what point do artists become hoarders instead of functional members of society?

Harsh questions. Hard realities. I don't like 'em. How could I think such things?!

Paint over the date.
Add a new splash of color on them - & voila' ! you have a fresh "new" painting.

Your work is beautiful , only paint over a piece if you are not satisfied with it.

Ok This is what I have so far

1) yes paint over your old, not very good paintings but don't because you could become famous one day
2) date your paintings but don't
3) have a clearance sale or give them to Goodwill but then move
3). you have a responsibility to not over populate the planet with your paintings
4) have neighbors check up on you periodically to check up on you in case your paintings have taken over your home and killed you off
5) store my paintings in Kevin's garage
6) Burn them
Thanks guys all very good advice
Thank you Janine for the compliment:)

Wecome to Contradictory Advice R Us.

And don't date your paintings.

Lauren, take quick look at my video. The space is under my garage. The video is not great quality but you'll get a good idea of where my art lives.

I only paint over a piece if I'm not satisfied with it. I take them off the stretchers and put them in flat boxes.

I don't date my paintings. The month and year are in the filename I use when I scan them though. I don't think it's anybody's business when I painted something. I don't paint for conservators.

HAHAHAHHA Lauren and Cheryl!
TGIFunny