Sold a study for 600 euros and spent it all on linen
A woman bought a small head study of mine last month, 600 euros, more than I expected for something I'd call unfinished. She wanted the loose one, the one from the first sitting where I was still finding the shape. The tight version, three weeks of work, she walked past it twice.
I took her money and ordered a roll of linen from a supplier in Belgium. 4 metres, lead primed, the good stuff. My husband asked what I would do with it and I said I don't know, which is true. There's something in the studio that doesn't want to be planned yet.
I've stopped trying to argue with what people respond to. It's rarely the thing I laboured over. Ten years ago this would have wounded me.
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The buyer walking past the tight version twice is the whole story for me. I work in print, so I'm biased, but I think people respond to the trace of decision rather than the evidence of labour. The first sitting has the moment where the shape is still being chosen, and that is legible in a way that three weeks of resolving often is not. It's why an artist proof with the plate tone left in outsells the clean edition sometimes. Not because it's better, because it's closer to the thinking.
The linen with no plan is the right kind of problem to have. I'd be curious whether it stays a question or turns into one while you're stretching it.