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Bruckmann’s oil painting “Fish House” has sold.
Painter Frank Bruckmann often puts his intensely colored, evocative scenes on large canvases. But at holiday time, he offers smaller formats — and the works, like those of his colleagues, are selling.
Smallness and unframed-ness, which can also be a significant factor in affordability, are both on display in “Deck The Walls,” the Kehler Liddell Gallery (KLG) holiday art show on view at the Westville gallery through Dec. 23.
Antle-O’Donnell in front of Eben Kling’s acrylic work “Party From The Outside Set”
To prepare for the holiday buying season, all of the collective gallery’s 21 artists — including newest members Eben Kling and Amanda Walker, showing for the first time — were given seven feet of the gallery’s long rectangular space, said the gallery director, Liz Antle‑O’Donnell.
They were also given the earnest suggestion to “consider lowering the price points” in order to make the art works affordable as holiday gifts, she added.
The result is a group show of photography, printmaking, mixed media, and sculpture, including works by long-time Westville artist Gar Waterman, that often feature series of small scanned images from an artist’s notebook, as in the case of Tom Edwards’s butterflies and other subject matter.
Someone came and bought a whole set of butterflies, five of them, for $250, Waterman reported. He was in the gallery on Friday morning, his day to sit and greet the public, as is the rotating responsibility of each gallery member.
“Five signed prints for two hundred and fifty bucks! They’re flying off the wall,” he quipped.
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“Picnic” watercolor and colored pencil, by Amanda Walker.
Antle‑O’Donnell confirmed sales have been good. All told, between 30 and 40 works have sold since the show opened in mid-November. She herself has bought works from two of her fellow KLG colleagues to give to her family.
Antle‑O’Donnell said she likes to give art as a gift and has given her own works over the years to family members, but recently has reached a watershed moment.
“I’ve saturated my family with my own work,” she said, which is why she likes buying the affordable items of her colleagues. She intends to buy more.
Waterman said he too had his eye on a Tom Edwards butterfly, but he is angling to get the originals.
One of Tom Edwards’s small butterfly series, whch has sold several sets.
Waterman and Antle‑O’Donnell engaged in a discussion about the pluses and minuses of giving art as a gift. How might giving art differ, for example, from giving a book to someone? a reporter asked.
“It’s more challenging to give art. A piece of art is a real commitment. Others might not look at it that way,” he said, but for something to make it onto his own wall, it must past a long series of conscious and unconscious tests. It can be all the more difficult to make the right “fit” as a gift to someone else with similarly demanding tastes.
“In my family there are some who collect art,” said Antle‑O’Donnell, making the selection a lot easier. Waterman concurred.
“Possession Lust”
Antle‑O’Donnel’s recalled recent visitors to the gallery looking to buy a gift, but finding themselves in the midst of conflict. “I had people saying, ‘I should look for other people, but I want this,’” she paraphrased the overheard dilemma.
“That’s it,” chimed in Waterman. “Someone sees your work and has possession lust. That’s what’s wonderful. A show like this is so great because it is a smorgasbord.”
Like any gallery, even one on the collective model such as KLG, the holiday season is important, and the gallery has made a big comeback from the lean sales of the years triggered by the Great Recession beginning in 2008.
“Alberobello,” photograph by Marjorie Wolfe.
Between 2003, when KLG was founded, and about 2008, the gallery’s annual revenue from art sales was in the $50,000 to $60,000 range, Waterman said.
When the crash came, the gallery saw a dip in revenue (like many businesses). But if sales continue the way they are going, they will reach those pre-crash annual levels again, Waterman said. KLG also gives their member artists a split, at 70 percent for the artist and 30 percent for KLG, which is better than most for-profit gallery arrangements.
“None of us is going to get rich making art. Most of us are here because we believe in the place, it’s a nice focal point for your work, and the cameraderie,” he said.
“Art is a luxury. You can’t eat it. It doesn’t heat your home. Your clientele are limited,” even at affordable prices.
Antle‑O’Donnel said KLG was recently featured in an article in Art New England about the creative ways galleries are making ends meet — for example, by renting out their space for private events.
“Which has been fantastic for us,” Waterman added.
KLG’s next offering after the holidays features work by member artists Mark K. Saint Mary and Joan Jacobson-Zamore. The dual shows — called “No Longer Noticed” and “Once Upon a Dream in Lapland” — will run from Jan. 11 through Feb. 11, with an artist talk and opening reception on Jan 13 at 3 p.m. Kehler Liddell is located at 873 Whalley Ave in the heart of Westville.
