We’ve all been there, haven’t we? You arrive at the much anticipated weekend art fair or gallery opening. There it is, at the very first artist booth, or on the first gallery wall the perfect piece that you have been looking for. That space on your home or office wall has been bare, for how many years now since you moved in. You have been waiting for the perfect piece that would speak to you when you saw it and here it is, almost screaming at you. It’s an original, which is great because this artist only does originals and actually that’s what you prefer. 

 

But wait, you just got here and this is just the first booth. You shouldn’t be this impulsive at the first booth, you haven’t seen the rest of the show yet, there might be something better…. less expensive.  After quickly making the rounds through the rest of the show you decide that the piece in the very first booth was still the perfect piece and that you would get it and damn the cost. What a great feeling, that after several years of waiting, you finally found it. 

 

However, much to your chagrin when you arrive back at that first booth, it had already been sold. It was an original, the artist doesn’t do prints and it’s gone.  

 

I had a customer that fell in love with an original painting so much that he was brought to tears when he learned that it had sold. It wasn't a passing, impulsive attachment for him, as he had been coveting this painting for over two years. It got to the point that when I saw him entering the gallery I would pull up a chair for him in front of his favorite painting, so the two of them could spend some time together. It was very much a love affair. However, someone else shared his passion for this painting and now it was gone. 

 

When it’s a living artist and if they do commissions, you may still have that perfect piece and even better it’s being created just for you. So, your procrastination may still work in you favor, unlike the story that follows. 

 

 - The Painting That Got Away - 

 

Flaming June is one of those paintings whose story adds to its beauty and allure. The story of how Andrew Lloyd Webber saw Flaming June by Lord Leighton in a store window in the 60's is legendary. He loved the painting but did not have the £50 to buy it. Can you imagine how heartbreaking it would be to find one of the finest of Victorian paintings for that price and not being able to afford it? He trusted his eye and his heart. He did not care that the critics at that time cared nothing for that sort of Victorian sentiment, rejecting it with derogatory terms if they were forced to comment on it at all. But, he knew what he liked and he wanted that painting! He went to his grandmother and asked her for the money to buy it but she wrote it off as kitsch and did not give him the money.  

 

As he later said, "At dinner parties of my parents generation, if you really wanted people to choke into their fondu sets, you mentioned the Pre-Rafaelites." For Andrew Lloyd Webber, this was the painting that got away....... continued...... Flaming June .  

 

If you love it, if it speaks to you and emotionally touches you, don't let it get away..........Buy It!