Help Bring the Artists’ Resale Right to Canada

Use CARFAC’s handy form and contact your MP today:
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Three auctions held in the last six days resulted in $1.4 million in sales of artworks by 29 living Canadian artists. Many of the artworks have increased in value over time but these profits are not currently shared with the artists. If Canada had an Artist’s Resale Right of 5%, the artists would have received a combined total of $70,517.
For example, a piece by Montreal artist, Claude Tousignant, Accélérateur Chromatique 90, sold at Sotheby’s last night for $110,000. If Canada had an Artist’s Resale Right of 5%, Tousignant would have received $5500.
“It’s great to see Canada’s auction houses promoting Canadian art as vigorously as they are, and having success in doing so,”
said CARFAC President , Grant McConnell. “Coupled with the fair compensation to artists that the Artist’s Resale Right would bring, that success could be more widely celebrated. All of us should have something to gain from a vibrant and growing Canadian art market.”
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http://www.carfac.ca/2010/10/1047/

Stretching Exercise

Getting around to stretching the Algonquin canvases. Got a bunch of paintings to finish for the #CentralArtWalk this year. Also need to clean up the studio. It’s a mess!

Painting now on Stretchers

So, I bought some 30″ gallery stretchers, and mounted the test painting (I should call it a ‘study’). Looks good, though, I’m wondering if I should paint to within 1.5″ of the edge instead of 3″. With the 3″ border, it’s more likely to stretch without cracking, but it also looks more unfinished. It’s OK, if I point out what I’m doing and how it got this way, but it’s possible that someone may judge it rather critically because of this.

New Painting Project

I’m working on the logistics of a new project, involving unstretched, unprimed canvas. These paintings will be done while on a canoe trip in Algonquin Park. I want to be able to paint my usual style in my usual format, using acrylics in the most environmentally friendly way possible. So, minimal water, no brushes, and no stretchers, so I can get the 3×3 canvases up and back without too much trouble.
More on this to come.

Artists lobby for resale rights legislation

Artists could really benefit from resale rights. A percentage of the resale value would go to the artist, helping to keep them afloat and making sure that if someone benefits from the sale of their work, that the artist does as well.

The law would ensure artists are compensated when their work is re-sold at a higher price than what it was originally purchased for.
Fifty-nine countries around the world already have the legislation, including France which has had the law in place since 1920, according to April Britski who is the executive director of the Canadian Artists Representation, also known as Carfac.
The legislation could benefit artists in Nunavut. Recently, a print by Cape Dorset, Nunavut, painter Kenojuak Ashevak sold at auction for about $29,000. If the legislation was in place, Ashevak would have gotten about $1,500 from the sale.

Artists lobby for resale rights legislation – Arts & Entertainment – CBC News