Dbee Robinson Artist - The Fat Struggling Menopausal Artist

Black and White Cat with Bamboo I was once asked why my paintings were so expensive? It was for a Chinese painting titled 'Black and white cat with bamboo.' Its a large 46cm x 64cm framed watercolour and ink painting on rice paper that had taken many hours to paint in layers as well as traditional style backing with more rice paper and then framed. Now if I paid myself the minimum wage for the 25+ hours I had spent painting it would be far to expensive and no one would buy it, so I thought £65 was a good price. When I explained it was an original painting that wasn't mass produced but created with love and attention to detail in the traditional Chinese way they began to understand.  I then explained it didn't include all the years learning Chinese art techniques or the many hours and experiments that went wrong preparing and trialing this artwork, it was just for the materials, frame and approximate time spent on this artwork alone. They were then astound...

I am sometimes asked to paint commissions and they are usually pet requests. I do prefer to paint Motorbikes, cars, houses or even churches or venues people get married in, but pets are what I seem to be gravitating towards out of peoples love for their best furry friends. This week it was a jet black dog I met at the Emsworth craft fair which for the first time I excitedly participated in. With bags, T-shirts, and jewellery as well as artwork, doodles and prints I waited patiently at my stall. Sadly only sold a few Queen Elisabeth Aircraft carrier cards but I did get a commission which will at least pay for the table.  So let me introduce you to Wellington. A lovely little dog with a sparkly bow tie and a sweetest and most affectionate persona you could want in a furry best friend. Black is quite a difficult colour to paint as there are so many different shades of it. I find adding a touch of blue helps deepen the colour where needed, or it just looks a bit grey. ...