Marine Wildlife Artwork Question

[Mark Ray]

Are any of you collectors of marine wildlife artwork? As a full time marine wildlife artist I am always interested in what a customer is looking for weather I'm at a tournament or a boat show or someone is just surfing my website. Large prints, small prints, price you are willing to pay for a print or an original. Print on paper, print on canvas, framed or unframed. Times are tough but I firmly believe we all should continue doing what we love, fishing. For me it's fishing and painting fish. I just happen to paint for a living and want to continue giving my customers something they really like, but more importantly something they can afford. Is there something out there in the fish art world that you can't find or have seen it but can't afford it. This can include t-shirt art as well. Thanks for any input.

[Squidnation]

I collect Marine Art - I have quite a few Vinnie Myers, Steve Goione, Wyland and a few unknown or slightly known artists. It is difficult for me to purchase art for the home because my wife is very picky and not a fan of the brightly colored art. That leaves out most marine artist or at least most marine artist's work. Wyland did some chinese pencil art that was cool. I saw his marlin in the key west gallery and had I had the coin at the time it would be hanging on the wall. But later on we did purchase an Orca Giclee (sp) becuase it depicted an overcast day with low light. So it was not very brightly colored. Vinnie has done some dolphin stuff in black and white pencil and my wife actually asked me to buy that one and it hangs in the kitchen.

My son Nicholas is a big fan of Carey Chen and Carey's art hangs in my son's bedroom. Again Jen doesn't appreciate the bright art so she doesn't really want it in the living room.

We purchase what we really really like. I do have a couple originals but mostly purchase prints because of the costs. Giclees (sp) are cool because they almost look like the originals especially if the are remarked.

I'm not a fan of work where the artist tries to depict the mood of the fish with facial expressions. Fish show anger and agression with color not facial expression, except dophin - i have seen dolphin look really pissed. So this makes it twice as hard to find art to hang on the wall because Color shows the mood of the fish but my wife doesn't like lots of color. Usually we end up with art that shows color with intensity of the darkened lines not vibrance of the color. Doesn't know if that makes sense or not but hope it helps.

[clt_capt]

I have to agree with Bill - A lot of the marine art has extremely bright colors and really doesn't fit in the rooms of my house where I'd be allowed to put it.

The art in my house is fairly simple - Andrew Wyeth, Some carefully selected NC Seafood Festival Posters, and Mark Ray prints (just hung those) - All are custom framed prints - Prices ranged from $20 - $150 (although the frame is usually more)

[fishinmagician_IV]

I've looked at your sight and have seen them on here and they are beautiful. Excellent work and great detail. In our house we have antiques and the prints we have are P. Buckley Moss which goes well with our furniture. Now we move out to what I call my "boathouse" which is a 16 x 30 attached garage and yes, I have some antique rods and reels but I enjoy my prints from Guy Harvey and a couple of others and my wooden fish replicas that I have caught. Now that I have said all that, you asked what we might like. I would like to see you have paper posters, 16 x 20, 20x24, etc, or along those lines. I have attached a photo of my boathouse, which I have seen others on here show there tackle rooms. That's a good place to show off your work, at a reasonable price. Just my opinion ???? Thanks for asking and keep up the beautiful work!!
Jack

[Mark Ray]

Thanks for the input