That is true...we commissioned a portrait artist to paint our children's oil portraits and she mentioned that this practice is hurting the business of portrait artists in our country. Apparently there are "brokers" here who sell this product, you send them a photo, and they do the rest. Of course, the person doing the painting receives a tiny percentage of the payment. And the cost for this "product" is significantly less expensive than commissioning a portrait artist who actually SEES your child, makes sketches and gets to know your child's personality. It is quite sad all around, really.

this is the same concept as those artists on the streets of Venice, Montmartre, etc.. where tourists buy the cheap little oil paintings to bring home, they are "hand made" because human hands dot the paint on it, but they are really worthless.

I know of one artist who has a side business of those reproductions, he sets up in a touristy area and pretends to "paint" those pre printed canvasses all summer long and he uses a different name than what he uses as a "real" artist.
Pretty cheesy I think but if one must pay the rent, I guess all is fair.

I suspect our new friend will come back and Spam us in "Part 2."

Yes, this is spam.

It is still a worthy discussion, though, about what makes art, art.

Perhaps it is a worthy discussion; I just don't like someone pretending to "join us" when they're obviously interested in peddling their stuff to us.

That said, I don't hold high mass-produced pieces in high regard. Cranking out paintings by assembly line for the sake of making money off the masses is not what art is about, IMO. That's not to say I've never owned mass-produced prints, but they're prints and don't pretend to be something they're not, like these "handmade oil paintings" do. I really dislike the unauthenticity of this type of work.

I didn't think we should have the discussion here! Besides, wasn't authenticity just covered in depth?

Sigh...I am so gullible!

As far as our "new friend" goes, he's not trying to sell us anything yet. Part 2 is posted, and I think it's possible he (or she) is just giving us the benefit of knowledge about what goes on in China and elsewhere. I have a friend who's paid quite a bit for these "original" copies, and I bet she doesn't know they're sort of a paint-by-numbers. She'd probably appreciate the posting above. I am known to be naive, so I acknowledge maybe there will be a part 3 where we're given a sales pitch, but so far I don't see what Zhenwei stands to gain personally by the postings. So up to this time, I thank the poster for the information.

Susanka, well-said. I admit that it sent a spam alert in my head too at first, but haven't seen the pitch yet! Have to give the benefit of the doubt until we get the usual..."buy this thing from me and you'll be spared the shame of getting inferior goods" story.

It's just odd that this person registers today, and immediately delves in to "educate us" on mass-produced paintings, and chooses to do so in multi-part threads. I'm not buyin' it. ;-)

Good points too, Auntjen!

You might want to see Zhenwei's post down the page in part 2. There's still been no sales pitch. I just think we should be cautious in what we say about other posters until we see something wrong going on, if we want this to be a welcoming place. Spam is easy to deal with: Don't respond. But where's the actual evidence that this is spam? In any case, if this is a spammer, maybe the cool reception will scare him/her off. If they're not a spammer, then I hope we haven't been so unwelcoming they won't return.

Even if they are not selling something physical, they are selling an idea........ (the same as someone protesting does.)

I don't know their motive, but I think auntjen is right. If on the small chance the person isn't selling something, they ARE starting multiple threads on the same topic. That is almost as annoying. :)

Zhenwei: What is the point of spreading out your post in multiple threads? It is confusing and bumps other threads off the board.

Not much "news" here - the Starving Artists assembly lines have been going in this country since the 70's. They were set up like communes in New England & Pennsylvania & this "story" just introduces machine assembly lines.

~Jeana