Copycat in the gallery

Hi, I had this happen to me, I got a lovely little idea and I was copied. But I know that I was copied and she knows she copied me. This makes hers 2nd best, I reckon. And in the end it’s nothing to do with the format, or the idea, it’s what you do in that format and how well you pull it off. And I feel that the original thinker is the one who will pull off the best use of their own idea. Makes sense.

Robert, your comments were about as wise as I’ve read from you. Of the many contexts within which copying an artist makes sense, being inspired by someone ranks up there. To compete directly with that artist with technique or composition borrowed from them, to my mind, simply shows a lack of class, and the only way to escape the classless is to paint alone. The analogy that comes to mind are those of us who have loved, been hurt, then struggle with exposing ourselves to that hurt again. Nevertheless, an open heart IS necessary to find love again. Our artist was inspired by the group. One of the group is hurting him. In my opinion our artist has no choice but to continue loving, perhaps accept the challenge and improve the concept yet again beyond the abilities of the copycat, become the leader of a group of artists that become known for their horizontal watercolors, or any of the wise choices you advised. In the music world, some of our finest innovators LEARNED their craft by a note-for-note copying of someone who inspired them. They played these memorizations for the paying public until they created their own works. Some interesting analogies to consider in this.

Jaye, I, personally, find your other styles more dynamic than your landscapes… what about doing those in long format? I agree, the public likes long format. Maybe you can keep the dimensions and experiment with the style. Nice work all around.

I would be so tempted to mess with this guy’s head. Up the ante. Go larger, say 4′ x 6″, expand your subject matter, and yes, apply your other style of painting to the long format. Definitely find other galleries (the second problem here).

Your older art is full of innovation and personal originality. Wonderful stuff to look at…engaging, to say the least. Your lovely landscapes show such a good eye for composition and color. I cannot imagine you not finding an unimitable approach to your new art (new beginnings are darwinian too) that will not be easy to copy or compete with. Love your work.

Jaye, I also find your other styles much more interesting and compelling.

Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.

Jaye … your work is so creative and beautiful that I think Robert’s advice is right on … you can out-create anyone whose only resource is copying. Love your work … both the old and the new.

I have to say, this copycat has real nerve! They say that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” or something like that…lol. Coincidentally, I just purchased some canvases that are 6″x18″ simply because they were on sale and the different size intrigued me since I usually use rectangular or square ones. Perhaps this fellow was inspired by your beautiful art on long canvas; but the individual artist’s talent always takes top billing…so keep up the good work and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing yours was first and made a great impression on a fellow artist. Isn’t our purpose to inspire through our art? It’s apparent that you did!

How interesting that his wife should be the gallery director and have this happen.

Another tempest in a tea cup. But Robert says it much better and more subtly.

Wait a Minute! You made some ground breaking break through in your work and brought it to your gallery. Then, mysteriously, another artist in the same coral started painting the EXACT same thing! And his wife is the director of the gallery? She is not only showing the copied works, but putting them close to yours! What kind of gallery are you with? This is the most horrible thing I have ever heard! Is there a fresh batch of Rembrandts arriving shortly! This gallery is not worth its weight in salt. I would go over there first thing int he morning, pack up ALL of my paintings and take them out of there. A gallery is suppose to sell the artist and their specific brand. Is the director telling their spouse to paint like you? Take your ball out of the playground and go find a new place to show and tell.

Jaye, I think you shouldn’t bother to compete with him. Try to place your beautiful long landscapes in a different gallery, and produce something different for this gallery. Take the long ones right out of there, unless you can come up with some different way of doing them so they’re different from this guy’s. Obviously both he and his wife are low on ethics, but just the same, that is the world we live in and adopting methods of other artists into our own work is done all the time. Size or format is not something you can trademark and keep all to yourself. Ignore him and keep doing your thing.

Years ago I went to a museum showing where the artist had copied several paintings of mine published in an American Artist Magazine article along with several a decorator had “borrowed” and obviously loaned to the artist to copy.

“We are all small actors on the great stage of Creative Darwinism.” A nice line, Robert. One to remember. Thank you for framing an important truth in such a palatable fashion.

Creative ideas are constantly pilfered by businesses and individuals nowadays. If I invented a clever new craft technique and took it on the road, very soon someone else would be creating a lookalike to cash in on my idea. As you state, a long horizontal composition is not a new idea. No artist owns patents on its use. Usually an admirer will have the sensitivity not to copy the look and format of an artist who is a member of the same group! No one wants to be perceived as a ‘copycat’. Painting is an evolutionary process, so it would be my hope that this artist would evolve into another format at some point anyway. Too often artists get caught up in the commercial success of one painting or one style and think that they should just do it over and over again for the rest of their days. In the short run, in this instance, the political problems dictate this artist look elsewhere to exhibit. She could simply change her attitude about the whole affair. She could take it far less seriously and laugh it off as a form of clumsy flattery by the copycat perpetrator and move on to new subjects and formats. You have to pick your battles carefully in life and I don’t feel this battle for this artist is worth fighting. The outcome could only be unfavorable.

As a long time workshop leader, I know that participants in workshops learn by imitation of mine and others’ works. I have been startled sometimes walking into a gallery or an art show somewhere and seeing work by myself or other workshop leaders I know well, and then going up to the piece and seeing someone else’s name on it. Lots of times the work is a lot better than my original. Bravo to the artist. Yes, I know that work done in workshops is “not supposed” to be shown commercially, but with that good-looking piece sitting there at home, the temptation is overwhelming to show what has been done. Newer artists may not have a great body of work. The better their work is, the better they make me look. So, bravo to me. As it is said in Newfoundland, “It makes me no never mind!”

What great wisdom and advice you give here, Robert!! :)

Good Day Jaye,

I need to be candid about this copy cat episode. Jaye your “other work” is far more captivating, and the long, horizontal format is not only common place, but lacking in integrity. Please accept my comments as a positive for you and know that Robert is quite diplomatic and generous with his viewpoints. I would ditch the whole genre and move back into “you”. Marketing can destroy an artist faster than a speeding bullet.

My copycat was an in-law. Copied style, palette, frames, cardstock (for selling cards). One painting could have been a “painting by numbers” rip off. I admit that if my ego were larger I would have just laughed it off but.. I am not there yet. It is definitely a sign of insecurity (on the copier’s part) but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. Being a family member, it is somehow even more invasive!!!

The thing about copy-cats is eventually they have no original ideas of their own and either copy comeone else or go away. Now the gallery owner being the spouse is another matter. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hasn’t recomended coping other artists as well from time to time. Don’t worry too much and move on if you can. You do what you do and let the world be damned.

I cannot help but smile and say to the artist, “be flattered’ that your creations have inspired another. I understand and know first-hand the underlying feelings of having someone else use and profit from one’s ideas. Case in point : My innovative free plein air program for artists started15 years ago and is still going strong. It has provided opportunity and benefited more than 100 local artists in my area as we share our knowledge and expertise in art with each other in the great outdoors.

I tell my students that having their work copied by another artist is the highest form of complement. I go even further and allow them to copy mine, take pictures, whatever can be used for inspiration. To think you can own any type or style of painting is just flat out silly. It shows a deep insecurity on the part of the offended artist.

W. J. Phillips, who you mentioned in “Esoterica”, has been prominently displayed in Banff venues for decades. When I was first exposed to his work it seemed very familiar to me. It was not until years later when showing a Phillips piece in a book to a water colour student I realized why. This student pointed out the W.J. Phillips was an illustrator for many Canadian History school books.

There are a lot of wisdom in the previous comments. I have enjoyed looking at your work. Perhaps taking it onboard as a learning point. It won’t be long and that person will be off looking and using someone else’s work. It is an honour in a funny sort of way that he liked your work. I do abstract texture paintings and often artists ask me what do I use, I only share it with artists from another city or country, just to protect my little niche and I make sure that it is put away in my little studio so prying eyes don’t pick up the idea. Thank you for raising this for the rest of us. You……by far are the winner in this issue, continue on your wonderful journey of discovering new ways of doing your art.

As I have often been copied I can relate to the anger, but I always say ” you can copy my idea, colors, etc. but you can never create it as I have.”

I was invited into a figure show once. When I attended opening night and looked at the work exhibited I was appalled that someone had taken Playboy images and painted them signing his

I’m no saint. I’ve copied outright, purposely taken the idea’s of another and put them onto canvas and said “ah ha!”.

I am so moved by the number of artists who have written to me because of your generosity and insight in your response to me. And thank you so much for your thoughtful response, truly! I did take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and had a conversation with the artist in question. He didn’t realize that I’d felt that way, and was open to our conversation. It was good, no harm done, and I feel better for having spoken to him. His own work is quite good, he was just “playing” with this format I was doing, and after speaking with him I just said, “do whatever you feel like doing, I just needed to communicate how it felt to me.” And you know, being an artist, you can’t tell or ask any other artist what to paint or not paint.

I would like to paint into each painting a little tortoise or dragonfly or something and then put out the word that any copy of my work that did not have my secret symbol in it is a fraud. It would drive my copyists crazy trying to find what that secret symbol is and where. We live in a totally dishonest world so Robert Genn is partly right and all we can do is get so good that these people have no hope in copying us. We just have to work ten times harder.

This story is a very old one. Picasso was very well known for stealing ideas and processes from his art compatriots. So much so, they would hide their work, because if he took a liking to it, he would not only copy the style, but do it better!

There are a variety of ways to copy. (I’m going to re-open and already over-ripe can of worms here.) I saw a local artist gaining some recognition. He initially did inks, but eventually began producing watercolors of distinctly local, sometimes touristy, sites. What I could not understand was how his drawing was so on the money, but how incredibly unskilled was his use of color. Then someone told me. He was using projection. Now, his day job was not illustration, he simply took a course at a local evening vocational tech school and learned to copy projection. Then I noticed how poorly signed the inks were, despite their being drawn effectively. Also, I began to see the projection distortions. How it is that so many people were willing to pay for such poor use of color and painting technique is beyond me. Additionally, I began to discern that many of the touristy pictures were pretty commonplace. What I mean by that is, they seemed to be exactly composed as other work I’d seen. Perhaps they were from published photos, perhaps from personal photos from similar location and position and lighting. I don’t know. On the local scene this character is much more of a success that am I, who paints predominantly en plein air, or from my own digitals. And since so much of the art world runs on personal taste, I hardly ever speak of this issue. But, personally? I think this clown is a copiest, and not even of the first water.

I admit it, I copy other artists. But you’d never know it, because what I actually do is decide what single thing I like most about their paintings and try it with a different subject, perhaps different palette, media, format, etc. The single thing could be a color combination, brush work, use of contrasts or the gleam of light on an edge. Looking at others’ art is only a starting point for when I’m stuck and need to try something different.

I truly sympathize with the artists whose work has been copied! This has happened to me in a way that my painting was used for someone else’s commercial venture, ie. my painting was printed on t-shirts, mugs, etc. sold at a major sporting event. While one is told imitation is the highest form of flattery, it’s difficult to feel that way when you see creation being used for someone else’s profit. Also, I know an artist who has not painted a single original idea, only copied from books/workshop instructors/art magazines, etc. She is constantly frustrated because she ‘runs out of ideas’. Her technical skills are impressive, so much so she’s received numerous awards in juried shows for these copies. During times like these I remind myself, “Life just ain’t fair” and return to doing what I love most, painting something that has moved me in the hopes it will move a viewer/patron.

Jaye, I get the feeling that this artist does not have any scruples. When you had a talk with him, did he even apologize? The gallery director has practiced dirty politics and should be ashamed of herself. You brought a unique viewpoint into the gallery and it is a shame someone tried to capitalize on your success. People come in all types of personalities and in a social world as an artist, we are going to be subject to many off the wall types. That wasn`t meant as a pun, I just run into some very strange artists all the time. My experiences have brought me to the conviction that I can`t change their behavior, but I can change myself. So everyday I get to the easle, I begin a new change, it is easy. Keep growing and surprising them with new creative works. We can rise up and above as we dedicate ourselves to producing unique, quality art that follows the true path of it`s creator.

The main problem with copying is it gets old for the artist and eventually they stop or get bored. Copying damages your eye as well as you drawing skills. After too much of this you lose your ability to draw freely at all. Technique suffers as well as execution. Subject matter isn’t personal and therefore lacks continuity ,progression and evolution.

I have had people copy my work. I have seen them win awards and then found out the work was copied. I feel sorry for them. If they do not have enough creativity to come up with an original idea, then, I guess they can share my original ideas. I have more than I can or will ever paint. I have drawn out ideas, on reams of paper, stacks of postcards, and thousands of photos. If someone is as sadly unimaginative as they obviously are, then I am prolific enough to give them a fist full of ideas. I have probably 10 shows of 30 paintings planned at any one time, I am a full time painter, and I will never be able to get all the ideas down on canvas. So, copy away. Go ahead, let me do your thinking and creating for you…… but in the end what you will have is a copy of what I created, that is all. It is not original, it is not yours. Any pride you feel in the work you did belongs to me.

For years I did a large show with several artists. Every year the same artists would watch what sells and quickly change gears. It can get to you, but you need to keep your head down and do what you feel good about and do the best that you can do. In the end, the person that enjoys their work, works hard at improving, and has the creativity will come out on top.