delrayART

What is ‘DelrayART’?

June 26th, 2024

What do I mean by the name ‘DelrayART’? Yes, Delray Beach Florida is my home and I make art here and that art reflects what you might call ‘coastal living’ as I can walk to the beach from my home. But my art while inspired by the themes associated with the beach is also about painting. Some of my sensibility derives I think from my parents having hung prints by the French artist Raoul Dufy in my bedroom as a child along with prints by Miro and Picasso. The child-like playfulness of Dufy’s seascapes and beaches belies a sophisticated eye I would only come to appreciate later but the ‘joie de vivre’ and mid-century style seeped into my own aesthetic along with the playfulness of Miro’s abstractions and the cubist distorted figures of Picasso. After moving here in 1995 from NYC (thats another story) I tried to ctreate a style that incorporated these things and that would be ‘portable’ to any contemporary decor plan. Part of this also has to do with my use of extreme panoramas and verticals (often in panels) that suit both large walls walls and high ceilings. Over time I started working more and more in creating custom wall-specific prints for clients and realized how so many seem to share my own sensibility; call it a ‘DelrayART’ state of mind.

Decor vs ‘Fine Art’

August, 2024

I have two types of customers (or 'clients' which makes me feel like I'm a lawyer) those who are looking for an original painting and those in the market for a print.

Today I want to address the later group who have a wall (or even better, walls) but don't want to spend investment money. This is the 'decor' market which spans the most inexpensive wall art from a big box store to what I do which is admittedly 'high end' decor by which I mean it can reach prices that can rival original fine art of smaller size or an early career collected artist.

Decor in this sense just means non-investment art, that is, these prints even the embellished ones* will not appreciate in value. I often joke with prospective buyers  'do not buy to put your grandkids through college- buy because you love it and it looks great in your home for the next 10-20 years'. 

One way I describe the prints is that while the original painting is the like a person you love, the prints are like a really really good photograph of the person you love. Due to the amazing advances in printing, these facsimiles have excellent color and detail such that often from viewing distance I cannot tell the difference. That said there is a difference particularly in the surface which even with texturizing which I usually do not recommend but will provide if client insists. 

As the section on custom prints shows this is often a collaborative process as I work with clients to figure out the best image/size/shape/configuration/embellishment. By working with photos of the wall I send 'digital comps' that show how various images might look on the wall. Sometimes this can take weeks before a final decsion is arrived at and often where we end up is very different then where we started. It is very gratifying to put the last digital comp side by side with the installation shot and not be able to tell which is which! 

*This is a more nuanced conversation but there is a ‘tipping' point’ between works I create that involve a print that has been heavily embellished and painted over to the point it has becomes an original multi-media piece and priced accordingly. These are almost always abstracts.

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