An (A)lte(R)na(T)ive investment

Investing in any market or scheme is undoubtedly unpredictable and comes with a great number of risks. Stocks and shares are volatile, and with this to consider some investors are now focusing their assets on alternative forms of investment, perhaps most interestingly in works of art.

Pros in the field of art investment, or the ‘investment of passion’ as it is often referred to, have a few rules when it comes to buying and selling art. Firstly, as with all types of investments, you shouldn’t expect a fast return on your buy. Art insiders would recommend holding on to the artwork for at least 5, if not 10 years, to allow for the artist to develop in the industry. This brings us to the second rule; ensure you purchase an artwork which you enjoy. When at art fairs or auctions buy what catches your eye, not what you think will impress others. The work is going to be with you for up to (if not longer) than a decade, so you want an artwork that you can look at on your wall and take pleasure in. 

An excellent example of how art investment works is the case of Peter Doig’s The Architect’s Home in the Ravine. The huge oil painting was bought for a mere £280,000 in 2002 by Charles Saatchi, who then resold the artwork in 2007, after the artists reputation soared, for £2.7 million. The buyer from 2007 put the painting in Christie’s February auction this year and it sold for just under £7 million. That’s an unbelievable 2300% rise in value in just over a decade.

Peter Doig’s The Architect’s Home in the Ravine

However with the positives you also get the negatives, as with all investment there are substantial risks involved. Taste in art changes over time, so what is popular one year may not be the other. As well as this, if the artist’s reputation is badly damaged, the price of the artwork will subsequently tumble. Take for example well-known Australian artist Rolf Harris who has a large contract with Whitewall galleries.  In spring when sexual allegations against him were first released, people started selling his work on eBay for low prices because they feared if he was charged the art would be worthless. Now Harris has been charged, it is still unclear what Whitewall are going to do in reaction, but price slashing will almost certainly be the first step, if not removing his art from galleries nationally altogether.

One of Harris' paintings

 To wrap up, art investment can absolutely reap the benefits, but it requires a lot of research, as well as the equity to invest in the first place. But with the correct amount of planning and in a decade or 2, perhaps you could be the next Saatchi?

Mica Angela Hendricks - Collaborating with a 4 year old

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been on here for a while. Summer has been very busy, I went away with my parents to Greece, and then shortly after went with a couple of friends to Thailand for 3 weeks, then almost as soon as I came back started an internship at a Financial PR company called Abchurch which has been going really well.

But I just had to blog about this latest craze which is sweeping the likes of Reddit, Tumblr and the general social media sphere. Mica Angela Hendrick, a graphic artist (check out her blog here), on the 27th August updated her blog with her latest collection of artworks to share with her followers. These were slightly different to previous works of hers because they are not entirely her own, she collaborated with her 4 year old daughter. 

Hendricks explains the collaboration delightfully, describing how she received a brand new, squeaky clean sketchbook in the post and she started sketching an old movie still (she claims are her favourite photos to draw). Her daughter came up to her and insisted on finishing the drawing. Hendricks thought to herself that she'd just let this drawing go, but by the time her daughter had finished she'd fallen in love with the finished piece. 

Hendricks draws the head from 20s, classical Hollywood movie stills, and then her daughter completes the drawing by adding the body and the background. The finished figure could be anything from a dinosaur to a stick insect. Hendricks and her daughter also both jointly add colour, her daughter being a little more free with her markers, and Hendricks a bit more tidy with acrylic paint. 

The pictures are quite lovely! Combining old traditional style with the young, free imagination!

www.busymockingbird.com