Toa Payoh Vets Clinical
Research Making veterinary surgery alive
to a veterinary student studying in Australia
using real case studies and pictures
Buying An Original
Painting
Dr Sing Kong Yuen,
BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
First written: Nov 29, 2009.
"I will present you a painting,"
Khin Khin said to me one day. She
had considered paintings as a
waste of time. "You can't make
money out of selling paintings,"
she used to tell me. She presumed
that I wanted to buy Myanmar
painting at a low price to sell in
Singapore. She knows that selling
paintings of unknown artists is no
walk in the park. As a business,
she deems it a completely waste of
time in Singapore.
I had been asking her to look out
for me an original painting
of the wet market by a Myanmar
artist and had shown her an
example in a shop in Peninsula
Plaza. This example was a
reproduced painting of a young
lady buying flowers from a flower
seller in a Myanmar market. It was
selling for $300. However, I do
not appreciate copies of paintings
even if they are free of charge.
I wanted to buy a real original
painting to brighten the wall of
the living room in my Surgery. Not
to get a present from Khin Khin.
As she had made a prior
appointment for me to visit her
friend's art gallery, I obliged. I
had KWK, the Myanmar artist in
person at one of the art
exhibitions. She is a professional
painter passionate in her art. But
I have never thought of asking
whether she paints market places
as her recent paintings were of
landscapes. Therefore I ask Khin
Khin to look out for me a good
painter and painting when she went
home to Yangon in September.
I
wanted a painting uniquely
expressing the action in a market
scene in Myanmar. Not Vietnam,
Cambodia or Laos. I was surprised
to see a small painting out of 3
by KWK fitted my criteria. I met
the artist and gave my 2 cents'
worth of comment. That there
should not be a dark figure in
blue to the right of the painting
as it was distracting. I guessed
KWK wanted to balance the right
and the left. The oranges should
be the one in focus. The Myanmar
orange seller with the local
facial make up makes this painting
uniquely Myanmar.
Khin Khin negotiated the price and
paid for it after some hard
bargaining.
"Khin Khin," I said to the
business woman who had just
started up her new business with
little sales. "Why should you buy
me a painting as a present? I will
pay for it." Khin Khin knows
how to win my heart. But it was
not fair to get her to part her
savings for a painting that cost
so much more than the handbag I
presented to her when I visited
Myitkyina in North Myanmar. This
handbag cost me around Singapore
$10.00 to buy. It had some threads
coming out from the handle
due to poor workmanship. I knew I
should not give her this handbag
as it was not branded and cheap.
But I could find nothing better.
One day, she said in her usual
moment of frankness when I talked
about branded handbags of a
certain brand that her lady
friends seem to be using, "Your
present is a cheap and lousy
handbag. Cost only $10.00!". "How
much do you expect me to buy a
handbag for you?" I asked. "$200!"
she replied. I learnt a
lesson. Never buy Khin Khin
unbranded handbags as a present.
It would be better to buy some
chocolates or peanuts. Or not buy
anything.
But in Myitkyina, there were no
better handbags than that. No
S$4,000 Louis Vuitton handbag in
Myitkyina. Myitkyina is like a
Singapore town in the early 1960s
as regards the lack of handbag
varieties and shopping.
The KWK painting costs many times
more. So, I did not want Khin Khin
to present me since I gave her a
cheapskate present. This is
how I ended buying a lovely
original painting by KWK for my
appreciation. "Appreciation for
what?" Khin Khin would ask me.
"Why waste money buying art? In
Myanmar, artwork is so cheap," she
would ramble on. "You can buy them
off the wet market and in the
villages." I would not want to
correct her. Good artwork is not
cheap, even in Myanmar.
TIPS FOR BUYING ORIGINAL
PAINTINGS
1. Read a lot about paintings in
magazines and attend art
exhibitions.
2. Know the artist and his or her
experience.
3. Meet the artist. Good paintings
are seldom inexpensive.
4. Copies are so well reproduced
in China, Vietnam and regional
countries that they look like the
original. They are not for you if
you appreciate originals.
5. Buy from a reputable art
gallery dealer.
6. Paintings from unknown artists
are seldom good investments in the
short term. But who knows some 50
years later.
7. Know the quality of the canvas
and paint. Paintings painted on
poor quality canvas or paint will
not last long.
TOA
PAYOH VETS