painting by G.Whitman

[andres]

Recently bought what I thought was an original oil painting from a charity shop. Artist--G. Whitman.Lovely mountain /tree/river scene. However there are several ''original ''oil paintings by this artist on e-bay. Sellers asking hundreds of dollars.I just wondered if these paintings,including mine, are genuine . I don't know of many artists who can churn out several paintings of the same scenes.Replicating each one exactly. I would appreciate any infro. or ideas

[heathfield]

There are whole industries in places like Indonesia and the Phillipines churning out paintings on a mass production basis. Letterman is another artist's signature that is questionable in this respect. Sure, they are all original oil paintings, but done many at a time. With some, one way of telling is to look at the leaves on trees. It's common for the painter to tie half-a-dozen brushes to a strip of wood and dab the canvas with them. The leaves can be seen as separate clumps or groups of foliage that are all pretty well identical in colour and form.
You can see examples of such works in street markets, and some discount, department , and furniture stores.
Putting these canvases on eBay for high prices is also another industry.

[Ice.Maiden]

Is your painting numbered andres? If it's an original, Partridges of London should be able to help you.
http://www.partridgefineart.com/

They've just looked at some of mine.
If you have an original, they'll be able to sell it for you as well, as they have legit buyers waiting for these things.

[andres]

Thanks Ice-Maiden. No number on it but I do have other paintings that are definitely original and will follow your advice.

[hpletz]

@ Ice-Maiden... If it is an original, it wouldn't have a number on it since it's one by itself. What I think you are referring to is "prints", they could be run in sets of 500, 1000, etc.. Prints are numbered 1/500 or 220/500 depending what order they were printed at. What happens is that when an original gets very pricey, they run prints of them so everyone can have it at a more affordable rate. Depending on the artist and the painting, prints can end up becoming very costly and collectible also.