Rick Janson Art Studio

Some good news that is a little embarrassing. It got little attention in Ottawa’s fall budget but will impact artists going forward. Canadian artists have been fighting for it for years. In the fall budget the Federal government has finally signalled that it will adopt Artist Resale Rights — visual artists (or their estates) will receive five per cent of the sale price when their work is resold in the secondary market, such as when their owners sell the work at auction or through a commercial gallery.

Given it is only a budget item, it has yet to become law, so the details are yet unknown beyond what was signalled in the budget.

So why is this embarrassing? Because we are finally going to extend these rights after more than 90 other countries have already done so.

Let that sink in. Most developed countries in the world have already adopted these rights. When Southeby’s sells works at auction in New York or London, artists get their taste of the proceeds. Not in Toronto, where most artists do not make enough from their work to even sustain themselves.

CARFAC (Canadian Artists Representation, Le front des artistes Canadien) notes that ARR will make a difference for indigenous artists who have been long exploited by the art market. The example most often given is the well-known Enchanted Owl by Inuit artist Kenoujuak Ashevak. Her original stone cut print sold for $24 in 1960. Most recently it resold for $158,500, of which the artists’ estate received nothing. Ashevak died in 2013.

One wonders how the lives of many aging artists would have been changed had such rights already been put in place. Shame on Canada for taking so long.

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This week another piece of mine goes on display at the Station Gallery in Whitby. My third self portrait study will be part of Rare Form, the 33rd Annual Juried Exhibition at the galllery. It is one of its best attended shows of the year. I signed my show contract yesterday. Originally scheduled to begin on Monday, my understanding is Rare Form is now open this weekend. The official opening — including announcement of competition winners — will not be until December 17th from 7 – 9 pm at the Gallery. The show runs to January 25, 2026. Please come if you can.

So how did my self-portrait become part of this? I originally thought the theme was a different one, having downloaded a form that turned out to be old internet flotsam for the same show. I had completed the painting on the different theme, then realized the mistake I had made, not noticing the due date for entry on the form was in 2023. Whoops. At the time I was working on a series of self-portraits and thought about the fact that they better fit the show’s actual theme. How many times have I been told that I’m in “rare form” today? Okay, that’s mostly for snappy retorts, but hey. What could be rarer than, well… us? Thanks to my neighbour Jeff who took the painting down to the gallery when I was away in the UK.

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It has been a rush since I’ve been back from Scotland. The first priority was to complete our “book,” kind of an annual report/visual diary that goes out to family and friends around this time of year. I’ve been doing these books for 17 years, the last 15 printed through Blurb, an on-line printer based in San Francisco (although the printing appears to have taken place all over the US judging from the shipping details). Given the orange menace’s economic attacks on this country, I couldn’t in good conscience continue to print south of the border. With the exchange on the dollar, it was particularly killing me. I ended up finding a UK-based printer that has a plant here in the Greater Toronto Area. However, that did mean finding a new software that would work (Blurb’s is proprietary), as well as working out all the details on how the new printer (Mixam) would like to receive the material. That was a steep learning curve, especially after 15 years doing the same process. It didn’t help that I came back from the UK with more than 1300 photos which had to be downloaded and adjusted for print. I ended up doing more than half of the 248-page book in about a week and a half, including writing, paste up, selecting images, and of course, proofreading and uploading it.

In recent years we have started also doing Christmas cards using my paintings on the covers. I did have another painting in mind for this year, but it is still on the easel, is very wet right now, and may need a bit more work before it gets submitted December 7th to another juried group show in Toronto. Sooooo… I took a look at what else I had and decided to go back to the first piece I did after I graduated from art school in 1987. A winter scene, I liked it for what wasn’t in the picture — a large tree out of view that is throwing a very visible shadow against the wall of a house. I passed that house (Cherry and Robie) regularly while living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I applied the paint quite thickly, determined to shed my tight painting style (something I’m still attempting to do nearly 40 years later). All this time later the painting still hangs above our fireplace. The cards are expected back on Tuesday.

With the cards and the books underway, I have been back in the studio, not only on the aforementioned piece for the January show, but several others that I had started prior to travelling to the UK. After about an eight week break, it felt weird being back on them, but the brushes eventually found their way. I’m hoping to have all three done before the end of the year, although it may be a challenge given all the seasonal activity in the run up to the holiday season. The Highland Coo Christmas tree ornament has been barely unpacked! I also have a lot of material fresh in my mind from our recent trip to the UK that is calling out to me. “Rick, Rick… don’t forget about me!”