Identifying Undervalued Paintings - Antiques with Gary Stover

[Music] good evening thank you for joining me for tonight's talk on antiques coming to you from the brass armadillo antique mall in Denver Colorado I'm Gary Stover we've been doing these shows for more than eight years now and during that period I'm sure that many of you have seen some of the shows that I've done on art whether it's paintings or photography or posters advertising whatever and I think I probably mentioned on many occasions that the thing that I've done almost my entire career which is well over 40 years is to go through places like this antique mall looking for works of art that I feel I could purchase and resell at a higher price undervalued images and but I've never done a show where I told you how I do that and so I thought that's what we'll do here tonight so I've gone through them all we're going to go through and this mall has 600 dealers it's more than an acre in size there are a lot of paintings there are a lot of images here so I tried to cut it down a little bit so I'm not going to be dealing with photographs or prints or advertising any of those we're just going to look for paintings here tonight so I've I've looked for paintings and even at that there are hundreds probably more than hundreds thousands paintings here in this antique mall and so a large part of the process because you can't really examine in detail each one of those items to see if it's undervalued you have to scream to some extent so I'm hoping to be able to show you how I go about screening so that I know how to spend my time if I have to do further research on the computer or whatever in books to know whether the painting I'm looking at is actually a good value a lot of paintings can be really good value but they may not be of interest to me because I'm not looking for number one I'm not looking for decorative works by and large and I'm not looking for paintings that I might like personally because my walls are filled at home I'm looking specifically for paintings that I can buy here in the mall and resell possibly even here in the mall or elsewhere online or whatever in an auction so we're gonna pick out maybe ten paintings to go through here tonight that I've looked at during the course of the day and I'm going to tell you how I go about deciding whether a painting represents the kind of value that I need in order to buy it in resale so I've started here and I found this horse I was first I was really struck by the horse I think it's extremely well done it's a very nice rendering a lot of paintings of course you can just simply eliminate on the way that they look or on the condition and I've actually selected some of those tonight to tell you why I thank the condition or the way it looks is not really it's not really what anybody's gonna pay a lot of money for but this horse I think is nice now it's not framed and so to frame that you got a bear in mind there's gonna be cost for framing it's a painting that is signed it's signed Colorado pilla the vendor says karada pilla 19 born in 1924 died in 1989 this is a horse oil painting and it's $400 so as we look at it it is it's absolutely an oil painting always a good idea to check the back there's the back you're looking for things that have been repaired because you can but you could of course black like this if you decide that this is something serious there's something that you seriously would care to buy so Corrado pila $400 for an unframed horse so one of the things that you can do and I've talked before about how do you use the the online sites like a scart or find out info and I'll mention those tonight and how you can use them we can look up and see whether pilla mr. pilla has an auction record they'll give us some idea about prices that his works have achieved in the secondary market because primary market which are out of dealers who represent the artists those prices are generally not they don't necessarily they're not necessarily representative of what a work would sell for in the secondary market so auction records for mr. piller there there are some they are not many and I don't believe that any of them would justify me paying $400 for this painting even though I really might like it because I don't think I could sell it at a value which I'm looking at I would have to sell that for at least a thousand probably 1200 it needs to be framed all that for me to do and I don't believe I can do that but that's that's the sort of methodology I use in making these decisions there are a couple of other paintings in this same booth let's go have a look at them so I found two other paintings one there one there here that I think are worthy of consideration let's look at this first one I'll let you have a look and see what you think front and back and vendor says romantic painting with sheep and chickens circa 1880 $700 what do you think bear in mind we're I to pay $700 for this I'm going to have to sell it for a couple of thousand so that's what I'm going to look for first thing I'm going to look for besides I'm first just going to look at the images what do I think about it I think it's pretty good but I don't think it's great it's nice painting is in pretty good condition it needs cleaning but it doesn't need repairs I can't find a signature and I suppose the vendor couldn't either and that's why she's not telling us what it is but I'm not going to be able to resell an unsigned painting that looks like this for $2,000 so I'm going to pass painting there's the back of the canvas you often see backs of canvases that look like this I've mentioned it earlier earlier shows that I've done on art that just because the back of the canvas looks you know particularly dirty like this I wouldn't use it as a gauge for age you could say it's old but you can't tell the difference between if whether this painting is 100 200 or 300 years old paintings of those ages are going to look similar to this on so it's a rough guide you can see that it's old let's just see what the vendor says boats $1,200 boats $1,200 this painting is signed it looks like our au PPE so am I going to spend my time checking out that artist whose signature I might be able to make out but I'm not sure given that the asking price is $1,200 for this the answer is no I'm not I could spend my valuable time trying to find out who are au PPE is if indeed that is the signature and seeing what auction records are etc but as I mentioned there are a thousand paintings in this mall and what I'm doing I'm looking for I'm looking for the Nuggets I'm looking for things that I think are such really good value and quality that I can turn around and make a large profit that doesn't mean that this paintings not worth $1200 not at all it is I mean it's it's a it's for someone to hang on their wall and to use as an end user but it's not going to work as as a is the painting for a dealer now that brings up the question of what if I can't really decipher the signature there are a couple of ways you can go about that number one you can take a photograph of just the signature you can upload it into Google Image Search you can throw in some key words like artists signature etc and see if the Google search engine can find it believe it or not that's worked for me on some occasions what works for me a lot better in the use of the Google Image Search is to take a picture of a painting upload it into the Google search engine throw in some words some keywords such as sailboat painting 19th century blah blah blah and I might be able to find some similar works I use that a lot I found the most remarkable things using the Google search engine there's a lot of garbage in it and I'm but I'm talking about the search engine I'm talking about image search there's a lot of garbage you get a lot of stuff that's extraneous but sometimes you'll actually find what you're looking for and that's really good if what you're looking at you think might be a copy like a copy of a work that's in a museum say I found those and a lot of other things I have found I've taken a photograph of a painting and I from that from that image search I found prints or lithographs done off of that very painting which can be really valuable in terms of giving you an idea about provenance hystyried age etc okay we struck out here let's go find another booth found another sail boat sail boats my experience don't do all that well in Colorado but kind of a nice painting don't you think it's a it's another oil on canvas there's the back of the canvas it's basically new very new fishing boats seascape sign - Adams original oil on canvas $259 here's the signature I'm willing to believe that's Adams we're faced with the question do I how many how many artist named Adams are there there are a lot is it going to be worth my while searching to find out which one this is in the hopes that this painting is worth a lot more than two hundred and fifty nine dollars what would you do would you spend the time doing that I'm going to pass there's another one interesting one coming up so what do you think about this painting this is only 290 dollars it's a nice landscape well done all of that vendor says the original pastel landscape it's old sign Chandler artist science two hundred and ninety dollars and it is signed there and the vendor is right this is a pastel generally speaking a pastel is not done sell for as much as an oil painting but there are some really nice pastels out there that are worth a lot of money this is a particularly I think it's a nice intimate it's a great landscaping and I can tell right off the bat even though they're probably a lot of artists named Chandler this would know what he was doing this is a nice image but there's a shocking problem to this painting and that is and it often happens with pastels and that's why I chose this painting to talk about this pastel was framed far too close to the glass and what has happened is there is there is the chalk the pastel has some of it has come off because it's right up against the glass and therefore this painting is in that respect damaged in this area to me I don't need to look up Chandler I know it's going to take much more to fix this and I'm going to be willing to put into it having already paid $290 so on the face of this looks like a great thing but you've got to examine a painting really carefully and and I'm not picking on this painting this often happens with works in pastel it's something that you should always be aware of there are some really good ones we're going to find I'm sure let's go let's go look how many paintings like this are in an antique mall near you big floral big frame etc it's only 175 dollars what do you think is this the one that we can turn around and make a lot of money on it's signed with initials SW this is one of those that I think if you're going to play this kind of game you should be able to recognize right off the bat this is not a painting that is particularly well done it's decorative I'm sure the $175 is a fair price for this painting which will go up in somebody's living room and they'll really enjoy it or their bedroom but this whole business here with the handle the background this table in front this has got some problems of perspective and so I would just bring it up simply to say if you see something that looks like this hone your taste level to be able to understand why this painting really has no value as a collectible another thing and I've done a dinner video that's out there online it's a very popular video if you want to care to look at it it's called what's a good painting and I talked about some of the characteristics and I also give a little test in that show I think that's the one where I I showed some paintings then I took them away and I asked you to remember what you'd seen and we talked in that show about how the first thing you need to really see when you look at a painting is the color long before you even begin to look at the subject matter or iconography structures whatever is in it look for the color first let's go see if we can find something really good so we're getting closer here this is only $85 this is an oil on board it's Alfred Woodward is the artist I've looked him up I can't find anything he doesn't he's at least I can say that he's not doesn't have an auction record a secondary market but $85 a big landscape fairly well done don't you think I mean I think it is I think that this should fly out of here at $85 but from for me is this something that I want to buy for $85 and put over in my booth and sell for 200 or 250 sadly no it isn't and the reason is what I just mentioned its color this is way too dark for most people's tastes so what you're talking about ear is for pure decoration nobody's gonna buy it because Alfred Woodward painted it they're gonna buy it because they like the way that it looks and they can put it on the wall and enjoy it and so I'm going against this one although we're getting closer simply because of color which I mentioned this booth also has a couple other paintings to talk about let's go look at them so you can't really see this and neither can i but it's for sale here in the mall and the first thing we've got to decide is do we want to take everything down that's in front of it take it off the wall look at the back and all of that so many things for sale and an antique model not just paintings are in these strange situations because people are trying to take advantage of getting as much in because they're paying rent do we want to do that here's what it is it's a it's a signed oil it's an oil on canvas it's a landscape I don't know that you can make out here there are two writers down here it's signed man ma NN mm I don't know man but I could probably find him what is partially hidden by this whole situation however is there's a hole in the painting this there's a tear right here okay and I'm not saying that the vendor did that but in order to get at that I had to take that down to start with so it's just the justa lesson if you can't really see something do you want to go to the trouble of really taking this down and examine it like that do you really have that much time in your life I don't when I if there's a hole or a tear in the painting it's got to be really special to be worth the effort there's one other painting in the same booth we'll talk about that's a painting signed Joe Walker lower-left it says DNA something so it's a D night said Navajo painting the vendor does not tell us what the medium is from this distance could be a serigraph could be a gouache I looked at it quite closely and I believe it's a gouache it's $295 that's probably that's probably a good gallery price for the painting I don't know Joe Walker I did look Joe Walker up I couldn't see that there was an auction record but I can well imagine that there are people who collect Native American art who would who would really like that painting I don't believe though that I could buy it and turn it around and sell it so we're still haven't found that one or two paintings in the mall that we can do that with but we're not giving up yet so what do you think about this one oil painting dear 1,100 but the vendor has put it on sale for 500 so that's a substantial reduction in value in price it's a signed work I'll told you about that a moment first have a look at it and see what you think if this might be worth five hundred dollars might be my tip it's on board it's an oil on board the signature is looks like K and then the last name s ze kely so I looked that name up and it appears to be Hungarian and there are several artists with that last name but I couldn't find one that had that initial so should I look more carefully to see whether this would be one of those paintings eligible to buy I'm gonna say no but here's again it's pretty close to for me to say that I shouldn't really spend more time on it and the reason is that I think it's a little bit monochromatic I'm gonna eliminate it from consideration based upon the colors again I think it's monochromatic behind me there's another painting here let me just move this guy I hope out of the way so can you see that one okay monk painting this was 1750 it's now twelve hundred and fifty it's an oil on board I don't see that it's signed what do you think about the quality of this of this painting I think quality's really good I think this is an extremely well done painting whether it's the hands whether it's the faces the composition okay you can say okay what do you think about the colors Gary okay I get it but you know the subject matter I mean the guy's got to be dressed the way they're dressed and it's in an interior and probably the basic background of being fairly darkest is more what one would expect in an image such as this this is probably or Northern European it's probably late 19th century it's not signed that's a that's a kind of killer though the fact that it's not signed as a as a decorative piece I think the 1250 is really good really good value on this but I don't think I can turn it around and sell it it might have well have been done by you know by an artist who is known because it is of high quality but since it is not signed I'm going to pass on that one don't give up are all sailboats in the mall one hundred and seventy-five dollars that's one this one is two it's signed Suzanne but I'll pass this one thought I'd show you I hope you can make it out this this has substantial craquelure unless you're really adept and have been doing this for a long time even if you might like the image even if it's signed even if you think it's a great idea you know if you're not if you haven't done this before stay away from paintings that require that much work to make them right obviously it also needs cleaning there's one more maybe that's the one so we haven't had much luck but we've got one last one to look at and I'm going to leave this one with you as a kind of challenge and we'll we'll compare notes next time I think it's an interesting painting obviously it's a fairly new painting it's a it's an oil-on-canvas this is a large scene it depicts a trapper this sort of screams me you know Western Americana painting of probably the 1990s or the 2000s it's signed J Gonzalez take my word for it there are a lot of J Gonzalez's wands and Jorge's and who knows Julio's okay so the the project for next time is for you and for me to decide whether $475 represents a good value on a painting by a guy named Gonzalez that we haven't figured out which Gonzalez it is yet take my word for it there are paintings by some Gonzalez's that would be of this size and of this would be a real steal at $475 others not so so that's the project for next time I'm going to leave that question and we'll talk about it in the next week's show but this is so typical of gallery work in the West in 1990s the early 2000s seen quality of the work etc so let's just see and we'll talk about it next time when we compare notes to determine whether that paintings worth $475 so we hope to see yous in next week's show good night [Music]

Channel: DenverBrassArmadillo

Views: 30,283

Rating: 4.8057394 out of 5

Keywords: identifying undervalued paintings, paintings, undervalued paintings, resell, art resell, art, pricing, art pricing, valuing art

Id: WC-P4U6kPVk

Length: 25min 39sec (1539 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018