Small Business Saturday, Christmas gift ideas not available on the high street!

This Small Business Saturday, why not save yourself the nasties of sore feet and frazzled nerves by selecting your Christmas presents directly from an artist?

Instead of battling the crowds for mass produced pressies, you could be investing in affordable art, by browsing at your leisure online from home and then arranging a lovely, calm viewing, a cup of tea and a chat with the artist and ending up with a genuine, unique, unusual and special present that you can tell the recipient all about that they will fall in love with (and perhaps it might win you some extra Yule Log on the big day!).

Give a personal present this year that's made with love

Why is Christmas shopping so difficult on the high street?

I'm constantly giving late Birthday and Christmas presents because the shops don't offer something to fit the personality and taste of my recipient, I hate waste and I see so many things that are disposable so I like to give things that are keepers.

It's good to give people ideas but not much fun submitting a wish list to Santa as an adult, or compiling one on Amazon or Not On The High Street, you could have just bought it and produced the bill, but it makes me feel awkward and guilty, generous as people are.

So even though I'm fussy, I like to keep with the spirit of Christmas and hope that people will pick me something they thought I would like. Yes, granted this doesn’t always work and I might receive something that’s really bad taste, but with any luck, those buying my presents will polish the art of choosing a present, which is far more Christmassy.

I've decided. I'm going to give some art, but where do I get it?

So if you're going to be a Christmassy present giver, you might like to give someone a piece of art. Perhaps you could get on the train and go to London and find some art galleries to look in for a painting, but which ones? ('How much!!') The gallery usually adds around 40% - so that’s either 40% on top of the price of the work, or the artist (generally a poverty stricken individual, unless you’re in the market to buy a Damien Hirst) is getting 40% less than the ticket price. Most likely the former. 

Perhaps there is a more cost effective way to buy something great to decorate the walls?

Oh yes there must be an alternative. You might be worried choosing art as a present for your loved ones is a bit of a gamble? Perhaps it’s safer just to go to John Lewis and get a gift receipt? Let’s have a look at that option.

There are a lot of on-trend mass produced prints and canvas prints in the shops that pass with the season, by the time you have bought a print you saw in a magazine from John Lewis, it’s already been diluted and mass produced further for the next season by Next and Marks & Spencer, the next thing you know it’s going to be on sale half price once again in Wilko, Tesco and Sainsbury’s after they have caught on and then everyone’s got it and you don’t want it any more so it goes to the bin, or if you’re a little bit conscientious, it’s taken apart and put in the recycling. 

That’s if they even have what you like and then it won’t be unique, it might be terrible quality or a lookalike of something original and the range and choice is most likely to be really narrow. After all, the big retailers aren’t catering to a niche market of individuals with differing tastes, they are catering for the broadest possible target segment of their customer, they have generalised their customers into a homogenous group. They do not cater for those ahead of the trend, the innovators, like you, nope.

That's it, I don't want something everyone else has got, I want something unique!

If you buy a piece of art direct from the artist it has been developed within a long term body of work. From my experience of selling my work direct to clients over the years, my customers see my paintings and they are inspired, excited and feel the sudden impulse of "I have to have that now!" because they know that they will never find that one painting anywhere ever again. And I can’t make that painting the same ever again, even if I tried it will always be a little different.

You buy it because you love it and that feeling comes from a connection that’s with a unique piece you spotted and had to have. Buying art should be because you are reflected in the piece and perhaps, if you are a little more of a collector, because you think it’s a bit of an investment - you have attached value to it and that value will be retained and not thrown away.

Something unique and original for Christmas that's a personal gift to your loved one

So why buy something mass produced as a present? It doesn’t get any more individual than with a painting. Each one has a history from every painting that came before it and leads on to every other painting that comes after it. 

Quality and value, an investment to last forever

My paintings are made on quality frames and have an equally high quality canvas stretched across them, they are far removed from the mass produced canvas prints you can buy in the shops that have a few pieces of lightweight, rough edged wood and some fabric that’s been cut short precariously glued around the edges. My canvases are bought from a professional supplier of specialist art materials, made by hand with heavy, solid, sanded wood, artist grade canvas that’s well primed and neatly folded and stapled to the reverse. They won’t warp, twist or fall apart over time. They are truly a gift you can give that’s had as much dedication, time and attention put into them as the time you spent finding, choosing and wrapping them for someone you love.

I'm sold! Point me in the right direction!

Take a look at some of the paintings I have for sale, I offer a bespoke service where you can arrange a viewing of the paintings you like, discuss the tastes of your loved one and perhaps we can find you the perfect present, without frazzled nerves and sore feet :)

#smallbizsatuk @TTScrumptious Facebook.com/TrudieMooreAbstractPaintings

Take a look at my shop at http://trudiemoore.co.uk/