Weird Values

Another moment of pure bewilderment today. I had an enquiry about doing a portrait from someone who had seen the one below. They baulked at the price. It is more than a weeks full-time work and they wouldn't have batted an eyelid at paying a plumber what I asked.

It is a truth about art - people will expect it to be cheaper than it should be for the maker to live, yet those same people will happily spend far more on a new TV or car that depreciates and falls apart all too quickly. Rather than a new car every three years why not every four and spend the difference on quality paintings? Because they see value in the depreciating chunk of metal the same as everyone else's, but not in original objects. Peculiar.