Hurricane River: Oil on Canvas -- 24x20.

Years ago we had a friend who was in advertising. Being in college at the time and cobbling together a series of jobs to make ends meet, we were impressed by his vocation because it was fulltime and it paid the bills, something that cannot be said about counting grasshoppers for the USDA during the spring and summer.

Our friend, however, had a different opinion. "The very nature of advertising," he told us, "is to convince people that they need and want something that they don't actually need and want. Ethically, there's a fine line."

Years later, after years of working fulltime jobs that do, indeed pay the bills (and do not, fortunately, involve counting grasshoppers), I think back to what our friend said, especially in light of marketing my own work.

Fine art paintings are unabashedly in the "wants" category, and I am grateful for my clients who save their money in order to grant themselves and those they care about an item of luxury for their walls. Often, it is the ones who save the longest who write back months later to tell me how much they enjoy a particular piece.

These people remind me of my wife's high school math experience. A lover of language, not numbers, Carolyn worked herself through the higher math classes, but never easily. She looked around at others in the class that appeared to understand mathematical concepts simply by breathing in the air of the classroom.

"Not me," she said. "I always felt that I was a chapter behind. Mid-way through chapter 3, I finally understood the concepts of chapter 2, and so on and on through the year. I was able to keep my head above water, but only by dint of a lot of hard work."

Because understanding math concepts required so much study and work, Carolyn figured that math just wasn't her thing, even though she actually enjoyed studying it. Years later, she realized that, just because something doesn't come easily to a person doesn't mean that the person can't actually pursue the subject. Indeed, working hard to master a subject or skill adds a dimension to that mastery that a natural aptitude sometimes overlooks.

And how does this relate to buying fine art?

The general impression about purchasing original fine art oil paintings seems to be that one must be independently wealthy to do it, but my many clients who dream about art, look for fine art, and save up for what they want, disprove this. Indeed, it is the very acts of dreaming and looking and saving up that add dimesion to their enjoyment -- and mine.

Original Fine Art Oil Painting by Steve Henderson Fine Art