Scaling the Personalised Experience of Art

Cloudscape studies created during a private commission, Hazel Dooney 2020.

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In 1994, The Honourable Paul Keating, Australia’s then Prime Minister, spoke about the information superhighway (an early term for the internet) in an interview with Kerry O'Brien about the Creative Nation arts policy document.

Mr. Keating stated, "Information technology, and all that it now offers, has crossed the technical Rubicon into the realm of consciousness, to the realm of culture.”

Explaining further, he predicted that technology would change how we experience art, culture, news, and education. It could connect artists directly with our audience, bypassing traditional media like TV and newspapers. The key difference? Interactivity: people could engage with the creator, not just view our work.

To me, the most exciting way to experience art is for the virtual to be a precursor, an indication, and for the physical artwork to be delivered from the artist and viewed in private. It is personalised and feels alive and vital, unlike visiting a gallery, which can feel like stepping into a museum. Galleries have cultural value yet the experience they offer seems distant, like viewing history, even if the art is new.

Thanks to the internet, fine artists can now sell directly to collectors again in a return to the traditions of generational art collecting and the relationships between artists and our patrons. The modern art world of galleries, exhibitions, critics, curators and so on, is relatively new compared to this older, more personal tradition.

Public exhibitions let people see art that most of us could not afford to own, creating a shared experience. However, more people are discovering the joy of owning art privately, something that hasn’t been widely accessible. Previously, we've only had access to reproductions in books or posters, postcards, and tea towels sold as keepsakes of the artwork as we exit through the gift shop.

In the direct-to-collector model, art is delivered as an asset that can grow in value over the long term. In contrast, public art experiences like visiting a gallery or art fair require the audience (and the art) to travel, which can be costly and less environmentally friendly.

As Mr. Keating predicted, the internet connects artists with the audience who enjoy our work. While this does not influence the art I make, it does influence the way I present and deliver my work in response to audience preferences, which I understand because I pay attention when we interact in public forums like social media.

Many people would like the personal, direct-to-collector experience of art, even if on a budget. I understand from my experience on an artist's budget that financial caution does not lessen the refinement of our taste, our aesthetic sensibilities, the joy that art brings, or our desire for quality, value, and meaningful art.

The challenge is in creating work that retains all the qualities of fine art, which involves the hand of the artist, and is created in volume so it is accessible to more people. Reproductions, which are mostly photographs of paintings printed onto paper or canvas, are common yet lack the special qualities of an artwork in its original medium – including appreciation in value, even if reproductions are numbered and released in limited editions.

So, how do artists expand the availability of our work while keeping the qualities that make it fine art? The solution has already been found by artist David Hockney, who draws by hand on an iPad and then creates numbered limited-edition suites, printed onto paper using the original digital drawing as his master image. Digital printing has evolved to use archival inks which produce colours that are brighter than paint and particularly suited to pop art. These works by Hockney, which are mostly landscapes, are described by Christie's London as iPad en plein air .

Although I also paint landscape, at times, I think this is the perfect medium and method for my series of Dangerous Career Babes and, later, Sports and Career Babes. My original studies for the former are digital, made up of line drawings on paper which I scanned and then coloured on my computer, before the iPad existed. At the time, they were used as a guide for commissioning collectors and for reference while making the large paintings. I am currently in the process of refining and re-drawing these series with a digital pencil, specifically to suit the new medium of the limited edition.

Personalising the direct-to-collector experience at scale can be assisted by selective use of automation to streamline the process, which I tested earlier this year. While the experience went smoothly and no-one had any questions about the artwork or delivery process, collectors knew that if they did, I could be easily contacted via the internet, using email or social media.

Cloudscape study created during a private commission, Hazel Dooney 2020.