Five Nights
From Sunday, December 18, 2022 my annual year-end sale of new paintings will run over 5 nights. There will be about 8 artworks a night, starting at 8pm Irish time when the first one is posted and every 30 mins thereafter with the last one of each night being at 11.30pm (If there are 7 or 9 then that night will finish a half an hour earlier or later – At the start of each night I’ll announce if there will be 7, 8 or 9 artworks that night.)

Website as well as Facebook
Paintings and their details will be posted on my Facebook art page (LiamDalyArt) as per previous years, but this year I will also be immediately copying and pasting onto this website LiamDaly.com. The website should make it easier to find all the works. If the website part works this year then next year it will likely take precedence.

First Come, First Served
It’s first come first served, so if you wish to buy a painting shout at me clearly that you intend to buy if it is still available. This can be privately, or publicly in a comment on the post with the painting in Facebook or the website. I’ll then mark it as sold for you and behind a curtain we’ll arrange payment and delivery.

Timestamp
Sometimes several people ask to buy within minutes of each other, or even seconds. Because this can be done by a variety of messaging platforms it can take me a bit of time to get to them all and check the timestamp to ensure I know who is first.

Payment
Most payments will be by Bank Transfer. This year I think I have something in place for international payments. I don’t like to use PayPal as, among other reasons, the fees are expensive and I am not allowed to ask you to cover the fees.

Delivery/Collection
Paintings will be sent by Registered Post within Ireland and probably by Express Post internationally as it tends to be cheaper. I won’t be in a position to take any paintings to the post office before xmas. It takes me hours to parcel up one painting. Running the sale from Dec 18-22 gives me just December 23rd and 24th to buy food to feed me and Dad over the xmas, and to somehow go out and buy presents for people. If anyone should want to collect a painting from me at the house before xmas I will do everything I can to make that happen.

Image Quality
Despite years of calibrating monitors and colours you can assume I’m unhappy with the photo quality and by extraction that I think the paintings look better in reality than online.

Sketches also this year
I’m saying “artworks” a lot instead of paintings. It’s because as well as paintings on canvas and matboard, this year there will be some works on paper – which may be mixed media artworks or watercolour and ink sketches done on location. Generally they are smaller and take less time than paintings – their prices will reflect this.

Prices 2022
This year there will be a price increase of about 10%. For two reasons. It’s been 3 years since the last increase, plus last year I was unable to finish paintings and have a sale at all.

Ever Changing Estimates
Eight artworks a night for 5 nights is 40. This is an estimate. At the time of writing (one day before the start) I don’t know how many pieces will be in the sale. This is because I have dozens of paintings that each need about an hour to finish them but I don’t have dozens of hours. Right now I am finishing paintings but some I’ll discover need more than an hour, and some I will mess up and set back for next year, and some I won’t even get to – much as I want to. The actual total over the 5 nights may be 32.  Or 48.

Would you not just post all the paintings at one time?
I’ve done that. I’m not young. It takes even more time and I don’t have more time. Plus, the paintings aren’t all ready yet.

Why is it like this?
This whole thing would work smoother if everything was sitting in draft and released at the planned times. However nothing is in draft. Everything you see on facebook or my website on the nights of the sale is being written during the sale on those very nights. Between postings I am frantically running around with a ruler checking sizes of canvases and calculating shipping and writing up the next painting to be posted – while checking every possible comment and message to see if anyone is interested in the just-posted painting. And I am editing the photos of the paintings so I can post them. Why don’t I do all this in advance? Because I’m trying to paint. If I did all that in advance I wouldn’t have any paintings.

Things go wrong
There is only one of me. One day before the sale and nothing is photographed – which in itself is a big operation as I need quality photos to make prints from. I am still trying to finish paintings – but I promise you no paintings are rushed or thrown together; one painting has been on the go for eleven years. If I’m not happy with it then it won’t be in the sale. Another painting has been on the go for eighteen years. Seriously. And it’s so close, but if it’s not ready then it’s not ready and we try again next year. Meanwhile our internet sucks. Websites can go slow, or down. Power cuts happen. Dark cloudy days slows down photographing paintings. I can spill tea. 30 mins between paintings is not a lot of time. When I’m messaging between paintings it means I’m not writing up, or editing the photo of, the next painting. Sometimes I can run a few minutes late.