William Percy Weston :: 1879 - 1967

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Period One (1909-1923)
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Artist Sketches
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About This Work...

Weston didn’t achieve commercial success during his lifetime, but his artwork was circulated in other ways. He tended to give his pieces away, sometimes as gifts to friends, rather than sell them.

"Once he traded a canvas for a dining room suite. He swapped another for a hot-water heater." (70)

In an interview in his later years, Weston was still not concerned about making money from art. "I am too old to want the money or find use for it these days," he said. "Besides I enjoy having my pictures around."

Weston’s reflections on the difficulty artists had in making money in the earliest days in 1909, suggest that he always valued the practice of art making over the sale.

"At that time, if a person painted, people openly believed something was wrong with him. They’d say ‘what do you want to do that for?’ But we did get people interested in art, even though nobody was making a living from it." (71)