Johannes Hoelderl is an artist living in British Columbia, Canada. He works with traditional painting like oil, watercolour, and also with digital art. Focusing on Figurative and Landscape art. He moved from Germany in 1998 to Canada, B.C. In 2012 to 2017 he travelled to Europe often to visit art museums and do some paintings with watercolors. Usually renting a room for a couple months and exploring the city.

I think it is interesting that art can be worth more than paint and canvas used to make it it is like alchemy transforming a blank canvas to something valuable. What if a painting had the artists name erased would it still be worth something, or just discarded and useless? It is interesting to possibly create something that may be seen as collectible. What makes a painting valuable to people: Marketing, perceived joy from it, monetary value?

Obvious factors that influence value of a painting include: cultural worth, historic value of artist name etc., monetary value, fame of artist. I don’t think in most cases these are genuinely what makes an artwork great. In some very rare cases the great artist was also famous but also produced rare excellent paintings. But most of the time the painting is no good but propped up by these factors attached to the painting.

Before photography it was of value to create an image of someone to record their image, now with photography where is the value in a painting? What is the point of art that is definable and explainable? Then a photograph or the real object is just as good or better. We need art to tell a story or have a meaning but it can not be obvious or explainable or it dies. It is a paradox. Paintings are not necessary for people to survive. People love paintings for all sorts of reasons, some view it as a commodity like a gold bar that they know has value and can be traded for money which is the reason they like it.
It is interesting to try and make something valuable.

It is almost impossible and unobtainable to create something good in that way that makes it even more of an incentive to try and get there.

Good artists and good critics are rare