ROCK RIVER ARTIST LAUNCHES ONLINE STORE
Roger Sandes, left, and Mary Welch, right, at Opening of Roger Sandes exhibit at Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, September 2017. (Photo by Michelle Frehsee, courtesy of Brattleboro Museum and Art Center)
by Maia Segura, Williamsville, Vermont Like many artists across Vermont, Roger Sandes’ business took a hit this year. “Many of my sales tend to be face to face, so getting my art out to people in the time of COVID has been particularly difficult,” said Sandes, creator of graphic-intensive, often grand scale paintings and collages.
Sandes and artist wife Mary Welch are among the founding members of the renowned Rock River Artists who each year attract hundreds of visitors to tour home studios tucked away in the Rock River Valley in Newfane.
“Our house and studio are located on a very beautiful stretch of the Rock River,” said Welch. “The studio is a small barn that once served as a blacksmith shop for an adjacent wool-carding mill, circa 1810. A large window affords views of the river and, sometimes wildlife. Since we have been at work there for over 40 years, it has accumulated many shelves, drawers, and layers of projects. It’s so full we no longer show work there. We’ve converted our whole house to a gallery. That’s where visitors get to see a lot of art.”
Sandes and Welsh, both now in their late 70’s, have depended on making art sales from this event every year since 1993, except for this year.
SEA TURTLE by Roger Sandes
“Of the average of 75 visitors per day, some just pass through while others linger for hours over a glass of lemonade,” said Welsh. “Our visitors, many of whom make return visits every few years, hail from local towns and all the major cities and suburbs of the northeast. It’s a very enjoyable experience for us and our guests. We are fortunate that a certain segment of the audience is serious enough to buy art. We’ve had very significant sales over the years.”
The impossibility of the tour this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and no clear end in sight, inspired Sandes to take matters in his own hands and pivot his business model. He decided to take on a new technology to offer his work in ways that he never has before – by starting an online merchandise store through Society6.com, an artist-driven product fulfillment platform. Unfortunately, the intricate, detailed nature of Welch’s collage work does not lend itself well to the product-based applications.
After being inspired by visits to the Art Institute of Chicago as a child, Sandes for more than four decades has produced figurative works on paper featuring nature-based and historical themes.
He studied comparative literature in college and attended acting school in New York, where he met his bride-to-be, Mary Welsh.
They spent two years traveling and working abroad including stops in major art centers in Europe and Mexico.
Themes from this era underpin Sandes’ whimsical work which has been shown in museums and esteemed art galleries, as well as residing in prestigious private and corporate collections all over the world. The most recent exhibit of Sandes’ work was at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in 2017.
“Mostly what I do is a take on a well-established genre. I'm doing the thing and reflecting on it, so viewers may see what's there, which I hope delights them,” he said. “Or if they’ve seen a lot of art and life, they may see references reverberating into art history.”
An online store was the answer to many safety-conscious challenges brought on by COVID, but it also helped to free Sandes’ art in ways that he felt that it was always limited. In an era of “tiny houses” and down-sizing, the large scale of his original artworks have prohibited some sales.
FLORILEGIUM III (TIGER LILIES) by Roger Sandes
“Most of my paintings are large — starting at a modest 32 inches x 25 inches but heading up to six or eight feet. This store is a chance to offer the more practical and varied applications that people have asked for," he said.
The new store features high-quality products from credenzas to shower curtains, throw pillows to mobile phone cases, and of course there are a wide variety of art prints available in various sizes and formats. Society6 provides the fulfillment and management of these orders while Sandes receives a percentage of the sales. Sandes will continue to handle orders for signed archival prints personally, however. The store launched just before Thanksgiving and has already been receiving orders.
“I am just releasing a few designs at the moment, but plan to release more with each season,” he said. “I want to keep it fresh and don’t want to overwhelm anyone with too many options.”
Although Sandes intends to keep his store up and running even after the all-clear has been given for people to move around safely without the fear of COVID, he and Welsh look forward to a time when they can again host people in their home.
“For us, there are many rewards,” said Welsh. “…it’s a delight to expose visitors, many of whom are just tourists looking around, to art in an informative way in a non-threatening setting.”
That setting includes a two-hundred-year-old garden from which the couple draws infinite inspiration.
“I love our garden -- it’s very forgiving. It looks beautiful through thick and thin, and in nearly all conditions. It’s a wonderful way to experiment with new color combinations, which often show up in our work,” said Welsh.
“Some things thrive, some jump the beds and escape to the fields, some things we love just never last, but the garden endures,” she said.
To check out Roger Sandes’ online store, visit https://society6.com/rogersandes. His website is located at https://www.rogersandes.com/. To learn more about the Rock River Artists, please go to https://rockriverartists.com/.
Livingroom of the Sandes-Welch gallery home featuring original works by Sandes, including “Sea Turtle” one of the design releases available in his online store. (Photo courtesy of Rupert Sandes)