Yesterday I wrote about the practical reasons for using short titles for paintings, but there is more to a title than length. I have seen more than one painting submitted for a show or sent to a jury and the title is listed on the application form, but the painting can’t be identified when searching among the hundreds of submissions. Why? The artist failed to attach the title to the painting.
I write the title, date, copyright symbol, name of artist on the back of the work. Unfortunately, at first I didn’t realize that when a painting on paper was framed the back got covered with a board and dust cover. The second thing I didn’t foresee is that many of my works were titled almost the same, for example one series of titles were “One Leaf”, “Orange Leaf,” “Fall Leaf”, “Autumn Leaf”, etc. I wrote on the back each and sent them all to be framed, when they were ready the backs were covered and I couldn’t remember which painting went with which title. I had to disassemble the framing to find out. So, now I instruct the framer to write the title on the back of the dust cover and I include a card with the title with each piece. Practical, yes.
Titles also serve as a tool to give extra information to the viewer. My series of 36 paintings of Alaska wildflowers the titles represent the species; “Bluebells”, “Chocolate Lily”, “Narcissus Flowered Anemone”, “Wild Iris” and so forth. It can be a difficult task to honor a work with a title, give yourself enough time to make your individual decisions slowly. Sometimes I’ve used the Dictionary, a Thesaurus, and the Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms for suggestions, and other times the perfect name will just come to me.
Gail Niebrugge, professional artist
