From a reduced-price Honda Fit or an air conditioning unit to a pair of Air Jordans or a place to rent, you can usually find what you are looking for on the eCayTrade website.
You wouldn’t normally expect to find artwork with a sticker price of $7 million, however.
Betty Martinez Christian’s ‘Colors of the Wind’ was posted in the ‘buy and sell’ section of the site with the seven-figure asking price.
It’s the kind of sale you would normally expect to see at a Sotheby’s fine art auction.
And Christian says that’s where she ultimately hopes her work will be marketed. But for now, she is using the tools available to her and putting her work out there at a price she thinks reflects its value.
“My aim is to go international,” she said.
“I feel the price for my work is not really that expensive when you look at Sotheby’s and you see pieces for $80 or $85 million.
“I feel that if someone likes it, they will buy it.”
Christian, who specialises in abstract art, incorporating elements of the natural world in tactile paintings, exhibits some of her work at Carlos V Garcia Fine Art Gallery in West Bay.
While she has some paintings available for as little as $500, she believes the works that she has poured the most time and creativity into are more valuable one-offs.
She describes ‘Colors of the Wind’ as evoking the scene when you close your eyes on the beach at sunset and find the colours still swimming in your mind.
“It is a one-of-a-kind. I worked on it for a year,” she added.
Christian, who has been an artist since she was a child and won a National Gallery competition at age 11, started by selling wind chimes made from broken shells and fishing line. She still tries to incorporate the beauty she finds in nature, especially near her grandfather’s home in East End, into her work.
Her ambition is to have her own studio in Cayman and to sell her art internationally.
Asked if she expected to get the full price for her work advertised on eCay, she said, “You never know. I am a positive person and I choose to be happy every day. Maybe I won’t get $7 million, but maybe someone will notice it and see the value of my work and want to sponsor me to help me go international.”
