The New Zealand Crimes Act 1961. Section 25

The fact that an offender is ignorant of the law is not an excuse for any offence committed by him or her. Read this article and learn how copyright law affects your art work.

If you paint an original painting the copyright is yours. If you sell that painting the copyright remains yours. You may create cards or prints from the image of that painting and it would be courteous to tell the purchaser and perhaps give them some cards - good promotion for you!
You may decide to sell the copyright with the painting. You would make that arrangement clear with the buyer.

Watercolour New Zealand offers a smorgasbord of classes where the tutors decide what they will paint in class. They use their own reference photos and may give you a copy. Youll follow the tutors guidance to create your own painting. In this case, the copyright/intellectual property belongs to the tutor. When we run an exhibition or competition, we endeavour to ensure that copyright law is not broken. In fact, we put the onus on you our members by including this condition in the entry form: Work must be original and not infringe copyright. Reproductions, art class work including online tutorials, will not be accepted. The artist, signs this: I declare my painting(s) to be my own original and unaided work.
If you wish to sell (in a non-WNZ exhibition) or give away a painting that follows a tutors work or another artists work, you will need to properly acknowledge this on the front of the painting near your signature. To do that write, after Joseph Zbukvic in legible writing. This applies to modified versions of the original composition. If you wanted to do that, it would be polite to consult the tutor or artist.
If you are commissioned to make a painting for a payment or materials, the copyright is owned by the commissioning person. Under the law, you do not own the copyright. If you do want to retain the copyright, you need to negotiate this with the commissioner and you need to make a written contract to that effect.

Photographers are artists too. Many painters think that a photo in a magazine, book or on the internet is fair game as a reference. Not so. Photographers also own IP for their work and they command all the respect outlined above. If you are inspired to use a photograph, you must contact the photographer for permission, acknowledge and thank them. Best practice is to watch for subjects, take photos and develop a photo library of your own.

Watercolour New Zealand takes care to respect the IP of tutors and artists. We ask our members to do the same. Over almost 50 years of operation, we have spelt this out regularly with articles in the newsletter. If all this sounds stern thats because we hate to see our people offended.

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BY SUE WILD
We live in an age where artworks are easily available to everyone around the world. To make a living artists need to have some control over how copies of their works are used. Without this the art world would be unfair and creativity would not prosper. In order to address this most countries have a law of copyright.

Under the New Zealand Copyright Act, you as artist are the first owner of the copyright. Copyright in your newly completed painting is automatic. (If the work is commissioned, the person commissioning is the owner of the copyright. If you agree to sell the copyright, the buyer becomes the legal owner.) The copyright in an
artistic work expires at the end of 50 years. You could register the copyright, but only great artists do that. However, you will notice that artists show the copyright symbol, with name and year on their
website: Alex Jones 2017.

Watercolour New Zealand must avoid exhibiting a work that infringes copyright. For this reason, the terms and conditions on the Splash entry form state: Work must be original. No reproduction or art class work is accepted. You, the artist, sign the Splash entry form declaring that you have read these terms and agree to them. You are making a legal statement that your work does not infringe copyright.

We, the committee, rely on your honesty in this. Can you learn to paint by copying the work of other artists? Yes. As Steve Jobs said, Expose yourself to the best things humans have done and bring those things into your work. Austin Kleon in his lively book Steal Like an Artist (reviewed in newsletter 158) wrote Copying one
= plagiarism; copying many = research, but, he says, Try to be like Sargent and youll end up being yourself. So foster your own points of difference. Take a nugget of something that resonates with you, combine it with your own ideas, transform it into something new and share it, so that others can steal from you!
But do not submit a copy of another artists painting for exhibition.

Paintings created in workshops or classes cannot be submitted for Splash. A painting that you have done which follows a tutors demonstration, whether you paint it in class or at home, is not acceptable. This includes paintings that are modified versions of the tutors original. That work is copyright to the tutor. You can, and
of course should, take the techniques and style that you have learnt, use your own sketches, photographs and composition to create an original painting. Sign and submit!

Useful online references:
What Artists Need to Know About Copyright
30 free public domain image websites
5 famous copyright infringement cases