Artist selling drawings of my house

[TechGinny]

I've just discovered that an artist local to the area is selling drawings of my property on her website. It's not easily viewed by the road, which means she would have had to enter the land to draw it.

I'm feeling quite annoyed about this, as she has never made contact to ask permission.

AIBU unreasonable to feel like this, and would you make contact to ask her to remove it from her website?

[quote Hdhdjejdj]@Onairjunkie you know you aren’t supposed to shoot people? [/quote]
I only use it for clays. I won’t shoot a living thing. Fortunately, the trespassers don’t know that.

It sounds like some posters have decided you're a posh twat with a lovely country pile and are sticking up for the little man, with little thought to how they'd feel if someone were taking photos of their house from within their own garden 🙄

I would also feel uncomfortable that someone had come into my garden without my permission for commercial reasons.

@Onairjunkie

So many posters here who are having a pop at the OP are doing so purely because she’s inherited what I can only presume must be a beautiful house and are trying to stick the boot in out of jealousy. The fact that she doesn’t have £40 to spare for a print though should tell you something about her position though.

I live in a big, beautiful old farm house. It’s not visible from the road and it’s surrounded by trees. Now, despite no rights of way, I get a lot of people using my land for picnics, parties, barbecues, dog exercising (even when I have livestock in there!) and it is trespassing and it is wrong. I drive up on the quad with the dogs and clear them out for their own safety. Does that make me unhinged and bonkers, too?

I have also found people wandering around my stable yard, the cow sheds, and among the cars on the drives by the house.

Pray tell, in what world is any of that acceptable behaviour? Should I just suck it up because I’m lucky enough to have such a lovely house?! No.

What these people are doing on your land sounds wrong but you could get in trouble with the force you may use to 'drive them off'. I am assuming you are exaggerating the force you use which is the norm on here.

"Trespassing Laws in the UK

Criminal Law. In the U.K trespassing is usually a civil wrong and as such must be dealt with through the civil courts.
Civil Law. Where the act of trespass does not constitute a criminal offence, the trespasser may be sued for the hypothetical value of the benefit received by trespassing."

@TechGinny

Ok, put it this way - I can't find it through any Google searches, with multiple different search words. I'm sure there are images out there, but not easy to come across. If she's used an old image then fair enough, no issue there (even if I am weirded out at images of my family home being for sale, but that's just me).

It's notable in the area due to the family being a prominent family of the time, and memories local people have of the family and house. We aren't a notable family now at all, but there's enough of the older generation around to still remember, and it's a beautiful couple of houses, so people notice them.

Love the Latin inscription explanation 😂 That must have driven you bonkers, though!

How do people notice them if you can't see it without going onto your land and no photos exist? I'm very surprised a well known family doesn't come with photo clippings or drawings in past newspapers. I'm a historian and spend a lot of time researching newspapers you can't find online but at the local libraries/archives. Loads of old houses etc can be found that way very easily.

Personally it wouldn't bother me, but would intruige me. But like you say they're good looking houses. Could they have been visiting the other house and seen yours?
Either way, I'd just email or call the artist and ask why they chose your house - thebanswe will probably tell you how they came across it.

*the answer

I clear people off my land too and I live in a pretty ordinary house. It does have a large natural pond in the front though and attracts local kids who want to dip, people who turn up and try and fish it and folk wandering up my drive to take photos.

I've had many people in my garden without permission and I'm not especially comfortable with it. Aside from the obvious drowning issue it's my home and I really don't want them there. I'd also be rather uncomfortable with someone selling drawings of it, especially if the artist didn't even have the manners to come and tell me themselves.

What these people are doing on your land sounds wrong but you could get in trouble with the force you may use to 'drive them off'. I am assuming you are exaggerating the force you use which is the norm on here.

I didn’t exaggerate the ‘force’ I use, I didn’t actually detail what I do to clear people off beyond driving up on the quad bike with the dogs on the back.

For your peace of mind, as you seem to be concerned, I drive up to them, tell them politely but firmly that they’re on private land and they have to leave for the safety of themselves and my livestock. I’m not rude, I’m certainly not aggressive, and generally they’re very apologetic and embarrassed at being caught. Not everyone though…

Since we had cameras installed I've been surprised by the amount of people who make their way round the back of our house.

There's pictures of my bog standard house online for various reasons although I can see why you'd be annoyed she may have trespassed although you can't know for certain she did.
I'd make contact with her and politely enquire as to how she was able to draw the house from that angle. She might have photographs or something you haven't been aware of or she may apologise and think twice about doing the same to someone else.

What I'm wondering though is why anyone would want to buy a picture of someone else's house. Even a notable one.

I understand your feelings and would probably feel the same. Maybe an informal conversation would be better.

This thread has made me realise how brave the people involved in the right to roam movement were. Even working-class townies should be able to enjoy the countryside without the threat of a shotgun and large dogs being set on them.

It baffles me that some people think @Onairjunkie is being unreasonable for clearing trespassers off her land. A farm is a working environment, and ignorant people can cause a lot of damage to crops, livestock or themselves. Would they think a factory owner was unreasonable for not wanting people wandering in and picnicking in his factory, or exercising their dogs in his yard, where delivery lorries come and go? Of course they wouldn’t!

So why are farmers supposed to turn a blind eye to people letting their dogs worry the stock, or trampling on their crops, or lighting fires which can destroy crops and equipment and hurt/kill animals, or leaving their litter everywhere?

She might have used a drone to get photo footage. That’s not trespassing.

She’s not unreasonable for not wanting them mom her land. It’s just the language she used was amusing. It is however unreasonable to threaten them with a shotgun and dogs.

There is no reason to think that the artist trespassed.

They probably used a photo.

If the artist wanted to paint OPs house it would surely be good manners to call round and ask first especially if the intention was to sell the prints? If OP had agreed then it would have been nice to give her one of the prints.

I wouldn’t stand in front of someone’s house and take a photo of it as it seems intrusive. To enter someone’s garden or drive to do so is really cheeky.

Honestly this sort of thing drives me wild.. our house was photographed from the street by a "professional photographer" at some point in the last 3/4 years and the photo is now for sale as a stock image through one of larger stock image companies.

the daily mail use it from time to time for house/finance section
various builders/window companies/roofing companies have used it with varying degrees of implication that they have worked on the house...

As others have said, it is (unfortunately) very clear that you don't have copy right to "the house" despite feeling like its a very weird invasion of privacy...

@seasidehouse

I would be very annoyed if this happened to me and my property, I would seek legal advice on both the trespass and the selling of the pictures.

You do not own the view of your house.

These pictures are are usually commissioned , seems odd to sell a picture of a strangers house .

I think it's weird OP, I wouldn't like it.

@Hdhdjejdj

What does ‘notable’ family mean?

They were mentioned in the Domesday Book as being well known locally for their fear of paintings.

@Microfibrequeen

If the artist wanted to paint OPs house it would surely be good manners to call round and ask first especially if the intention was to sell the prints? If OP had agreed then it would have been nice to give her one of the prints.

I wouldn’t stand in front of someone’s house and take a photo of it as it seems intrusive. To enter someone’s garden or drive to do so is really cheeky.

Good thing you don’t live here. It’s a conservation area packed with period houses. Ours is photographed at least once a week in the summer.

I’d be extremely unhappy in fact angry if someone had entered my garden in order to take a photo (presume this is what they did) to then paint it. I would definitely be in touch with them and there are some good suggested notes above.

As for the image itself I would not be worried and £40 is not expensive surely (depending on size etc I guess).

Can you tell by the heights of trees/amount of foliage/colour of flowers when it was drawn. If the trees are 10ft shorter, then you know it's been drawn from an historic image.

I think it's weird, surely you'd knock and just say I'm interested in painting your house is that okay.

Crikey, I wasn't expecting this many replies! I'll try to answer as many questions/points as I can from memory, apologies if I miss anything (which, by the way, to an earlier poster, is how questions and answers work. I'm not intent on there being an issue and 'finding an answer to everything).

The artist appears to be a well established illustrator of books and original pieces of work, so hopefully not a penniless, struggling artist. She has drawn many local buildings, not just mine, and her website shows her drawing on location. She may well have drawn from a photograph, but it's equally likely she drew with the house in front of her. There isn't a pavement opposite the house or a window that the house can be viewed from and, with the tree coverage, it would very hard to do that from outside the property. I'm not making an assumption that that's definitely what she's done, but if it's a drawing from life then that's likely.

The drawing is of the house only, no other features at all. The title is the name of the house, which is the same as the area that it's in, so really very identifiable. I'm not going to post a picture of it, for obvious reasons

The house as it currently is was designed by the original family member who owned, so I don't know whether that would mean it is my intellectual property by inheritance?

I only said I wasn't going to take the matter to court because someone suggested it in an earlier post - I haven't actually said anything about taking further at all, I was simply asking if I was being unreasonable to feel uncomfortable with it.

I can see why some posters might think I'm sitting around in my mansion, fanning myself with £50 notes and throwing pheasants at the commoners, but (sadly) that couldn't be further from the truth, haha. I genuinely don't have two shekles to rub together.