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?

Never mind your house, you don't own any rights to your own image, either. People are quite free to photograph you and sell the photos. Or paint you (from the photo) and sell the painting.

People's notions of privacy and what is legal are completely different things.

@Cailleach1

A photograph of the house could have been taken at any time in the past. The friend/ schoolfriend or relative of some previous occupant.

Yes, that’s the first thing that occurred to me. I can understand the OP’s feeling to an extent, but there’s no way she can possibly be sure that no photograph or previous drawing of the house has been made, entirely legitimately, over the entire history of the house, so she can’t know the image was obtained by trespass.

@Tempusfudgeit

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.

Unfortunately there aren't any features at all, other than the building itself, which is quite weird. I would be surprised if anyone bought a print of it to be honest.

tempus v good point - this is making me think of Mapp and Lucia and those day trippers painting lamb house camped out on mapp’s steps painting it ‘a little more Crooked than it really is in case anyone thought they just couldn’t draw’

Blossomtoes. Does it piss you off that people do that? I love architecture. When I see houses i think look beautiful I don’t take photos because they’re peoples homes and it just seems disrespectful somehow.

My DH is an artist, he sometimes paints houses. He absolutely does not trespass to do so. He generally works from his own photographs taken with permission or from a public right of way.

It would be reasonable to be angry about a person trespassing to paint or photograph your house but you have no evidence that they have done so.

They may well have worked from legally taken photographs, either their own or ones that they have permission to use. They don't just copy a photo, a good artist can patch together a picture from multiple sources.

My DH has a picture on his website of a building that is now a private home. He did it while it was derelict, but the building isn't shown derelict, he used his own photographs taken from the road supplemented by his clients old photos, historic photos in the public domain, and architectural blueprints. His client has never owned the building but it meant a lot to them so they commissioned a picture of it. The current owner may well think that DH has gone in their garden to photograph the building but he hasn't been there since they bought it. However he has depicted it in such a way that it doesn't look as it would have done in its former usage but is not in the shabby run down state it was prior to their purchase so it would seem as though it had been done more recently.

So just because there is a picture out there doesn't mean the artist has trespassed. You have no right to restrict the use of the image of your house, only to restrict who comes on to your property and what they do while there. An artist is within their rights to take photos from a right of way or a neighbouring property if they have permission to be there. They may also obtain the permission of the photographer to use other people's photos.

@Hdhdjejdj

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.

If people didn’t leave broken glass in a field full of animals, threaten me with violence because I’m small and female, and tell me to fuck off, for politely asking them to remove themselves from a field containing a herd of cows in calf, then I’d probably look more favourably upon people ‘enjoying’ the countryside. Despite no legal rights of way through my land.

Alas, they have no respect for it or the animals at all. And so no, I won’t be welcoming them with open arms. It goes both ways.

On the subject of listed buildings, it is listed, but I'd never actually looked it up. It isn't in England, and the database doesn't include photographs, but it is an interesting piece of documentation to have, so thank you to whoever suggested that

I think it's weird and I would definitely contact her for an explanation. Maybe it's innocent, but I value my privacy highly and would be extremely uncomfortable with this, especially not knowing if she'd been on my land without my permission to draw my house.

@Microfibrequeen

Blossomtoes. Does it piss you off that people do that? I love architecture. When I see houses i think look beautiful I don’t take photos because they’re peoples homes and it just seems disrespectful somehow.

Not in the slightest. It’s the price you pay for living in a Tudor house.

@Onairjunkie People have absolutely no respect for the land or animals' safely and wellbeing, it's dreadful. Family friends of ours had a farm years ago that they opened to the public. They had no end of trouble, including a fawn that died after its mother abandoned it, because some halfwits had picked the poor thing up and carried it about

Some chancer took a picture of my house from an aeroplane and then had the brass neck to knock on my door and sell me a copy.

Can you believe it!

I think it was me, although someone else may have suggested it too.
I look up buildings often as part of a project and some listed buildings do have an accompanying photograph, hence me thinking she may have seen that.
If she is local to you do you have any mutual friends who might find out for you ? Otherwise I would telephone her probably, in your place.

etulobsa I’ve had this to. Guy came round selling photos (very detailed) taken for plane. He was astonished that I wasn’t interested. I kept feeling it was some kind of scam and kept an eye on the garden and back door. All felt v odd. Good few years ago. Now with drones not sure it’s still a thing.

@Etulosba

Some chancer took a picture of my house from an aeroplane and then had the brass neck to knock on my door and sell me a copy.

Can you believe it!

That used to be quite common before drones, Google Earth etc. My parents bought the one they were offered.

What a thing to be disgruntled about !

@Hdhdjejdj

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.

Where do you think middle class people go on countryside trips? There’s plenty of public countryside (such as National Trust sites) that anybody can enjoy for free. But people still feel entitled to trample all over working land and plonk themselves down on what is clearly private land. Invalidating the significant amount of time, money and effort spent in maintaining sais land. Farmers aren’t rich they’re just trying to make a living.

I actually bought the picture from the aeroplane. It came in very useful for a planning application a few years later.

Also to add - on the subject of ‘townies’ the contempt that many have for the people who wake up at 5 a.m to grow their food is astonishing.

@TractorAndHeadphones Do you know the history of the Right to Roam movement? Recently there was a commemoration at Winter Hill in Bolton when people protested when a landowner blocked a path. Landowners have previous history of acting unreasonably when it comes to access to the countryside too.

@HeronLanyon

etulobsa I’ve had this to. Guy came round selling photos (very detailed) taken for plane. He was astonished that I wasn’t interested. I kept feeling it was some kind of scam and kept an eye on the garden and back door. All felt v odd. Good few years ago. Now with drones not sure it’s still a thing.

That has been a thin since the 1960's. People who flew private planes used to do it to make a few quid back in the day. My Grandfather had a photo of his farm in the 60's from one of these and my inlays have a photo they bought in the 70's.

I'm an artist and have used Google Earth to find houses I like to draw and paint. However I have not sold those, or tried to, in case it seemed weird! I might if I had a good one of a house in another country however.

Yes @TractorAndHeadphones Farmers are the only people in the UK who work long hours. How stupid of me to forget.

Tress passing and taking them to Court?
In England? Really?

Trespass to land is typically a civil issue and not generally a criminal offence OP