SHOULD I SELL MY ART AND IF SO.. HOW DO I DO IT?

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Elizabeth Cobb
5 years ago
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1 SHOULD I SELL MY ART AND IF SO.. HOW DO I DO IT? 1. SHOULD YOU SELL YOUR ART? a. This isn t done by anyone from QC so feel free to comment on it if you had done this would you think you should sell it? b. Well this painting hangs in the Barnes Museum in Philadelphia and was painted by Avery Milton. It is named the Nursemaid. Not one of his better ones but still worth over $10,000. I used to stand in front of this painting at the museum and stare at it and wonder about why Dr. Barnes bought it and what makes it worthy of being in the museum. c. What makes a painting sale-able.someone has to like it. Do you like it? I once was doing a plein air painting at a garden called Chanticleer. It wasn t coming out very well and I was ready to trash it. But a woman came along and saw it and fell in love with it and asked to buy it. I named

2 a price and she handed over the cash. It wasn t even done but she walked off happy as a clam. So you never know what someone might like. d. Do you want to keep it? If there is something you like about the painting or someone else has liked, you can give it a try to sell it. e. Don t EXPECT to sell your painting professional artists who sell all the time sometimes have a show where they sell 5 or 6 and then have a show where they don t sell anything. At our show last year fall festival we didn t sell anything at spring we sold 8 and some were the same paintings that had hung in the fall show. Differences, different audience, different time of year. f. Selling with art club is a no pressure way to sell.no entry feel, no jury process, just pop it in. low commission fee (10%). g. Window-sales possible too.become an artist of the month h. Join a society (like Tubac Center of the Arts) member shows may not juried i. Juried shows very scary first time know your judge, You win some, you lose some, don t sweat it. Sometimes judges tell you why and you can work on improving. j. Remember most shows ask for original work. Copyright laws: You can paint anything you want and you can give it away but if you are going to sell it you must do original work and it must be from a photograph you have taken yourself. Usually it can t be work you have done in a class, but for Art Club we will take work done in a class as long as it is original ( not copying teacher s work). k. Galleries, to approach and sell at a gallery, you must have a large body of cohesive work. 2. HOW DO YOU PREPARE YOUR WORK TO PUT IT IN A SHOW? a. Depends on the medium i. Watercolor framed with mat and glass or acrylic, ii. Acrylic and oil if it s a wrapped canvas you can paint edges or can frame, if you paint on flat boards, must frame iii. Pastel must be framed with glass not acrylic. Can mat or no mat iv. b. Usually need a wire hanger not a zig zag c. Some shows require simple framing, blackor gold or they may specify (art club doesn t care) d. Usually try to make it look professional paper on back, a business card or postcard makes buyer happy, some shows require this. e. Examples

3 s not usually acceptable for hanging in a show. professionally framed, backed with paper, wire hanger and business card or postcard.

4 pastel framed with a mat and gla pastel framed without a mat

watercolor with double mat and glass f. Sometimes a show has an option for a flip rack with unframed art but either backed and matted and protected by plastic.. g. Framing is expensive i.

5 watercolor with double mat and glass f. Sometimes a show has an option for a flip rack with unframed art but either backed and matted and protected by plastic.. g. Framing is expensive i. Go to frame shop most expensive..depending on size ex. up to $400 for my large pastels. Expensive but they do all the work..looks professional easy. ii. Online cheaper same size might be $200, but you have to do the framing need a few tools like a point driver, double sided tape etc. iii. Used bargain frames cut your own mat? $100 and under iv. IKEA my favorite buy them for about $12. And they will ship. Nice black frames with mat and glass. Odd sizes you must size your paper to fit the frame.so must think in advance! v. We can cut mats here..take the mat cutting class vi. Also can build your own or be creative, use a piece of slate etc. vii. Places to find frames: 1. Tucson.Sarnoffs, Arizona Framing, Aaron Bros. 2. Online: Pictureframes.com, dickblick.com, americanframe.com, IKEA h. Frames: i. Wood and metal. ii. Careful not to scratch iii. Glass is hard to ship

6 iv. Must add price right away into cost. i. Matts i. Single mat, ii. Double mat iii. Colored or white/off-white iv. Keep clean (white eraser can work charms) v. j. Glass i. Museum glass best but so expensive ii. Acrylic nice option but scratches iii. Acrylic can t be used for pastels 3. HOW DO I PRICE MY WORK? a. How much commission are you paying? i. Art club takes 10% ii. Galleries take 40-50% ALWAYS CHECK b. If no commission, for example entering a sidewalk show.. i. What are your costs to enter show and how many paintings can you reasonably expect to sell. c. Selling an unframed painting with no commission i. Are you a famous artist who can command high prices because you ve sold before? ii. Price by the size of the painting ex. 1. For a first time seller $25 for an 10 x 12, $50 for a 16x For someone who has been selling a while, up that price gradually as you sell more work and command higher prices. d. Work forwards approach i. What was the cost of supplies to do this painting? It may be minimal but a large oil painting on a linen canvas may have a large cost associated. ii. What was the cost to frame it. iii. How much do I want to get for it. ( You can t charge by the hour and art is an accumulation of years of experience, class, past mistakes and successes how do you put a price on that?) iv. Now increase it by the galleries commission v. Ask yourself Is someone likely to pay this much for this painting? Am I likely to sell it. You will find that framing is always the bugaboo. vi. Example: I recently placed a painting into a show. It cost $40 for the linen canvas and about $10 for the paint. It cost $75 for the frame. I would like to get 300 for the painting. That is $425. Gallery will take 40% of total so multiply by 1.40 = $595. Do I think someone will pay that price? I priced it at $500. e. Work backwards approach

7 i. How much is someone likely to pay for this painting? (note customers rarely have Any idea what framing costs and don t consider the frame) ii. Take off the commission iii. Take off the frame cost iv. Take off the supply cost v. Is there anything left? Are you happy getting that much for your work? Can you increase the price a little and still think you can sell it? f. Ex: Lets price it at 500. Gallery takes 30% that is $150. Frame cost $150. Supplies cost $30. My share will be $170. Is that enough? I think I want at least $250 for the painting so I d better increase the price by $70 to $ I did all this work and nobody bought it. a. Beginners luck b. Right person for right painting c. Go to a museum d. Look at Barnes painting from no. 1.somebody bought this e. TRY AGAIN f. Listen to comments. Good and bad.i had a painting in a show. Great comments all day but no one bought it until the very end of the day when I was closing up. 5. Being a salesman a. If you are there when someone looks at your art i. Sell yourself very hard to do be confident don t tell them you never sold before. ii. Be outgoing, welcome them strike up a conversation very hard to do. Have you ever been to..location of painting.. etc. iii. Start telling them about why you paint iv. Can I wrap it up for you? v. Tell them about why you painted it, they love to hear stories vi. Counter objections: 1. I don t have room..i don t know where I would hang it a. You can always find room for something you like how about a stairwell or a bathroom, or replacing or rotating something you ve had up for a while. 2. It s expensive a. It is original art, not a print. b. It is a quality frame, but I ll be glad to reduce the price by selling it without the frame. c. Would you like me to paint you a smaller version 3. My husband would kill me if I came home with this a. Treat yourself to something you love a work of art brings out an emotional response will you be happy if you see this in your room every day, will it

8 remind you of something will you be sorry if you walk away and come back later and its gone? 6. Learn from your experiences a. Paint more of what sells and less of what doesn t sell ( some people don t like to do this). b. Become more confident c. Move forward d. Otherwise you just accumulate a garage full of art and wonder why you keep doing it. 7. Be prepared it is hard to sell one of your babies

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