Searching

Sometimes you have to look beyond the obvious. Sometimes you have to do some lateral thinking. I've been doing quite alot of that recently. Not that its brought me many answers yet, but I think it will, in time.

How can I make more money through my art.

What are the options? To paint more pictures and sell them, is the obvious one. To raise my profile would help a lot. To find a gallery who will fall in love with the existing art I have. The more I look at galleries the less I think that's likely to happen as my art is too much for some and not enough for others. MMm..... to start teaching art.... maybe......... To do more writing about my art is a possibility. To find more buyers/collectors is the best option, but its finding them. To promote myself more would help. To do more exhibitions/shows is a good idea presuming I can find the right ones.

But then, I wonder if I'm on the right track at all.

During a conversation last night I found out that locally you can get a sensual massage with "extras" for about three times the amount I consider to be my working hourly rate.

MMM...mmmmm... maybe I should change professions :)

Or better still, maybe I should offer for the same price the opportunity to be drawn whilst you're receiving your ....er..........massage............... MMM....... maybe that would help!!! LOL

Money money money

I'm a happy bunny today - I've just been told a local gallery has sold one of my paintings. Big smiles. I'll go and collect my money in a bit - the price of the painting minus their commission. It makes up for the lack of sales last weekend!

Selling art is a funny business. Pricing it is very tricky. I've always tried to be fair with my pricing - selling at the price I consider a good amount for the work done and expertise involved. I have a basic hourly rate in my head that I sort of work around to find the price. Its probably a lot higher than the majority of artists in this locale, but I know I'm better than most of them, or at least I value myself higher because I know I can tackle subjects and techniques that a lot of them can't. I spoke to a botanical artist the other day, who is incredibly talented, and sells his paintings very well. He knows he's good at what he does. He spends hours and hours and long hours on his artwork and works in directly opposing ways to my technique - he will glaze over and over many times on each area of a flower petal, a leaf or a piece of fruit. He wants the finished painting to look exactly the same as the item infront of him, and I think that's incredibly admirable. But I don't paint like that. I use splatter and fluid lines and lost and found edges in my work to show movement and life and much prefer the effect. But should I charge the same price as him? He will agonise for ages over the tiniest piece of colour, I spend ages thinking about the emotional effect my art will convey through colour and line and composition.

A few years ago I joined a local art group and asked the chairman a lot of questions regarding how my art should move forward. He helped me a lot with good wholesome advice based on his expertise and experience. One of the things I asked him was about how to price my work. His advice was "Double it!" which took me aback. "What? Double the prices? Will people pay it"? "Yes", he said, "They will". And he's been right, they have. But then if I join another art organisation which is of a far higher profile (and I'm working on that very thing at this very moment!) do I carry on doubling the prices? I think the answer is probably yes. People expect it. But the work is still of the same quality and calibre as it is now, the only thing that's changed is the price tag. And people will still pay it. I know of an artist who was selling his work through a VERY famous shop in London some years ago, and was asked his price for one particular painting that a member of another countries royal family was interested in purchasing. The artist named his high price and was told to put another zero on the end of it. ANOTHER ZERO????? Yes - it was expected! The price was too cheap otherwise and the prince wouldn't have been interested........ The picture was sold at the higher price. Point made.

So, I think the point I'm making is.......... get me now whilst I'm going cheap ........ so to speak......