I’ve been painting for about a year and half now. I mainly do acrylic on canvas; you can see all my work here. (If you want to critique my paintings, I’d appreciate it, but I have a different thread for that here).
I had started painting just for fun, but it turns out that people like my work, and some people have been interested in buying my work. I was wondering if anyone had experience selling artwork and if they had any advice. I have a few specific questions:
[ol]
[li]How should I price my work? I’m not looking to make a living as an artist right now, but I still want to get reasonable prices for my work. Do you price work by the size, or the time it took to paint it, or how much similar works go for, or what?[/li][li]Where’s the best place to sell paintings? I’ve found some websites like Etsy and ArtWanted, but I was wondering if there were any better websites I don’t know about. I’m sure there are some local arts and crafts shows I could get in, but I don’t know if that would be worth it. [/li][li]I don’t have any hardware on the back of any my paintings to hang them. When I hang up a painting on the wall in my apartment, I just stick pushpins in the wall and hang the painting on the pushpins. Does that matter for selling paintings? [/li][li]How’s the best way to mail paintings? My paintings are all acrylic and most of them are under 24” square, though some of them are bigger. [/li][li]Is there any type of varnish that I should put on my work before I sell or mail it?[/li][/ol]
If you have any other advice I’d appreciate it. I have a good day job, and I don’t plan on quitting it and living off my art any time soon, but I figure if I’m going to try selling my work I’ll try to be as professional and successful at it as possible. Thanks for your help.
Are there no artists with advice on selling art? I know there are some other artists here; do y’all just not sell your art? Is this just the wrong forum?
Once again, I’m not making a major life change here and quitting my engineering job and trying to live off the proceeds of my art, I just thought I might as well start trying to sell some of it.
Anyway, if anyone has any advice, I’d appreciate it. Thanks for your time.
Not an artist, just a guy who owned a UPS Store. Take one of your paintings, have it packed by them, take it home and study the packaging. Buy the materials and learn to do this at home. Make it look tidy. Nothing says professional more than a cleanly wrapped package in the mail.
I am sorry I have no advice about pricing, which I am sure is you biggest concern, but if I were you, I would take a look around for pieces similar in technique and size to yours and see what they are charging.
Art is one of those things were cheaper won’t get you more sales. Underprice your pieces and people will see them as crap. Remember, you don’t really need the money. Ask high and wait patiently.
Thanks for the advice Sapo. It makes sense to get an expert to show me how to wrap paintings that way.
That’s also true about since I don’t need the money, I can start with high prices and it doesn’t matter if the paintings don’t sell. But still, I don’t want to set too high of prices and make people think I’m delusional about my artwork.