I agree that every work should be objectively assessed. But you need to understand that not everyone can afford too high prices for goods. For example, I order books for my daughter on https://letstel.net/personalized-books, with excellent author illustrations and at a great price. It is up to you how to evaluate your work.
Depends on what the artists goals are. Some people like to paint and are happy that someone likes their work and is willing to give them 20 bucks so they can maintain supplies and paint some more.
No easy task making a living as a painter. Run the numbers whether you sell in galleries or sell on your own you have to be very prolific. Unless you one of the very few who get 50k a work.
Plus the more you produce and sell could lead to higher priced sales in the future from collectors. Understand that just because someone that can only pay 25 bucks for one of your works now doesnāt mean they canāt pay $250 in the future, as peoples income changes all the time.
I personally have sold well over 500 paintings over the years online maybe more. Many of them under 25 bucks. But I now have some of those collectors who have paid 10x that for a very similar work.
Its all about the goals the artist sets.
This also leads me to another point on selling ones work cheap. Its a good thing for the artist if people buy your works and try to resell them at a profit. You should want that, it only increases the value of the artists work.
Iāve seen some posts in the past where artist are mad because they sold a work for $25 online and the buyer resold it for $50.
So what!! This is literally the idea of constructing a work of art and selling it. When a collector purchases an artist work they want feel that there is value in the purchase. They are also building their net worth. They may decide to sell it down the road and make a profit if the artist work is selling for more. The artist has no claim to that profit.
I know many wonāt like my opinion, but hear me out. Iāve always been enamored with the āideaā of making a living selling paintings, but the notion of money has not ever once motivated me to create. In fact, itās turned me off from creating in the past. This might have something to do with how I look at the world. I tend to look at my purchases (whether itās a bottle of soda or a pair of socks) as 'how practical and necessary is this?", and when I look at art that way I realize that art in and of itself provides almost no value on its own. Any value placed upon is the responsibility of the viewer or the buyer. Art, just like money, doesnāt talk, walk or perform any other functions than act as an interpretation of the creatorās vision or a recording of the past. I suspect in this world of classifying everything and people increasingly thinking more and more about how they spend their money, it may just be that purchasing art is no longer THEY have to do, and they may feel that art isnāt a worthwhile investment.
Oh Lawd. Iām always late to the party Lol
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Iām relatively new here, (4 months) and I joined because I liked the idea of the discipline of a daily painting. Most of the paintings I put up for sale here are my āwarm upā painting or an experimental painting of the day. The larger and more involved paintings find their way to a gallery. My buyers are people I have been cultivating for years on Facebook. I actually sell more off my personal Facebook page than my business Facebook page. I believe the reason for that is that buying a painting is personal. My collectors want to join in on my adventures, my point of view. Daily paintwork just makes purchasing easy for my collectors. I travel in my RV painting and I can get my work out to the public in seconds. So basically my social media drives buyers to my DPW page.
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I absolutely agree with youā¦and with all do respect I do not agree at all with what David has explain to you. DPW becomes a shipo place for artists to show their works. I have over 20 paintings of 12X9inches, which canāt be considered big paintings and never had a single buyer visit to it. You can see my gallery at https;//www.carlosartstudio.com or just look by my name Carlos Arriola.
Hi Paulett,
I donāt know why I have almost 40 pieces on my gallery for well over 2 months and not only one person seams to be interested. I have insert few in the auctions ā¦but ZERO interest or bids.
I do not think my prices are unreasonable taking into consideration
the time spent in each painting.
Itās about less than minimum salary.
Does anyone have a suggestion? Thanks in advance for any reply.
Carlos Arriola
Loved this post. I havenāt yet, but plan to join and begin selling my art as well. It is fortunate that my art isnāt my sole source of income, but I hope that moving into the world of art sales will improve my abilities in something that brings joy in the process.
Tl_Shaver,
You are correct. Itās a constant and daily effort to get your work out there. I travel the country doing plein air competitions. I meet dozens of people at every event. The better I do, the more I sell. I post on Facebook and Instagram everyday. Sometimes art, sometimes something personal. I have galleries, I do artists talks, I teach workshops, I volunteer at art centersā¦ but I make a great living as a painter. DPW has been a great way to sell easily and it inspires me to paint daily! Thanks for your comment. Debra
Iāve been dormant for a while with painting (lots of stuff going on) and am starting up again.
That fellow who commented above about how the quality of a lot of art isnāt that good is onto something. I can personally attest to this. I started with DPW in 2012 and my earliest paintings didnāt sell that well. Once in a while, but thatās it. Iād like to think my old works arenāt horrifically terrible, but after a workshop with an amazing artist who helped me resolve a few issues, the difference was like night and day. Everything I created before the workshop still didnāt sell fast. Everything after that workshop sold much, much, MUCH faster.
I am certain that with more work and practice, I can reach some new level and sell even more!
So the moral of the story is, donāt assume itās them (the clients). It might be you. I knew something was āoffā with my earlier works and I was working on improving that problem on my own, but my progress was too slow and the workshop just pushed me much faster.
Iāve been looking around online (not necessarily DPW only) seeing what other artists are doing (assessing their prices, what they are painting, how well theyāre selling, yadda yadda) and something I often notice is problems with proportions (drawing). If the portrait has eyes that are crooked or something else out of whack, the painting isnāt going to sell. I know when I pushed to improve my drawing/proportions (and of course thereās still more room for improvement!) that I started to sell better. In my opinion, too many art classes donāt emphasize accurate drawing like they should. When weāre depicting realistic subjects, we need to always work on improving always, our drawing, our values, colors, edges, etc. Itās humbling to realize how much room for improvement there is for many of us.
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It always amuses me when people have very strong opinions on the way I price my daily paintings. I do my daily paintings for a small, live audience fairly quickly with my less than professional materials. When I do larger commissions I sell for hundreds to thousands of dollars. My $15 auctions (which sometimes sell for more) arenāt devaluing any of my other work, and I donāt see how they would devalue any other artistās work. Once I sell a painting I canāt really stop someone from reselling so I donāt really think about it. Another artist I was talking to recently asked why I didnāt use better materials, and in answering, I realized that the daily painting I had been doing with my acrylic didnāt really have anything to do with what I was painting, but about the whole story behind the materials I had carried with me for years, my impact on the earth with the materials I was deciding to use, and the project was more of a performance piece as a whole. Here it is, over three years since I started and Iām at the very end of all the acrylic materials and Iām about to start using oils again. I keep coming back to this question about cheap art because I feel like I have so much to say about it, but at the same time, I feel my answer is always more of ādoes it really matter what other people sell their art at? People should love the art.ā I might have $15 fruit paintings but people are still spending 500+ over at the Shifting Light website.
This post was written before AI became a thing in the art world. AI is copying artistsā styles and stealing and recreating their creative work. Things will only get worse.
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