Hello All,
I am an oil painter of 30+ years, and a member of DPW. We have all tried and failed methods of promotion, and the world of social media can be daunting. I myself have wasted money and time on hashtags and facebook posts when i could have been painting.
Recently on facebook, i met John Christensen who has taken a lot of time to compile what i perceive to be the best thought-out, comprehensive ebook about artists marketing and strategizing in today’s marketplace.
His practical advice is like anything i have seen on the so many blogs offering generic regurgitated advice. John is very intelligent and also very philosophical. He definitely knows what he is talking about.
He recently interviewed me regarding my history of how i got into painting, when i decided to make the lunge of being a professional artist, and my experiences and success’ with social media.
I felt very honored and lucky to be part of his amiable and noble cause of seeing to it that artists get their day of self-sufficient, self-supportive independence.
If you have time check it out.
The ebook is 16 pages and light reading but profound. You put in your email , and are sent the book via email automatically.
Hi, thank you for the link and I have just read through the Artists Marketing Guide and I have to say that it is of very little use and nothing new. If it did I think it would turn up in searches.
I suggest a couple of the best ways to get information that is practical, relevant and is more likely to work is to look at artists of experience and to
a. follow their work and how and where they sell - types of outlets, methods of selling etc
b. join a group on Facebook that sells work. In the UK we have Art Fair Buddies and others and questions such as yours are raised (not just about art fare selling) and good discussions ensue and masses of advice comes flowing in.
This booklet covers virtually nothing of the many facets to selling art. It majors on making a List but data protection laws make this increasingly hard to do in the ways that we used to. I’m afraid it is a waste of reading time! These sorts of guides are two a penny and, as I say, nothing beats information from artists or gleaned by watching their methods of marketing. Having said that, I do wish you the best of luck - art is having selling problems worldwide and everyone thinks they can paint and will always find a market for their pieces sold for a few dollars. That skews things for those that might produce better work but their prices don’t compare. Imagine a good piece of art next to one that clearly has no skill or appeal. The latter one has a price that is very much less than that of the good piece. The first thing people tend to say about the first one is “Look, that’s expensive”! I chaired a major art society for several years and we finally agreed that a very good watercolourist should be forced to increase his ridiculously low (he didn’t need the money, he said) prices as they affected other artists’ works. We raised them by a large margin but not as high as they should have been (softly softly!) and they all sold at that exhibition. As a buyer said “I always buy his work at these exhibitions as he’s dirt cheap and when he dies I’ll sell them all!”.
Even if we use all the popular means of marketing and promotion there will always remain an element of luck. We just have to keep pushing away at it. Easy to get dispirited but don’t turn off the creative tap even if all beds in the house have artwork stored under them!
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