Selling paintings

[somerset artist]

I would be interested to know how other artists here go about selling their work.

The main thrust of my art at the moment are miniatures for the dolls house market and ebay is about the best place, even with its charges. Much of my work goes to the USA with Europe and the UK a close second.

However I have a fair few 'full size' paintings and am keen to show them. I am organising a couple of art and craft fairs for later in the year, but I have a new series in mind, which the sale of a few of my current ones would fund.

Has anyone tried getting their art into galleries? There aren't really enough to warrant a solo exhibition and many of the venues are fully booked in any case. has anyone had any luck on some of the other auction sites or online galleries other than eBay.

Andrew

Painting tip of the day: Don't put your cup of coffee next to the water jar!

:mf:

[Focus on Life]

Painting tip of the day: Don't put your cup of coffee next to the water jar!

:mf:

Ha ha I do like that!

Sorry I dont have any advice though, not my field, but best of luck with it all

Shaz x

[wyattbean]

Hi, not sure about where you are but have you tried your local library or theatre? or arts centre? they sometimes have exhibitions with many contributors.
Just a thought
Sue

[colourart]

Hi,
I sell most of my work through ebay however I do have a website which showcases all of my work, and I do make sales through that. Craft fairs are another avenue I sell through however I do very few, the rest of the sales come through word of mouth. Never approached a gallery, not brave enough.:)

[sweet]

Painting tip of the day: Don't put your cup of coffee next to the water jar!

:mf:

lol! yes i've made this mistake a number of times! You'd think i would have learnt the first time....

I havn't sold my art yet, i'm in the process of seting up a site, but i think word of mouth is the best starting point

gl...

s.x

[somerset artist]

Would you believe the library and the other couple of main exhibition areas around here are - in the main - fully booked into next year!!

I did used to sell my full size art on eBay and a few years ago it was making quite good money and then sales started to tail off and I concentrated on my dolls house miniatures which I know sell very well.

With the cup of coffe it isn't just the brushes that get dipped in the coffee, I have even dunked a biscuit in the paint water!!

Andrew

[wendy]

Hi, I've been researching selling paintings. There's loads of info if you google terms like marketing art, etc.

The one place where I've found an abundance of advice is another forum called Wet canvas - it's American, but there are lots of Brits on there, and some of the advice is universal, of course.

It seems like galleries want you to have some exhibitions under your belt before they'll take you seriously. It might be a good idea to look long term at your local library, or try a coffee shop or restaurant. You could try a joint exhibition in a community centre or similar.

Good luck!

[somerset artist]

Breaking news!!

I have been talking with the manager of our local shopping centre (Taunton) and it may be that I will be allowed to organise an art and crafts market within the centre on a regular basis, even weekly was mentioned. I have a face to face meeting next week so hopefully something will be happening very soon.

I explained that I was keen to have artists as well as craftspeople and she was most enthusiastic.

Andrew

[Squiggly Sue]

I loved your tip of the day, i think most of us have done this at some point or other! I did it the other day, I was doing some silk painting and batik work with a wax pot and instead of dipping my paintbrush in the silk paint it went straight in the melted wax - ruined paintbrush!

I hope the meeting goes ok with the shopping centre.

I have some work on a gallery website, but I find that I dont really sell a great deal from that and I find exhibitions and craft fairs much better places to sell work from. Plus you can speak to any potential customers. Its probably worth seeing if there are any other artists in your area and see if they want to hold a joint exhibition. I have been involved with a group of artists (who got together on a forum like this) who have one day selling exhibitions in a village hall on a monthly basis. These are quite successful, plus it was good for networking. I think a shopping centre would be great as there is lots of passing trade. Ive thought about doing it myself as there seems to be quite a few cart stalls in the shopping centre for rent, its all about taking that jump to find out.

[Swarovski Chick]

Hi

There is a new site out there westcountrygalleries which may be of interest to you. They are quite new but starting to do well online and may be worth a chat with the owner Jacqui who is very helpful.

Suzanne

[Ashbee]

Breaking news!!

I have been talking with the manager of our local shopping centre (Taunton) and it may be that I will be allowed to organise an art and crafts market within the centre on a regular basis, even weekly was mentioned. I have a face to face meeting next week so hopefully something will be happening very soon.

I explained that I was keen to have artists as well as craftspeople and she was most enthusiastic.

Andrew

What about your local garden centre? There are lots out there, small and large. A group of artists from the Mendips area are exhbiting at Banwell garden centre (near Weston-super-mare) at the moment, if you can get down there it might be worth a chat with the manager or one of the artists if they are taking turns in manning the exhibitions.?

(I think there are about 8 people involved from what I read in the paper).

Hope this helps!

[somerset artist]

...the situation with the local shopping centre. Although I had a number of interested artists and craftspeople, I couldn't get enough on a regualr basis. A number I know came through this forum and I do feel that I let you down. It was way back in May that the idea was first put forward and I think I went into it with my heart rather than my head. I did things the wrong way and consequently the art and craft event didn't happen.

I now realise that the business of organising anything art/craft related needs to be just that - business, and as such should be approached from a business angle. Since then I have had a little exhibition just to see if I could do it, and this was quite successful and I learnt a few valuable lessons. Although not much sold I did receive some great feedback.

Andrew

[Ashbee]

Don't apologise for having a good idea and even getting to the stage of meeting the manager of the shopping centre. Many people will only have 'the idea' but never take it further. Congratulate yourself for not sitting back and watching the world pass you by.

Look back on it (and your mini exhibition) as a learning curve and take the comments from this forum in good faith - we are all here to help and support each other, no matter what the outcome.

Good luck for the future!:p

[matt.chatterley]

In recent years I've seen quite a lot of paintings for sale on the walls of what I would call "nice, independant" coffee shops - not Costa, et al - but the nice ones :D

I suppose it depends on the style of your art, to a large degree, though - do you have a typical (stereotypical?) target audience?

[somerset artist]

HI Matt thanks for the replies. I don't have a particular type of customer buying my work. The buyers tend to range from the slightly older lady - buying my dolls house miniatures, the 30-40 something male buying my semi abstract landscapes and the older buyer going for my miniatures - non dolls house.

I do quite like the idea of getting into garden centres and went around and have trawled around a number over the last few weeks, the main problem would appear to be a lack of space and this was borne out with a chat I had with one of the managers.

In a local village there is a shop that will be available to rent very soon, and it might make a very good art/craft gallery as well as selling art/craft items, the latter being very scarce around here.

One thing that I have learn't over the last few months is that it is very difficult to do everything yourself. I will be outlining any ideas in the craft business section of the forum.

I am still ever hopeful that something will come along.

Andrew

[GEM]

Andrew, what happened to the eBay store that was in your sig?
How are you currently selling?


regards
James.

[jenig12]

Hi
Its not my field but have you looked into the Saachi gallery website (sorry probably spelt wrongly). They have a showroom for virtual artists that is free to list on, sell through - When I have some free time I love to browse at some of the work there.

[somerset artist]

James, hi, like many others I have shut up shop on ebay due to the price hike. I still list, but only as fixed price or auction listings.

At the moment it seems that paintings have really taken a bashing with sales right down, even when I place a really low start price, however having said that, I haven't listed too many recently. It is a balance between listing - and paying the fees - and the 'hits' that the paintings are getting and then not selling.

At the moment I am tending to split my time between making dolls house furniture and painting roughly 60/40. I am working on an idea that may or may not provide an outlet for my work as well as others.

Andrew

[lockettpots]

Hi Andrew

Is the Taunton and Somerset Hospital still running its Art for Life project.
They used to have plenty of local artists work around the hospital.

Perhaps that might be a way of reaching a wider audience.

John