Where to sell your artwork

Where to sell paintings, is also an important question. You can sell them from your studio or home, through a gallery, at an exhibition; you could also sell them on-line, either through your own web site or another on line gallery site. Hey even eBay (though I don’t expect very high prices on that channel).

If you are going to sell through a gallery or exhibition, you have to know its location as painting prices or what people a prepared to pay for a painting will vary from suburb to suburb. A lot depends on the financial demographic of a particular location when deciding on a final price.

If you are fortunate enough to have a gallery that sells your work talk with its proprietor as he or she will a lot of useful experience at selling paintings and you should discuss pricing with them before finalizing a price for your artwork. If they have been in business for a long time then they must know how to set art! Their advice on how to sell your paintings should be well considered.

Place is also important when you consider your competition, yes, just like in selling a car or TV set, competition exists in the art world.  Art, painting, creativity, originality are not excluded from competition if you want to sell paintings.

So who is your competition, well it is the other artists who are selling in the same area or location as yourself. I suggest you visit a number of galleries and exhibitions in the location you will be trying to sell in and see what similar work to yours is selling for.  You also have to take into account the reputation of the other artists. An artist’s who has been selling for a long time with a good reputation will be able to fetch a higher price for his paintings.  Sometimes, other artists sell comparable work to yours at a price lower than you would like. In this case you either have to reduce you price, or paint an even better painting or else your work with be less likely to sell.

When I first started selling my paintings I made it a habit to visit all the local exhibitions on their closing day. I would purchase a calendar and walk around the show marking which works had sold (they were the ones with a red dot placed on them), for how much, and a comparison with my work. This helped me to set painting prices which were more realistic.

The next item we will look at is Promotion as it applies to the sale of watercolor artwork.

Continue to: How to promote your art