ART MARKET: Finding Buyers for Artwork, the Paintings and Drawings

Theme: Art Market, Art buyers and the artists.

A person coming out of art college or classes would be struck by a violent realization that what he or she would do now. For the artists, to get a satisfactory income to support them is a Himalayan question. It's not an easy mission to make a satisfactory living from your art income, as the market scenario is not less than frightening.

Walk in the Twilight - by Van Gogh

However where are there are upsetting problems; there are admirable solutions, too. Under this situation, the best way to behave is in accepting the challenge and to try with confidence. Though it is essential to put everything into producing the best possible work you can; it takes time to get adjusted to the outer world, the real word, and incorporate flexibility in attitude and the changes into our work. Today’s situation demands hard efforts. By all means, it would test your character and the level of endurance.

While going through this entire ordeal, you will have to keep it in mind that there would be people who would love your artwork; there would be people who would ignore your artwork.Your efforts should be that you are not to be swayed by either of the opinions too much.To dig out a satisfactory bunch of income from selling your art is as unpredictable as falling of the stars from the sky. But the stars fall; that is fact. You can build up a regular clientele and the group of lovers and purchasers through professional approach and artistic prowess you develop with time.

How to Decide Price of a Painting

I am not going to tell you about how the galleries sell the paintings and what the rates of commission they charge for selling the artworks. Nor would I bore you with TIPs to sell. No, nothing of that sort I would discuss here. Here I would try to share with you some hard facts, the facts the artists on the street have to consider. Here I would count the big boulders which could come into your way while you are striving to find a way for making a survival friendly career with the help of your artistic prowess. Here are some boulders on the road we miss to see while entering the market for selling our paintings.

PRICE: If you are fortunate enough to have your painting hung in a gallery for sale, then the administrator of the gallery would have a greater say in deciding about the price. They would ask your opinion, too, but to rely on them about the price would be a good idea. In case your painting is not in a gallery and you want to fix a price for selling the same, you would be in trouble. It is not an easy task to fix a price for our own painting, as our hopes and emotions are attached with the painting.

In deciding about the approximate price of your painting, ask the honest opinion of your close friends and the art lovers. And never ask them to fix the price. Ask them about the amount of money they would be ready to spend to have that painting on their wall. That would give you the most authenticate clue to decide the price of your painting to be sold in market.

Rating: May it be a landscape or a figurative painting, we should ask our close friends to rate the painting before we decide to decide about quoting the price for the same. We should ask our friends to tell us about how they rate our painting and what point they would give to our painting out of ten. This rating should be evaluated according to the person whom we have asked. If that friend is an art dealer his or her opinion values much more than the others.

How to Sell Your Painting

While trying to build up a market for your art, paintings or drawings, first thing you would require to do is to remain in constant touch of the galleries. In the beginning you should approach a few galleries that hang the work you like and pieces of art you can paint.

The Child's Caress, oil on canvas -by Mary Cassatt

While contacting the art galleries, an artist must try and get involved in finding about that in which type of the artwork a particular gallery is interested in. (Running from one to another gallery makes an artist perfect!) Second stage in an artist’s life comes when some of the galleries start taking interest into his or her work. Here the prime factor for the art gallery would indeed be the marketability of the paintings or the drawings offered to be displayed and sold. (Images Courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

During the period an artist is waiting for first cheque from the gallery, he or she should keep observing the other established artists’ work, especially the manner in which they construct and compose their work. After a time, if circumstances tend to be favourable, the artists would find their work being sold. As the work sells, an art galleries would put pressure on artists to concentrate on the type of work that is most saleable. Thus the beginning of sale of paintings or artwork can be helpful as far as earning the money is concerned, but an artist should not let it stop experimenting and trying out new ideas. Above painting 'Greyhounds of the Comte de Choiseul' is by Gustav Courbet. (Images Courtesy Wikimedia Commons)