Would you paint a picture to match the sofa?
When we were students we were all quite snobbish about self-expression, finding our personal style and being super-original. In those days we never paid the bills either! (Dad paid them)
I think I still have a LOT of no-no’s from back then. I had a weird conversation with a friend who said “I am prepared to try any sort of painting as long as…” (and here I mentally said, it does not sacrifice my artistic integrity) but she said “as long as I think it is financially viable” Another lesson!
The same friend told me that the in-colour this year is muted greys and it would be good to paint to complement this. This makes me feel that I live in the dark ages, still not even thinking of market trends.
When I painted the pebble paintings I thought it was a natural. zen-like, personal expression; and original (in that I have added letters in the same way I did to the original pebbles). I also thought it was very saleable and important that it is archival. Each pebble is unique, has words added, and is mounted on blocks painted and sanded and properly finished with Annie Sloan paint. They are sealed to withstand bathroom damp. I painted about 20 of these.
I had them at Art in Action in August 2014 and sold one. Someones said they were overpriced as they are bathroom art (as opposed to sitting room art). There is a lesson in that which I have taken on board. Another person wanted the edges to all match. I loved the variation and thought mix ‘n match is good.
I offered them to a gallery in Burford in November 2014, but they said that as it was winter they should be shown during summer!
Later I had them at Artweeks in May 2015 and sold four (one to my granddaughter Isabel, with a commission from Harriet (6) to do an H). I balked at selling paintings to my own granddaughters but their Mum said “They have money burning in their pockets and I’d rather they bought your paintings than more fluffy toys”.
Now they are in a proper gallery, this Summer 2015 with a display of the real pebbles and they have been selling steadily.
So this is what I learnt:
- If you do different letters on paintings you hugely reduce the chances of selling them. Better to do droplets, feathers etc. on pebbles than letters, as people will only buy a letter if it is their initial. But I am a lettering artist – weep!
- Something like this has to be properly marketed in a nice gallery to give it a sense of value so as not to be confused with mass-produced prints.
- Framed pictures sell better than block-mounted pictures.
- Prices people are prepared to pay relates to the room the work is destined for. Bathroom art should be the cheapest and living room art the most expensive. This is obvious to most people (except me).
- Oil paintings are perceived to have more worth than watercolour paintings, even though I think wateroclours takes more skill. This judgement is based on having done oils for 4 years as a student.
- Prints (e.g. lino or screenprinting) are confused with giclées, and are sadly underrated. It takes 20 times longer to do a run of 10 prints than to create a painting.
- The colours need to harmonise with the room and this season’s colour schemes.
- The subject matter sells best for its emotional appeal more than its artistic merit, so a recognisable landscape is more likely to sell than a general one. (This does not apply to me, as I am not a landscape artist, but I saw it happen with a colleague’s work). In calligraphy, recognisable text – preferably poetry from schooldays e.g. Wordsworth’s Daffodils, sells best.
- It is very hard to sell work at a fair like Art-in-Action – not surprising as there is so much to be tempted by! But it’s good exposure and a very good way to guage what people respond to, even if they don’t buy. I guage largely through my cards which give a fair reflection.
- Pictures are seasonal. Pebbles sell well in the summer. Snowdrops sell in springtime. Snow in winter…
- Thistles are more popular than lilies. Teasels are more popular (and nicer) than pictures of roses. Roses, however are nicer in the garden than teasels. Its just that its very difficult to paint something that’s near-perfect and make it look more splendid!
- Portraits are only desirable if they are your family or celebrities, or tell a story.
- Portraits of animals only sell to people who have that specific breed.
I still have masses to learn – can anyone offer any shortcuts or inside information?
And here’s a thing! Someone told me about a botanical artist who said that when there was one painting that she could not shift, instead of marking it down, she reframed it in a much fancier frame, and hung it in the centre of her display. It always went quite quickly!
But I am pleased to see that my calligraphic dance figures are very popular. I’m just not sure how they fit into what I have learnt!
Hi Lyne . I have been in hospital and had my energies elsewhere. Recuperating well now – no driving for a month. I still read all your blogs and am so grateful for all this experience you are sharing even though I don’t do a lot of what you are doing. Today’s thoughts were so interesting……the art of selling your artwork. I used to do the Tasmanian Craft Fairs – about 4 of them. Its like ART in ACTION -5 days with a large display that took me a day to mount. My non family tree calligraphy hardly sold. Even at prices that didn’t cover the framing (which I don’t do myself). But prints of the same artwork, hand finished sold. I wanted people to tell me they liked what I did….but of course calligraphy is admired but not considered an investment. As you say the words have to speak to the viewer , strike a cord then they have to like the frame and the price. Degree of skill is not estimated by the greater population. Until they have tried it they have no idea. Next week we have an exhibition of our society. I didnt want to spend money on new frames when I have my walls full of work I haven’t sold before. I want to let them go. Yet I know that the expressive works sell before the traditional well executed lettering. The gallery owner insisted we have realistic prices (higher in fact than we put on our work) otherwise she said we undervalue it . The gallery is in an expensive area . Once you take the cost of framing, the 27% commission, the entry fee of $15 and the materials there isn’t much left . However most of us are not in it for the financial rewards however one would like acknowledgement that a lot of time and expense has been invested into producing your work. Selling your own work is not easy. SO much emotion is invested. Selling is another skill and it is easier for someone else to sing the praises of your work than for you. My best seller was any work by Kahlil Gibran……I did a master copy , printed them off then hand coloured the illumination down the side. It is sad but true, people don’t think twice about spending $25 dollars on a hamburger with a glass of wine……but artwork……they want a lot for their $25. That is the way of the world. Lettering arts is just not estimated enough in the general population. As you say, if something has the name of the purchaser on it, no problem to sell. at these Fairs I was flat out doing children’s names in coloured inks with a Parallel pen and some glitter thrown in …..the queue never let up…….I started at a $1 and worked my way up to $5 at the encouragement of surrounding stall holders who told me to cash in on the demand. I had matt board cut to size and plastic covers to put over them so they didn’t get damaged. That was a good selling point. Why these demos don’t get children asking to learn I don’t understand . I guess they tend to do what other children do (sport)….this is a lonely activity! after all. I am not buying any more work from other calligraphers as I just have no space to hang it and no one to leave it to. Our society has limited storage so I cant even leave it to them. Problem. SO many family tree originals – I could sell them to the families but most have had copies..and prefer the cheaper version. a lot of work to trace the families for reselling too. I know the National Library in Canberra only takes book collections if it is AUSTRALIAN. My husband had a huge genealogical collection of 5000 books. He had to give it to a Genie Society in Sydney and they sold off a lot of it. I am sure the oldest books didn’t make it to the shelves…….we didn’t have time to sell them ourselves as he died of cancer and I had my hands full just caring for him. I have switched off the “Having ” mode to the “being” mode. K
eep up the good work Lyne!!
Ahhh…the dancer paintings. They don’t fit into any of those good selling points. AND THAT IS THE POINT!
That’s the learning…remember why you did them? where was the draw, the motivation?
And I love my stone with a G – and you had no idea that it matched a tiny square rock pool bit of a painting I’d only bought a few days before and that’s the serendipity, the magic that all the matching the season’s colours cannot replace….just my reflection on your blog, at dawn! xxx
Hi Lois
I like what you are saying – its the full circle of what I believe in my heart – art for art’s sake BUT you can get despondent when you keep producing and have to market and put jam on the bread. (Dave puts the bread on the table, I do the jam) The Dancers is what I am doing for my soul. I don’t really buy into the selling points, (excuse the pun) but they ARE the SELLING points, not art for art’s sake or artistic integrity points.
Thanks for another great share Lin. My two years at Reigate encouraged those on the Lettering HND down the vocational route – aiming toward a skill/art that would sell vs indulgence. I still carry that “cross” today. I am a commissioned calligrapher/lettering artist and I teach. Earning a living from my craft does not always leave me with much time to prepare work for exhibitions or “play” – something I would LOVE to do more of. Bringing up a young family and contributing to the family coffers has taken precedence.
Having said that I am slowly getting more “me” time and recently I have enjoyed going to workshops by other calligraphers – although related to my “every day job” I still see this as going off for a “pamper day”! I am hoping to exhibit the odd piece as well as I recognise the importance of juggling all these balls to keep calligraphically current and fresh.
I recently sold a huge piece I had exhibited several times at various trails/exhibitions and had said to my husband if it didn’t sell it was coming out of its frame (big pieces are expensive to frame and take up so much darn space on the studio wall if they don’t sell!) and go into the plan chest as a mounted piece. Well blow me down but no sooner had I said that – someone walked by, stopped to “read” it (t’was gestural calligraphy with white chinagraph pencil on black Canson Mi-Teinte) and said “Love that, can I take it?”. Literally 2 mins later, all bubble wrapped up this tiny little lady waltzed off with this massive piece! She said she just liked it and could envisage it in her sitting room.
I have painted illuminated letters as “samplers” for commission ideas at art fairs and folk STILL say “it’s a shame it isn’t (whatever letter” they want). When I explain it is just a sample – an idea – I can create whichever letter they want – it sometimes leads to a commission but more often they want to take something away with them – I’m not painting the entire alphabet! My calligraphy “life occasion” cards sell well – as do my Christmas cards – none of which are in a traditional hand.
hello lin — your post here raises some interesting issues regarding the selling of calligraphy (with a nod to the perpetual question of where does calligraphy sit in the fine art continuum) — I come from a fine art background, moved into studying/selling/etc calligraphy (in the 1980s/90s) but despite having a large and rather successful studio/gallery, I never really got into the swing of creating commercial calligraphic works (ahhhh that fine art background – its a bugger!) — for me autonomy of creativity was more important than trying to figure out the next big trend in colours and homewares (and I rarely undertook commissions and never did commercial calligraphic work such as invitations etc). these days I’m happy to tell you that I sit fairly firmly in the fine art camp.
Calligraphers who wish to sell their work in the open market place face an unusual challenge — what calligraphers do sits awkwardly between genres — with some calligraphers being more akin to designers while others are more interested in the expressive possibilities of the craft (yes I do believe calligraphy itself is a craft — but then so to is photography, printmaking painting etc — its what you DO with your craft that may make the work ART). when calligraphy is closer to design its much easier to market and sell — as calligraphy moves toward the fine art sphere it encounters all the fine art world problems (too many here to mention!)
For my part, because my interest is in art, I found that the best thing I could do was NOT to worry about creating something to suit the market (which is as fickle as fast fashion – insuring that any work created to sell within this market will be as disposable as fast fashion) but focus instead on making work that satisfied my creative drive – I don’t suggest that this is a superior position, merely a different way of thinking about the dilemma of creativity and marketplace economics. Once I made my choice, I released my work from the need to sell and to earn me my living (I earn money from other sources – mostly teaching) it also released me from the angst of ‘no one appreciates the time/skill/value of what I do’, as well as the conundrum of classification (‘is it art’?) .
My comments may not be what folk want to hear – but it IS another way to view what calligraphers do and how they can make a living.
Hi Ronnie
What you are saying is what I really believe and how I have lived with my art until I found myself in a different situation. The art vs calligraphy is another crazy debate – so tiresome. And you have put your case very eruditely indeed. I think I need to run another post about this issue next Wednesday as it is raising responses and I am trying to do exactly that; apart from being brutally honest with myself.
So much of what I said was a sad truth – how do you sell your art and keep it as art? Or is that asking too much?
Lin