How to sell your paintings?
Шрифт:
When does good art become great?
Good art becomes great only when it creates a unique and personal connection between the artist and their audience.
This statement comes from a famous art fair that recently generated significant revenue and entered the top 20 leading global platforms of contemporary art. And they are right. Why? Because you create art objects – paintings, sculptures. You embody your feelings on paper, canvas. You pour out your imagination in creative realization.
This is a rare gift. A sparkling gem. Have you ever wondered why these ideas, feelings, thoughts, desires come to your mind? Have you ever thought that the painting, sculpture, photograph you create is just an intermediate step? Not the final result of creativity? Have you ever thought that you create art not to hide it, but to act? To show, demonstrate, share, talk about it. As soon as you start to act, opportunities for promoting and selling your paintings come to you.
And the next series of ideas and feelings come wave after wave straight into your hands. This is my favorite involvement. Interaction. Between you as artists and viewers. You and buyers. Between you as a person and your feelings, desires, thoughts. From which you create art.
And all this comes to you to become accessible to others. Present your creativity. Reveal yourself to others. Publish. Share. Sell. Act. Otherwise, this gift goes away with the opportunities. And you are left with nothing. Good art becomes great only when it creates a unique and personal connection between the artist and their audience.
Artists on Results
These are reviews and some results from artists who have benefited from thematic learning and the application of recommendations from posts in the general group, starting from 2017. We continue to collaborate closely to this day.
When did it all happen? In late July and early August 2018. It was a small real-time experiment, lasting 2 weeks, at the request of the artist Alexander H. The format of communication was video, live streams, and posts. Each time a separate theme and homework. Sometimes such a format is called a marathon. Then the analysis of the completed task and again a new topic. Finally, feedback. Often they ask, "But how many paintings did he sell?"
See the message from the messenger after some time:
"Galina, hello! Do you remember me? Last summer, I painted one picture, large and quickly. Recorded a video process. Did it in 2 days. No more. And left it to finish later, if necessary. Well, those are the details. In short, I put it up for sale on the Masters Fair. I priced it at 34 thousand rubles. It seemed excessive to me. And what? It was bought. First. Just like that. Much of it is your support and knowledge. So thank you for explaining the inexplicable nature of the buyer and the inexplicable pricing! In short, you have to work hard to understand them! And that's heartening!"
Alexander H.
Two weeks Galina taught me how to sell my paintings. Selling them online, and that's important. I tried. And here, briefly, what I learned for myself. Look. Two weeks ago (July-August 2018), we organized an experiment. It was organized by Galina, she created the group "How to sell your paintings?" I found it interesting, and she invited me to participate in this experiment.
And the essence is this. She gives me recommendations, I follow them, and I must have a result. 2 weeks have passed, and I am giving feedback on what I learned and what it gave me. And generally, what I came up with myself, what I learned from her, and how useful it was for me.
What did I learn? First. When Galina started looking at me on the internet, looked at my profile online, she said that I have about 200 friends, which is very few.
This surprised me. This amazed me. Because I thought that friends are those friends who are actually friends. And I thought, "Wow, 200 friends – that's a lot!" But it turns out that on the internet, friends, online friends, or somewhere online – these are not friends. They are not really friends.
It may sound cynical, but it's Target Audience. And you need your friends to turn into your Target Audience. And what is Target Audience? These are the people who are your potential buyers. Well, how can you sell a painting if you don't have buyers? You can't. So you need to work on this target audience, you need to find those people who can buy this painting.
What friends did I have? I looked, found artists I liked, and added them as friends. I liked what they did, and maybe they liked what I did. But it's hard to imagine that an artist will buy from another artist. And indeed, why would I buy a painting from my colleague?
I realized that something needed to change. There should be many, very many of these "friends." And the quality of these friends is also important. That is, these should be potential buyers who are interested in painting, interested in pictures, they are busy with something: perhaps repairs, construction. Interior decoration, and much more.
You need to understand who needs this. And you need to spend time finding them. It won't just happen. Spend time finding them. And take it seriously. Imagine sitting in your studio, painting a picture and thinking that you're a great artist, and when you paint it, everyone will come to see it.
No. Actually, no one knows about this workshop, about you. And actually, you're not needed by anyone. Because there are plenty of paintings! And no one will remember you or think about you if you don't announce yourself! Now – how to do it? How to announce yourself? I'm not talking about how to paint a picture, everyone can do that themselves, and it's completely uninteresting now.
Because there are many artists, and each one thinks they're a genius, and let them think so. It's very good. As soon as you paint a picture, it turns out that it's not even the middle of the process. It's not even half, what you painted. I've come up with a formula for myself: anyone can paint. But try to sell it. Try to find that person who needs it. And here the artist is at a loss. There are people who from birth, besides drawing, can sell themselves and successfully do it.