How to sell your paintings?
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It's like a soccer comment. The pass was good and strong! It's a pity the field suddenly ended! I wish you only make passes on the field and score goals!
To the Artist, Everyone Owes Something
What's also astonishing is the belief that everyone owes something to the artist. Especially striking is the audacity of statements like, 'Galina, you know how to sell paintings. So sell mine for a percentage of the sales.' Yes, I do know how to sell. But why should I do it for you? And do you know what they say to me afterward? 'But I've been told by internet experts that la la la.' Well, if they said so, let them sell it themselves. And when I ask for specifics, it's either silence or 'Galina, you don't understand. Internet experts have valued my works at …' Well, good for them. Let them buy or sell independently.
What's my role in all of this? And here's where the plot thickens even further. Because nobody owes anything to the artist. And fundamentally, with his deep inner world and everything he wanted to express, he's not particularly interesting to anyone either. I know it sounds harsh. And it's only after realizing these fundamental positions that movement towards sales, money, and recognition begins."
Customer Questionnaire
1. Why do you think you're losing customers?
2. What do you believe could be the reason for the low conversion rate between viewers and sales?
3. What methods do you use to attract customers?
4. Do you think it's necessary to ask questions before offering products or services?
5. What criteria do you use to identify customer needs?
6. What are your thoughts on which questions should be asked before offering products or services?
7. What are your preferences in terms of art style, direction, and color palette?
8. What criteria do you use when selecting artwork for your collection or gifts?
9. How do you typically go about purchasing artwork: do you plan in advance or make spontaneous decisions?
10. How often do you purchase artwork for your home or office?
11. How familiar are you with the specific artist's work?
12. What criteria do you consider crucial when evaluating the quality of artwork?
13. How do you ensure that you're viewing original pieces of art?
14. How many pieces of artwork do you typically have in your home?
15. What are your expectations when purchasing artwork?
Feel free to add to the list.
About money for artists
Why is it necessary to know your painting buyers? Why is it necessary to understand how customer flows are organized towards your paintings? Why is it necessary to pay attention to and assign tags? Because money doesn't come from nowhere, from nothing. Usually, money before becoming yours belonged to someone, belonged to someone. And money always comes to us from people.
Please pay attention to my words. All this means that you somehow motivate other people to give you money. Think. What is there in your paintings that other people are willing to give you money for? What is there that your customers bring you money for?
Quality of Creativity
Sales, especially at the stage of your professional development, have nothing to do with pure and noble creativity, if you thought otherwise.
Creativity. Wildly complex activity that will require significant effort from your brain.
Imagine that you have a bag of parts weighing two and a half tons, from which you need to manually assemble a car. That's what awaits you. Do you really think you can just sit down with your muse and quickly paint a top masterpiece for the last 2,000 years and the next 5?
If you've never drawn before, it might take you several weeks to create a decent landscape, still life, or portrait. And all because you'll have to pay attention to the quality of the watercolor drawing, think about accents and lines, follow the rhythm, composition, light, and air, and maintain the viewer's interest. It's not as simple as it may seem. And if you make a mistake somewhere, it will be noticeable right away, not only to an experienced artist but to anyone who has heard of watercolor. Approach it like your favorite job.
For those whose results don't match their expectations
For those who are afraid to start and take action. I did and redid. Corrected, changed. I never looked at stores and galleries and thought, "That's it, perfect forever." No. There were 6 websites. I left 2 of them. And constantly adjusted one according to the buyers and readers. Of the planned and proposed courses, only half "worked." From this half, only a few survived. The rest fell apart into pieces and will be incorporated into future projects.
And that's normal. Testing your ideas and gradually mastering the skill of articulating ideas clearly for others. And bringing them to fruition as a complete project cycle. And tons of texts, videos, different forms, and so on. Because. When you start, especially when you start, you almost always do things wrong, or slowly. Or you get something completely different.
The secret is that if you don't start, nothing will happen. At the beginning, you don't really know yourself and your paintings. And what you want from whom, you imagine in a fog. Especially by what means. Hence the mistakes and hesitation. It's like in intimate relationships. The better you know yourself and your desires, hear your feelings and your partner, the more often you engage, the more pleasure and orgasms you get. What do you think?
What to do if you have a closet full of paintings
And buyers have disappeared forever beyond the horizon?
Start crying and don't stop! And then buyers will surely come to the miserable, feeble-minded artist. To paint a fence and quietly haul away the paintings.
Start pitying yourself and looking for flaws! And then buyers will definitely notice you, curators will come running. To paint a fence and quietly haul away the paintings. In general, no matter what you do, the result is the same. So it's time to prepare for a sad outcome in obscurity and poverty.