How to Sell Your Art

If there is one question universally shared by artists around the world, it's this one. "How do I sell my art?"  This week, I got an email from Laura, a UK-based artist:

I recently had to give up my part time office job. I paint and also make mosaics when I can.What concerns me most is the difficulty in trying to find somewhere to exhibit my work, that doesn't take a big commission, where I can actually sell a few paintings.Do you have any advise on this subject?  Artfinder take 40% plus a fee. Local galleries around here only want top names.

How to sell art happens to be my primary focus at the moment. I’ve been researching options, talking to other artists, reading as much as I can, and developing an outline business plan. (If the words ‘business plan’ strike fear into your heart, replace them with ‘sales plan’ or just ‘plan.’)In this post, I am sharing an overview of my ideas but I plan to write about each of these in more detail and also to document my efforts next year as I try out some of these ideas.First and foremostIf you want to sell your art, you first need to make it as good as possible. I believe good art will always sell (as long as it reaches the right audience).I vowed to make 2018 about improving my work and getting it to a place where I felt excited about marketing it. I am now at that point, so 2019 will be all about sales.If you do not yet feel you are ready for selling, don’t pressure yourself to start. This period of developing your art is crucial and it deserves your full attention. (If you’re interested in learning how I transformed my work and found my own voice, sign up for my newsletter - my amazing teacher will soon be offering free tutorials and I will let you know when they are available).But, assuming you do feel your work is ready to sell, here are some of the possible ways you can get it out into the world.GalleriesThis is the obvious one if you want to sell your art. Some artists want to focus primarily on gallery sales – others want to avoid galleries altogether. I am somewhere in the middle. I would like to have my work in one or two galleries and I am currently researching options.Note: I am in the UK and our gallery system seems a little different from the system in the US, so not everything I say will apply for American readers.I am aiming for galleries within an hour or two of my home (to avoid shipping) and in relatively affluent towns/cities (for obvious reasons). I am now looking at the work of artists I admire and seeing where they currently show work. From there I will build a target list, visit to see if my work would fit, and strike up a conversation with the gallery owner (and/or make a connection via social media) before making any kind of approach.But I do not want to rely on galleries because even the least expensive charge a 30% commission. I understand why they need to charge this money and I don’t resent it, but I would still rather keep the money for myself if possible. Perhaps you feel differently. Maybe you just want to sell solely through galleries. If so, that’s fine, but remember that galleries take up to 50% of the sale, so you will need to find enough of them to make it pay. If that’s the route you choose, go all in. Do extensive research, make personal connections, find creative ways of getting noticed, and recognise that rejection is a part of the process – keep persisting no matter how many times you hear “no.”This is a good resource for anyone interested in galleries. It’s an American site, so some nuances may not apply to other countries, but he has sound advice about the importance of relationships when looking for gallery representation.Open StudiosMany areas have an art trail or an open studios of some kind. In my own area, there are a couple of local art trails and a much larger county-wide open studios event.  I plan to participate in them all next year.It’s worth researching what is on offer in your area – this may mean you need to join a group or association but the membership fees are usually minimal and the exposure will be  extremely valuable – not least because you will meet people in person and hear feedback on your work.Renting Exhibition Space Some galleries and public buildings rent out space for exhibitions and the prices are often quite reasonable.If you decide to rent a space, you need to also think about marketing. It is simply not enough to hang up your work and hope for the best – you need to identify the types of people who might like your work, and tell them about it. This means PR (sending press releases to local media on- and offline). It may also mean distributing flyers and posters. And you can also use free and paid social media to reach a local audience (posting on local Facebook groups and creating targeted Facebook ads shown only to people in the local area who are interested in art).I’ll go into more detail on how to advertise on Facebook at a later date, but there is no end of free help online. This is one great free resource to get you started.Pop-up Solo Shows/Open HousesOne artist I know recently held a pop-up exhibition in her home. She lives in the middle of a town, and tied her exhibition in with an event in the town centre but this would also work for people who live outside of town (again, if you did some promotion and Facebook advertising combined with local PR). Of course, the downside is you may need to do some major tidying up!!Art FairsSome of the more high-end art fairs are only for galleries (and the fees to show are exorbitant) but there are art fairs that are open to individual artists. You pay to rent a booth and you are responsible for planning the way you display your work. You are also the sales person and must attend the fair in person in order to sell your work. Fees for the UK fairs seem to range from £500 to £1,500+, so you need to feel confident that you can make some sales. To find fairs near you just google ‘art fair’ + the location name.Online galleriesThere are quite a few online galleries where you can list your artwork for sale. Generally you will do best with these sites if you do your own promotion – otherwise it’s easy to get lost – but I do know artists who have had success. Just as with galleries, you need to accept that these sites will take a hefty chunk of the proceeds as commission.Here are some of the UK online galleries. Just do a google search for others, or for sites in other countries:

• https://www.saatchiart.com
• https://www.artgallery.co.uk
• https://www.artfinder.com/

Social media/digital marketingThis is a huge subject and perhaps the most exciting opportunity available to artists today. I promise to write more about this as I explore it, but for now here are my initial tips and a few ideas.

• Have a website with good photos and a way to buy. This is so important - even for selling through galleries and in other ways. You must have your own website - if you don't have one now, make this your #1 priority.
• Learn about search engine optimisation and write pages for your site that are likely to push you up in the rankings for important keyword terms. For example, I might target "Yorkshire Landscape Paintings" as a term I want to be found for. Here is a good beginners guide to SEO.
• Write a blog as part of your website. This helps with SEO because the search engines love sites that are updated with new content on a regular basis, and it also helps potential buyers get to know you and feel a connection to you and your work.
• Run paid Facebook and Instagram ads (note: I do not recommend these as a way of selling paintings – people usually need to get to know your work before they will do that. I use paid advertising to promote specific things (like shows) or to grow my email list with a view to making sales further down the road.
• Create a YouTube channel and make little films of you painting. You can do this with an iPhone and free software.
• Post new work on your social media pages and tell people that it's for sale, how much it costs, and how to contact you (don't assume they will reach out to you if they are interested).
• Write a blog or run a Facebook group that reaches your target audience (e.g if you paint children’s portraits, write a blog for mums; if you paint pet portraits, set up a Facebook group for people who love rescue dogs). If you don’t want to write a blog or run a group yourself, find groups already devoted to those subjects, become an active engaged member, and then share your paintings/info about yourself when it works naturally in the conversation.
• Write and send a regular newsletter. Do this for the same reason as you write a blog – to keep your name in front of people who like your work, to make a connection with them, and to promote any events/new work.
• Build up your newsletter through promotions and giveaways. For example, you can give away a sketch or small painting in a contest. In order to win, people have to be on your mailing list).

These are just a few ideas – each one of these deserves a full blog post and I will be writing those over the coming year – but I hope this at least gets your creative juices flowing. Restaurants, wineries, cafes, hotels etc.Years ago, when I was living in New York, we took a drive upstate and stopped in a café for brunch. On the walls were the most beautiful abstracted paintings of horses. I am not particularly fond of horses, but these paintings were so stunning that I couldn’t take my eyes off them. The owner gave us a brochure and I learned that the prices were far out of my reach. But I have never forgotten that experience or those paintings. If your art is strong, it will stand out in any venue.So consider venues that might attract the right kind of clientele (e.g. a landscape painter might look for cafes and hotels where tourists stay, a pet painter might consider vet’s offices or doggy day care centres, an abstract artist might consider boutique hotels or trendy restaurants). In particular, think about the income level of the patrons as it’s generally true that people don’t buy art unless they have some disposable income.Some of these venues will ask for commission, others will just be happy to have art on their walls. Play this by ear and only agree to what you feel is fair.Group showsThere are numerous annual open-call shows in London (e.g. Discerning Eye and the Royal Academy Summer show, to mention just two) and there are also regional shows (for example, every two years northern artists can enter the New Light Prize show). There are also countless smaller group exhibitions.Sign up for Curator Space or bookmark this site (or a similar newsletter if you live in another country) and also ask other artists about shows. Join as many local arts groups and online groups as you can, as this is how you will hear about opportunities.  Once you find a show, bookmark the website and keep checking back so you don’t miss the application dates. Plan and propose your own solo showWe’d all love to be offered a solo show by a big name gallery, but if that isn’t happening, why not plan your own and take the idea to a gallery or other business.  For example, I know one artist who regularly paints scenes from a local seaside town. She approached the owner of a small gallery in the town and offered to put on a solo show (the gallery had shown her work before but never in a solo show). But not only would she create the work, she would also handle the marketing. She drew up a plan that included a PR campaign and paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram. This gallery does not normally do any advertising, so they jumped at the chance to expand their audience and agreed to let her have the space for 2 weeks. The show is scheduled for next year.Selling your art successfully is all about your preferencesThese are all possibilities I am considering – some of them may suit you, others may not appeal at all. That’s OK. We all have to come up with our own approach. The important thing is that you develop and execute a plan for selling and that you choose activities that suit your preferences (otherwise you will just avoid doing them).If the idea of selling your art feels terrifying, I understand. Some of the things I have mentioned here are complicated – some are a little less so and it’s scary to put yourself out there. But I am approaching this stage as an adventure – there’s lots to learn and lots to gain and personally, I like the idea that my success is in my hands. This is the first time in human history that artists have had this kind of power.  I find it exhilaratingSign up for ongoing tips on how to sell your art.I plan to delve more into each of these areas in a lot more detail and also to write about my own sales and marketing experiences in 2019, so make sure you are signed up for my newsletter or join the private Facebook group if you haven’t already.  Also, please feel free to share this article on social media or with any of your artist friends.What about you? Have you found any creative ways to sell your art? Have you tried anything that didn't work? Let us know in the comments. Together we can figure this thing out!