5 ways to help make more money as an artist
November 7th, 2009
My 5 tips for ‘making it’ as a professional artist are:
1. Find yourself some galleries: Sift through gallery websites noting down the most suitable ones for your work. Whittle it down to a list of about 5 then send them a really well produced miniature portfolio of your work followed up with a call a couple of weeks later to gauge their opinion.
2. Take part in art fairs: Not just a great way to meet other artists and potential buyers but also a great opportunity to be seen by galleries looking for fresh talent. The Brighton Art Fair is a great place to start.
3. Get yourself online: Either hire a web designer for a really high quality bespoke site or use a package such as iweb or an online service like Carbonmade for a really smart homemade site.
4. Presentation is key. Professional framing and promotional materials can be expensive but they also show the value you place on your work and set you apart from the amateur hobbyist. In my experience the investment has paid of both in increased sales and reduced stress whilst preparing for exhibition.
5. Put up your prices. A strange phenomenon I discovered early on in my life as an artist was the importance of not underselling. By assigning realistic prices to your work that reflect the time, materials and experience that are involved not only reassures your buyers that you are a serious artist but is essential to making life as an artist a viable career path.
Whenever I mention to anyone that I am an artist the reply that I expect to hear is always ‘that’s nice, and do you actually earn a living from that?’ There’s not many jobs where it would be acceptable to question someones earning ability as the first port of call but to be honest, it’s a fair question because it is notoriously difficult to generate a decent wage from selling your artwork.
