One of Art Center Information’s ARTIST PARTNERS member, Lynn Burton, gave us some sound tips of how to paint and sell your art work in your geographical area. Below are just some of the thoughts he passed on to us.
Tip: Visit galleries in your city and towns nearby and find out what is selling the most. If it is something you as an artist can get excited about and you feel comfortable painting in that style and genre, then do it and become the very best.
For example, out here in the plains of Texas, one of the hottest sellers in the spring time is scenes of Bluebonnet flowers. I can’t count how many paintings of these scenes I paint each year of Bluebonnets. Many of these I sell on consignment, and, the ones I don’t, hardly hang in the gallery before they’re sold.
Another very popular flower here in this area are Sunflowers.We have Sunflower farms here. There are acres and acres of nothing but this beautiful flower of every species. They raise them as a cash crop for seeds and oil, and it’s daunting when they’re in bloom. I often walk through rows and rows of them to get the feeling of nature and be part of the scene. I study them from every angle. Often, I lean down and look up to capture the light of the sun shining transparently through the petals and try capturing the effect that the light has on them. It means a lot later when I’m in the studio painting.
Tell my brother, Richard, that he ought try painting Sunflowers. They’re pretty popular in any geographical area, and I’d recommend he use watercolor or acrylic to capture the transparency in the petals – especially when trying to capture the back lighting.
Tip: Sometimes, you’ll find that what sells in your geographic area is a certain genre. Take for example the genre, Southwest Art. It is very popular here in Texas. In your area, it may be Palm trees and oceans, or city scapes, or mountains, or sail boats, or sand dunes. Whatever it is, your chance of selling your art work requires research and thought.
Tip: Paint for yourself. Now this sounds like I’m contradicting myself but I’m not. Most all of us artists have been told “forget trying to sell your work when you’re painting, just paint for yourself and someone will like what you paint.” What a crock! Over the last many years, I’ve painted hundreds of paintings that I did for me…passionately. I loved them when painting them, but no one else did when I hanged them in the gallery. I still have them and they’re gathering dust…but I still love them. Is there anything wrong with painting something that sells? When I say paint for yourself (when trying to sell your work), I’m talking about doing some research in your geographical area and see if what is selling is something about which you can become very passionate. If you can’t be thrilled with passion, and you attempt to paint something of which you can not be excited doing, then it will not be creative. It will seldom become marketable. However, you can take themes and styles and genres and be very creative with them. Do it your way, a better way, a more creative way and you will be passionate. Give it a try. I think you’ll like it and have a ton of fun.
Tip: Art is very competitive. Never stop promoting yourself. One of the best ways to promote yourself is getting others to promote you. The internet offers innumerable opportunities to expand your visibility. We all are trying to figure out how best to sell our work on the internet, so you may not make money, but you will get exposure. It makes you visible. You can take this visibility and use it in your geographic area when talking to local newspapers and art galleries. Talking about local newspapers, send articles about yourself to let them know you are the art rave in town. They’ll ignore you for awhile, but keep doing it and you will build a file in their office. Eventually, when they are digging around for an article to write, they stumble upon you. You can’t buy that kind of promotion…be tenacious.
Tip: Never turn down an opportunity to get yourself in the public eye with your art work at mall shows and art shows. Don’t get discouraged if the audience didn’t buy anything. Take courage, you’re promoting yourself. It’s the most important thing you can do. It’s work, but what did you think?…that you didn’t have to work at marketing? Everything is marketing and promotion. Yes, I know Grandma Moses was discovered by a traveling salesman buying one of her small art cards at a local market in a small town. Two things here…(1) she marketed herself at the market to get exposed, and (2) it was a salesman (someone else…a marketer) that discovered her.
