One of the ongoing issues for artists is pricing their work.  In a pithy post titled “Wandering Prices” posted in “The Painter’s Keys” Robert Genn gets it right.  Artists are best served when they take control of the prices of their work and keep the final retail price consistent, and also recognize the context in which their work is exhibited.  Exposure beware!  As Genn says …”Whether your work is in the National Gallery or in Heidi Fleiss’s House of Ill Repute, your prices to the general public need to be the same. This means that only you control the final price. The percentage that various venues take is negotiated from your standard pricing. If you don’t take control no one else will, and some brigands will run over you. Wandering prices are most unfair to your collectors and spoil the steady upward progression an artist can enjoy during a lifetime of creativity.  Keep reading here…. http://clicks.robertgenn.com/wandering-prices.php 

I am often asked what art sells best.  My reply takes on a rambling quality about the variety of art styles, colors or visual content has been selling.  The art that sells is the art that satisfies an individual requirement.  Sometimes it is color (’we need something blue to go with our carpet’). 

 Betsy Molnar, Cosmos

Sometimes it is content (’we want to show Cleveland’). 

Barney Taxel, Downtown from Garfield’s Monument

Sometimes it is style (’we want something contemporary’).   

Brock Winans, Untitled

More recently, a client found a print she loved by Kate Ward Terry.  Her sister had gone to school with Kate, and she was thrilled to add Kate’s piece to her collection. 

Kate Ward Terry, Disordered

It is hard to quantify what sells best because each decision is based on an individual’s or company’s goals.  What does work best is discovering an artist or a piece of artwork that you love and buy it, hang it up, and enjoy it.

This image comes via Housemartin.  Amy Butler sums it up best, “Great style comes from confidence.  Love what you love, and don’t be shy about it.”

Check out the story that was in today’s Plain Dealer in the Business Section

Feeding the idea that local artists shouldn’t starve 

A great picture of one of our artists, Nancy Richards-Davis in her studio.

Catch up with RED DOT Project artists, events, installations, and updates to our website.  We are connecting regional artists to business opportunities and want to take you along for the ride…