Professional Artist

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A professional artist is not merely a painter—that is an artist.

You are in business, have a career or are in a profession. Money is a measure of how well you do. It’s not the motivation—that’s your desire to follow your dream—but money does say something about how well you’ve followed the dream. It also makes achieving your dream more feasible. It’s likely that more income leads to a better lifestyle, but not better artwork. Often artists assume the artwork sells itself because people fall in love with the work. Marketing is a matter of putting people in front of paintings, usually through an exhibition.

It is widely accepted that if an exhibition sells none or a few works that they were not “good.”

» But what if you have done your best, as is usually the case? » What can you do in this situation other than change what you paint?

» It seems very little.

What if the assumption was questioned instead?

» In other words, artworks do not sell themselves. » Then one has to speculate on what does sell and why.

Let’s consider a well-known example of a failed artist.

» Were van Gogh’s paintings substandard? » They didn’t sell whilst he was alive and now they bring astronomical prices. » Have they changed?

» The paintings are still the same as the day they were done.

» If they were “bad” in Vincent’s day, you would suppose they are still “bad.”

What has changed is people’s opinions.

» Opinion is something that astute marketing can and should influence. » Instead of blaming your painting for a failure to sell, question the marketing.

You have to earn money so you need to master the art of marketing!

» Most artists think very little about marketing. » They hand it over to someone else hoping they know what to do. Most of your potential buyers don’t

have sophisticated buying criteria.

» They have an idea what the prospective purchase could do for them. » They might even know what they paid in the past and that’s about it! » That means you can reset the buying criteria for your entire market.

A lot of day-to-day stuff needs done in any profession, including for an artist.

» The more successful you are the more you need an agent. » Then you can spend more time painting!

» If you’ve sold works yourself, you’ll know what you want your agent to do. » Otherwise the agent will tell you what they want!

Your agent also can do other things you don’t do.

» An agent can follow people up. » Publicity is worth the effort and your agent can generate it. » Your agent can promote you in ways that you can’t do easily. » Using your contact list your agent will leverage sales opportunities too.

Through your agent, you will have more control of the selling process.

» Your agent presents works for people to buy! » The agent influences others and sells your art on your behalf.

Your agent will even help you find the right gallery and work with them more effectively.

» Finalizing the gallery deal will lead to better arrangements for you. » Your agent can supplement the gallery’s selling strategies and make a successful exhibition more likely too. Do you know anyone interested in earning more from their art career? » If so, tell them about the book ART

MARKETING for ALL - One. » It’s available at : http://www.amazon.com/dp/1791342078 Best wishes in your art career in 2020!