
My friend is offering a beautiful print for sale and as a limited edition (not the image here, it has similar colours). I would love it, and it’s at a fair price for an artist to charge. But all I could think was, car tax and other bills are due in January. I have to realise I cannot afford it. Now I feel guilty for just enquiring.
I realise I don’t charge enough for my art. I have this strange idea that I want my art to go to a good home, so I undersell, swap art, or offer ways people can pay in installments. But I’m also doing other artists a disservice. If I charge less, how can they charge more? I think it might be my upbringing. Having a belief in myself? I guess it’s just how I am.
Pricing art is so weird. I only show and sell here in the San Luis Valley where most people don’t have a lot of money for daily life let alone for art. That affects my pricing. If I were to get into a show or gallery in another venue, I’d raise my prices. BUT the other problem is that people here like what I paint — which is mostly scenes of here. A lot of it has no meaning outside of the San Luis Valley. I do better selling small stuff like note cards. I figure if I break even and can buy more supplies I’ve done OK. My biggest market is people whose families have lived in this valley for several generations. That (to me) speaks well of my paintings and my vision of Heaven, but it doesn’t give me a bigger market. Pretty funny… I did better in California, of course. But I don’t live there now.
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I know what you mean. I couldn’t afford to move somewhere where people would pay more. But I’m really more interested in people enjoying my art. It’s never going to make me a lot of money. But to be honest I don’t care xxxx art makes me happy
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Yep. ❤
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