Where to Sell Your Work.
Being an artist can be a pretty tough business; especially if you are just starting out. Becoming known is always the key to success and this is achieved by selling as much of your work as you can. But it isn’t quite as simple as that…
So, you’ve finally got a few pictures together of which you are suitably proud (among the seeming thousands of other ones that you have tucked away in storage units). Now all you need to do is to find someone who will sell them for you; and this is usually where the problems start. The first stumbling block is finding someone who likes your work and is prepared to put it on display. Many galleries will have no free space and some will dislike your style.
When you finally do come across a gallery that will take some of your pictures, they may want to frame your work themselves. Unfortunately, they will also be quite pricey a lot of the time; the sort of set-up you would never consider using under normal circumstances…
Most galleries will also take a substantial amount of commission if they sell any of your work. This will vary from place to place, but fifty percent is certainly not out of the ordinary. This seems vastly unfair; after all, it was you that created the picture! All they have to do is hang it on their wall and wait for it to sell (hopefully).
The biggest problem with all of this is that if there are framing costs and an extortionate amount of commission to cover then you are will need to put far higher prices on your work. That is great news when you finally sell a picture, but by making them too expensive, you are dramatically reducing the amount of people who can afford your work at all.
You can see why so many artists become disillusioned with it all, can’t you?
If you are just starting out then the best way to get your work seen is online. Choose a good website such as http://www.artgallery.co.uk/ and put as many pictures as you can on there. By approaching it all in this way, you will avoid any framing costs at all and you will be charged far less commission. ArtGallery.co.uk will charge you around thirty-five percent, which is a whole lot better than most offline galleries.
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