Watch This: Jackson Pollock’s Mural: The Story of a Modern Masterpiece
I love art history, and, over the years, have particularly enjoyed learning about mid-century, modern artists. I’ve read biographies on Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and others. The…
Utilizing the Off Season
For many of you, the deep winter is the off season. Because my gallery is located in Scottsdale, and because Arizona is so blazing hot during the summer, our art season is exactly the opposite of a lot of other art markets who do most of their business during the summer. Our traffic declines dramatically during the summer, and as a result, so do our sales.
Our summer slow-down is long too. People often ask me when our “off” season is, and I reply that it begins when the temperatures climb above 105° fahrenheit and ends when the temperature drops back below 105°. This usually corresponds with dates in mid May and mid October. This means that we have five long months without much activity in the gallery.
Online Critique Group Recording – Jan Dale, Allen Park, MI
In this week’s Critique group we meet realist painter Jan Dale. Describing her background, Jan says, Creativity has been a passion from earliest childhood. Though I never attended art school,…
Cultivating your Brand as an Artist
It’s easy to see that branding is important to large corporations, but did you know that you can implement branding principles that will help you sell more of your art? So what is branding?
Art Salesmanship (Is that a Dirty Word?) | Xanadu Gallery’s Art Marketing Minute
Salesmanship has a bit of a bad name in the art world. As a gallery owner, I know that many artists look at what I do with suspicion. They suspect that I use underhanded methods and pressure to compel the unwilling to buy art.
They think that the selling process somehow taints the purity of art.
I’m convinced that this disdain artists feel toward salesmanship stems from a fundamental misunderstanding about what the sales process is, and what’s really happening when I sell a piece of art.
What is the Scariest Thing you Face as an Artist? | Overcoming Your Fears
I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface of the fears you face as an artist, and I hope you’ll share others in the comments below. Whatever your fears are, however, the important question is how can you overcome them?
I have several suggestions from my experience as a business owner. I don’t mean to imply that fear can be easily overcome, nor that these suggestions will revolutionize your life by helping you instantly vanquish your fear.
Online Critique Group Recording | Ask Me Anything Session
In this week’s session, I answer questions about advertising on Instagram, pricing artwork for galleries, submissions to galleries, selling prints and other items based on artwork, whether images of artworks…
Keeping in Touch With your Art Collectors
Whenever I talk about keeping in touch with collectors, the number one concern I hear expressed by artists and gallery sales staff alike is “I don’t want to annoy my customers.” A valid concern, to be sure, but while there certainly is a point where you would be crossing the line and being too persistent, most of the time you are erring on the opposite side and not contacting your collectors nearly enough.
As a general rule, I like to contact my collectors every 4-6 weeks. By varying the type of contact and keeping the contact relevant there is little risk of offending. Remember, your contact isn’t made in a vacuum – these are not strangers you are contacting cold – these are people with whom you have already begun to establish a relationship and who have bought your work – they want to hear from you.
Artists: Better Serve Your Customers by Knowing Who they Are
spend some time analyzing your past buyers to see if you can discern common traits among your buyers. Understanding who your buyer is will help you better target your art marketing efforts to reach them. If you know who your buyer is, you will be better able to place your art in galleries or other venues where your buyer can see your work. You will be better able to say the right things about your work in your artist’s statement to appeal to the buyer’s sensibilities. You will be able to price your work in a way that will fit your buyer’s budget.
Ask a Gallery Owner | Installing Artwork in a Collector’s Home
As a gallery owner or artist, you are likely to have the opportunity to deliver and install artwork in clients’ homes. In today’s session, I’ll share some insights and experiences…