ART MARKET: Finding Buyers for Artwork, the Paintings and Drawings

Walk in the Twilight - by Van Gogh

How to Decide the Price of a Painting?

I am not going to tell you about how the galleries sell the paintings and what the rates of commission they charge for selling the artworks. Nor would I bore you with TIPs to sell. No, nothing of that sort I would discuss here. Here I would try to share with you some hard facts, the facts the artists on the street have to consider. Here I would count the big boulders which could come into your way while you are striving to find a way for making a survival friendly career with the help of your artistic prowess. Here are some boulders on the road we miss to see while entering the market for selling our paintings.

PRICE: If you are fortunate enough to have your painting hung in a gallery for sale, then the administrator of the gallery would have a greater say in deciding about the price. They would ask your opinion, too, but to rely on them about the price would be a good idea. In case your painting is not in a gallery and you want to fix a price for selling the same, you would be in trouble. It is not an easy task to fix a price for our own painting, as our hopes and emotions are attached to the painting.

Child Cares by Mary Cassatt
Honolulu Museum of Art
Oil on Canvas

How to Sell Your Painting: In deciding about the approximate price of your painting, ask the honest opinion of your close friends and art lovers. And never ask them to fix the price. Ask them about the amount of money they would be ready to spend to have that painting on their wall. That would give you the most authenticate clue to decide the price of your painting to be sold in the market.

May it be a landscape or a figurative painting, we should ask our close friends to rate the painting before we decide to decide about quoting the price for the same. We should ask our friends to tell us about how they rate our painting and what point they would give to our painting out of ten. This rating should be evaluated according to the person whom we have asked. If that friend is an art dealer his or her opinion values much more than the others.

While trying to build up a market for your art, paintings or drawings, the first thing you would require to do is to remain in constant touch with the galleries. In the beginning, you should approach a few galleries that hang the work you like and pieces of art you can paint.

The Greyhounds of the Comte
de Choiseul Gustave Courbet
Saint Louis Art Museum, USA

Theme: Art Market, Art buyers and the artists: A person coming out of art college or classes would be struck by a violent realization that what he or she would do now. For the artists, to get a satisfactory income to support them is a Himalayan question. It's not an easy mission to make a satisfactory living from your art income, as the market scenario is not less than frightening.

However where are there are upsetting problems; there are admirable solutions, too. Under this situation, the best way to behave is in accepting the challenge and to try with confidence. Though it is essential to put everything into producing the best possible work you can; it takes time to get adjusted to the outer world, the real world, and incorporate flexibility in attitude and the changes into our work. Today’s situation demands hard efforts. By all means, it would test your character and level of endurance.

While going through this entire ordeal, you will have to keep it in mind that there would be people who would love your artwork; there would be people who would ignore your artwork. Your efforts should be that you are not to be swayed by either of the opinions too much. To dig out a satisfactory bunch of income from selling your art is as unpredictable as the falling of the stars from the sky. But the stars fall; that is the fact. You can build up a regular clientele and a group of lovers and purchasers through the professional approach and artistic prowess you develop with time.

While contacting the art galleries, an artist must try and get involved in the finding of that in which type of the artwork a particular gallery is interested in. (Running from one to another gallery makes an artist perfect!) The second stage in an artist’s life comes when some of the galleries start taking interest in his or her work. Here the prime factor for the art gallery would indeed be the marketability of the paintings or the drawings offered to be displayed and sold. 

During the period an artist is waiting for the first cheque from the gallery, he or she should keep observing the other established artists’ work, especially the manner in which they construct and compose their work. After a time, if circumstances tend to be favourable, the artists would find their work being sold. As the work sells, art galleries would put pressure on artists to concentrate on the type of work that is most saleable. Thus the beginning of the sale of paintings or artwork can be helpful as far as earning the money is concerned, but an artist should not let it stop experimenting and trying out new ideas. The above painting 'Greyhounds of the Comte de Choiseul' is by Gustav Courbet. They would love to read articles about it. These art articles keep them updated with the recent progress in the field of art. The Motive of the writers and critics who write such articles is to provide the latest and thoughtful information to the readers. They provide a reading that would provide pleasure and education.

In the following articles, I have tried to place before the readers some important and entertaining aspects of the art of painting. It would certainly cover the art itself. In addition to that our curiosity would like to explore how some of the art movements were so much popular among the art lovers. We would also look at the fact about how the paintings of the master and amateur artists are sold and valued.

Portrait of Mario Varfogli 
by Amedeo Modigliani
Oil on Canvas Collection:
ehemals Sammlung Franz Meyer, Basel

WHAT IS ART?  The philosophers might brand the art in their own manner. They would say that the artists' work is a thoughtful refuge to feel some relief from their pain the artists encounter while being in disagreement with the traditional world. A poetic soul would say, 'Art is a shout at the almighty God, telling Him that... Look this is what we have created'. The human race has devised many modes of expressions; among them, the art of painting is the most colourful. We have nurtured the noble intention of showing expressions and concepts embedded within our minds.

The Art of Painting: As old as human civilization, the art of painting has encouraged us to record what we see. Our visual images have taken shapes of murals, cave paintings and ancient forms of other arts. The ancient artworks might be in their rudimentary shapes, but they are the base on which the entire world of art is built up. Those simple drawings, carvings and paintings, done by pre-historic artists have become now today’s refined art as we see on the walls of museums and the pages of websites.

What is painting at all? And what does it involve? To be precise, the act of painting is a process of coating the surface of canvas or paper or any other support material with paint. Here the artist does it for an artistic purpose. The final painting is the fruit of applying the paints. It is the act that demands a passion for it. And the outcome of that process in the human endeavours making the viewers happy.

Fundamentals of Art:  Before running into the actual field of art, an artist would introduce himself or herself with some fundamentals of arts. Line drawing, creating shapes, and understanding the arrangement of space on frame: this would be the basics for a new entrant. Then there would be a consideration for the values of colours, their shades and hues, and the texture of colours and the support of the art piece. 

After knowing about visible elements, some principles of drawing and paintings need to be understood. The artists should possess knowledge about the contrast of colours and rhythm and movement of brush strokes. The unity of all the elements and due emphasis on all the aspects would render the final artwork an artistic one. There would be other aspects, too, like the concept of a pattern of painting and the overall balance of colours.

Tools of Art: While painting, the artists use colours and tones of colours as their tools. This artistic luggage helps to depict the reality they conceive in their minds. Being worshippers of the art, the painters use their emotions and fantasies, too. The colours they use and the colours we see are highly subjective, but they have certain observable psychological effects on the minds of viewers. Here endeavour is made to place some of the best works of these artists, making their work more enjoyable. [All images are in Public Domain, taken from Wikimedia Commons]