Pricing
Home #8
©2008
6" x 6" – Mounted on stretched canvas
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Pricing Art
Pricing always seems to be a difficult topic for artists. Are we charging too much, too little? Are we competitive? What about the economy? Etc.
Our artwork is personal and pricing it is very personal. Putting it out there to sell takes a leap of faith. Putting it out there and declaring it has $X value is really putting oneself on the line. Rejection is never fun.
Last year I finally jumped in and started selling my art, leveraging my word of the year courage.
This year I looked at my word expansion and did a bit of math. Selling art at the prices I was selling it ($30 for a small piece that take 3 hours to make, market and ship makes for an income of less than $10 an hour if I include overhead) and realized that my art would never be my career if I didn’t start taking ownership for its true value.
New Prices
The time has come to expand and get serious about the art career. On February 1st I will be increasing the prices on my textile paintings.
I’ve spent many hours working out the details and final pricing. Encouragement from my mentors, my coach, artist friends, folks on twitter, and the thoughts in this article: The Art and Science of Pricing helped me solidify my thoughts.
I’ve also spent much time wondering how to roll out this change. Quietly or with a big splash? What do I say? Do I have to justify myself?
I looked at my other word of the year, integrity and decided to go with authenticity. Simple words and a heads up for those that have expressed interest in the work.
The prices are going up, not a little like 10%, but a lot to reflect the real value of my art, which is unique, powerful, gorgeous and to boot – it’s extremely well made. To give you a feel for what to expect, the above piece will be $350 on February 1.
A Good Time to Buy
If there is a piece of art you are interested in now would be a great time to purchase. Not only do you have a beautiful new piece of original art to enjoy you will have an excellent investment as it will appreciate practically overnight when my prices go up.
If you are still saving for a specific textile painting let’s chat and I can set up a payment plan. I’d love for you to own the artwork you have your eye on. Please email me with any questions.
Here’s a link to my small artworks for sale website if you’d like to browse my currently available small works: Small Textile Paintings For Sale.
Posted by Lisa in: Art Marketing
Tagged: Art for Sale, home, pricing
Congratulations, Lisa! I think your decision and way of announcing it are completely in keeping with your expansion and integrity themes for 2009. Good things will follow!
When you raise your prices, you are “teaching the world how to treat you.” I love it, Lisa! You go!
I love that you are doing this. And I love that you are doing it in this particular way. Well played!
Well done Lisa! :)
I keep coming back to read this:
“realized that my art would never be my career if I didn’t start taking ownership for its true value”
Wow. Thank you Lisa for shooting from the hip, as you always do.
Excellent! You and your work deserves this. One of my pet peeves, as an art photographer, is how many artists are willing to sell their photographs for $20, or even $10 — barely enough to cover cost of paper and ink. It not only devalues their creation, putting it squarely in the “poster from Bed Bath and Beyond” realm, it also devalues the market as a whole. Congrats on asking what your art is worth.
Thanks to all of you for the wonderful support. It’s a scary thing to put myself out there like that and I wasn’t sure of the response I’d get – you all made it very easy. Thank you!
Although I knew I had really wonderful readers and figured you be supportive. Thanks to those of you that bought my art the last 24 hours also. Much appreciated.