Pricing Revisited
Lines #30
Textile Painting – Mounted on stretched canvas
©2009
3" x 3"
$75
Purchase Here
A Slight Change in Prices
In January I raised prices on my artwork as part of my year of Expansion and Integrity.
Not long after that I stopped making new work due to the remodel of my house and building of my new studio. Now that things have settled down I’ve been reflecting on my pricing changes.
For the most part I’m happy with them and know this is the right direction to go although am making a few adjustments, which feels right. I was a bit jumpy about the new prices before, now it’s good.
Quick Recap on Price Increase
First, a quick review of why I increased my prices. Last fall I defined what being a successful artist meant to me and it included this point:
My work is valued by buyers and collectors, who are willing to pay a good price for my artwork.
The new prices put me more into alignment with this idea. Although not stated in that line, I think the idea that I value the artwork to price it reasonably is also important.
In addition to having prices that reflect the value of my artwork, the increases brought them in alignment with a sustainable art practice.
This part of my definition of success:
I quit my day job and live comfortably from the proceeds of my creative talents.
was not going to happen making $10 an hour or less selling my art.
The original article about raising my prices is here for those that missed it.
Gallery Commissions
The majority of my income from my artwork comes through sales of artwork through art consultants or galleries, who take a pretty healthy commission, with 50% being the most common. My previous prices were okayish if I assumed no commission.
I would cringe every time a piece was sold through these avenues. Not good.
Not good to cringe. Galleries work hard to market the artwork, art consultants need to be paid. I don’t resent paying them for their work and it is my responsibility to make sure my art is priced so that the commission is built in.
So my pricing now reflects the expected 50% commission to be paid to the gallery. It should have always included this, and it used to, somewhere along the way the value of my art outpaced my prices (looking at my records I hadn’t done a price increase in many many years – oops!)
Consistency
It’s important for prices to be consistent across all venues. Undercutting the gallery pricing isn’t a good business practice. But ignoring that, creating the artwork is half the value of art marketing it and finding a buyer is the other half.
Anyone out there selling art knows this, marketing is a big job. Doesn’t matter if it’s a gallery, art consultant or me doing that marketing piece, we need to be compensated for that effort.
This means that artwork sold via my website, where no commission is paid, is the same price as artwork sold in a gallery (artfulhome is the gallery that sells most of my art to date). So what does the commission pay for when I get to keep it? Here’s a partial list:
- Paypal fees (I’ll be adding a shopping cart soon also – that has fees).
- Shipping supplies (these are usually not covered in the shipping expenses) and time to ship. A trip to the post office is at least 1/2 an hour of time. Packing up the art to sell is non-negligible also.
- The time it takes me to list the artwork for sale on my website, again a fairly big chunk of time.
- My marketing time. I write a ton of informative articles on my blog that build my readership, which in turn builds my fans, which eventually results in art sales. At least that is what I consider to be my marketing effort – to just be me – to write about being an artist. To help people out that ask questions (although I’m behind on blog comments – oops!)
Affordable Art
All of this is what I was thinking when I raised my prices and I kinda ignored this line from my definition of being a successful artist:
I create an affordable line of work for those that can not afford my larger pieces.
This is important to me. I buy a lot of these lower priced artworks from other artists and really appreciate them offering smaller works I can afford. With my lowest prices at $120 for my 3"x3" pieces technically I did have lower priced art but it was a stretch for many.
So I’ve rethought some of my pricing on my smallest work and have decided I will not sell my ACEOs or 3"x3" textile paintings through galleries.
They will only be available on my website so I’ve lowered the prices on these. Not back down to where they were, because that isn’t sustainable, but a compromise between working for $10 and covering a full marketing commission.
The new prices for ACEOs will be $40 and the 3"x3" will be $75.
Lines #31
Textile Painting – Mounted on stretched canvas
©2009
3" x 3"
$75
Purchase Here
Smaller Work Pricing
I adjusted the prices of the work under 12" square to make more sense – what the heck was $490. That’s just weird. So I’m a little OCD - I like round numbers.
For total transparency (and because I find it really helpful when other artists share their pricing policies) here are my prices for 2009:
ACEO (2.5"x3.5") – $40
Calling Cards (2.5"x3.5" mounted on canvas) – $60
3"x3" (mounted on canvas) – $75
4"x4" (mounted on canvas) – $125
6"x6" (mounted on canvas) – $275
8"x8" (mounted on canvas) – $450
6"x12" (mounted on canvas) – $500
8"x10" (mounted on canvas) – $600
12"x12" (mounted on canvas) – $750
Going forward I will only be creating artwork in these sizes (other than the ACEOs) mounted on stretched canvas. I have a few older quilts in this range that are hung directly on the wall, these pieces are all priced $50 less than above.
Larger Work Pricing
The pricing of work larger than 12"x12" hasn’t changed much since my increase but since I’m writing about pricing I thought I’d include the info on how I do this pricing also.
I first do a calculation of the price of the work based on size using the following values (this is all done automagically in excel when I enter the size of the artwork into my spreadsheet):
$750 per sq ft for work < 10 sq ft
$700 per sq ft for work < 15 sq ft
$650 per sq ft for work < 20 sq ft
$625 per sq ft for work < 30 sq ft
$600 per sq ft for work > 30 sq ft
I look at the number and then round it up or down to a nice happy even number. The rounding up or down is based on how good I think the piece is, the age of the piece and any other factor I think influences the value of the work.
Because my work is all such irregular sizes (the advantage of not using premade canvases but creating art to any size I please) this helps to group pieces roughly the same size to roughly the same price.
Never Lower Your Prices
The rule in the artworld is that you can never lower your prices, you can only raise them. I guess I’m ignore that and lowering the price on a few sizes.
Sometimes one must just ignore all the rules and do what is right.
Lines #33
Textile Painting – Mounted on stretched canvas
©2009
3" x 3"
$75
Purchase Here
PS After all of that, check out all 12 of the new 3"x3" textile painting on my affordable art for sale page.
I took all the sold work off there so you can just see what’s available.
It was a big house cleaning day – of prices and webpages.
Posted by Lisa in: Being an Artist
Tagged: affordable art, Art for Sale, Art Marketing, artwork, definition of success, for sale, integrity, marketing, pricing, Selling Art, success, Textile Paintings, transperancy
Awesome post!
First, thank you for being so transparent – it really helps to see how other folks approach this subject. I am in the midst of redesigning my own business model, and am realizing that I have to pay myself for more than the actual construction of an item – I have to somehow compensate myself for the time I spend selling/marketing my art.
2nd, I’m loving these bright colors on these little 3×3’s above! Delicious!
Good stuff. As an aside, my mailman picks up directly from my house eliminating the need for the trip to the post office. He says all you need to do is request it. This can be done through the usps.gov website or leave a note in your mailbox for the mail person to ring your bell and pick up. It’s saves me a lot of time!
A great post. I’ve had a lot of people tell me you shouldn’t discuss how you price, but my customers tell me they love to know how it works and why my prices work out as they do. I hope your customers will live it as well. Who knows we might even manage to change the idea that you have to hide everything about pricing.
thank you for being so open about so many things concerning your art career… it really helps me, a raw beginner to get a perspective.
Lisa, this is a wonderful post! I’m definitely sending people over to read it. As for the “never lower your prices,” I used to say that. Then I noticed that galleries (even very high end) are lowering prices left and right these days. You just can’t say “never.” It’s always more desirable not to have to lower prices, but one must be flexible and responsive to the times.
Great job!
This is a welcome breeze of fresh dialogue on the subject. My pricing has gone up slightly as well and an artist shouldn’t take flak for running their business as they see fit. I applaud you for creating art for a variety of price points. Personally I could only afford a 3×3 piece of yours but because you make them I have the ability to purchase your work.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing your pricing strategy. This is definitely something all artists struggle with. I agree that it makes sense to have several price points for customers. If they like your work, and might start collecting it, you want to have something that they can afford to start that collection. To me it is a good business practice.
I’ve also lowered prices on some pieces that haven’t sold and/or pieces/themes that I’m not creating anymore. I’m okay with doing that after a period of time. To me it is another part of business.
-Amy
Hi Lisa,
Thank you so much for your informative posts and for sharing so freely with us. I look foward to catching up with your posts whenever I can! You are extremely thorough in your explanations and I feel as if I have walked away from an enjoyable class.
I have a question for you on your finishing technique of mounting on canvas.
Do you do this yourself? Do you place it on a regular purchased canvas? A silly question from a new art quilter-
Colleen
Thanks for sharing your thought process on pricing. I’ve been reading about pricing per square inch models, but hate the way they fail to take into consideration the subject matter. A simple painting of mine may only take 4 or 5 hours, but a more detailed one with lots of depth and background will be double or triple that, regardless of the size. The smaller ones often take LONGER because I’m painting such tiny careful strokes!
I’d like to see the art community start talking more openly about the business. I think our customers do appreciate knowing all the effort that goes into being an artist & often don’t realize how much time is spent doing things like scanning works & editing photos so we can list the work online. Etsy fees, ebay fees, paypal…it all adds up!
Kris
Artists have a responsibility to protect their collectors by maintaining a consistent and fair pricing policy. Art is a collectible that the buyer assumes will likely increase in value over time. If the artist keeps moderate and sensible price increases, the collector sees that their investment was worthwhile.
In hard times many artists try to discount their work to get it to move but that will almost always just irritate former collectors who will see their collection as devalued.
Having owned an art gallery and selling work through several, I tend to see things from that perspective. I’m glad to have others selling my work and people know where to find it. No matter the venue, the pricing stays the same and has gallery commissions, travel expenses etc built in.
It’s never easy to make art profitably but it sure helps to have a business attitude! You did well to spell it out here.
Sharon
Smart, smart, smart. Really great post and your openness rocks. I continue to struggle with pricing my work due to the same factors as you. It’s always nice to feel not alone.
Peace.
@vinylart
This year I was the only artist who lowered their prices in the gallery…I was also the one who sold three pieces…three more than the others…It ended up being a from the studio sale(from online website originally) but I gave the gallery a commission anyway- the gallery didn’t make it, but I’m sure they were grateful for some cash in hand, & I will be remembered as a nice person…(plus I have more storage space, a collector from the past got a great deal- collector not angry at all with a deal by the way or the lowering of current prices, & to be honest it just felt nice to have some money in my hand-who cares how much…a high asking price doesn’t do much for me if no one bites…) Thanks for sharing…
This is fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing your insights. I’ve always had a very hard time with this aspect of the business…and even though I can’t price by size for my imagery, your thoughtful explanation and structuring of your price points is very inspiring. Plus, I’m digging your work!
Thank you for defining this for all of us, not just you. It is so helpful. It’s also helpful to a buyer. You are so on the ball. :) I adore your workl
Best of days-
Laura.
Lisa, this is a really savvy article on pricing one’s artwork and quite fearless of you to do so. Sound business reasoning and reflective on valuing one’s own work. thanks, Bonnie
This is terrific- I love the way your mind is able to distill a problem down to the essentials and explain your position so clearly. Great post!
Thanks to everyone for your comments. Pricing is a difficult subject so it’s good if we can all share what we are thinking.
Lisa,
Thanks so much for your openness and sharing your philosophies on pricing. It’s such a difficult issue. I think the most difficult for me, a beginner in the selling arena, is in placing a value on my work. It helps to see how someone else does it.
Becky