While being an artist can be challenging in many ways, from lack of ideas and inspiration to trying to find your own style. There is one challenge that leads many artists to quitting making art all together. The challenge of starting and having a successful art business. In my experience, many talented individuals have made a decision to not study or not continue to study art because they “know” that it will not be a lucrative career for them. The stereotype of the struggling artist is present in everyone’s minds when they hear about a full time artist. The notion exists that artists who are full time are either rich or have a wealthy partner who is taking care of them; therefore, they can allow themselves to have this career. This blog focuses on two facets of the challenge: exhibiting in galleries and participating in festivals/bazaars.
Exhibiting in Galleries
After quitting my teaching job, I had a lot of inspiration and aspirations about what my art business would be like. I started off by building up a body of work that would allow me to exhibit in galleries. I painted all day everyday for weeks until I finished a couple of long series of landscape paintings. My next move was to get my work into galleries. I have sent my work to many, many, many galleries and I’ve only gotten into two. One of them was because a friend recommended me and I was only able to exhibit there once. The other one was a local gallery which focuses on helping emerging artists get their work out there. Keeping in mind that most galleries charge 30-50 percent commission to sell your work, it is worth to have some gallery representation to get new people to see your art (or so I’ve believed). However, I have sold more work on my own and through the help of other sources than at galleries. I am still trying to reach out to different galleries, although I keep getting rejected or getting no response back. One gallery owner said my work did not go with the rest of the artists that they had for display. I think this might be the reason why I keep getting nowhere with galleries. My work is different from what is considered to be “in” right now. My style of painting is not very “desired.” Unfortunately, I have felt pressure to start painting more like those people whose work is popular, but I have found myself not enjoying it as much. Is it possible to stay true to your inspiration and still be a marketable artist?
On the other hand, there are other options and alternatives to galleries such as restaurants, law offices, hospitals, etc. I have not reached out to a lot of these even though people have recommended doing so. I am at the moment displaying some of my paintings at a restaurant but there have been no sales to new customers however, there was a sale to someone who knows about my work already. Any sale is great for me, I would like to start reaching more people who do not know about my work as well as those who already know about me and support me. My thought about exhibiting in these venues is that people don’t go into them looking to buy art. There is a chance that the artwork may grab their eye and they will take the time to look at the label information or that they will glance at the image and continue their conversation. These are the reasons why I have found it challenging to reach out to these venues.
Going back to the galleries, I have heard from some great artists being rejected and not selling at some galleries (which serves as consolation to some degree), and others say that they’ve sold a lot of work and made new long time customers this way. I want to discover the key to successfully be part of a gallery which sells my work. I will have to keep getting rejected until I find the right place for my art.
Participating in Festivals and Bazaars
Participating in art/craft events is something I am starting to do more of. I have participated in a local festival for two years and made very little money and spent a lot of time. I have noticed that people don’t go there to shop, they slowly walk past me without even looking at my art. Some have looked and complimented me but left empty handed. It is frustrating to spent hour after hour seeing scattered passersby and making little to no money all day. It seems like a lot of people don’t even know that the event is going on. Luckily, this event doesn’t charge a set up fee or a commission otherwise not only would I waste time but also money.
I have also tried another art festival which was set in the spring during a larger festival. The set up was far from the main event which I think influenced the amount of people who came to the art sale. The amount of people who came by was small. In comparison to the previous festival, I paid to be at this event. There was a table fee and a part of my earnings was also paid to them. I sold some small items and made very little profit after subtracting what I paid, not mentioning the time I put into preparing and selling at the event.
Both of these experiences have not been successful business decisions, but I am just starting to get into the business world so I had no idea what to expect (considering I have no educational background in business). I am planning to participate in a few more festivals this fall/winter. I am hoping that these events are more lucrative since they’re during the holiday season and the people who come to the event will be looking for gifts (hopefully).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is very easy to be discouraged as a young artist who wants to have a successful art business. There is a lot of pressure to go in a different direction since the work is great and the pay is little. I don’t regret however, embarking in this journey because I have made a lot of progress since I started down this path and I will continue to experiment until I find the right way to run a successful art business. In part two to this article I will reflect on online sales, art lessons, and social media usage and how those have played a part in my art business.