How To Get Started In The Trade Of Art
Being able to sell art is not an easy task. Even those
people who are already art collectors are hesitant to
be the first buyers from obscure or not so well known
artists. Additionally, it is way more difficult to
sell to people who are not really art collectors and
do not know anything about you. However, once you get
to make that first sale of your masterpiece, selling
again would be a lot easier than before.
Is Your Art Ugly?
As an artist, you should not start doubting yourself
about your creativity and skill with your art if you
are unable to sell them or only sell a couple. There
are several reasons on why people who already like art
do not buy pieces often. Such reasons are related to
their knowledge about art, self-confidence, identity
crisis of what their taste really is, and how much it
matters to them what other people would say about the
pieces they buy.
A lot of people in the art industry, whether they are
new ones or old, usually worry of what other people
would say about their purchase, or that their
colleagues and friends would make fun of them. Even
though a person likes a certain artwork of yours, they
are probably not sure on how well done the piece is,
whether it’s really worth the price, or whether you as
an artist is established enough in your career to
warrant such prices.
Thus, your job as an artist is to help those people
that admire your art feel secure and comfortable with
you both, as an artist and a businessperson. As you do
When you do arts and crafts projects with your children, it can be so much fun and a wonderful bonding experience. It can also be quite messy, too.
this, you help alleviate whatever other fears that
they may have and have a higher probability that
they’d buy your art.
If you don’t know where to start, then here are some
tips on how you can make admirers of your art buy your
piece and hopefully in time, turn them into patrons.
Tell Them: It’s OK, Really
Before you even start off with your sales talking, you
should be able to show people that purchasing your
artworks is okay. You can try talking about other
collectors that have bought your pieces, what kind of
people they are and how long you have been transacting
with them. Doing this would make your prospective
buyer let go of the thought that you’re just some bozo
trying to sell him a piece of junk and get hold of his cash.
However, if you haven’t had any collectors, then you
should say so honestly. You should tell your
prospective buyer that you are open to the possibility
of selling your art to them, although you haven’t
really done this before.
How Do You Sell?
You should also talk to them about your method of
selling your art and in what specific circumstances do
people buy it. Additionally, it would be helpful if
you tell stories or anecdotes of how other collectors
have bought their first artworks from you. You should
also talk about your most recent sale, how you were
able to sell it, and for how much.
The method of how you price your works should be
mentioned too, along with which of your work types is
the favourite among collectors, and how many have you
sold all in all.
Exposure
Lastly, it would be very helpful to talk about the
exposures that you’ve had in the industry, such as
museum or institution exhibits, galleries, trade
fairs, and awards or honours that you’ve received.
Improving Your Art Collecting Skills
Being able to collect good art is one exceptional
talent. Although you may think good art collectors are
born, this is not the case at all. The truth is, the
skill of collecting art can actually be learned! Yes,
and that is one good news for you. So, if you want to
improve further with your collecting skills, here are
some things that you can do to attain such goal.
Get Some Exposure
Getting some exposure on different disciplines of art
is one way to enhance your collecting skills. There
are a lot of national and international art expos and
art fairs that you can attend to. Try attending such
kinds of events to broaden your horizon on different
kinds of art disciplines and forms.
This is also one way to discover not so well-known
aesthetic pieces that have potential on getting a huge
value in the future. However, most importantly, it is
one way to see artworks that can move you and probably
be part of your collection in the near future. Know
Your Kind
Although collecting art can be a personal endeavour
for you, there is nothing wrong with talking to other
art collectors and knowing more about them. In fact,
doing this can be beneficial to you, since you can
learn more about how other collectors started and what
other helpful information they can give you.
They can also give you recommendations like galleries
to visit, events to go to, artists to see works of and
other art related things. Some art collectors even
have clubs or organizations that you can join in.
Read On!
Reading in any aspect can take your knowledge another
level. Thus, reading books about art history and art
collections would definitely improve your skill.
There’s a lot to learn with collecting that you can
actually find not only by looking at pictures, but
also through reading texts about so.
Reading old published literature on the subject is
good, since you can learn the basics of the field and
the essentials of collecting. However, it would still
be better if you are up-to-date with your reading
materials. If you want something fresh and new
regularly, then subscribing to some art magazines
would do the trick!
Magazines, just like books, are helpful resources
where you can learn more about collecting and
collections. However, these magazines standout since
their content are always up to date and new, unlike
with books that may contain faced-out and irrelevant
data.
Reviews: Seeing Another’s Perspective
Seeing art in the perspective of another person is bad
at all. Remember that art is relative, thus, something
may be beautiful in your eyes, yet ugly for another’s
and vice versa. That is why you should learn to
utilize reviews done by international or local art
critics and channel them into something positive.
Instead of being too much influenced by what they say,
try learning from them and see if what they say about
the artwork is true. You should also learn some points
on how they critic a piece, since being able to critic
is yet an important skill to develop collecting
skills. Get Some Help
A little bit of guidance would not hurt if you are
really interested on learning how to make a great art
collection. You can work with a professional art
consultant / art advisor, if you please since for sure
they know what they are doing. They can also teach you
about collecting and even guide you to the whole
process of buying art.