Why is art so expensive? (and why you, as an artist, shouldn't sell yourself cheap)

I eventually receive inquiries from people with a tight budget but genuinely interested in buying my art. They want to barter. They want to bargain. Not rare I feel compelled to accept the proposals since I feel so much love in them. It is a tough decision. I have collectors and people who have paid the listed price for my pieces, and I feel like it is not fair to them. A lot of people really appreciate art and would like to become collectors, however, collecting art is a pricey game. Everywhere people ask why a piece of art is so expensive. I don't have a lot of time in the business but I think I can answer a few questions, at least only superficially. Also, don't forget to check my friend Tammy Mae Moon's post about the same subject, in which she covers some other costly details about artwork prices.

An artist is a professional like any other and needs to earn a living. Because creative activities are so associated to fun and "childlike" things, there's a general mentality that artists are not really "working". (First, it is necessary to get rid of this mentality that "work" has to be associated to sacrifice. Anybody could, and should, have pleasure in what they do, but this is another story.) Paying for a work of art is also paying for the artist's time to produce that piece -- which is not likely to be leisure time. I, for instance, evaluate my time at $40 dollars a hour. To make a living, I need to work an estimate of  X hours a month. Anything below that, means less items in my grocery cart, or problems to pay for my health insurance. I am a professional artist, so I make art. I am not hobbying. So, if you want my art, it will cost you money, just like your dentist's, or your plumber's time. Is that simple. The time I spend working in a certain piece will determine its minimum price. If I spend 4 hours in a certain painting, it cannot be sold at less than $160 (notice that only very small and simple pieces take such a short time to be completed.) Some additional actions and elements will also add to this price. Most paintings need research. You need reference images, you need to study your palette, you need preliminary studies of composition and other details. Good art supplies cost a lot of money. And wait, there's also an electricity bill to be paid for, you need a lot of light to paint, don't you? The artist's experience and skill are also a plus, for they take an awful long time to be acquired. I would say a lifetime.


Do you see a "made in China" label here? A piece of art is a one-of-a-kind product. When you buy one, you are buying something that only you, among billions of people, will possess. It will never be any other like that, never, even if the same artist struggle to produce something similar. Differently from a mass produced object, it is something embed in emotion. It is a bit of that artist's soul, something that deeply reflects their moment and spirit at the time when that piece were produced.

Think that talent is free? Think again. When you buy a work of art, you are buying the product of years of training, observation, and not rare, a lot of emotional ups-and-downs. If you went to an art school or had some formal training, you probably spent lots in tuitions, books and other educational materials. If you are a self taught artist, and has nobody to show you the pathway of rocks, you have spent long years into solitary study and training. Talent is not a precious gift from heaven. It is cultivated. It is not like pressing a button and the artist starts creating like a crazy robot. Art IS hard work. There's no other way. And hard work costs money.

Painting is an investment. Lots of people buy art as an investment.The art market fluctuates a lot, but when an emerging artist keeps producing and growing, the tendency is that they will sooner or later gain popularity and their value in the market will increase. If a collector buys one of your pieces that costs $500 today, within a few years or even less it can value a lot more. So, when you are buying art from an active and promising artist, you are also applying your money in something that has been considered an attractive investment for centuries.

Image credits: Money Family, Photo manipulation. www.freakingnews.com

commissions, prices and vertigo.

Sketch for portrait commission in progress.

in my next video i will be showing the making of a portrait - this one i'm working on right now. it's been a gratifying, very enriching experience, and i'd like to share it. since i started doing the video thing people have been expressing the wish to see something related to my work. by the way, i'm grateful for having the best clients in the world. :)

talking about commissions, by Spring I may slightly raise my prices. i've been already doing this with my new paintings, since acrylics are not as economical as watercolors. i know that many artists charge by the hour, and although i have an hour price set up, i never use it because i care more about having a satisfying result, and  i don't want that a client's budget interfere in my "quality standard". usually i charge for a commission the same price i put on a personal project, but since you don't have the same freedom, that also should have some cost. also, thinking seriously about rejecting any project that has nothing to do with what i usually do or stifle my creativity. seriously, the expression is a bit strong, but i feel like i'm being raped (and the money won't compensate it...) I feel a little bad for saying this,-- if i was starving, i'd do anything!, but, thank goodness, it's not the case. anyway, the raises are not going to be too dramatic.

yesterday was the warmest day in many weeks in Frankfort: 61 F. the snow finally melted away and Kitty was happy for the gentle sun warmth.

been having episodes of dizziness/vertigo since one week ago. went to the doctor and she found a yucky buildup of ear wax in my ears, which were supposedly pressing the labyrinths and interfering with my body balance. ears are now all clean (ear wash is not as bad as i thought), but the dizziness persists -- although is not as bad as before. taking some time to see what will happen.

Ebay - goldmine for artists?

and then I decided to give Ebay a try, after a dozen stories of artists that take part of their incomes out of Ebay sales and the such. picked 2 watercolors on paper, Flourish and Totem #1, normally priced at $100, and set the starting bid price at $50, plus $20 for shipping and handling.

my sincere opinion is that the auctions won't be succeeded. I'm not a well known artist, and I don't have how to compete with several other paintings being offered by shameful prices like $10, $6,99 and even $0,99 - with free shipping. yes, people will bid and those prices will raise, but if there's no many offers and you have to send your piece away for $1 ?? and pay for the shipping? and pay for the Ebay fees? frankly, it does not sound to me a very clever way to make money.

I understand the effort that many artists (myself included) have been doing in order to make art more affordable and accessible to the general public. but for selling themselves for that low they are not only undervaluing them, they are also doing a deservice to the art community in general, something that is very close to the Walmart business model. if you really want to sell your art for such low prices, you need to produce a lot of art in order to meet your needs. you have to be almost an art machine. almost one step of making souless, empty works in order to attend the demand.

I don't know, but something tells me that Ebay auctions are not for me. anyway, I don't lose much in trying, who knows how the story unfolds...

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talking about sales, I'm seriously thinking about discontinuing the production of open edition prints. after my last sales I realized that it's a lot of work for not a very significant profit, what makes me think that letting RedBubble and Imagekind take care of all the dirty job might be a good decision.

business cards, chinese brushes and the meaning of life.

my business cards arrived today, and I am again very impressed with the quality of the job delivered by PsPrint (no, I'm not gaining anything for marketing them, I just think that a good work deserves to be spread.) the only negative thing was entirely my fault: I think that my data got too small and too light, and sort of lost amidst the art. sigh.

again, my camera and its "wonderful" macro don't make justice to the stuff, but you can have an idea. I wanted that the card could show samples of my work, them I used details of some paintings on the color side and my now sort of symbolic dragon on the black and white side, along with my name, email and website address.

here are the file samples (with bleedings):

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and seriously, how could I live for so long without Chinese bamboo brushes?????

they are designed for sumi-e painting, and provide such a fluidity to the lines that makes them appear lighter and with more movement. I totally recommend those brushes if you are into a lot of spirals, waves and ornamental patterns, like I am. they are also cheaper than regular brushes and hold a lot of pigment. just one thing turned me off, I think that the brush "body" or holder is not that strong, it appears that you have to be a little more careful when using it, or it may break apart. but that's probably a matter of brand, I'm not sure. anyway, I'm happy with my new set of Chinese brushes and can't wait to explore their possibilities.

some plans.

thinking about creating some small paintings that don't require much time to get done. my usual paintings take about 2 weeks to be completed, and this of course influence in their prices. if I make smaller and quicker paintings, I can charge much less. my bigger pieces cost between $380 and $450, depending mostly on the time I spend in each one. since I'm just starting off in the market, I don't believe I can charge much more.

I started to experiment today, on watercolor paper. I'm not very sure yet about what I'm going to paint. not very complex themes though. maybe just faces, ornamental abstracts, some surrealism, who knows. I'm going to spend the week with my in-laws, and since when I'm there I don't need to worry about anything but taking care of my daughter, I may come back home with something new. the big panels will stay home waiting, I don't want to take the whole art paraphernalia with me for a trip. only the watercolor pad and box, 3 or 4 brushes and pencils, and books - got some new ones a few weeks ago and just had the chance to barely open them. and, of course, since we'll have free baby sitter, going to the movies!!! boy, I even forgot what a movie theater smells like. and God, I NEED to see Watchmen.