Category: Selling Art

Art Business & the Coronavirus Pandemic Recession

16/6/2020

Catch up on my recent articles about the Pandemic Recession on my main blog (posted there because a lot of artists follow it and it gets lots of readers!).

You can catch up here:

READ: It's time to talk recession - and what next!

The Covid-19 Pandemic to date has made economic survival very difficult for a number of artists. However the coming Global Recession is going to make life difficult for a lot more artists - all around the world.

It's time to take stock and think about what this means - in the short term and the next 2-3 years.

READ: The Pandemic Recession: Likely Impact on Art Sales and Artists

In this post I'm beginning to set out an overview of what I think are key issues for artists during The Pandemic Recession. It includes some background reading and covers
- the biggest drop in economic growth since records began
- the impact on art sales and artists
- lessons for artists from the 2008 recession

The biggest drop in GDP in the UK since records began

PLUS recent initiatives to support artists

READ: The Artist Support Pledge

PLEASE DO NOT post art if you're NOT a career artist whose livelihood is currently in jeopardy due to Coronavirus. There's way too much amateur art being posted by people who cannot possibly be paying their household and business bills through the sale of their art. That, to my mind, is just plain selfish and attention-seeking given the intention of this project is to support those self-employed professional artists who have lost their ability to earn their normal income e.g. from sales of exhibited paintings in art galleries and art fairs, teaching art to students and the normal sort of work which many professional artists engage in.

PLUS in relation to Teaching Art - I wrote on my botanical art news blog about the implications for teaching art. Planning considerations are essentially generic whichever type of art you teach.

READ Botanical Art Education: planning considerations re. coronavirus

The one thing that is certain is that the virus is not going away any time soon. All that is happening right now is that the reproduction rate is being cut - but a very small percentage of the community has been infected and the virus is still in the community.

I'm going to be continuing to write about the implications of the Pandemic Recession on changing business practices and art business models

on Making A Mark - in the coming months,
with catchup posts on this Art Business Info News Blog

READ about the Key Points for Artists, Art Teachers and Art Galleries to date below

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Why you can be more than self-employed!

8/6/2020

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Every time you describe your employment status on your Facebook account as "self-employed" you miss out on an opportunity to

redirect people to a Facebook Page which has YOUR name on it
which is marketing YOUR art - and
gathering in sales and commissions for YOU.

Just a thought!

Why not have an account which

reads"Works at "YOUR NAME ART" and
links to YOUR brand new FB Page?

Facebook Page

You must have a profile to create a Page or help manage one.
Pages are places on Facebook where artists, public figures, businesses, brands, organizations and nonprofits can connect with their fans or customers.

To find out more about Facebook Pages read:

It's against the Facebook Terms to use your profile to represent something other than yourself (example: your business), and you could permanently lose access to your account if you don't convert it to a Page.

Create and Manage a Page
- If you choose a Page, you can have an unlimited number of people follow you rather than the limit of 5,000 friends of your personal account
- When you're trying to represent your art business, and promote your art you can do this better from a Page Facebook, create a Page. A Page lets you engage with people on Facebook and offers tools to help you manage and track engagement.
- choose which type of page you want according to the features available - see the table below. Artists should choose the Business or Brand page.
How do I create a Facebook Page?
Manage Page Settings - Make sure the username you're trying to create follows the guidelines for custom username
Customise a Page - including profile and cover photos, categories and templates, page details, call to action buttons
In due course you may want to create a Facebook Page Shop - see below....

Bear in mind that Facebook is currently also gearing up to expand Facebook Page Shops - which allows you you sell your art online from home.

READ MORE: Facebook Page Shops

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How to sign a painting, drawing or fine art print

17/5/2020

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Last week I published a new page "How to sign a painting, drawing or fine art print" on this website. Importantly, it covers how a signature can affect the marketing and selling of your art - and what factors you should consider before signing your art.

The NEW PAGE covers:

Pros and Cons of signing your art
Initials, surname or change your name?
Monograms, initialed signatures & motifs

HOW TO SIGN

TIPS: How to sign your art
How to sign:
- an oil painting
- a dipytch/triptych
- a watercolour painting
- a pastel artwork
- a drawing
- a fine art print (limited edition)
- a copy of another artwork
Signature Membership (of an Art Society)

This is the third reincarnation of this page which started off some years ago and has been on two other websites where I ran polls which asked people how they signed their art. Those polls received over 2,000 responses but I've had to restart the polls on this website - and below you can see some of the results from previous polls.

The charts below cover:

size and location of the signature
whether you plan your signature in advance
whether or not to date your artwork

Size and location of the signature: 75% of the 2,444 people who voted on the first poll made an effort to make sure their signature was readable and was also somewhere where you might expect to look for it. The most traditional place for a signature is one of the bottom corners with bottom right being the most favoured - but there is no rule about this. A signature can be easily found without being in a traditional place or obvious when you first look at an artwork. In general, I caution against loud and ostentatious signatures as you instantly eliminate a number of potential buyers with signatures which overwhelm an artwork.

Size and location of an artist's signature

Planning the signature: More than half the artists who responded to the polls thought about their signature when planning the artwork. Other were more spontaneous - or only signed when in the mood or remembered.

planning a signature on an artwork: HOW and WHERE

Planning a signature on an artwork when planning an artwork

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Dating the artwork: Dates are very often associated and aligned with signatures - so it seemed sensible to also ask about dating. As you can see, opinions on dating are much more mixed.

Dating an artwork

You can read a lot more about signing an artwork - and the impact this has on its value and both contemporary art markets and over time - if you study the new page about How to sign a painting, drawing or fine art print.

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Art Business in a Coronavirus Pandemic #1

12/4/2020

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I've been writing on Making A Mark about the impact on the coronavirus and COVID-19 on art. Below are links to the different blog posts categorised by type.

I will continue to

write about the impact of C)VID-19 on Making A Mark as it has a much bigger subscriber base.
summarise the blog posts on this blog on a regular basis (under the heading Art Business in a Pandemic")
post relevant information to my Art Business Info for Artists Facebook Page

In addition, I've created a NEW page (in the Practice Section) about Coronavirus / COVID-19 and Art which also includes links to my blog posts

Blog posts about Art and Coronavirus / COVID-19

Timeline / Thinking about the Future

Coronavirus & Art #2: Thoughts and recommendations on the implications of a pandemic
My updated thoughts about the implications of the CO-VID 19 (coronavirus) PANDEMIC for art, artists, art organisations (galleries / societies / schools etc), art exhibitions and private views, art fairs and art schools in the short and longer term.

TIP: This is not over until it's over. I'll be writing much more on this topic. This is because after the coronavirus crisis comes the economic crisis of a cast iron certain recession caused by a drop in economic activity and an awful lot of businesses being able to start up again and hence a rise in unemployment. Demand for art will drop.

NOTE: This has been by far the most popular of the posts by far to date

Image: CDC/Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAMS

Financial Support for Artists

COVID-19 and Art #6: Financial support for self-employed artists and freelancers
Announcements about the type of support available to self-employed artists and others with a portfolio of income streams - both employment income and self-employed income.

TIP: Only those whose earnings are predominantly from self-employment will be eligible for help.

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Online auctions + check out art market prices and pricing strategies for paintings

7/7/2019

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If you want to know whether your pricing strategy is 'on the money' or what to do if you having problems selling art - check out online auctions for:

collectors' interest (bids made) for different types of art and
market prices (price paid) on sales.

This post is about:

an online auction site which supports fundraising for those wanting to support good causes
an example of an online silent auction run by the Royal Watercolour Society
how auctions enable you to check out market prices and artists' pricing strategies

Snapshot of the Be Part of Art auction run by the Royal Watercolour Society on Jumblebee online software

Snapshot of "Be Part of Art" auction website - run by the Royal Watercolour Society on Jumblebee Online Software

It's not often you get an educational insight into just how much people like specific types of art i.e. when it comes to paying for it!

However auctions can potentially be an excellent way of:

collectors checking out whether or not other collectors like the artwork
what the real market price is for art
artists reviewing whether or not their current pricing policy is in touch with what the art market wants to pay.

HOWEVER it does very much depend on how well an auction has been promoted and then attended by collectors who want to buy.

READ ON to find out more about

the Jumblebee website and service offering
the online silent auction run by the Royal Watercolour Society earlier this year
check out prices paid for art by leading watercolour artists

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Art Business Info: NEWS

Art Business & the Coronavirus Pandemic Recession

Why you can be more than self-employed!

Facebook Page

How to sign a painting, drawing or fine art print

Art Business in a Coronavirus Pandemic #1

Blog posts about Art and Coronavirus / COVID-19

Timeline / Thinking about the Future

Financial Support for Artists

Online auctions + check out art market prices and pricing strategies for paintings

Art Business Info. News for Artists

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Art Business Info: NEWS

Art Business & the Coronavirus Pandemic Recession

Why you can be more than self-employed!

Facebook Page​

How to sign a painting, drawing or fine art print

Art Business in a Coronavirus Pandemic #1

Blog posts about Art and Coronavirus / COVID-19​

Timeline / Thinking about the Future​

Financial Support for Artists​

Online auctions + check out art market prices and pricing strategies for paintings

Art Business Info. News for Artists

Visitors so far

GET Art Business Info. NEWS by Email

Author

Archives

Categories

Facebook Page

Blog posts about Art and Coronavirus / COVID-19

Timeline / Thinking about the Future

Financial Support for Artists