Painting prices

If you deal with a gallery, the problem largely resolves itself - you will have to put a substantial price over their commission, or it will be virtually pointless showing it. And most professionally-run galleries will tell you not to ask unrealistically low prices, because yes, it devalues the art and collectors won't want it at prices that are so low they can't understand why. If you put your work on, say, Etsy, or Ebay, you can of course charge very low prices if you really want to, but I simply don't see the point. I for one will not go to all the trouble of wrapping a painting securely, and posting it, only to get back the same money or less as I spent to send it. I'd be running a sales operation benefiting everyone but myself...... and you know, I don't find that appealing, somehow... But that doesn't really answer the question, because you're not asking about stupid prices but about that dangerous territory lying between underselling yourself, and being a greedy so-and-so. There isn't an easy answer: you're not going to get £5,000 for a painting if your name is unknown, or little known; it's not especially realistic to charge by the square foot, though some say they do - even so, that's no use as a guide, because you still need to think of the base price. So - do a calculation. Put a price on your years of experience - doesn't much matter what price, but let's say £100 (and that's being mean); work out - roughly - what the paint you used cost you; how expensive the support was; how durable you're expecting it to be; whether you've varnished it or not, or are offering to varnish an oil later, when it's fully cured; then add in your postage and packing costs; then add a notional sum if the subject was extremely challenging, especially if it's a commission. Then add any gallery commission. The aim of doing it this way is to ensure you cover your costs, which requires a realistic look at them, and add a reasonable profit for the hours you put into it. You'll see of course that this still leaves you with the problem of establishing your base cost, the 'how much do I think I'm worth?' question: and you have to be quite hard-headed about that. But while I've looked at Etsy, I probably wouldn't try selling there, and I'd be very, very cautious about buying from anyone other than a professional artist (which isn't to say I wouldn't) because I don't want to have to restore the thing in a few years when deficiencies in the materials or methods appear. A very low price - someone I know is selling her watercolours there for £10 a pop: I think she's mistaken herself for a charity - will deter me more than a very high one, because I don't have much respect for the professionalism of someone who sells at such prices; and if they're commercially unprofessional, the likelihood is that they're no more professional in the construction of their paintings. On the other hand of course, I did see a drawing in charcoal on A3 paper, with a dab of colour, offered for £45,000 last year - and I'd never heard of the artist, though that doesn't mean collectors hadn't. And I thought that this was outrageous, and still do; might have felt less irritated if it had been a stunningly good piece, but it wasn't. But I don't see either of us veering in that direction - so let's take that as an extreme outlier, not as a guide. And if you want a really, really simple means of working out a fair price - get a quote from a plumber to come and fix your leaking pipes: if you're charging less than him for his expertise and reliability, for a fair-sized painting on which you're probably worked for longer than he'll have to with the aid of snap-fit fixtures, you're diddling yourself.

Once I've arrived at a price for a painting I stick to it and this is the price which I sell my work for direct from the studio. When I sell via a gallery I tell them my artists price and it's entirely up to them what they add to it by way of mark-up, VAT etc - I leave it entirely to them as long as I get my artists price should they sell it.

I wish I had a clue where to even start to sell my art galleries sound like the devil so far I think ill avoid them!

can you compare your work to another artist same medium and quality of materials, framing etc. If yours are better then you charge a higher price, if you need to keep developing then charge a lower price.