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Pricing paintings for sale.
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Message
Posted
I think it depends on a lot of factors such as stage in career, size of painting, subject matter and skill as an artist. I started exhibiting in 2020 and priced artwork around £50 - £150 based on size, I now price for around £80 - £300 for the same size pieces. I tried to work out an hourly rate but as I work in oils and generally at least 2 layers I would be on well below minimum wage so I don't think about that now and go on if things are selling well then I probably am ready to do another incremental price bump and see what happens. I tend to look at the prices of similar stage artists too - trying to focus on the ones that make sales :-)
Posted
Thanks Sylvia. No problem Lucian. The smaller ones are 15 x 20 cm and the larger ones 25 x 30 cm on average. Some slightly smaller, some slightly bigger. I have a 3 year old so don't have the time - or energy :-) - to paint larger at the moment.Yes, those do seem like reasonable prices for those sizes.
Edited
by Lucian Hodoboc
Posted
What about commission? Heading towards 40% and above now at most galleries and online sites, Saatchi Online, Artfinder etc.
Take 40% off £80 for the small oils and frankly it’s not viable unless you’re after ‘pin money’ which I’m sure you aren’t Gary. And I’ve not taken framing into consideration!
Zero commission on this site of course, and Artists & Illustrators for a small annual fee in both cases, but they aren’t the best platforms for selling paintings if we’re brutally honest!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
I price my pictures per size of the canvas, regardless of how long the painting takes to do. (Some don’t take too long, and others do take too long!) . I also keep the same price across the different canvas types (flat board / stretch / box), even though they’re significantly different in price to buy.
I had some pictures in a gallery/shop in my local town, and they asked me how much I wanted, then they added their commission on top of that for the ticket price.
Posted
What about commission? Heading towards 40% and above now at most galleries and online sites, Saatchi Online, Artfinder etc. Take 40% off £80 for the small oils and frankly it’s not viable unless you’re after ‘pin money’You should probably add the commission to the price on those online galleries. I've noticed that some of them require price parity, so that could be a problem.
Edited
by Lucian Hodoboc
Posted
I price my small watercolours at £80 to £150, depending on the cost of materials and framing, taking into account hanging fees and commission - and usually sell around 10 or 12 a year at various club exhibitions and my local framing gallery. My satisfaction in selling a painting is not how much profit I make (although I always make a reasonable amount) but the pleasure of knowing someone wants to hang my artwork on their wall!
Edited
by Jenny Harris
Posted
What about commission? Heading towards 40% and above now at most galleries and online sites, Saatchi Online, Artfinder etc. Take 40% off £80 for the small oils and frankly it’s not viable unless you’re after ‘pin money’ which I’m sure you aren’t Gary. And I’ve not taken framing into consideration! Zero commission on this site of course, and Artists & Illustrators for a small annual fee in both cases, but they aren’t the best platforms for selling paintings if we’re brutally honest!I have to say I have a 2 day a week part time job so I'm not relying on sales (although hoping to ditch the part time job one day). Most of the galleries I have exhibited in take 25 - 30% and yes on a £80 painting thats not much profit, but the smaller paintings are usually studies or quicksketches so I am happy to let them go for some profit (the frames usually costing around £10 - £15 where I get them from for that size). Also, unusually, half of my sales so far have been from social media/web so there has been no commission. I must say I don't have the time to produce lots of paintings so half of my sales equates to about 1 a month on a good month :-)
Posted
We've had a gallery/exhibition in Melton Mowbray since the first week on November. We've sold 59 pictures, priced from £7 to £120, some framed and some not. It's been a real mixture and the only lesson I can draw from it is that people buy something if they like it and the price or framing don't really matter. It's an emotional bond and that's the most important thing.
We're all amateurs and the pricing has been down to the individual, the art group taking 10% of any sales plus a £2 hanging fee per picture. We're closed now until March 7th but will be opening up again then for one day a week by which time hopefully members will have produced more pictures!
Peter
Peter