Before we start, my goal is to help you, an artist, sell your art so you can make a living. That means you’ll continue to make and sell art resulting in more art in the world which will make the world a better place by fostering empathy.
I worry about the Hollywood effect, where you can be hot one day, invited to all the parties, and the next day shunned. I don’t like having my wellbeing controlled by someone else, so I value independence.
My default setting is for you to develop your own serious art buyers. You know of course that if you sell through others it’s entirely possible you’ll never know who bought your work. I don’t find that acceptable.
I say this not to persuade you of anything, you don’t have to agree or disagree. I just want you to be aware of where I’m coming from so you can take that into account when forming your own opinion and action plan.
So I’m partly going to talk about how to get and develop your own serious art buyers.
But I also recognise that the money is where the money is and to get it, we’re going to have to smile sweetly and deal with the art business, and as a marketer here to help you sell your work it’s my job to spot that need and satisfy it.
While I’m at it .. these are my words not AI.
I’m going to overview the topics and then come back and develop the detail later.
I’ll cover the independent approach and then the art industry approach. It’s not a choice, you can do both.
Here goes.
The Independent Approach
My thing is values-based marketing, where we identify what values are most important to you, we ‘go large’ on them in your life and your marketing and that attracts people who believe in the same values.
Now, values don’t tend to change much through our life, so it makes sense that if someone discovers you and likes you because you have shared values, that may well be a lifelong thing, rather like discovering a musical artist or an author, you’ll tend to buy their work ongoing.
Most people don’t think of themselves as art collectors though. Even if they buy, it may be for a particular purpose .. something to go above the fireplace for instance.
But here’s an interesting bit of psychology. We carry a mental model of ourselves. I felt it when my partner and I bought our first piece of original art. As I recall, we had to retire to a coffee and cake shop to gather ourselves and work out what just happened. Basically, our mental model did not include that we were the sort of people who bought art. But we just bought art. Therefore our mental model needed to be adjusted because we are now people who buy art. What does that mean for everything else in the model. Are we collectors? What’s going on? It all needs to be brought into consistency.
So when someone buys one of your artworks, it is possible to help a new buyer come to terms with what’s happened.
As much as you have a system to attract people to buy your art, you need a system to communicate with buyers.
So you have:
- Everyone
- People who value the same things you do but have never heard of you
- People who like you
- People who really like you
- Buyers
- Repeat buyers
- Advocates
I’m saying, don’t stop marketing when someone buys.
I don’t have a plan for you. I mean, I have a dream but no-one agrees with me and no-one’s done it but let’s go for it (for shits and giggles) and then look back and see what’s happening psychologically.
Every year, throw a party for everyone who’s bought one of your artworks. Send out a fabulous invitation to a weeklong event (I did say this is a dream). They stay in a local B&B that you recommend, and to begin with you have a welcome event and you set up an art task for yourself (or perhaps for them to join in with), for instance you set up a blank canvas and aim to complete the painting by the final night. By the way, this is a paid-for week, chunky, let’s say £1,000 each, so it’s an income injection for you. (Dismiss any concern about affordability, you want to sell to comfortable people.)
Let’s say it’s a Monday to Friday thing, so Monday evening is the welcome party, Wednesday is another gathering, and Friday is the big ending. You’re providing three lots of food and drink, so that’s partly what they are paying for. Get in a caterer because we value creative people who bring themselves to their work. And a cleaner.
I went to Salvador Dali’s house and part of that experience was to see how the way the rocks eroded on that part of the coast informed the shapes in his art. So have a few trips to your favourite artistically inspiring places, perhaps that’s Tuesday and Thursday.
Wednesday night they can see how your painting is progressing, and maybe you bring in a musician or poet who shares your values.
Of course, you have your place set up like open studios so people can see your art and buy what they like.
Friday night is something you’ve built up on social media and I feel the mood like when the KLF reputedly burned £1m. You have a bonfire, so I’m thinking this is an autumn thing, around harvest festival (UK) when we celebrate plenty and get in the mood for Christmas. You have some works that haven’t sold. And you run an online price drop auction. Art that isn’t sold goes on the bonfire. Yes that’s terrible, that’s why people will buy, and watch. And you have all your buyers with you, musicians in the background (playing tunes that won’t get stopped for copyright violation).
That done, your completed painting for the week is available to buy to any of the attendees.
When it’s over, take a week off .. the cleaner’s cleaned the house, the food is all done, you just need to rest and quietly celebrate.
Alright.
WTF was that? Honestly?
It’s a provocation. It’s .. a lot more is possible.
I’ve spoken to a couple of artists recently who both lived in nice villages and they had their own open studio for the village where they put on a party, albeit for one night, and because of their personal relationships and friendships these annual events have kept them going through the year.
First off, that may not tie in with your key values, so how would you do something that noteworthy and stay true to your values.
Of course, you may only have a few buyers, and all these things start small and build. So .. how could you move towards something like this?
So let’s look at the psychology of this.
I spent a little time working on the question “who are my people?” I was in a ska band for twenty years, are ska fans my people? Yes, but not perfect, I’m a little too prissy & middle class. I joined Labour and campaigned for Corbyn, are those my people? Close .. but again not perfect .. I worry that humans need a bit of free market capitalism to get us engaged in life and I struggle with the maleness of unions. Feminists, yes, I’ve been along for that ride since I was a teenager, but I’m not a perfect fit (being a man). I took part in a Spencer Tunick installation in Newcastle Upon Tyne where perhaps a thousand people got naked for a photo shoot. Participants were invited back to receive a photograph from the day and speaking to people I realised .. these are my people. Willing to make themselves vulnerable for art.
The act of gathering your buyers together could have that sort of effect on your fans. They’ll meet likeminded people, some of whom have bought several of your works, some only just starting, and share stories about how long they’ve known you. There’s a psychological principle that like likes like .. in other words, we tend to like people like ourselves and your gathering will all be people who share your values. That will bolster the feeling in every attendee that the people who buy your art are good, nice people .. are ‘my’ kind of people. People will feel great to be part of that and will feel justified in the purchase they made.
Attendees will become friends with each other, so it’s a great way of developing a sense of connection and family.
The event, being annual, will be something people want to be part of. (There’s an invitation-only event for nice and creative people near where I live which I wanted to attend for years and finally got an invitation. You kinda have to be invited or you’ll never find it.)
And finally the idea of Know, Like and Trust which says that people have to discover you, they have to like you, and they have to trust you before they’ll buy from you. Trust, by the way, comes from values because your values give you consistency and predictability which is what trust is all about.
So your buyers will see your house, your family, your pets, they’ll see where you live, they may never have spoken with you but you’ll become friends. All while you’re providing food and drink that’s literally entering their bodies. Add in the music and the visual stimulation and you can’t help but have an impact.
None of it is that far removed from the preview evenings that any gallery would put on.
My suggestion is .. take everything from that idea .. I would literally explode it onto post-its, get your values out, and smash it all together to see what comes out the other side. Invite a friend or two over and do it together or individually and compare.
To come down from those giddy heights into normal-world, you could at least mark buyers on your mailing list and give them special treats .. a Christmas card, special discounts and so on. For the latter call them fan discounts or buyer discounts so they know it’s exclusive.
And of course personal connection. I mean, send a personal email. Connect on social media. Make comments. Build your relationship with them. Remember their birthday. When my partner and I first connected with artists in Scarborough when we moved here .. I don’t tend to feel anything .. never joyful, never particularly sad, I have a small emotional range (but I’m definitely not depressed) .. I enjoyed living life vicariously through artists. I’ve always been someone who can have a great night out sat nursing a drink at a party watching everyone else dance the night away. Maybe part of the attraction of buying art is the connection with the artist, in an anaesthetised world to know someone who’ll go berserk at clouds is a joy. So make that possible. It’s part of your leadership. Show us the way. Make it possible for your buyer to say “I have an artist friend .. “.
There’s the idea of collectables, but I’m finding the thought of it to be exploitative so I’ve considered that and dismissed it as a marketing motive. Fine if .. I’m thinking of an artist who has developed some characters .. if people want to get something with each of the characters on it that’s up to them but I wouldn’t push it. I might weave the idea into what I’m doing as an artist .. “ooh, shall I do characters, yes because people might identify with one or want to collect them all” would be fine but, the whole collectibles space doesn’t feed good to me.
The Art Industry
Let’s look at some categories of serious buyer, people who buy art.
Collectors aim, clearly, to create a cohesive collection. No-one can buy All The Art, so this buyer will have a focus, whether it’s a genre, geography focussed, a period in time or a particular artist.
In a recent report (2024), the UK art auction industry was said to be in rude health but as a world centre for the art trade, it was being usurped partly because of Brexit. In order to build a buzz, auction houses create sales on a theme and bring in desirable artworks for sale from around the world. Brexit’s additional paperwork added a cost and delay to transporting art into and out of the UK and so a demotivation for sellers. That aside, the UK is still a very major player worldwide so a first task if you seek this sort of buyer would be to be very clear about any collectable features about your art. Are you part of a movement? Where are you based? What are your influences? Who do you look up to and how do they define themselves, what clubs are they in, who are they connected to? Do they sell at auction? Which galleries are they in? Be sure to mention these things on your website so collectors can find you.
As a ska drummer I subscribe to a ska music newsletter that’s like 8 pages formatted like the old classifieds section, except each small paragraph is news about new ska music from around the world. In preparation to do similar for a pop artist, I created a worldwide Google Alert for Pop Art and started gathering news for a monthly publication. You could do the same for your thing and you’ll get those serious buyers coming to you for expertise.
Be sure to look out for authors of books on your art genre, they’ll be on social media somewhere.
Investors have a different motivation. They are looking for an underappreciated asset they hope will grow in value before they die. Treating art as an investment means also they will aim to lower their risk, so may buy a range of different works .. the fun being in the analysis and discovery.
I’ve seen a business, I can’t bring it to mind now, that serves this market extremely well, publishing uptempo statistics about the growth of art investment. To attract this sort of buyer you’ll need to research and write about market trends and pricing, and ideally to put the case for your art being a good prospect for rising value.
While it’s good for an investor to discover an artist early on while values are still low (before anyone else discovers you), it will help to get endorsements from critics and those who know the market. The danger of low key is you’ll be forever low key so it doesn’t really work as a strategy, you’ve got to go for it. For me that’s a case for omnipresence .. identifying those people (gradually over time is fine) and being wherever they look. You might want also to target corporate art consultants (clue, search ‘art consultant’ in LinkedIn).
Another thing to sort out is provenance documentation so everyone is sure of the work’s history.
One thing I’ve not seen well explained if you’d like to interest new, amateur investors or just add the prospect of a rise in value for anyone who would like to buy your art for all the usual reasons (because they like it and it will match the sofa) is the relatively new UK rule that says when a work is resold, a percentage of the price goes to the original artist. Perhaps it only applies to high value works, but if you’re wanting investors, that would at least be something you want to happen.
A good few companies and organisations purchase art. They may seek to artwash their reputation .. so long as you take plenty of money from them and put it to good use I’m cool with that. Perhaps they want to show their success or communicate their brand by hanging art in their workplaces, whether that’s a matter of opulence or licensing for artwork to be printed for every room in a hotel chain, it’s a good day when that money comes through.
Another possible reason might be corporate social responsibility which could mean a lot of things. They may buy locally to support the local economy, be a good community member and build their reputation. They could seek to create inspiring and pleasing work environments. Your art may align with their values, in which case there are opportunities not only to sell your art, but for them to use it in marketing, on products, in their annual report or maybe they’ll pay you a residency. I believe philanthropy is growing and again is part of reputation building, I spent my adolescence in a Carnegie library. Companies may create an art fund or foundation.
If you think your values align well with a company, sidle up to them and see what you can do. Personally I’d check in with their marketing department on LinkedIn but I’m marketing more than sales, check how Maria Brophy does it in Art Money Success (yes that’s an affiliate link, clue: she gets on the phone and doesn’t stop until she gets what she wants). Check out what they sponsor (competitions, awards), where they might get involved in public art, whether there are any stories of them buying art, might they have facilities for you to do a workshop, what about running a programme for them or somehow else involving their employees.
Let’s not forget interior designers and architects for obvious reasons. This feels to me more like a Blue Ocean Strategy (another affiliate link) where you would seek to serve this market, to understand and serve their needs better than others. I can imagine perhaps your style might align nicely with a designer’s style and you might be quick and compliant with colour and size matching commissions .. I don’t know, but the idea is that by having multiple clients and serving them successfully repeatedly you would build relevant testimonials and be a clear good and confident choice to any interior designer or architect.
You may notice that I’ve deftly skipped around the ‘art industry’. I hope I haven’t sounded disrespectful of any of that, I’m really not. My only issues are being gatekept and having to be nice. I am nice, very nice. I just don’t like my business to hang on whether someone decides whether I’m nice enough for them or not .. and I say that as a straight, white western male with many privileges. I prefer to have lots of small income streams than one big one that might change their mind any day. Maggie Hambling’s gallery just closed its doors, for instance (I’m sure she’ll be fine tho).
For me, and I may be entirely wrong, the money is in the buyers. If you go the independent route and you are successful, it may be that you will be approached by someone in the business, a gallery for instance, who sees a reasonable income from commission. That’s entirely fine, just go carefully with your legal agreements and fingers crossed they will bring you a lot more sales for fewer headaches and you’ll have made it. At least because you already have independent sales you can negotiate from a position of strength. If you aim for ‘serious buyers’ it seems to me they will be courted by many professional, full time art industry people and you may find the barriers too onerous to navigate yourself. In other words, you may need representation. Which means, build your brand yourself, build your business yourself and when you’re worth talking to, they’ll come for you. Then it’s up to you which way you want to go.
