In the Art Marketing Minute Podcast, you’ll learn how to sell your art, how to market your paintings, and everything else you need to know in order to have a successful art career. Each episode answers questions from artists by host Eric Rhoads, author of “Make More Money Selling Your Art,” publisher of several art magazines and newsletters, and author of ArtMarketing.com.

What are the top “don’ts” for selling art? What should you include in your artist bio? Eric Rhoads answers in this week’s Art Marketing Minute podcast.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 75 >

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

FULL TRANSCRIPT of the Art Marketing Minute:
DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Art Marketing Minute. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.

Announcer:
This is the Art Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the Amazon best selling book, “Make More Money Selling Your Art.” In the marketing minute we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by artmarketing.com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.

Eric Rhoads:

Thank you and the marketing minute I answer your marketing questions you can email yours to me [email protected] I need a jingle Artmarketing.com What a great way to drive listeners away. Okay, here’s a question from Kevin Palmieri in Dover, Delaware, who asked what are your top don’ts for selling art? Well, it’s Kevin, I don’t like to thrive on negatives. I never really thought about that. But let me see if I could come up with a couple. I think a lot of us suffer from what’s called imposter syndrome. So don’t get imposter syndrome that imposter syndrome is when you don’t feel worthy. I went through that my first time at a gallery. It was in this gallery in Santa Fe and the first time I was there. I was like, Why? Why are they putting me in the gallery. I mean, I don’t really deserve this. I took my paintings. It was really nervous. We hung up and we I just was nervous. Totally nervous. I didn’t feel deserving. And you got to get past that. So don’t have imposter syndrome. You got to overcome these kinds of things in your head. I think another thing, just a personal thing. Don’t paint too small. You know, the painters Bakkies the plein air painters Bakkies paint bigger than the plein air painters on the other side of the country. I don’t know why it is it probably has to do with Redfield or one of those artists but you know, they use these great big ticket easel ease easels, these great big, you know, 230 by 40 is on location, and they’ll do them within about the same amount of time. And one painter back he said, You know, I don’t know how these painters make any money, you know, because you know, selling all these nine by 12 paintings when you sell 30 by 40, you know, for a couple hours work, you make some really big money. So I don’t know, I think that’s just something to consider. Don’t have mindset issues. mindset is the big killer of everything. You know, it’s not just imposter syndrome, but it’s, you know, telling yourself that you’re not worth the money. And that kind of goes to pricing. Don’t underprice artists tend to kind of be a little shy? Well, I wouldn’t pay that much money for it. So why would somebody else, you got to keep yourself in perspective, you know, somebody who can I have friends who could walk into an art gallery, and drop $250,000. And it would hurt them about as much as if we pulled a 20 out of our wallet. And so there are people out there that think differently than you and if they see something and it’s underpriced. It has a negative impact. So let me give you an example. I had I was doing my art marketing bootcamp at the convention one year, this guy raised his hand and he said, Listen, I got a story for you since I was at an art show. A woman walked in. She said, I love that painting, how much is it? And he said, it’s $4,000. She said, I’ll take it, she writes him a cheque hands him a check for $40,000. And he said, Oh, ma’am, you added one too many zeros. It’s not $40,000. It’s $4,000. And she said, Oh, it must not be very good. And she wrapped up the check. True story. You see, price is equal to value in some people’s minds. You know, if somebody is a fluent, super fluent, they don’t want a $4,000 painting, they want a $40,000 painting, you would think you know, wow, it’s a great painting, I can get it for four instead of 40 that would be the mindset. That’s not how some people think so just I’m not saying you should price your stuff. You’ve got to work with your gallery owner if you’ve got one and work with them on pricing, and they’re going to tell you, here’s the price I want to get and then we’re going to establish your pricing we’re going to get higher and higher and higher over time and listen to them they know what they’re doing typically but I you know, other than that, I don’t know what not to do. I you know, read my book, my book will probably tell you all the things to do and that’s where we want to focus our attention is the the the positives.

Our next question comes from Joshua Moran in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who asked What’s best to include in my bio, my biography? And what should I leave out? Well, first off, what’s the purpose of a biography? You got to ask yourself that, why have a biography? Well, the biography is to set the tone about the artist. Now, I don’t ever recommend lying to anybody. Lying is not fruitful. It’s going to catch up to. But I do think what you can do is you can create a sense of, of brand or something that feels exotic, you know, people who buy art oftentimes are living vicariously through people like us, you know, i, you and i both know, artists who do some pretty crazy things, they climb mountains, and they go, they fly in places and helicopters, and they, you know, they adventure in on mutual pack trips, and things like that. That stuff is what sells. And so if you’re boring, and you don’t have any of that stuff, then just be boring. But if you have any of that stuff, you know, I don’t, I don’t know if anybody really cares much about anything but your painting career, you know, you could say, you know, Eric is a, you know, Eric is a former heart surgeon, who was, you know, did heart surgery for 30 years, but his big passion was learning to paint and he learned to paint and he went out plein air painting. And now he does, you know, helicopter trips into the high Sierras and tries to capture places that no one gets to go in person. You know, stuff like that is what really matters. And the other thing that people want, especially galleries is they want things that show what I call social proof. Social proof is something that says that you’re good, right? So social proof might be that you won the plein air salon landscape category in March of 2021. And they might want to say you were featured in a magazine article or you’re featured in a book, or you won this award of that award, a blue ribbon at this event, etc, list all that stuff, because that gives you credibility. It’s social proof. And social proof says the reason you want it is because people want to know that they’re buying somebody who’s good. And because people are insecure about paintings, and even though this is not necessarily quote unquote, investment, because some people think that way. Most people don’t. They, you know, they are asking themselves is this person in a good you know, I’m writing a check for $4,000 or 2000, or 500, or whatever the number is, it’s all relative to different people. So just make sure that you’re doing things that create social proof credibility. If you have quotes from famous people, you know, who are collectors or famous curators or something put those in there. You know, Jean Stern, former director of the Irvine museum says this about you and that kind of thing can be golden.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the starving artist to help your dreams actually come true. So if you want to submit questions, simply email [email protected]. And to learn more about marketing ideas, you can visit Artmarketing.com. Thanks for listening.

How to Submit Your Art Marketing Questions: What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.


> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

  • Art retreats
  • International art trips
  • Art conventions
  • Art workshops (in person and online)
  • And more!