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.

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads shares advice on focusing on one medium and style versus several, and how to develop a small town’s market for art.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 17 >>>

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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 0:02
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 0:23
Thank you Jim Kipping. And thank you for joining us today. My goal is to eliminate the idea of the starving artists. So let’s get right to today’s questions. Here’s a question from Lydia Fellard of Poway, California, Lydia says I like urban sketching, watercolor and sometimes oil. Do you think I should concentrate on one medium to get excellent at one style and one medium? I think if you’re asking the question, you’ve already answered the question. I first off, I can tell you that I love to dabble in a lot of things. So I did I dabble in watercolor. I do. soil, I play with pastels and do it a little bit of sculpture, you know, it’s, it’s fun, I also do a lot of drawing. But in terms of what I’m presenting to my gallery, if this is about selling artwork, I’m trying to establish myself as an oil painter. And that’s what I want to be known as. And so I think that excellence in whatever you’re doing comes first. So master something get really good at it. It doesn’t happen overnight. So even though you may want to continue to do urban sketching, or watercolor oil, pick one of those things that is your thing that you become known for. Because you don’t necessarily want to confuse the audience. Now you will have artists like Susan Nicholas Gephardt who just mentioned that she does pastel she does oil, and she doesn’t both really, really well. And so she’s able to kind of walk that line but you just got to be ready to know what you’re capable of. You also want to make sure that you kind of get known for whatever whatever it is. Do you want to get known for you know, that could be portraits. It could be landscapes, it could be a certain type of landscape. But you don’t want to confuse the market too much when you’re first getting established. As you’re more established, it’s probably okay a little bit, but I remember a story about a lady who contacted me and she was advertising her portraits. But when you went to her website, all you saw were her landscapes and you had to really dig deep for the portraits, it just didn’t make a lot of sense. So you want to just make sure that you’re congruent. A lot of artists are doing multiple mediums. Some of them are selling well in both or three, but pick something that you can be really good at and get known for collectors and galleries look for excellence and consistency and you don’t want to confuse them. Right.

Eric Rhoads 2:46
Okay. Next question is from Robert ward of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. How do you develop a small towns market for art? Small Town, his town has 35,000 people well You know, a lot of people don’t know about art. Art is an education process. You know, there are a lot of people that I’ve helped turn into collectors just by exposing them to art. And a lot of people who pick up art magazines have become art collectors. So I think the idea is just get your art out there, you know, wherever you possibly can, there are people who are going to see it, they’re going to like it. And you know, so it might be an exhibit at a local gallery, it might be an exhibit in a local restaurant. I think the idea is you want to get people thinking about art. If you want to develop a market for art, then you probably want it to be more than you. You want to develop a little artists community, maybe figure out how to put together a bunch of artists and get get your own little gallery together so that you can put your work out there together, make sure the quality is high and then look for options for local art shows, art in the libraries of public institutions to showcase these artists because of the more Even though it seems counterintuitive, the more people are interested in art, you know, they’re not all gonna love your art but they might love somebody else’s are but you want to get people thinking about and learning about and growing and developing art and of course, anything you can do to work with a local community. I spend my summers near Saranac Lake New York and they’ve done a great job in the arts community by developing a little local gallery. They’ve developed a little Community Arts program. They’re doing a lot of our planning our events once a year and things like that. And so this is a way that you develop the community, get the community thinking about the arts, turn your area into an art destination, so people who maybe I don’t know how far you are from another bigger city, but maybe people will come to Cape Girardeau from Chicago to see the art there. You know, and so, look for ways to work with the merchant associations, local Chamber of Commerce do events that can be showcased in an effective way to develop your market All right, said help. You know, there are a lot of people even in a town of 35,000, people who can comfortably afford to buy art and so get to know the people, local business owners, local doctors, maybe put your art in the hospitals, you know, there’s a lot of things, a lot of ways to establish yourself and get out there. Social media gives you the opportunity to target locally and you can also, if there are a little local magazines, a local community magazine or something, you can get your art in there and start getting people thinking about it. You know, they got to see it. They got to think about it before they buy it.

Eric Rhoads 5:31
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 and 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.

Remember to Submit Your 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.