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 answers: “Should I frame my art before it’s sold?” and “Are online art competitions worth it?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 67 >

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:

In the Marketing Minute I try to answer your art marketing questions email yours to me, [email protected] and I don’t formulate answers before I read the questions. I take it off the top of my head sometimes I mess up so I apologize in advance. Here’s a question from amber Marie in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and she asks Should I frame my art before it’s sold? Well, I yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Amber and the reason is, why do people drive beautiful cars. Some people drive beautiful cars. And it to me it’s like a picture frame. You know, it makes you look good. A frame just really makes a picture look good. And if you’re from Aim it properly. If you learn to frame properly, you get a good looking frame, you get a high quality frame and you get the right color frame for the color of your painting. It’ll really stand out and I’m sitting here I’m in my studio, and I’ve got a lot of framed pictures around me. And the frames just really make them I’ve got a bunch of pictures sitting around that are not framed yet, when I put them in frames, it just makes them better. And though you’re going to spend some money on a frame, it’s probably going to bring the value of the overall package up higher people. All not all people are capable of envisioning what something might look like. And so if they can envision it framed great, but most people, you just put it in a frame, and of course that they don’t want that frame. They want a different color frame, train them up a frame or give them a better frame. I have a story. years ago, I was talking to an art dealer in North Carolina. I won’t mention names, but he called me and we were chatting about a bunch of stuff. And he said, You know, I learned an interesting lesson today. I said, What’s that? He said, Well, about three weeks ago, he said I had this painting that was sitting in the gallery said that painting, it was a good painting. I always liked it. I never could understand why it didn’t sell. And it sat in the gallery unsold for about a year. He said I was getting ready to pack it up and send it back to the artist and I thought you know what, I think it’s the frame. So he said, I shipped it off to my frame maker. He said I put an expensive frame on it. Like a 20 $800 frame. He said I had this, this painting for sale for I don’t remember the numbers, I’ll make something up. But he said I had it for sale for like $2,000 and it didn’t sell. So I put it in a 20 $500 frame and I put the price up to $15,000. He said sold the first week. He said a frame really can make a difference. And so I think that probably is a great lesson Amber. And that is framing really makes a difference. Now most of us can’t afford to put 20 $500 frames on things. You can get some beautiful frames for 50 or 100 bucks. And it will make a difference just add the frame cost in two, the cost of the painting that is sold. I also I know this sounds a little creepy and weird. But I think that it’s a I think I like to show paintings on the website that are framed. Now I think it’s okay to show them unframed and framed but so they can get a feel for it. Some software allows you to click through and show different frames. So that’s pretty cool. Anyway, we have a lot of framers in Plein Air Magazine by the way.

Here’s a question from Cameron Esrock of Prominence Rhode Island who asks, Are online art competitions worth it? Well, Cameron, I got to tell you right up front, I have a conflict of interest in answering this question because I run an online art competition called the plein air salon. But let me tell you what I think about it and just know that my answers might be a little jaded, or maybe a little influenced by the fact that I have a competition. But one of the reasons I have a competition is I was talking to Peter Adams and Elaine Adams from the California art club. And they do the California art Club Gold Medal awards. And I was talking to them and they said, you know, when we implemented this Gold Medal Award, it started raising the quality of the artwork. Over time, when we first started it, things weren’t as good. But as people started realizing they were competing with other artists, they started getting better and better and better and better. And as a result, they’ve lifted the quality overall. And the thing that I think is important about this is there’s something a switch that kind of clicks inside of you, when you put yourself into a competition, now you’re going to try a little bit harder, you’re not going to put something in that competition that isn’t isn’t your best work, you’re going to put your best foot forward. And so that kind of it’s kind of puts you into a, let’s say, a professional mode. Now, it’s nice to get that validation. You know, you always get compliments from your mother and your friends and things about what wonderful paintings you have. But the validation of knowing that a national celebrity judge, like a art gallery owner has picked your painting. That’s very, really a good feeling. But also, there’s a side benefit to that if you get picked into a competition, even if you’re a finalist, you have things to put on your resume things to talk about on your website, things your art dealer can talk about. And if you win the prize, that’s even more you can do press releases about it, you might be able to do a lot of press things based on that, you know, we highly recommend that take advantage of it. And there’s something that happens you know, whenever somebody has won the grand prize, or oftentimes even been finalists top two, three in the plein air salon competition. These people are hearing from art galleries. Want to carry them? I’ve had people say they were able to upgrade to better art galleries. As a result, they started getting invited to events as a featured artist. And there’s a lot of other benefits like that. So I think it really helps your career. But the best part about it is it puts your head in the game and you want to have your head in the game. Anyway, I think that answers that particular question.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of starving artists 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.