If you’re working with several art galleries, how do you decide which gallery gets which paintings? Are there businesses that hire freelance plein air painters? Eric Rhoads answers with special guest Mark Sublette (of Medicine Man Gallery and Art Dealer Diaries podcast).

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.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 79 >

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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
All right, well, we have a special guest with us today on the marketing minute Mark Sublette, who’s a gallery owner in Tucson, Arizona. is going to be on with us. For those of you listening on the marketing minute podcast, here’s a question from Ashton B. in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who asks, If you’re working with several Whoa, this is time good timing. If you’re working with several art galleries, how do you decide which gallery gets which paintings? Mark, you want to address that one? Well curse the committee, right?

Mark Sublette
Yeah, no, not necessarily. If they let for instance, let’s say they’re working with me and somebody that’s in let’s say, Jackson Hole, they’d be smarter to get the material that is related to the Jackson Hole area, ie the Tetons versus sending them Searles, right, send me soils, now they should have a working relationship with a gallerist. And they should be able to say, Oh, I do well, with this, I don’t do well with that. And then the other thing is that, if let’s say they’re, you paint the same kind of subject matter, and it’s the, the galleries are not, you know, really different in the locations, who’s doing the better job for you, right? I mean, reward the galleries that are making the sales and promoting you, whoever that is, if, if you have one gallery that’s doing really well, for you, they should get more I mean, until the other gallery steps up, and does well or comes to you and says, Hey, I’m going to do this, I’d like to get more paintings, you know, and here’s my plan. If they’re not doing that, if they’re just saying, Give me stuff, then go with the person who’s doing a better job,

Eric Rhoads
or you ever get a painting, somebody sends you a painting and you cringe when you see it, and you wish that you didn’t even have to worry about selling it or do you, you know, did not hang it? Or how do you deal with a situation like that?

Mark Sublette
Unfortunately, most of my artists are so good that you know that even a painting that I might not particularly care for. Usually sells, but you know, I had one that was I got that was a subject matter. It just seemed like there would be no way I could sell it. But somebody found it. Perfect for them. Because that’s what the subject they liked it. Yeah. And so you just don’t know Don’t you know, realize that just because your taste as a gallerist might be x, some subject matter may be quite desirable that you just don’t recognize. So I let every No, I don’t ever really tried to push my artists to do extra this. I just say give me your best work. I’m happy.

Eric Rhoads
Yeah, yeah, I would say, you know, what I do is I send pictures first. I’ll say I’ll pick somebody that I think it’s a fit for, and I’ll send it to them. And I’ll say, is this something you want? And sometimes they’ll say no, sometimes they say yes. And so I think that right off the bat kind of solves that problem. And, and then you know, and I think the regional thing is huge. Right? You know, Adirondack paintings don’t do well in the desert.

Mark Sublette
Nope. Not send those to you.

Eric Rhoads
Yeah, that’s right. All right. So the next question comes from Joe Eisenhart in Cheyenne, Wyoming, speaking to the west Joe says, Are there businesses that hire freelance plein air painters? I’ve never heard of that. Well, I have heard of that. Actually. I’ll try to address that first. There’s a big thing right now. plein air weddings. I’m hearing from and seeing a lot of people doing this where they’re hiring a plein air painter to come in and paint at a wedding or at a reception. It’s kind of a kind of a thing right now and artists are getting paid. And one artist told me they got flown to France. This is pre COVID they got flown to France, and they got they were paid some ridiculous amount of money because weddings, you know, people like to spend money. And they did a painting of the wedding while it was taking place. And you know, usually what they do is they go in there and they kind of paint in all the background and everything first and then you know, they paint their figures in last when the weddings going on. I’ve never heard of businesses hiring freelance plein air painters, what about you, Mark?

Mark Sublette
Never heard about it ever. But I think that’s a great idea for the for the weddings. I think you could make a complete career doing that, if you like those kind of things. I mean, it would be I could see it, I can definitely go see it. But no, I’ve never heard of it.

Eric Rhoads
No, I never have either. But I think there’s you know, there’s something interesting in that there is somebody who pointed out to me that they put themselves out there in their in a convention city like San Diego or something and they they do these plein air retreats, if somebody is coming in for a convention and they want to company bonding meeting, you know, they’ll set them up with 40 or 50 easels, they’ll give them a lesson and, and they you know, they make good money from that. But that’s that’s an interesting question. It raises some good ideas.

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.