What if I told you that the key to selling more art is to do less?
Would you be upset, or would it free you up?
I had a really interesting experience with two back to back coaching calls today.
One artist is doing a TON of different things. She’s selling original pieces, and prints of those pieces. She’s also selling another line of art in a slightly different style. She has sold art to celebrities.
On top of that, she has two print licensing deals. She’s been featured in Target and on a famous TV show. She won a juried art show that brought her a lot of prestige.
Her business is complex, and busy.
And she’s not making enough money to get by.
She’s thinking about taking on a part time job to make ends meet.
Earlier in the day, I had another call with an artist who only does one thing. He paints a specific group of animals in a very specific style, and he does all of his marketing through two large websites.
He’s making a handsome income, living in California. He owns his house and his monthly income is predictable.
We are working together to introduce a new series of work. He has the resources from his previous sales to make a go at selling this new work in a major way.
It’s his first new series in several years. He’s focused and disciplined. He doesn’t do licensing or commission work. He paints and sells the originals and prints of those paintings to his core audience.
By doing less and keeping your business model simple, you can concentrate on serving one audience with a simple line of art that resonates with that audience. You can make a great living when you keep things simple.
That doesn’t mean you can’t make other art in your own studio time.
But keeping your business simple means you can make more money.
Just a thought.
This keeping things simple is filled with such wisdom. That is how I approach everything in my life! It seems that as an artist, being so detail oriented can really lead to exhaustion if you don’t just tell yourself, that’s enough! I am very visually oriented and take notice of many things in my environment. I am also a born-again Christian, so sometimes I see things and I know that God is speaking to me, and sometimes correcting and helping me to steer my course to peace and joy. The other morning I was looking out of my studio window and the sun was shining directly on a stop sign on the corner of our street. The white sparkly tape on the the outline of the sign and the letters STOP were glowing with rainbow colors just sparking and glistening! I said Lord, are you trying to speak to me through that stop sign? Sure enough I realized the Lord was saying to me STOP! You have been working too hard!
I wanted to thank you again Cory for the Abundant Artist and for How To Sell Your ART Online. An artist can fell like an owl in the desert. That fear of what people might think thing is something I needed to hear about. The fact that it is common to artists is good to know because I thought that it was just me. I think as artists we are constantly the critic! Sometimes we turn it on ourselves. I think we should chill out and enjoy creating art and not be so uptight! I’ve learned some of that from listening to you share. Being creative is a blessing, not a curse!
Makes perfect sense Cory. I need to hear that because I have trouble focusing on one thing at a time. BTW I’m planning on joining you association today. I listened to the webcast and learned a ton there. I’ve been selling from my own website for a decade and that’s where I will concentrate my efforts. Looking forward to working with the community.
What are the two main websites where he markets his work (or examples of those two main websites?)