Comments on: Should I Discount my Fine Art?

By: Julyan Davis

Julyan Davis — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 01:04:27 +0000

Well said. I always tell artists about how Manolo Blahnik sells his shoes, particularly in the early days. By making them highly unavailable!

By: Ann Rea

Ann Rea — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 02:38:25 +0000

I use Mozy….

https://mozy.com/home?ref=3f9a896b&kbid=57253&m=13&i=69

By: Dionna Conniff

Dionna Conniff — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 02:22:53 +0000

I have a question for the group – I need to get an offsite data backup service. Anyone have a good referral?

By: Kadira

Kadira — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 05:27:20 +0000

I think as artists we need to be reminded loudly and often that what we do is valuable, that in fact it is ‘priceless’ work, and that it does impact peoples lives .

A painting I buy and hang on my wall gives me pleasure for many many years, and I believe that is something people don’t take into account when they start thinking about how much paintings cost.

Lynn Bridge just had a great post on her blog about this very topic also, not discounting but the value that is intrinsicially contained in an art work. Here is a link to that article if anyone would like to check it out https://lynnbridge.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/doc-whats-my-bill/
This was a great post – thank you Ann

By: Ann Rea

Ann Rea — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 23:57:17 +0000

Thank you for your comments Linda.

By: Linda Peckel

Linda Peckel — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 23:48:19 +0000

I’m so glad to hear you say this. I’m a writer, not a painter, but I have also worked at a gallery selling high end art work, and it was very frustrating to spend a lot of time promoting an artist to discover they were offering a different price for similar pieces elsewhere. It’s easy to understand how fine artists may feel that they can’t let their work pile up and they may need the money, and maybe space becomes an issue as well, but if the artist doesn’t place a high value on their own work, how can they expect anyone else to?

Once you have begun to sell your work, if you reduce prices, you devalue the work that has already sold. This will certainly kill resales to the same patrons who already appreciated your work once, and it’s very easy for word to get around. There’s an environment out there where everybody now believes that everything is negotiable. What that means is that you have to work harded to educate buyers to the value of the work–you don’t have to get sucked in to the notion of drastically dropping prices. And a bargain bin? Many novelists produce serial novels in genres like mysteries, churning them out faster than they can their mainstream novels–but they do it under another name, called a pen name. Maybe artists need a brush name for that work they’re willing to discount. At least then you can protect the reputation of your main “brand”.

By: Jean M. Judd

Jean M. Judd — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:42:23 +0000

As usual, Ann you are spot on. Discounting and having sales can really hurt yourself, your collectors and your future. Giving a SMALL discount to a collector who has been purchasing from you for a number of years is perfectly fine, but when doing an art show and having people come up who have never purchased your work, absolutely not.

The ones that REALLY irritate me and I would love to shake some sense into, are the artists who put up a sign the last couple of hours of a fine art show and offer a discount “so they don’t have to pack it up”. This is not a flea market or garage sale (or so I would hope).

Always enjoy your posts.

Jean M. Judd, Textile Artist

By: Kris Finfer

Kris Finfer — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 18:25:25 +0000

Yes! Yes! Yes! Couldn’t agree more. I went to Chicago this summer and it was a frenzy of buying in The American Girl store. In my view, buying a $100 doll plus $200 of accessories for a 6-8 year old is a luxury item , however, the store was packed–lines out the door. I thought when I came home to my small town that is hit with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country that no one would have these dolls. Turns out everyone of my daughter’s friends have one!! Sure income is tight, but if there is enough money for a doll–there sure as HELL is enough money to pay full fine art prices for a unique piece that changes and uplifts the energy of the space it exists. Yes, fine art is in the thousands not the hundreds–but it’s not the price as the decision-maker—it’s the mind set of I have to have it. .