[Tom Edgerton]

Richard--

This is very useful information. Thanks for it. Even though there are many complicating factors in portrait work, as Michele said, it's not a bad benchmark just to help artists see how paintings need to be priced to have a decent return on the effort.

I've always felt that artists are their own worst enemy when it comes to pricing, and they nearly always underprice. Also, pricing seemed for many years to be the domain of agents and gallery owners, and any information that we can share among ourselves to help level the playing field is to our mutual advantage.

I charged as much as I could stand starting out, and still look at myself in the mirror. The unexpected benefit was that I worked really hard at first to get good enough to justify my price. A little fear is a great motivator.

Thanks again--TE