How to get the in-come coming?

[Melanie Peter]

Here's the most basic of all business questions: share some ways I can get an in-come to start coming. I'll tell you what I have done so far:

-Painted portraits for 40 years and become fairly good at it.
-Entered many competitions and won many awards, including recent awards at at the Pastel Society of America
32nd Annual Open Exhibition and Southeastern Pastel Society
2004 International Show
-Shown my work at prestigious juried outdoor shows in my area
-Handed out nicely designed and costly brochures, business cards and flyers
-Taught continuing education art classes and workshops at local arts centers and colleges and universities
-Taught out of my home-studio
-Advertised in the program of the University Performing Arts Center (but only recently, too soon to see what happens with the ad)
-Developed a mailing list of 130 area people who like my work
-Hosted 2 open-studio shows/sales which were well attended
-Run a 'special' at $100 off

Is the problem that I live in central Florida? Or is it the economy? Are most portrait painters having trouble getting commissions these days? My commissions during the past year have all been from one of the few families of means in the area. They've run out of family members for me to paint.

What I haven't done is find a local gallery. I am represented by a gallery in my hometown but have had one commission in 4 years from them.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[Michele Rushworth]

Your work is very accomplished and I think it's just a matter of choosing a few well-focused marketing activities.

As a first step I would spend time thoroughly reading all the threads in the business and marketing section of this forum. There is a wealth of information there.

Suggestions I found in that section truly launched my business as a portrait artist. In three years I went from never having had a single commission in oils to having a backlog that's usually about a year, at prices that make me happy, and with lots of portraits now in my portfolio that have made my clients happy.

What worked best for me was doing private school charity auctions. Check out the forum threads on that topic to see how I and others made it work.

The next thing I would do would be to have a website created for yourself, in lieu of any new flyers or brochures. A website will give you a much broader reach and gives clients the impression of a higher level of professionalism (if the site is well designed).

I don't know what size city Gainesville is or what the economy is like in your area. I would focus on whatever city is closest to you that is big enough and wealthy enough to have a few Mercedes Benz dealerships. The people who buy those cars (high income, stable, conservative) are also often the same ones who buy our product. You don't have to live in whatever city you want to market in.

Getting good work (which you already have) in front a large number of the people who have enough money to buy it -- that's the key.

Any advertising you do needs to be targeted to the top income groups, and it needs to be repeated often in order for it to work. A one time ad in the local newspaper won't work. A twelve time ad in the Junior League newsletter might.

I have not found that entering competitions or winning awards got the attention of any of my clients. Those competitions were mostly viewed by other artists and would be useful if you wanted to focus on getting students for your workshops, but not necessarily for attracting portrait clients.

Good luck!

[Melanie Peter]

Michele, you've given me some great suggestions! Thanks so much.

Melanie Peter

[Mary Sparrow]

First, I'd like to tell you how much I like that portrait!!

Second, listen to Michelle she knows what she is talking about.

I paint only children, and I don't advertise at all..well, very little.

I am not backlogged by a year, but I ALWAYS have something on the easel and as soon as I think I am at the end of the pile the phone rings. I think this works for me because I planted myself in the middle of the Jr. League. If you can get a commission by a Jr. League mother that loves your work, you can rest assured that it will mushroom!

Good luck.

[Melanie Peter]

Hi Mary,

Thanks for the Junior League idea. I'm getting a sinking feeling and a reality check from yours and many other posts in the business/marketing section that children's portraits are the stock and staple of portraiture-as-income. Although I've done a thousand portraits of children (literally), I didn't recognize it as being the bulk of my market. What a whack in the side of the head! I'm not that fond of painting children. Maybe I've done one too many children's portraits.

This has been a problem my entire creative life: I keep changing!!! I'm trying to leave "cute" and "pretty" paintings behind and make portraits that show something else. I don't know what. But my recent portrait (attached) comes closer than ever. Once I only wanted to paint like Sargent and now I want to paint like Avigdor Arikha.

So I need to try to make a living without painting children, if that's even possible. Or if it is possible, I want to paint children without the cute-ness that is their most obvious trait. (Would anyone buy them?) Maybe this should move to a different discussion thread -maybe one on creativity issues... I continue to get my issues fused together. What to paint, how to paint, whether to paint figures or landscapes, how commercial to become? Unfortunately, I don't think I have a choice about the commercial part. Well, anyway, thanks to everyone for the marketing reality check! I appreciate so much your willingness to share ideas and your helpfulness.

Melanie Peter

To see Arikha go to http://www.marlboroughgallery.com/ar...a/artwork.html

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Melaine,

Your pastels are beautiful and thanks for posting them.

I just wanted to add a couple of ideas to Michele's excellent suggestions. It's possible that you are in a pricing dilemma, either underpriced (meaning that people think you must not be very good) or overpriced (meaning that you are in competition with more established artists). If you are priced high then you compete with oil painters. For some reason... and we all know how unfair this is... works on paper are seen as somehow "inferior" to oil painting. I don't know the answer to this problem.

You may be in an area of the country where people are not asking themselves whom to chose as an artist but instead asking why have a portrait painted at all. Selling the idea of portraiture is an additional task.

Websites are terrific for giving prospective clients an idea of what your style is all about and what your prices are like, but I think most of my commissions come about when people actually see my work hanging someplace. I don't think advertising is as important as this factor.

People are extremely literal when it comes to portraiture. If they see your painting of a child they'll wonder whether you can paint, say, a man. You need to have samples of just about everything, especially if you are aiming for corportate commissions.

I try to do at least one thing a day to advance my commissions, whether it's making a call, writing a letter, following up on a lead, etc. (I hate doing this.) This is in addtion to time spent doing paperwork and other business matters.

And lastly, I think that you are on the right track by not creating only portraits. I think painting other subjects and following your heart makes a person a better artist.

Let us know how it's going...!

[Michele Rushworth]

Linda, thank you for that "light-bulb" moment!

I think most of my commissions come about when people actually see my work hanging someplace. I don't think advertising is as important as this factor.

I looked over the last twenty commissions I've had and lo and behold, seventeen of them were from situations where people had actually seen my work somewhere. Hmmm.... perhaps I'll need to rethink my marketing plan for the rest of the year!

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Hi Melanie,

Originally Posted by Melanie Peter

This has been a problem my entire creative life: I keep changing!!!

Oh, don't look at changing as a problem! This is the wonderful thing about being creative, exploring new and interesting things, whether they be subjects, medium or technique.

What about focusing more on painting older children? They're usually not so 'cutesy'. Teenagers don't usually want that cuteness, at least mine doesn't!

I think it's interesting that most people, from my experience anyway, would have a portrait commissioned of their child before they would commission one of themselves. I think there are a lot of reasons for this, but those are the facts, around here at least. Parents are more willing to spend money on commissioning a heirloom portrait of their children, children that grow up so fast they want to capture a certain time in their life. I'm not saying people don't commission other kinds of portraits, it's just what I see a lot of. Being a parent, it's easier to spend money on my kids than it is on myself. (Hmm, I'm sure there's some kind of psychoanalytic puzzle there .)

Linda had a very good point, clients will hire you to paint what you're already painting and what they see in your portfolio.

Linda, I'm curious about the things you do to advance your commissions. What other things do you do? Gosh, I wish I had an idea about how to make that stuff more fun.

Joan

[Linda Brandon]

Originally Posted by Joan Breckwoldt

Linda, I'm curious about the things you do to advance your commissions. What other things do you do? Gosh, I wish I had an idea about how to make that stuff more fun.

When I have anything to do that isn't really much fun, I set a timer for, oh, 30 minutes (or whatever) and then I do the task until the timer rings. This is probably a sign of compulsive neurosis of some sort or another.

I have a shelf of black notebooks labelled with titles like "Potiential Clients" and "Marketing Ideas". I like things on looseleaf paper so I can rearrange my notes physically. Whenever people seem more than mildly interested in having a portrait painted I get their name and put it in my "Potential Clients" book. I follow up with either a letter, notice of price hike, or (rarely) a phone call. Following up is very important.

Similarily, when I get a brilliant marketing idea, I put it on a piece of paper and put it in my Marketing book.

I have all sorts of books to arrange my ideas. I'm sure many of you have mangaged to put all this on your computers but so far I haven't done this.

[Melanie Peter]

Linda, Michelle and Joan,
Thank you, thank you for your various perspectives. I have a tendency to think in black and white, and forget all the options in between. It's good to be reminded to look harder. Joan, it's a great thought that older children wouldn't want to look "cute." Linda, your notebook idea is great. One of my difficulties is that I don't know exactly how to get organized in a way that works for me. I have tried all sorts of methods, and found a few that work. I use ACT! for contacts but when they're out of sight they're out of mind. But the notebooks sound like my kind of order. Loose leaf paper that I can rearrange. Separate notebooks to function for different areas of the business. And yes, I need to figure out my pricing. I've been charging $400 for a pastel head/shoulders vignette in my previous town, and only had a few commissions. I don't have any commissions here, but then no-one in my area knows I exist yet.
_Melanie