Pricing your art

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Very nice research Richard, thanks for sharing.

[Garth Herrick]

Thanks Richard for your research. I should adjust some prices now.

Garth

[Richard Monro]

Garth,
Based on my observations of the market, you should be in the upper quartile. i know that is a rarefied zone to be in, but your work is certainly worthy of that placement.

Tony Pro
i hope you see this posting as some of the work you have at the Heritage Gallery is in my list. Great Stuff!

[Mary Sparrow]

Thank you so much for posting this Richard.

I, unfortunately, fall in the category of the artist described that was scared to raise his prices. I'm coming around slowly though.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Richard,

This information is great and I thank you as well for sharing it with us. Have you observed what the trend is for charging for additional people in a portrait and weather or not pet portraits command the same per square inch ?

[Richard Monro]

Enzie,
When i first started this statistical market analysis many years ago, i tried many different ways of analyzing the raw data. The amazing conclusion of the analysis is that art pricing displays a direct correlation to price per square inch regardless of the subject matter. There is also a direct correlation to perceived reputation but virtually no correlation to any other factors.

Now to answer your questions:
1) With portraits or figurative art there seems to be a 10 to 20% boost in price for each additional figure. However, this is not a hard and fast rule. Some artists don't show any price change.

2) Animal or pet art commands the same price as all other types of art.

[Michele Rushworth]

You can get further information about portrait pricing by looking at the work of the many artists on the SOG site.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thanks for posting this, Richard. It's very clearly stated and makes a lot of sense no matter how you sell work, whether you are in a gallery or not.

My work is in three galleries, and in addition to that, I often have shows in other venues. Things get a little complicated. Usually the gallery is willing to split their commission. In this kind of situation I never expect to get more than 50%, my usual commission, if it is piece that was in a gallery to begin with. If you are honest and make sure the gallery gets their part of the commission even if it is a piece that the gallery sent back because it wasn't sold, it helps promote good artist-gallery relations. I never sell anything or negotiate without consulting the manager of my primary gallery.

I'd be interested to hear how others manage this sort of situation.