Pricing your art

[Richard Monro]

Alexandra,
The gallery gets paid for work performed such as selling the painting, negotiating the sale, providing wall space, advertising and other things like these. Their high commision is predicated on the fact that not all the art will sell. When they send a piece back, the business contract for that piece is ended. They were not able to perform their required function. They are not owed any fee. In such a case you owe nothing to the gallery unless it is specifically stated in your contract that any such after return sales are commissionable.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Hi Richard,

I've heard varying opinions on this. Personally I would still go through the gallery if the work had been sent back recently, say within 6 months, but no more than a year. I know not everyone would do this--others might call it "bad business sense"--but I have a very good relationship with my galleries and I think this enhances it.

Older work I just go ahead and sell myself or through other shows (minus whatever commission is charged).

When artists reach a certain stage in their careers when they are branching out into several galleries, they often do not tell their primary gallery where else they are selling and what work they are giving these other galleries. I've seen gallery managers become angry about this, and I can see why, so I try to keep them all informed, especially my primary gallery. I don't think secrecy is a good policy here because sooner or later someone finds out.

In a way these two paragraphs are about two different things, but in a way they are both about going the extra mile for the gallery especially if your gallery has done a really excellent job of promoting your career, selling your work, and building a collector base. It works for me.

[Richard Monro]

Alexandra,
You will never go wrong going the extra mile...especially when it come to communication.With respect to what gallery owners should get monetarily, however, I believe they are getting an undeserved gift when you pay a commission on a work they did not sell. On the other hand giving them some compensation will always keep them loyal. Tough call. Your way shows a gentle and loving soul. i like that.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

When I first started to figure out how my work compared with others and how it should be priced, I looked at the fees of other artists, who worked in a similar style and who's technical ability matched mine.

I have never liked having to list different prices for each different size and then adding on fees for complexity, even though that's exactly what I ended up with, since that seemed the thing to do at the time of my research. I would love to say instead: " I charge "x" amount per square inch plus "X" amount for each extra person and have the client decide what size suites their budget. Somehow starting with a small figure and adding it up, is not as shocking as seeing the lump sum right off. Does that make sense?!

I often feel that when people hear what I charge they get that look of "Wau, way too expensive!" and it makes me upset that I always have to try to justify my fees. To top it off, I am priced at the bottom end of Richard's fee structure! At this point I really don't know what to ask for anymore.....

Michele, I looked at your pricing again and I like how it is kept simple and precise. I will need to look at mine and revise a couple of things.

[Garth Herrick]

Enzie, I am with you. It seems a big factor should be content and complexity, more so than size alone.

By your scale Richard, a miniature portait with all the content and complexity of a life size portrait might be a hundredth the price! There must be other factors to be considered.

It seems most portrait artists cannot adhere rigidly to a size only pricing scale. A small head and shoulders might be better than half a spacious three-quarter figure on a typical portrait price schedule. Why should it amount to a quarter the price by scale?

Can we tweak the formula?

Garth

[Michele Rushworth]

Once, many years ago, I priced portraits only by size. The first client I got asked me to create their portrait at a quarter of the size I would have normally used and therefore paid only a quarter of my normal fee. (A tiny head and shoulders can often be MORE work than a life size head and shoulders, since there's much less room for error. A discrepancy of a millimeter in the positioning of an eye can look way off when the portrait is too small.) I also would rather not be asked to try and cram four full length figures of a client's family into a 24x30" canvas. That's why I price by complexity now.

Some portrait artists who want to give clients an idea of the size that their canvas might be sometimes show both factors on their websites. For example, they might say that a head and shoulders portrait is $4,000 and would typically be around 16x20" in size.

I think Richard's numbers are still very useful, though. I look at the size of canvas I would normally use for a typical 3/4 portrait and can see where my prices stand compared to his figures.

Enzie, you mentioned that people are often surprised at how "high" your prices are. This can happen sometimes with clients who have no experience buying original fine art and may be comparing a painted portrait to a studio photograph.

There was a recent post by the very experienced professional, Joy Thomas, on this subject. She said she would often start off by showing examples of the work of other artists whose work she felt was similar in quality to her own, along with their prices. Then she would show the client her more modest prices as a point of comparison. Doing something like that might help you.

You can also explain how a painted portrait is made to last for centuries, becomes a treasured family heirloom and (in the case of slow artists like me!) can take over a hundred hours to create.

[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

[Enzie Shahmiri]

The haggling that goes on over price makes it seem like we are vendors in a bazaars. I think this is more so an issue, when one's work is not well known and I hope that established artists run less into this problem, especially if they are represented by a gallery.

Garth, I agree, the pricing for miniatures definitely does not fit into this pricing structure and has to have it's own.

Michele you are right to say that people must not have experience in buying fine art. I am just amazed how easily people spend their money on anything but art, without even flinching, yet when it comes to a painting, it's like the drawstrings to the purse tighten up.

A while back I saved an Arts and Antiques Article "Face Value", which speaks about the portrait commission process and what clients can expect, when they decide to commission a portrait. It also lists some prices of what professional portrait artist charge. I thought this would be an unbiased source that can act as a comparison for justifying one's fees and I keep it in the back of my portfolio.

I find Richards prices useful and I have come to understand that pricing is a matter of attitude of the artist. Those of us, who under price ourselves still have not learned to value our art for what it is worth. We are still influenced by people's opinions what it should be. I found that being a push over does not help one's objective and just like learning to say "no" one has to learn to say:" If you want cheap, then I know this great photographer down the street who can do it for less." I just haven't learned how to say it with a smile yet!

I just like to see an easy across the board pricing structure, that is fair to both the artist and the client and allows for a little flexibility in the case of exceptions to the norm. I would say Richard's little formula is a good step into that direction, because it offers a parameter of what is considered cheap, midrange or high end. Where we place our work within those ranges should then be determined by the quality of work being produced.

[Michele Rushworth]

Tom, you wrote:

Also, pricing seemed for many years to be the domain of agents and gallery owners

It seems as if many agents/galleries would prefer that their artists price their work on the low side. This seems confusing to me. Isn't it also in the interests of the seller to get a high price for the work, if it's warranted?

Enzie, you wrote:

The haggling that goes on over price makes it seem like we are vendors in a bazaars. I think this is more so an issue, when one's work is not well known and I hope that established artists run less into this problem, especially if they are represented by a gallery.

My prices are firm and I don't renegotiate them. I have once in a while offered an "opportunity" for a client to get a different price in exchange for something else of value to me (an unveiling party, barter for other goods or services, etc) but not a reduction in price just because someone requests it.

Enzie, you also wrote:

A while back I saved an Arts and Antiques Article "Face Value", which speaks about the portrait commission process and what clients can expect, when they decide to commission a portrait. It also lists some prices of what professional portrait artist charge. I thought this would be an unbiased source that can act as a comparison for justifying one's fees and I keep it in the back of my portfolio.

Great idea!

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Originally Posted by Enzie Shahmiri

A while back I saved an Arts and Antiques Article "Face Value".

I'm curious about this article, I don't know if you can post it here, if so, it would be very useful.