When I stopped in at the art association gallery this afternoon, a waif of a woman stood at the desk buying my painting! When the gallery hostess introduced us, I recognized the woman's name; she had written one of her freelance art reviews about my featured artist show this past summer. At the time I had been very grateful for her favorable comments, but took them with a grain of salt. Of course, I thought, she is going to make positive remarks - she has an article to sell. So, this afternoon, I was blown away by her purchase. She hugged me and told me how thrilled she was to own my painting. She had refinanced her house, could, therefore, skip a mortgage payment, and was using it (hopefully just part of it) to buy my piece. I am so honored.
Now that compounds my ongoing dilemma about pricing. For my show this summer, I pushed prices up so I wouldn't be way underpricing compared to encaustic work of friends who shared the featured artists spot with me. At my elevated prices, I sold six pieces of work. I was extremely pleased. But I was not comfortable with the prices and decided I needed to bring them back to my comfort level. I would rather sell more for a little less, I thought. But I was still struggling. Compared to similar work in other galleries/other communities, my prices are low. Compared to my gallery, my prices are in line with works of similar size in other media.
Do I keep prices low? Are they too low? Does it even matter? Art is not my bread and butter.
Tonight I feel a little less like a silly old lady puttering in her studio. I will go to bed happy tonight. But first I need to find a painting to hang on my hook at the gallery.
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