Get Great Prices for Your Art Work!

You want to sell your professionally done paintings for a serious price in a prestigious art gallery so look for a gallery that already carries artists with famous names. That is not to say that the gallery needs to carry the artists' originals, as fine art prints either signed or not are quite acceptable. Once you find such a gallery than try to get them to take your work. The big names will attract more people and your work will be in good company.

The best way to get into this sort of gallery is to have a really interesting "story" that the sales consultants can remember and so can repeat it to the prospective buyers. Dali's melting clocks and the strange stories about them always fascinates people. In your case for example, suppose you paint solemn birds in cages. Your story might be about the fact that you were confined to an orphanage for years. That could be developed into a really interesting story. Not your story perhaps but what compels you to paint the way that you do? Just remember the collector wants to have a simple yet emotionally moving story to pass on to neighbors as he or she shows off the latest art acquisition. One other thing, if the gallery looks a little exclusive, it's easier get top prices for simple or even unknown work.

The secret is for your artwork to be associated in some way with the "big boys and girls". Rembrandt, Miro, Cassatt, Picasso etc. The gallery may not sell too many of those premium artists' work but the advantage to the gallery and to you is that carrying such big names enhances the value of any local artist whose work they also feature. Getting the best price is therefore the meshing together of a series of factors which will allow your work to appear to have a premium value. You as the artist are actually in control of most of these factors. Your choice of galleries is very important. You have to polish your "legend" so that when you approach the galleries your presentation will be smooth and believable, so it will be easy for the gallery to accept your work. Don't be too temperamental, and remember you are not Picasso, at least not yet!

My recommendation is to sell your work outright to the gallery if they offer to buy it. They'll put the prices up higher than usual because they're taking a big risk. Also they'll want to put in a lot of price flexibility if they need to discount for a "package deal". The advantage is that you will have money coming in fairly regularly.

Another advantage for the artist who deals with such a gallery is that he or she can point to the serious retail prices that the work is going for. If an artist is privately approached they can justify a higher price than they might otherwise be able to ask. Also the price asked in the gallery, will often be higher than what consigned artwork might be selling for.

The pressure to sell work, purchased outright, will be on the gallery personnel and with a good story to tell and some adequate sales training, the Art Consultants will vie to place your work in their clients' homes. Generally, a client progresses from a small initial purchase to a fairly substantial purchase within the first few months of their relationship with the gallery. Not all clients respond to sales calls from their art consultants but those that do really help to drive the market. If your work becomes hot than these consultants will make every effort to sell your latest work to their clients first. Also they usually get a commission and that usually makes them work a bit harder.

Finally, a really good location is best so look for the gallery that has it and also has expensive looking framing. Once your work starts selling and if you eventually do some tertiary works such as prints, drawings, pastels etc., you really will have it made but don't forget, it all depends on you and how hard you work at making your images as interesting as the "story" the art consultants tell the public.