I often get emails after posting a painting, saying “WOW, I really like that – is that for sale? – how much do you want for that?” And I always cringe when I give the answer. This is not because my art is over-priced, its not. It’s that people don’t put value to art in the same way that they do other things (unless they are collectors, of course). You have to look at the piece in terms of how much the canvas costs (they’re not cheap, although I usually buy them on sale), how large it is – the bigger the canvas the more you pay for it, the longer it takes to paint,
AND the more paint it takes to paint it. Then consider how many hours went into it. An average piece of my art takes at least 40 hours or more to paint. This doesn’t even take into account the initial quest for the inspiration and content of the piece.
Then look at it in terms of what a person gets paid as any other kind of professional. You should understand that art is just like anything else, it takes education, on the job experience, a particular skill-set, a knowledge base and more than that – you sort of have to be born to do it, because not everybody can paint.
Now, consider the minimum wage… take that times 40, and you get about… $300. Consider that and the fact that if the piece is in a gallery they get 50% of the asking price (and they should, because that’s real estate), and that a painter should not undercut their gallery pricing.
Now ask me how much my paintings cost, and I’ll tell you and you’ll know they really don’t cost that much at all. Buying original art is really a great value after all. Who knew?
