Why Destroy Art You Make?

Do you ever want a valued collector to ask you why their friend bought one of your paintings for less? Do you ever want to visit a collector's house and see a painting on the wall that makes you embarrassed? Put only your best work into the world. A collected art piece serves as a representative of you as an artist and as a business person.

Please don't pollute your own collector base with "not so good" paintings. Charge a per inch price, weed out work you don't believe in, and get on with your professional life. A per square inch price will keep you honest and hold your prices to a predictable standard. You can use your standard pricing structure as a tool to keep galleries from devaluing your work for a quick sale. Galleries that focus on volume rather than class will want to lower their prices. That last sentence is not a judgment; galleries use a variety of approaches to selling, all of them valid. The market is a fairly good arbiter of art overall. Offer different lines of work at different price points, rather than altering your pricing based on current conditions. CrystalWagner.com is a wonderful example of an artist who executes this approach marvelously-- she sells drawings at one tier, assemblage/collage art at another, and installation art for big venues at a third, and prints at a fourth.

A "line" of work is not just a painting that is a different size, but is a different medium, or presentation, or style. I have small sketches that I sell for under 100., I create watercolors and pastels in addition to oils. I just started mono-printing and who knows what those prices are. Different lines of art have different price points and are presented as different products. I sell class demos for under 100. since they are a side-effect of teaching. I am usually quite chuffed when a student wants one--I feel like I pulled off a triple flip; I taught a good class and painted a decent painting. It's a compliment.

This is not just my advice, which you are welcome to take or not, but fairly standard in the business. An artist is a business and good business practices are part of that. If this is a side-gig and your friends and family are your fan base who buy paintings, this advice is probably not needed.

If you wish to donate a painting, donate good paintings--they represent you just like every other painting you have in the world. I would not like to own a painting the painter is not proud of or thinks of as "less than".

I paint a lot, and about 20 percent of my paintings are immediately euthanized. If I believe in a painting when I sell it, it becomes future-proof. if I see it ten years from now, and it is embarrassing, I can tell myself that I sold it in good faith. If I and no one else doesn't like a painting; I reuse the materials or forward it to garbage can. Eventually, if a painting does not sell, or a whole set of work does not sell, I will deep-six it, but that takes 2 or 3 years before I am ready to let go. A critique group is useful for determining what should go and what should stay. Storage is a problem that keeps me pruning vigorously.

Best wishes in Art,

Ann McMillan