How much does my art original cost?

Pricing is always a hard exercise for artists. Most artists will tell you they dislike it intensely. I've spent many hours over the years trying to be 'scientific' about it. In the end, my approach is quite simple.

Consistent prices – One artwork : one price everywhere

Buyers can be confident my prices are appropriate and sensible. Most of all, my prices are consistent.

My prices are exactly the same where ever you buy my art. So if you buy from one of my galleries who are selling the art on my behalf, the price will be the same as on this website, and everywhere else.

I remember how cross I felt when I discovered an artwork had two wildly different prices for the sake of where you were buying it from.

While visiting a printmaking exhibition, I discovered the art was 50% more expensive than buying it from the artist's website. It was deeply unfair to everyone who was buying from the exhibition. And especially to anyone, who for whatever reason, wasn't able to use the internet.

One artwork : one price everywhere

So whether I'm selling an artwork via a gallery or online, or elsewhere, then it will have one price only.

I dislike the word 'hate', but the exception to that rule is I hate unfairness, so I'm very strict about applying my rule of One Artwork : One Price Everywhere.

Sales and discounts

My rule of One Artwork : One Price Everywhere, does not mean I don't reduce items or ever give discounts.

My rule stands: if I reduce the price of an original artwork, then it's that one reduced price everywhere I'm selling through, regardless of whether it's found here or in a gallery.

Reductions don't happen very often, and they're only applied to original art that can only be sold once.

You need not fear that you'll have bought something and then discover I've reduced the price of the same thing for other people.

I don't 'do' sales, where everything is reduced for a short time and then the price goes back‑up.

It feels unfair to punish people because they weren't lucky enough to be around at the right time.

Now, two (or more) artworks, or items

When someone buys more than other people from me, it feels fair to offer a thank you via a discount of some sort.

So I run promotions such as 'buy X with Y, get something off X', for example. It's all transparent, so everyone who buys more than one thing can have a thank you from me.

It's not unusual for galleries to do something similar. The more things you buy, the more likely you'll qualify for a discount.

I can't dictate policy to galleries, I'm afraid, so the amount of discount given on purchases of more than one thing from them does not involve me. It's agreed by the buyer and the gallery.

It would get very complicated very quickly, so galleries don't involve me in the discounts they give for buying several things at once.

One artwork : one price everywhere

Appropriate & Sensible prices

I said in my introduction above, that my prices are appropriate and sensible. Let's look at that.

A consistent base price

I have a formula that's applied to all the art I make. Explaining it simply, though it's quite sophisticated, it takes a price per square inch and times it by the size of the art. So far, so simple.

Of course making art isn't that simple and two pictures the same size might have taken very different amounts of time to make. So occasionally I manually add an amount to recognise the extra time it cost me making that particular picture. Sometimes I manually subtract an amount when an artwork took less time to make than is usual for the size.

I know many artists do this too, including one of the UK's leading plein‑air painters, Peter Brown, known as Pete The Street. By all means hop on over to his website, if you've a few thousand to spend. You won't need that much here… yet ;-).
peterbrownneac.com (Opens in a new tab/window) - My pleasure Pete

Consistent & sensible

There's a square inch price for plein‑air paintings, studio paintings, and studio prints, because they all cost me different amounts to make. For example, my plein‑air art involves buying petrol while my studio art doesn't.

What's important here, is that my pricing formula gives me a consistent base price for a given size of each kind of art. I like consistency in my prices as you've learned above.

Sensible?

Now that's a subjective word, isn't it? My parents, war babies, measure all prices by shillings and the cost of a loaf of bread in the 1950s*. They don't think anything's a sensible price.

Prices based on research = sensible

I regularly conduct intensive reviews of what other artists are charging for similar artwork. Intensive? Well, spreadsheets are involved, so yes.

I benchmark the prices my pricing formula uses against the 'big name', 'the middle', and the 'not as good as me' for each kind of art I make.

By doing this, I'm identifying a range of prices that sit in the middle and are therefore 'sensible'. The tricky bit is deciding where in 'the sensible middle' it's appropriate for me to fix my prices. Well, so far I've been locating myself in the middle of 'the middle'. I'm told I'm undercharging, but right now, it's what I'm comfortable with.

Having read this far, I'm guessing you've understood I've spent a lot of time working out how to calculate my prices, even if you've not understood exactly what I've done…

I doubt you'll be surprised when I say every artist finds pricing their art really hard.

You may have noticed I've only mentioned costs in passing. I didn't think you needed boring with the ins and outs of how much paints, brushes, and equipment like easels cost. I'm sure you 'get' that some of the price an artist charges is to cover the cost of materials.

*You could buy three loaves of bread for a shilling in 1950 (4 pence each).

The art I make…