So, you're thinking about art as a career?

A client of mine recently told me his high school aged daughter was interested in pursuing art as a career and asked me if they could visit Asheville and have me offer her some words of wisdom and encouragement. I love that. So yes, that meeting is set up for the family to come up the hill to Asheville and I'll try to be as sage-like as possible. 

In thinking about what I would suggest a young artist (ANY young artist) should do as they explore career possibilities, my first suggestion has to be to visit the River Arts District in Asheville. This is a really unique place, in that there are now well over 200 artists all within a square mile, with studios open to the public. I would suggest they spend the day exploring, and make a list of their favorite studios. Then maybe the next day, go back around and ask their favorite artists if they could set up an appointment to ask some questions. I don't know ANY artists here who would have a problem with that. In fact, everyone I know would be more than happy to help and more than honored to be asked. The artists in Asheville are actually selling their art to the public, and since that's the goal (I assume), their input and suggestions would be really invaluable. 

…everyone I know would be more than happy to help and more than honored to be asked.

So, if appointments are made to basically interview the artists, the questions asked are important, so I decided to come up with a suggested list of questions to ask if someone is just beginning to think about creating art as a career. Here is that list:

1) How long have you been an artist?

2) How long have you been selling your work professionally?

3) Did you go to art school? If so, where?

4) For a high schooler interested in pursuing art as a career, would you recommend art school?, if so, how would you find the right one? 

5) Would you mind critiquing my work at some point? (But don't ask that question unless you're really open to hearing criticism.)

6) What are the positive points and negative points about having an "open studio"?

7) How do you price your work?

8) Do you advertise? If so, what seems to have worked well for you and what hasn't? What percent of your budget goes to advertising?

9) How do you manage the business side? 

• Where do you have your art supplies?

• How do you keep track of inventory so you always have what you need?

• How do you keep track of sales tax?

• Do you accept credit cards? What’s involved with that?

10) Do you have your work in galleries? How do you find the right galleries?

11) Where do you get inspiration for your work?

12) What do you do if you get a mental block? 

I'll be forwarding these questions to my clients and their daughter in a couple weeks, but I thought it might be helpful to anyone else who is considering art as a career to spend a blog entry for each question. So, stay tuned. Soon to come...my own answers to all these questions, hoping to help anyone who is interested to make the jump from being an amateur artist to being a full time professional artist. 

"How do you Price Your Work?"

I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to be an artist and so, like a lot of would-be artists, I went to art school. They taught us about art history, how to create a dynamic composition, color theory and pretty much everything an artist needs to go out and create a masterpiece. “Pretty much everything” is the key phrase here. The one thing they never mentioned was how to price and sell our artwork. I totally understand that you can’t cover EVERYTHING an artist needs to know in an art school but uh…that little detail seems kind of important.

Over the years, I’ve worked with artists that set their prices based on different criteria. I’ve worked with one artist that set a price of $500,000 on some of his pieces. To him, that’s what it was worth. Then he’d tell people not to be intimidated by the price on the tag, that he’d work with them. He’d follow them out of the studio asking “What do YOU want to pay for it?” I am not making this up. I didn’t see him sell many paintings by the way, which is too bad because I thought he was an excellent artist. He just was never told how to price a painting. His prices were completely subjective.

I don’t price my work that way. I was taught in the beginning of my art career to price by the size; by the square inches of the piece. This way, the only subjective point is at the very beginning — where you start. The first piece I finished for sale in my very first studio in Asheville was at $2.25 per square inch, and I was really excited because my paintings started selling. Then they were selling TOO fast. I couldn’t keep up with it so…I raised the prices to $2.50 per square inch and that slowed sales down just enough. A year later, I had to raise prices to $2.75. I’m now at $3.35 and inching toward $3.50.

The important thing to note is that the ONLY time I arbitrarily set my prices was at the very beginning. But even then, I looked around at what other artists were charging for their work so I had SOME idea of the ballpark to be in. Since then, sales entirely set the price. If sales slow, I keep prices steady, and I’m not above lowering the rate. When, over some months, I see that I’m selling faster than I can paint them, I bump everything up slightly. Understand, I am not bumping prices so I can make more money. I’m bumping prices because a professional artist HAS to have paintings on their wall that are for sale. I pay a premium on studio rent, and if I have empty walls, you might think that’s a good thing because I’m selling my work. But empty walls is ultimately disastrous to an artist’s career. New studio visitors will not consider buying a piece of art that is not there. I HAVE to have a studio full of paintings in order to make a living in this profession. And that means I simply let the rate of sales dictate the price.

Pricing this way is also the easiest way to defend my price to someone who questions why the heck I think this or that piece is worth the number I have on the tag. But really, I DON’T “think” that piece is worth anything in particular. My sales are what set the price on the tag. You can argue with me, but you can’t argue with sales.

So if today, I were to complete a painting that has a price of $500,000, the size would be around 25’ x 42’. Dear reader, if you by chance have a wall that is crying out for a 25’ x 42’ painting (and a 500K budget), please contact me today! Short of that, I will keep painting sizes that I can sell. :)

Questions and Answers

A few weeks ago, I asked my Facebook followers if they had any questions regarding my work as an artist. Wow. Facebook peeps like questions like that. So…here are some questions from y’all and here are my answers:

Do you paint in any other styles besides landscape and an occasional abstract?

Well, no. I don’t paint figures anymore, and no animals. And I don’t paint still life. At this point in my career, I know what sells and I know what I enjoy painting most. Thankfully, it turns out I can make a living painting what I love best (landscapes and abstracts). I enjoy painting so much, but it’s so awesome to actually sell my work to someone that wants to make it a part of their home. What an amazing thing! So I’m always balancing what I love to paint with what I think will sell. Thankfully, they’re usually the same thing.

Do you have periods of artist block as writers often do?

Not really. Painting is so much fun. For me, it’s “life-giving”. That said, I am a huge proponent of taking time to sit and think, sit and feel, sit and pray, sit and do nothing. I am a “navel gazer”. I think that when creatives have a “block”, they need to take that really seriously and take some “down time”. I look at creative expression akin to “exhaling”. If you don’t inhale, you have nothing to exhale. And then you die. I’m not ready for that yet. So I encourage people to be thinking in terms of “soaking in” and “wringing it all out”. I make a living “wringing it all out.” But if I’m not “soaking it in”, I have nothing, and that doesn’t sound like much fun to me.

Is there a specific place you have yet to visit that beckons to you?

Well, funny you should ask.

Daily, I feel the desire to explore more of Italy. COVID has messed with my plans to return there but from the time I left Italy three years ago, I’ve fixated on finding a way to get back and really explore a lot more. I was so taken with the place that I began learning to speak Italian. It’s my hobby, and has become part of my daily routine. And after three years of learning, I’m about as fluent as a three year old! Woo Hoo!

I love Italy for two reasons: the landscape (cool ancient villages perched on hillsides) and the people. I’m an introvert and from what I experienced, I think you’d be hard-pressed finding an introvert in Italy. But rather than irritate me, I find myself fascinated. They’re are such a social people and I really love that. Americans can be so independent and disconnected from each other. It was a beautiful thing to see people interacted like I saw there.

Whenever I visit someplace new, I always come away with ideas for new artwork. I can’t help that. When an artist sees and feels something amazing, they have to express that amazement. We do that with our artwork, and then hopefully sell it!

So…I think I should be able to write the whole trip off on my taxes, right??

A Look Back to "The Dark Year"

Maybe it’s just because this is therapeutic, but I think I need to give a “Year in Review” as far as the strangest and scariest year I can remember: 2020. When it started, I was oblivious to what was to come. We were celebrating the New Year with our kids in Texas, and I was working on a dozen commissioned paintings. 2019 was my best year to date (sales-wise) and I was looking forward to what 2020 would hold for us.

Wow.

In late February, I left Joy in Texas to help take care of our newest grandchild, and I ran back to Asheville to finish up and deliver several of the painting commissions I was working on. But over the couple weeks I was back at my studio in Asheville, as February was giving way to March, the Coronavirus was ramping up and the governor ordered all businesses closed. I still had to work in the studio and was walking in each day, but it was kind of terrifying. The streets were empty and silent. It was like a scene out of “The Walking Dead”. When I got to my studio, I opened the door and wept. I thought this might be the end of my career.

After a couple weeks by myself in an empty, quiet city, I drove back to Texas with a new supply of panels for the next round of commissions. Texas (like everywhere in the world) was still scary, but at least I was not alone there. Our home there is right next door to my daughter and her family and two houses away from my son and his family, so I was painting and playing with grandchildren for the next few months as we waited.

In the mean time, rather than seeing my business shrivel, I was amazed: it was growing. People were ordering commissions from me like they’ve never done before. In 2019 (my best year so far), commissions were about 50% of my total sales), but in 2020, they shot up to about 80%. This amazed me. I figured that when people are worried about the economy completely crashing, who is going to buy artwork? But a client corrected me: “No Steve,” she said. “Especially this year we need artwork. We need to add beauty to our lives especially now.” I’d never actually thought of it that way.

My studio in Asheville really was empty until summer, but then summer was pretty busy. Foot traffic in September seemed “almost normal”. By that point, everyone coming into my studio (from all over the country) seemed fine with the idea of wearing face masks and socially distancing.

By the time the year ended, my sales were right in line with where they’ve been the last several years. 2019 was still the best year so far, but 2020 was not the worst and for that, I’m profoundly grateful.

Because of 2020, I learned that I love to paint at home. I spent the year painting under a couple big maple and hickory trees in my front yard and I found that to be really refreshing. Honestly, I’ve had worse work environments! I’ve also enjoyed the time with my wife and my family. As far as 2021 goes, we’ll see. But the time working from home, without the studio crowds, has given me time to think outside the box and dream and ask myself where I want to be headed and what I want to be doing. I don’t usually have time to ask big questions like that, but in 2020, we all had a lot of down time to think, right?

I’m looking forward to vaccines and truly praying for a return to normalcy in the world; a return to coming close to people again, of shaking hands, of hugging. In the mean time, I will keep dreaming and planning and painting.

Studio Expansion...Hello Northeast!

Joy and I are really excited. We’re expanding! Asheville is awesome and we love being here. There is no better place to sell my artwork than the River Arts District. But Asheville has turned into more than just a home. It’s more like a “home base” now, and the implications of that are pretty huge for Joy and I. Let me explain. 

A couple of years ago, we opened a part time studio in our home in the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. That studio has been wonderful. It’s in very close proximity to three of our four kids and nine of our grandchildren. And…Texas has awesome barbecue so it really could be worse, you know? 

This year, we have decided to expand, and open a studio in Pittsburgh, PA, just seven minutes from our oldest daughter and two more grandchildren. We’ve found a row house in the South Side, and has a huge attic space that will be perfect to transform into a cool painting studio. The area of town is awesome. It’s got real character. It’s right across a bridge from downtown, with bike paths, lots of restaurants and hip coffee shops right there. It’ll be a really different experience for Joy and I being right there, creating artwork in the middle of a major city. 

We’ll be renovating the place and using it as an AirBnB when we’re not in town, so…if you’re looking for a super cool place to visit, let us know! We’ll fix you up!

”I guess this means I’ll have to start rooting for the Pirates now, right??”

Between these two remote locations, we’ve got easy access to not only the southeast (where our Asheville home base is) but also the southwest and now the northeast! I’ve got clients all over the country, and this puts me in great proximity to be exploring new local galleries in each general area (it’s much more difficult to find a good gallery if you’re searching from five hundred miles away on the computer). 

So despite the really trying times we’ve gone through the last year (along with everyone else), we have lots of things to be thankful for, and are still dreaming and planning. Because of that, we’re still excited about the future and look forward to creating art (not just selling art) in different parts of the country!

I guess this means I’ll have to start routing for the Pirates now, right??