How to sell your artwork

Promotion commotion Tanya Combrinck discovers how getting serious about marketing can pay off and hears advice from artists across a range of industries

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The topics of marketing and business aren’t natural for the creative soul, but learning about them in a serious way can make a huge difference if you’re not making the income you want from your work.

Fortunately, some artists have studied them in depth and devised ways to apply the business principles they've picked up to the art world. One such artist is Kelsey Rodriguez, a painter working in oils who also offers coaching and resources to artists looking to improve their incomes.

“The big mistake I see creatives making all the time is undervaluing the importance of selling, or avoiding it out of feelings of discomfort,” she says. “I've worked with artists who have over 100,000 followers but struggle to pay their bills because they're afraid to promote their work, or tried to sell one time and didn't get any results and so never tried again.”

THINKING POSITIVE

As Kelsey sees it, taking a different attitude to selling can change your life. “There's this really damaging and pervasive belief, especially among professionally trained artists, that somehow selling compromises your creative integrity, or it cheapens your work. The reality is that after a certain threshold, your artistic skill has basically nothing to do with your financial success, but your confidence in selling absolutely does.”

On her YouTube channel, Kelsey shares what she has learned about running an art business through a combination of study, trial and error, producing videos that are both motivating and practical.