More advanced painting lessons – Page 10

Paint pictures that sell well

If you are thinking of selling your paintings you might do as I did.

Go to local weekend markets, find a few empty cardboard boxes and stack them up to make a display for your paintings.

You can cover the boxes with an old white bed sheet if you wish. (Sometimes I kept my act simple so I could get into the markets on public transport) Set up your easel, a cardboard box for a table, and start painting small simple paintings.
The paintings should be on a firm art board as canvas creates problems when working at markets.
Sell your paintings for anything you can get – $3, $5, $10, $20. Paint the same scene over and over if it sells. Paint fast. Don’t say you are an artist, just tell people you paint pictures.
Saying “I am an artist”, will draw art critics.

This way you will learn by your mistakes without outlaying big money for gallery fees on joining organized exhibitions where you need to put a $100 price tag on your paintings and you possibly will sell nothing.

You need to paint hundreds of paintings before you can confidently stand in front of a crowd, paint and sell your work before the paint has dried.
Here are a few shorts.
If you are using oils it is wise to prepare your paint by mixing your grey and mixing your green in plastic bags so you do not need to mix them while people are watching. People will walk away as soon as you put down the brush – see Thin Your Paint

How to package wet paintings – Make a cardboard ‘tent’ and using the painting on board as the bottom of the tent with the wet paint facing up, wrap stick tape around the tent and drop it into a plastic shopping bag.
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