In this episode of The Art Biz, Kelly shares her income sources, which are dominated by sales of commissions, followed distantly by releases of small paintings.
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]]>Lately, I’ve been diving into money on The Art Biz.
As much as I do NOT want to talk about money, I know it’s necessary. I also know it’s more necessary for some artists to make money from their work than for others.
If you’re lucky enough to have outside support for your art business—even if it’s from a day job—count your blessings. Because the pressure on the work is real when you don’t have that extra source of income, which is why I will continue to bring up the topic of money.
Let’s continue the conversation in this episode.
Kelly Pelfrey’s goal in 2020 was to replace her $50,000 teaching salary, but she quadrupled that. Her income has allowed her husband to leave his job to focus on his doctorate, feel comfortable about taking maternity leave, and save for college for her children.
Kelly shares her income sources, which are dominated by sales of commissions, followed distantly by releases of small paintings. She also sells art for TV screens, has a monthly print release, and a coffee table book.
[ Procedures for Art Commissions with Sema Martin ]
Kelly obviously has the pulse of her best collectors. Her work is strong for sure, but I also believe that people are buying into Kelly’s joy and optimism. When you hear her and detect that in her voice, I think you’ll know what I mean.
Listen
Mentioned
- Kelly’s Guides for artists
- Kelly’s “TV art”
- Palmetto Publishing
- Teil Duncan’s book, The Color Teil
Kelly Pelfrey Quotes
“I had all this work and I just decided to think about and want it to be something that points people to beauty, that brings people joy—like a book. You open it, take a deep breath and you just can flip through a couple of pages, enjoy art.”
“I have no regrets, but I would encourage any artist that thought about [making a book] to look at making sure that it will be profitable. You don’t want 500 books sitting in your house reminding you of your poor decisions.”
“I typically advertise about seven spots [for commissions] per month…. I also will add in 1-3 spots for designers who reach out to me asking me to create a piece for their clients so that they don’t have to book out that far in advance. They are the ones I’ll make an exception for and slide them into my schedule where I have room.”
“Steady growth and learning what works, slowly increasing pricing, matching demand. So not doing big price increases that the demand wasn’t there for, but slowly increasing.”
“Everyone is their own boss of their inbox. They’re happy to unsubscribe but they need to.”
About My Guest
Kelly Pelfrey graduated with a BFA from the University of South Carolina in 2003. She was a lifelong resident of the Palmetto State until 2022, when she started a new adventure in Kalispell, Montana with her family.
Kelly continues to highlight the beauty of the southern landscape, its hospitality and deep sense of home in her still life and interior works, as well as create commissions for collectors throughout the United States and Canada.
Follow her on Instagram @kellypelfreyart
Watch
Prefer video to audio? Check out our conversation here.
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]]>What would happen if you turned the whole commission process on its head? If you got to make whatever you wanted and found the perfect buyer in advance?
In this episode of The Art Biz I talk with Leisa Collins, who started her art business by targeting people whose homes she wanted to paint. Her attempt at the flyer-on-the-doorstep thing was met with crickets, save for some abusive language by one recipient.
Then she got more specific and went to direct mail. That's when her career as a house portraitist took off. To date she has painted more than 2,500 house portraits and has a waiting list for commissions. She no longer has to send direct mail, but maintains that the personal relationships with clients are paramount.
I'll let Leisa explain how she did it. She'll also share her quest across the country to paint a house in all 50 states, that following up with prospects results in 85% more sales for her, and how she has partnered with realtors to provide closing gifts for their clients.
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]]>Or they want a drawing of their beloved pet, and you consider yourself an abstract artist. Leave the pets to Sema Martin who, in episode 68 of The Art Biz, walked us through the exact steps she repeats for each commission—steps that ensure she stays organized and meets her deadlines.
What would happen if you turned the whole commission process on its head? If you got to make whatever you wanted and found the perfect buyer in advance?
In this episode of The Art Biz I talk with Leisa Collins, who started her art business by targeting people whose homes she wanted to paint. Her attempt at the flyer-on-the-doorstep thing was met with crickets, save for some abusive language by one recipient.
Then she got more specific and went to direct mail. That’s when her career as a house portraitist took off. To date she has painted more than 2,500 house portraits and has a waiting list for commissions. She no longer has to send direct mail, but maintains that the personal relationships with clients are paramount.
I’ll let Leisa explain how she did it. She’ll also share her quest across the country to paint a house in all 50 states, that following up with prospects results in 85% more sales for her, and how she has partnered with realtors to provide closing gifts for their clients.
Highlights
- Combining a love of art with architecture and advertising in effective ways. (4:36)
- The details of direct mailings that lead to collectors. (9:45)
- Leisa recently published a coffee table book highlighting her paintings in all 50 states.
- Hand selecting the demographic you want to work with. (13:05)
- The business process and price range of Leisa’s untraditional approach to commissioned art. (16:10)
- Selecting, photographing and painting houses in all 50 states. (22:26)
- Creating 250 pieces a year means Leisa gets two or three new clients a week—and has to keep careful track of them all. (30:50)
- Selecting images, marketing, and selling a book. (36:50)
- The importance of following up with prospective clients—without being too pushy. (39:31)
- The details of Leisa’s spreadsheets help her maintain a personal relationship with her clients. (45:10)
- Creating relationships with clients through realtor closing gifts and phone calls. (48:51)
- A look at what is coming up next in Leisa’s very busy holiday schedule. (53:25)
Leisa Collins Quotes
“I exchanged my art for everything.”
“I could choose my demographic very carefully by looking at the house.”
“I now get tons of commissions every week because they told their neighbor … by now it’s just word of mouth.”
“If you love what you’re doing, it’s not so much like work.”
About My Guest
Leisa Collins, a native of New Zealand, eventually settled in the U.S. and became interested in the people and cultures that defined architecture throughout the country’s history. She was inspired to drive from coast to coast, creating original paintings of homes in every state plus the Nation’s capital. She selected 650 of these architectural paintings—as well as the fascinating stories behind many of them—for her coffee table book, Hand-Painted Homes: An Architectural Artist’s Pen and Watercolor Journey Across America (May 2021).
In 2013, Leisa established the Leisa Collins Historic Preservation Award to honor exceptional individuals committed to saving and restoring old buildings across the country. Her work has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, Huffington Post, and Los Angeles Times.
Follow Leisa on Instagram: @leisacollinsart
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]]>I love figuring out systems, maybe even more than I love following them, because systems are always there to support my progress. And my guest for this episode of the podcast has proven that a clearly defined system can take your art business to the next level.
Sema Martin is a full-time artist living in the French Riviera. She currently has a 4-month waiting list for her pet portraits, which is likely due in part to a system she has developed that keeps her organized and her customers satisfied.
In our conversation, Sema shares the the 8 stages of commissioning work from her.
We discuss how she standardized her sizes, how she makes it easy for clients to buy from her by offering multiple currencies, and how social media serves a dual purpose to both promote her work and to share her progress with clients. You’ll hear how she stays organized and at the end of this episode I'll tell you how to get a copy of her system spreadsheet.
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]]>
I love figuring out systems, maybe even more than I love following them, because systems are always there to support my progress. And my guest for this episode of the podcast has proven that a clearly defined system can take your art business to the next level.
Sema Martin is a full-time artist living in the French Riviera. She currently has a 4-month waiting list for her pet portraits, which is likely due in part to a system she has developed that keeps her organized and her customers satisfied.
In our conversation, Sema shares the the 8 stages of commissioning work from her.
We discuss how she standardized her sizes, how she makes it easy for clients to buy from her by offering multiple currencies, and how social media serves a dual purpose to both promote her work and to share her progress with clients. You’ll hear how she stays organized and at the end of this episode I’ll tell you how to get a copy of her system spreadsheet.
Music by Wildermiss
Highlights
- Sema shares the journey that led her to becoming a full-time commissioned artist. (2:11)
- Income streams and the percentages of Sema’s income that come from commissions. (5:50)
- Developing the stages of the commission process, starting with sizing the art. (7:32)
- What to include in your pricing. (12:15)
- A comparison of SquareSpace and MailChimp email delivery. (14:18)
- Contact forms and how to make sure you have proper communication with clients. (16:03)
- The importance of collecting money before you start drawing. (20:46)
- Handling a waiting list and the logistics of a payment plan. (22:09)
- Guidance for helping customers choose the details of the piece. (26:54)
- Sema’s workflow and how she works in the drawing zone. (30:03)
- How many social media posts should highlight your current piece? (34:24)
- Final approval ensures that the customer is happy before the piece is shipped. (37:00)
- Mounting, packing, and delivery of the final piece and how each step ensures you will have happy customers. (37:56)
- The bonus stage and how many customers take advantage of it. (42:08)
- How do people find Sema? She maintains a focus on SEO that really pays off. (43:52)
- Staying organized and implementing the systems that will keep you going. (46:11)
- A glimpse inside Sema’s current project. (49:06)
Mentioned
Art is My Career — How to Start an Art Business by Sema Martin
Sema Martin Quotes
“Everything I’ve created, I’ve created through trial and error.”
“I keep my prices standard to the size rather than the subject.”
“There are a lot of questions that you need to have answered before any money is exchanged.”
“I want to be very careful not to burn out, because if I do it gets very difficult to get back into the drawing zone.”
“It’s so important that you get feedback and testimonials from your clients. It’s an organic way to convince new customers to commission you.”
“There’s no point in paying for a website if you aren’t going to make sure that people can find it.”
About My Guest
Sema Martin is a full-time artist living in the French Riviera. Using the highest quality of color pencils, pastels, and paper available she creates realistic human, animal, and landscape drawings from photographs provided by her customers.
She is also the author of Art is My Career — How to Start an Art Business, a book to help and inspire other artists that it is possible to make a career out of your artwork.
Music by Wildermiss
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]]>I wish I kept track of how often I have heard this story. It goes something like this.
Artist gets a really juicy gig. Maybe they have a wealthy collector who buys tons of their work to outfit all of their offices and homes (because of course they have more than one). Then the collector is done, dies, or disappears.
Or they have one gallery that is selling their work like hotcakes. Until the gallery doors close or the director skips town because of back taxes owed.
Bottom line: The gig dries up. You have placed all of your eggs in one basket and, due to circumstances beyond your control, what was once reliable income is no longer available to you.
This is what happened to artist Leslie Neumann.
She had a sweet deal going with Firebird Restaurants for more than four years. Their purchases of her original paintings accounted for 50-60% of her income during that period.
And then it stopped. But there’s no need to feel sorry for her! As you’ll hear in this episode of the podcast, Leslie rose to meet every challenge. She does, however, have a cautionary tale.
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]]>I wish I kept track of how often I have heard this story. It goes something like this.
Artist gets a really juicy gig. Maybe they have a wealthy collector who buys tons of their work to outfit all of their offices and homes (because of course they have more than one). Then the collector is done, dies, or disappears.
Or they have one gallery that is selling their work like hotcakes. Until the gallery doors close or the director skips town because of back taxes owed.
Bottom line: The gig dries up. You have placed all of your eggs in one basket and, due to circumstances beyond your control, what was once reliable income is no longer available to you.
This is what happened to artist Leslie Neumann, who by anyone’s definition ranks as a successful artist.
She had a sweet deal going with Firebird Restaurants for more than four years. Their purchases of her original paintings accounted for 50-60% of her income during that period.
And then it stopped. But there’s no need to feel sorry for her! As you’ll hear in this episode of the podcast, Leslie rose to meet every challenge. She does, however, have a cautionary tale.
Music by Wildermiss.
Show Notes
In this interview, you will hear about:
-
- How Leslie got her gig with Firebirds Restaurants in the first place, and how she landed her deal with them from 2014 to 2018.
- Why her time with them came to an end, and a lesson in when there is a change.
- The role of her art consultant, and the pros and cons of them working so closely together.
- What her production schedule looked like while working with Firebirds including payment, deadlines and production.
- How she came to pick the 10-13 same paintings that were used and replicated over 4 years.
- How she survived her deal with Firebirds ending although it was on average 50-60 % of her income.
- The importance of living frugally and debt free.
- The one person show that Leslie put on in June of 2018, which made her a half of a year’s earnings in just one night.
- The mistake that Leslie made, and why she doesn’t want you to make it — stay in touch with your base no matter how busy you are.
- What she re-established that had gotten pushed aside and how she uses her newsletter and social media to stay in touch using her authentic voice.
- Leslie’s strategy in the next year: Playing to her strengths of interfacing with people rather than doing business over the computer screen.
Quotes
“The production was like a puzzle, and I like that kind of stuff.”
“What was appealing for me is that I got to paint every day.”
“It always works out.”
“Stay in touch with your base.”
“Make the very best art you can and start planning for whatever it is that will provide income next.”
Resources
Leslie on Instagram
Firebirds restaurant locations
Interview with Helen Hiebert about multiple income streams
Collector Relationship Essentials – my course that helps you make sure you are staying in touch with the people who are valuable in your life and career
About My Guest
Leslie Neumann has worked as an adjunct professor of studio art and art history at St. John’s University and, at one time, built a business selling prints to other dealers, which produced enough capital to fund a livelihood from the sale of her own art. She has been a self-employed, professional artist for 31 years. Her work is in 10 museum and public art collections, 64 corporate collections, and she has been awarded 5 grants and fellowships.
Her advice for being successfully self-employed? “Be ready with good art. Know your concept. Know your craft. Treat your business as a business. Alyson can help you with this.” (Thanks, Leslie!)
Music by Wildermiss.
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]]>Commissioned artists must meet with patrons, communicate throughout the process, figure out payment schedules, and create documents that outline terms to the clients. All of this on top of making the client happy.
Commissions aren’t for everyone, which means there is plenty of room for artists who enjoy and are good at them. If you are one of those artists, follow these 8 steps to land more of them.
8 Steps for Landing Art Commissions
1. Add a prominent link for commissions on your website.
Include steps for commissioning a piece and testimonials from happy patrons alongside images of the finished work.
2. Provide at least two ways to contact you.
See that your marketing materials, including your website, have both an email address and a phone number. According to Matt Oechsli, the affluent prefer phone to email.
At least one artist has lost an opportunity for a mural commission because she didn’t have a phone number on her site and her email was down. How do I know? Because I was the person looking for an artist to help a neighbor with her project.
3. Understand your pricing structure.
Commissioned artwork should be priced higher than your other work because you are trying to meet someone else’s expectations.
Some artists charge as much as
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]]>Commissioned artists must meet with patrons, communicate throughout the process, figure out payment schedules, and create documents that outline terms to the clients. All of this on top of making the client happy.
Commissions aren’t for everyone, which means there is plenty of room for artists who enjoy and are good at them. If you are one of those artists, follow these 8 steps to land more of them.
8 Steps for Landing Art Commissions
1. Add a prominent link for commissions on your website.
Include steps for commissioning a piece and testimonials from happy patrons alongside images of the finished work.
2. Provide at least two ways to contact you.
See that your marketing materials, including your website, have both an email address and a phone number. According to Matt Oechsli, the affluent prefer phone to email.
At least one artist has lost an opportunity for a mural commission because she didn’t have a phone number on her site and her email was down. How do I know? Because I was the person looking for an artist to help a neighbor with her project.
3. Understand your pricing structure.
Commissioned artwork should be priced higher than your other work because you are trying to meet someone else’s expectations.
Some artists charge as much as 50% more for commissioned pieces, which is on the high end. This covers the PITA (pain in the ass) factor that often accompanies the commission process. There will be numerous meetings or conversations, along with possible changes that will take you away from your other work.
This brings me to …
4. Develop a questionnaire for potential clients to complete before you meet with them.
Ask for their timeline, ideas, and expectations. This will serve as a way to qualify people – to make sure they are serious and don’t waste your time.
You might also be asked to create something that has nothing to do with your body of work because the innocent person doesn’t know any other artists. That’s when you really have to think about accepting a commission to paint Tom’s cat, Neptune, in a spacesuit on top of a mirror.
(Kidding. You don’t need to think about it at all. The answer is Hell No! unless you’re in the habit of painting feline astronauts on top of mirrors.)
5. Make clients aware of your pricing before you spend any time on the project.
When you respond to the questionnaires that are submitted, give an estimated price range of the project. Be clear that you will know more when you meet and have the details, but get their confirmation that they want to proceed.
6. Schedule a meeting.
If all is a go up to this point, schedule a meeting—even if it’s on a video conference. It’s important that you have this face-to-face meeting so that you can look into one another’s eyes and begin to build trust.
In the meeting you’ll discuss details and get a sense of what this commission means to the client—how they prioritize it in their lives.
Do not feel pressured to provide a firm fee or payment schedule at the meeting. In fact, I strongly suggest you don’t commit to anything at the meeting. Give yourself time to think about it and use the meeting to understand the entire scope of the work.
7. Check in with yourself.
Commissions require that you willingly work collaboratively with another person.
They also demand that you mostly enjoy the process – something most artists don’t think about. This is important because you will procrastinate projects you don’t like and end up resenting patrons (for asking you to do the job) and yourself (for accepting the challenge).
Do you feel good about working with this person? If so, you can proceed.
8. Put it in writing.
After the meeting, write a letter of agreement that spells out all of the details including timeline, deposit, and payment schedule.
Begin with this: “Thank you for meeting with me and for your interest in my work. I am delighted to accept this commission with the following terms, which are based on the discussion we have had to this point.”
In your letter, assure the patron that you can deliver what they’re asking for and that you can meet any deadlines. As the wise business advice goes: Under promise and over deliver. This means if you think you can have it done in 2 months, say it will take 3 months. When the client gets the piece in 2 ½ months, they’ll be thrilled to have it early.
Ask that the patron sign and return the agreement.
Your Turn
Yay! You landed the commission! Now the hard part begins. You must communicate clearly throughout the process and deliver as you promised on time.
What have you learned about doing commissions?
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]]>The post How to Decide if a Call for Entry is Worth Sweating Over appeared first on Art Biz Success.
]]>Guest author: Debby L. Williams
This is the first in a series for artists who are just starting to respond to Calls for Entry or who have unsuccessfully responded to Calls and want to understand how to respond more effectively.
See others at the end.
Are you responding to calls for Entry? If you’re having success with them, then good for you! If you would like to know what might be going wrong, read on.
Call for entry is used here to include any request for artists to submit information to compete for art exhibitions, contests, or commissions (e.g. Request for Qualifications or Request for Proposals). There are differences among those types of competitions, but let’s start at the very basics: how to evaluate a Call and decide if you should respond.
You’ll find an overwhelming number of calls for artists on the Internet. You can’t possibly respond to all the ones you come across—nor would you want to. So how do you decide?
Remember that as an artist your assets are your creativity and investment in time and money. This is always your first consideration.
Ask yourself: “Is responding to this Call and ultimately this project worth my creative capital, time, and resources? Does it help me get to where I want to go professionally?”
To help you decide, consider these additional questions.
- Is the work produced for the exhibition/competition relevant to your present body of work? Curators, gallery representative and buyers will most likely remember your name and associate it with a medium, subject and/or style. The work you create in response to a Call should be reasonably within those parameters so it will make sense to the public and the work will fit into your portfolio.
- If you were chosen to participate, does being in that exhibition/creating that work of art fit with your career plan (you know, that plan that is there to keep you on track to get you where you want to go)? You must have those art and business plans in place as your map for your art career journey and the project you are considering needs to keep you on that road. Don’t be distracted by shiny things in the distance.
- Is the scale (physical size) of the requested work appropriate for the work you are creating at this time? If you typically create miniatures, this may not be the best time to respond to a project for designing enhancements for a bridge over six lanes of traffic! It is harder to estimate your expenses and time for a project of such a different scale and the jurors may quickly dismiss your submission because of your lack of experience with such projects.
- Does the timeline fit reasonably within the time parameters you have to work in and allow you to maintain the quality of your work? Sometimes it is easy to convince yourself that a project is doable even while knowing the delivery date is during a month that you have five other deadlines and several important personal commitments. It is important to view the time element realistically.
- Does the amount of the commission or prize/award make it financially feasible? Have you considered all of your expenses? This is imperative! It can be very seductive to see a large prize or commission and want to immediately respond to the Call, but you have to stop and really consider the cost of the project. Think twice before being willing to sacrifice a proper artist’s fee for the art you create.
These tips for evaluating calls for entry are based on my experiences working with artists and writing calls for entry for many years. And while there are always exceptions, these are important considerations that can help you make good choices about how to use your talents, time and resources.
About Debby L. Williams
Debby L. Williams is the former Director of Oklahoma Art in Public Places. She’s been a curator, museum director, and arts administrator and is a master cake decorator. Seriously. And she seriously likes the word seriously. Debby is a former team member and partner for my live workshops.
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]]>The post Attack it Head On appeared first on Art Biz Success.
]]>Later, I received this email from the artist with the unreasonable (?) client. She wrote.
I just wanted to update you and everyone that offered ideas and support with my 2-year-old commission. I met with [the client] several days ago and he asked me how I liked the finished piece. I told him it was perfect and that there was nothing more I could do with it. He said “ok” and thanked me. And that was it.
I think reading some of the comments really helped give me the confidence I needed to talk with him.
The Lessons?
1. Worrying about something too much or for too long tends to make it a bigger problem than it is. Attack it head on!
2. There’s a lot of powerful energy in a group–even a bunch of artists that you run into on a blog. When you encounter a bump in the road, hearing about others’ experiences makes you feel connected and not quite so alone. You know that you’re not the only one who has ever been in this situation.
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]]>The post Deep Thought Thursday: Satisfying an Unreasonable (?) Client appeared first on Art Biz Success.
]]>Two years ago I accepted a second commission from a client. It was for a large painting to coordinate with one I had completed for this couple the year before.
Since the second painting’s delivery, I have been asked (by the husband) to redo it several times even though the original drawing had been approved. I’ve added and taken out things and tried to do everything possible to satisfy the clients. The wife seemed to love my last redo, but the husband (a retired powerful military officer use to getting his way) now wants to meet with me and discuss the painting.
I am at my wit’s end trying to make my clients happy, and I know the husband intimidates me in a very gentleman-like manner. How do I handle this in a professional way?
What do you think?
We might not have enough information to know whether or not the client is being unreasonable, but what should this artist have done to avoid this problem?
More importantly, what can be done now?
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]]>The post Deep Thought(s) Thursday: Do you owe your gallery? appeared first on Art Biz Success.
]]>Here are two scenarios for you. Let’s tackle both (notice the plural in today’s post title).
Scenario 1
I have paintings in a gallery but I also do summer outdoor art festivals.
Someone who has never step foot in the gallery sees my work on the gallery’s website and looks me up. He finds my website and decides to come to an art festival to see other work. He then wants me to do a custom painting.
Do I pay the gallery owner the 50/50 commission on the custom painting even though the client never set foot in the gallery?
Scenario 2
I have paintings in a gallery but I also do summer outdoor art festivals.
A client sees my paintings in the gallery, but none are quite the right size or color.
From just my name, the client finds my website online, and decides to come to an art festival to see other work and then wants me to do a custom painting.
Do I pay the gallery owner the 50/50 commission on the custom painting even though it was never in their gallery and was decided upon at an outdoor festival? Do I still owe them since the client saw my work at their gallery first?
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]]>The post Deep Thought Thursday: Could you make it blue instead of pink? appeared first on Art Biz Success.
]]>—Courtesy of Rose Aniello in a previous comment
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