Decide what I want to do professionally…
… then everything works towards that
That’s what an artist friend said to me when discussing what direction my art career should take.
I just need a clear idea of where I want my professional art career to go.
I know what I can do.
I know what I enjoy doing.
I think…
But I’m unsure who my customer is and where I can find them.
I have met many people who complement my paintings and tell me I am talented. But not every one is comfortable with having a nude female on their walls.
I have many other ideas which may be more fruitful with more easily defined customers.
Should I concentrate more on these if I’m wanting my art to be successful commercially? Or would that make my art more formulaic and less enjoyable to create, potentially producing less vibrant and fresh pieces.
Going back to the original question, I need to determine what exactly I want – both as regards to what I want to paint and what I want to achieve business wise – and work out how I’m going to get there. The key will be to find a magic combination of these 3 things.
That gives me three areas to explore…
What I want to paint
There are subjects and techniques I know I already enjoy. At this moment, and for this purpose, I don’t necessarily need to explore these further.
I have ideas on how I’d like to develop these, some thoughts on how they could evolve and will make time to explore that.
I also have fresh ideas, some similar to current practice, some quite different. I may find they don’t work or are a little too gimmicky. But if I don’t try, I’ll never know. It would be good to take each idea in turn and spend a decent length of time working through each, seeing how well I can execute them and working out whether there is a market.
Nothing is ever a waste when exploring artist ideas, everything has benefit and brings new understanding of materials and processes.
Who knows, actually trying the many ideas that buzz around in my head may make my head clearer!
How do I want my business to look
In an ideal world I’d paint beautiful pictures, pop them in some sort of gallery – physical or online, and sell a couple of paintings a month for 4 figure sums. But life isn’t like that. I can’t rely on finding a buyer for every picture I paint. I need other ways of making my art work. There are lots of things that can be done, I need to determine what suits my practice and my abilities. Some will work better for me than others, but I need to expand my thinking and be open to trying new ideas.
How do I get there
This is the trickier of the three. As well as being determinedly focused on creating my works, it requires me to go way out of my comfort zone to explore marketing, self promotion, active social media and a whole host of other things which I’ve yet to pin down and am unsure I want to contemplate at this moment. I’ll need to be organised with my time so I don’t faff in this confusing area at the expense of painting time. A better business approach is called for.
Join me on my artist journey as I attempt to discover the exciting world of art.