My latest inspirations
How to get inspirations from art? Creating artwork that the market needs?
How I find my art inspirations in the process of creating art forms that reflect the contemporary art world. Lately, I got invited to give an art talk at my high school by my high school art teacher. It's truly been a great honor to be invited to be a guest speaker in front of the entire high school during the morning assembly. I am not into public speaking and I also get nervous when speaking on stage but it does get easier and easier over time with much training, and as you age I suppose? I honestly never thought I would have this kind of opportunity as I am still an emerging artist who is currently trying to make some art sales online and at my physical location at the Avenue West Gallery in downtown Spokane, WA, USA.
Honestly, I almost gave up on this site because the sales were so slow and selling art is truly tough and not easy at all. I remember that I heard from an art gallery owner who used to tell me that "Art is easy to create, but art is very hard to sell." This is incredibly true, as you are selling something that people do not actually need so you need to sell them a story/ dream that they can attain if they buy your art and you also need to market and brand your work really really well enough that creates that sense of urgency and that deep desire to buy. You never know what's going to be a winning product/ art piece that resonates with your art buyer. For example, I once had an middle-aged man who looked at my woman painting at my art studio back in 2010 and he really liked the portrait as that lady looked like an attractive woman he used to know when he was young. I had a recent art buyer who purchased my "Happy Chan Family - Smiley Face" Painting because she also shared the same last name, "Chan" and she really wanted the "Chan" painting for her parents as the painting resonated with her with her strong Chinese core family values.
How to sell art and master the art of selling art?
I was never a really good salesman so I researched a lot to try to learn what makes people say "yes", instead of a constant "no, no, no." How to reverse all the no's to yes'es? You need to start out right and not let a business deal go sour. Tips to sell, have customers come to you but not vice versa. Never be desperate to sell as, desperation stinks and scare people away. You need to present the right product to the right buyer at the right price point. That's not easy at all. If your buyer doesn't seem so interested in your product, don't chase and as you have nothing to lose when you lose someone who is not seriously interested in purchasing or collecting your artwork. I also recently received a lot of spam emails on shopify and be aware of a lot of cyber scams in the internet world. Don't ever send anyone any products if you did not receive any form of payment. There is a famous saying that says, "If it seems like too good to be true, it probably is." There are a lot of cyber frauds out there to steal your credit card information and want to steal your products in bulk orders too without paying a cent for them. If they really want your products, they will usually order a small amount to see if it's a good fit before they order in bulk. That's just a side story.
Let's get back on track...
So, in order to prepare for this high school speech as a guest speaker, I am trying to brainstorm here and think about what I could possibly share/ talk about with the entire school about my art journey that I wish someone would have told me earlier on in my art career onto how to sell art that the market needs and how to gain inspirations for your art. Ideally, you want to create artwork that speaks to you instead of only merely creating work that the market needs. You need to find a happy medium between what you love to create and what the market desires. Because if you are not passionate about your own work, other people can see it too and no one will want to really buy your art/ work with their hard-earned cash money.So, what can you do?
1. Attend art openings such as the art walk/ first Fridays if I am in the United States. To sell art or just anything in life, you need to be well-connected and present yourself well. If I was in Hong Kong, I like to go to the Affordable Art Fair/ Art Basel/ Asian Contemporary Art Fair. There are tons of different art galleries and you can even meet and greet different artists / curators during the private openings. Sometimes, you may also get free wine/ refreshments when you attend some art openings. You get to see some free art and learn what's trending in the art market and also meet a lot of interesting people with real cash, sizable disposable income who are potentially your new art collectors/ clients.
How about Social Media?
2. Go on to instagram/ pinterest/ facebook and see what's trending. Please follow us on all these platforms if you have not done so already as we do give shoutouts to freebies/ promo codes/ free shipping periodically throughout the calendar year. Follow instagram tags in a certain niche and see if you find any artists' works you may like. Go onto pinterest, type in some keywords and see if you find anything you like. You can even discover some etsy shops that sell small paintings at highly affordable pricing from small independent artists. I also felt like I really wanted to buy and support small artists along the way. It's very tempting when you browse on pinterest for inspirations but it's also a marketing tactic to "trick" you into buying. There are also tons of facebook buy/sell groups that allow you to buy and sell artwork on facebook. Personally, I have never tried buying any artwork on those facebook groups but it certainly doesn't hurt to see what other artists are doing. The key is to master and watch all the youtube tutorials onto how to think long term and grow your social media presence. Sometimes, you may need to invest and pay more money to create effective marketing campaign with facebook ads and instagram ads. I am still learning every day onto the little tips and tricks onto how to grow a huge facebook/ instagram following. Their algorithms are always ever changing so you really need to step up your game just to keep up with all the most recent changes.
Expand your online presence and sales channels.
3. Go onto your website and see what other search terms people are searching for when they land on your page. Honestly, this is super super helpful and it also lets you know what's in demand in the art world right now. I felt that there are a lot of people looking for jewelry on website so it's also very good if you are trying to sell art on your website as it's slightly less competitive than in the jewelry business. Growing a business is a slow painful progress that takes a long long time for it to mature. You can start an online art shop and then wait 9 months to 1 year or more till you get the first sale. Currently a lot of people are searching for the following items on my online shop and these will become my next art creation project ideas.
So, what exactly are real people/ potential art buyers searching for online from artists that creates work with tags like yours?
Search Terms/ keywords: (Enhance your Google SEO online)
- Contemporary painting
- Paris watercolor painting original
- Cubist Painting
- In Vase Painting
- Green Eyes Cat
- Ballet original painting
- Teapot Painting
- Acrylic home decor
- Flower still life
- Plant Painting
- White Cat
- Flower Decor
- Architecture Painting
- Painting of roses
- Mount Rainier Wall Art
- Flowers still life
- Fruit still life
- African
- iPhone Case
- Pine Tree Art
- Original Hong Kong Art
- Green Eyes
- Lion Painting
- Original watercolor painting
- Dandelion painting
- Painting Still Life
- Still Life Prints
- Cow Painting
- Decor best gift
- Gift Birthday
- Contemporary Asian art
- Cow painting original
- Modern painting woman
- White Flowers
- Best gift for woman
- White flower in vase
- White flower bouquet
- Plant pot
- Decor gift
- Still life
- Art bright color
- Colorful painting
- Decor wall
To Sum Up:
There's a huge demand for contemporary Asian Art and that's something I can excel in as an Asian Artist. So, I am creating more Chinese Ink Work recently and will scan and create prints for your purchase here.
Most of my customers are female art collectors who are looking for home decor for women. (This shows my target audience are mostly female.)
And my target audiences tend to be looking for white cats (perhaps cat/ animal lovers), and still life flowers/ plant drawings. They also tend to like brightly colored modern contemporary art/ painting for their home decor/ home improvement projects online. Again, it's no brainer, people tend to be drawn to brightly colored objects/ things. The same is true when it comes to art. Seems like people want to buy some generic art work such as floral art/ still life that are peaceful and calm to be placed in a home. It's also universal truth that most women love flowers except those with allergies towards the pollen from the flowers. People tend to love the wedding themed flowers as well and a lot of women who are newly weds are also looking for custom floral art that records the image for their wedding floral bouquet for their bedrooms. Wedding is also a huge theme on many arts and crafts online selling platforms and it's a trillion dollar business that most people are willing to spend whatever on their wedding and impulse buy on all things wedding-related.
All you need to do is to continue to believe in yourself and your art and never ever ever give up. Never ever ever give up! Never give up! Really! Sometimes, it really can feel like no one was looking at your artwork when your shop traffic is very slow and you really want to just give up on art all together. But don't ever lose your hope because if you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will. You got to be very passionate about your artwork for other people to be interested/ become passionate about your artwork as well. You will succeed if you do not give up. I remember hearing a quote that says, "If you don't believe in/ pursue your own dreams, then other people will hire you to build their own dreams instead." And this really inspired me to continue to pursue this dream. Again, life is really short and you got to live with purpose. Sell as much art as you can and hopefully you can use your talents and be rewarded for it. God tends to reward those who use their talents and not sleepwalk through life. Your talents are god's gifts for you and it's your mission to find what's your gift/ your secret sauce that no one else has in order to succeed in life.
You may also be interested in:
- 26 Feb - 2 March, 2019: Exhibit Here, Menier Gallery, First Group Fine Art Exhibition in London
- Group Exhibition: Chinese Ink Art Gallery Group Show Art Exhibition in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
- Group Exhibition of Artist Collaboration with Aries and Ken's Art Studios - 2017
- Group Exhibition at the Hong Kong Central Library in 2015
- White Box Friends Exhibition in Modern Gallery of Art in Serbia - 2018
- Solo Art Exhibition - Flower Power at SPCC - Nov, 2018- Feb, 2019
- RedBubble.com - Amazing art prints, t-shirts, calendars, and greeting cards by 170,000 artists worldwide.
- Thousands of unique designs printed on men's and women's American Apparel t-shirts, long sleeve and v-neck shirts.
- Get Amazing Fine Art Designs on T-Shirts, iPad cases, Calendars and more at Redbubble! Click Here!
** We are compensated for this blog post. This post also contains affiliate links and we may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on any of these links.
Check out our new RedBubble shop.
Also, check out our other Society 6 shop here.
Click here for USD$10 Off on Society6 today and shop for Alice's Artwork today. (Terms may apply)