A common question I get from artists is: How do I find buyers for my art?
To find out the quickest way to reach qualified art buyers, I interviewed Owen Garratt, an artist who has sold millions of dollars in art.
Listen to the interview here: Maria and Owen Interview MP3 or watch the video, below
Owen shared his best, fastest technique for reaching qualified art buyers and gave a lot of detail on how you and I can do it, too.
Click on the MP3 to listen, or watch the video. It’s full of excellent info on how to sell your art to the best qualified people!
Please, let me know in the comments which ideas in this interview resonated with you. I’d love to get your feedback!
For more detailed info on how to reach more qualified buyers, please go to Marketing Tools for Artists
Maria
Great information and well worth the watching for any type of artist.
Thank you for posting.
Thanks, Michael, I appreciate your kind comment!
Enjoyed this interview with Owen. You both brought up great points – I’m going to use some of the info he gave, esp the drop box. That will be at my next art fair.
Thanks, Kenny. Let us know how it goes!
This was fabulous!! And so fitting for me right now as I’m going to have my art at the Spectrum Show for Art Basel Miami this December. It was a huge leap of faith, and expense, to do this, but it felt right, and after listening to Owen speak I feel even better about it!! Thank you so much Maria and Owen, fabulous information 🙂
all the best,
Megan
Thanks, Megan. I’m excited for your Art Basel Miami show – yahooo! I hope you have your DROP BOX set up and you collect a lot of names of qualified buyers. That will be no problem for you, your art is amazing and so are you. Good luck!
I have always loved your stories, and thanks for this info. You are an inspiration to so many others; when you stopped writing for a time when Drew’s dad passed away and I didn’t see your posts for a while I was so glad to see you came back. This was very helpful, thank you.
More wonderful information! Lots of good tips and ideas. Thanks Maria!
Amazing and great practical info Maria & Owen. Thank you !
This is a great interview (fun, too!), and I send my thanks and appreciation to both you, Maria, and Owen for taking time and sharing so generously! Since the beginning of the year I have completely revamped my own business of 20+ years…new model, new name, new product, new target market, etc….this is a result of tuning in, paying close attention, and making the very most of all of Maria’s precious materials, interviews, and blogs. This lady is a genius, a generous genius, and it is clearly reflected in all of her work. The mystery of being a successful artist is not a mystery any more if you pay attention and take action. You can’t fix what you can’t identify, and I learned that while I was definitely doing some things right, I was also definitely doing some things wrong. Knowing who you are and what you want is just the start…knowing who your audience truly is (and there IS an audience for every type of art) and how to connect with them is the key to success, so you can *keep* doing your art. I strongly suggest learning from both Maria’s and Owen’s successes and failures- as both are valuable. They both have successful art businesses and resources available for a very modest investment.
This is a great interview (fun, too!), and I send my thanks and appreciation to both you, Maria, and Owen for taking time and sharing so generously! Since the beginning of the year I have completely revamped my own business of 20+ years…new model, new name, new product, new target market, etc….this is a result of tuning in, paying close attention, and making the very most of all of Maria’s precious materials, interviews, and blogs. This lady is a genius, a generous genius, and it is clearly reflected in all of her work. The mystery of being a successful artist is not a mystery any more if you pay attention and take action. You can’t fix what you can’t identify, and I learned that while I was definitely doing some things right, I was also definitely doing some things wrong. Knowing who you are and what you want is just the start…knowing who your audience truly is (and there IS an audience for every type of art) and how to connect with them is the key to success, so you can *keep* doing your art. I strongly suggest learning from both Maria’s and Owen’s successes and failures- as both are valuable. They both have successful art businesses and resources available for a very modest investment.
Thank you Maria and Owen for the excellent interview. It was very insightful and entertaining-many great tips.
Thanks for this great interview, Maria! The timing for me to hear this is perfect, as I am in the midst of a paradigm shift in my business—from “designer” to “artist.” I have been struggling with how to make that shift while still retaining design clients who are paying the bills. Hearing these great tips for how to connect with potential art buyers is just one more piece to help that transition happen.
Thanks for the generous information!
Maria & Owen, thanks so much for this. Wish this interview had been available Aug. 1. Had I known one of these tips I might have at least made my booth fee back. I did the show after reading about Finding your Right Buyers. In retrospect, Owen is correct on the doing right show and I should have thought it thru a bit more. Had to try something different, but might not have if I had known what I just listened to LOL!
Passed up another opportunity that I do o.k. at because I dislike outdoor shows & couldn’t afford both booths, but will try to get in via doing a painting demo (thanks Maria!) donation to put up the Draw Box (thanks Owen!). I’ll listen to this again later 🙂 It’s a great interview for those that want to do the art show path, even just a few times.
This was a good interview as far as info goes but it took a long time to get that info. I almost bought the program but realized I have no art to show & have never shown any.
THANK YOU, Maria, for this tremendous interview. Thanks also for all of your lessons. I have a “Maria Brophy Notebook” that has copies of all the lessons so I can refer back to the information.
Appreciate your work so much!
Maria,
Very interesting and helpful interview with Owen. I’ll be sure to add a “draw box” at my next public gathering.
You mentioned rearranging the studio to have a better sales during an open studio. Would you share your insight on how an artist could arrange their space to encourage more sales?
I’m taking part in a studio tour this month and will be hosting my own open studio in about a month.
Oh my goodness…this was a great interview (for some reason 2/3 of the way through it would no longer play) but from what I heard…a great interview but a terriffying one. It seems only a very few artist can really pull it together and make sales…in this interview it just sounds so, so hard to sell anything how can any artist make a living these days. I mean if Owen’s sales have dropped 60%! I am single and self employed as an artist and I used to make a modest living…now I no longer can.
Maria:
I am single and the bread winner here and I was working as a full time mural artist and a year and a half ago it all stopped. Now I am scrambling to try to come up with a way to find buyers for original art and well…its almost too much…trying to create the art, list it on all the social media, try to find venues to sell at…it all seems so over whelming. Almost too much for one person to handle…all the success artist I know of are part of a duo. Like Owen said…it took 9 years to make a sale from his site…yikes! Print on demand sites are too crowded and profit margins too low and Ebay and Etsy…big duds. Seems the failure rate for someone trying to do this is rather high.
Just bumped into this great video! It really gave me a new view on marketing artwork. I´ve left my permanent job for a half a year ago for art, which has been my passion since childhood. I agree quite long with “Beverly”, see above. I have built a website, joined to several art selling sites with big expectations, but it really is crowded! Then I started to think that maybe I need a manager? But are there managers for visual artists? Yes I have heard about agents, are they like managers… But thank you. this video was very helpful and for sure the videos on sale too, especially when planning exhibitions -or “shows” as they are called here – are becoming actual for me. At the time I´m however considering of returning back to “normal” work, part time or temporarily this time if there´s no miracle – and make art along with it as much as possible. That´s the reality.
Maria I have been painting now for almost 20 yrs full time .It has been tough for a sol sourse of income. I gave it up for a yr and a half and took it on again 3 yrs ago.i realized I’ve got to make some major changes in they way I’ve been going about it all ,so I went searching and found you.I have been soaking up every bit of information you have on here .I know it is not a over night revamp but it IS occurring and I thank you for all of your guildence.the video was very informative and will be purchasing it soon. Thank you
Great interview. I don’t agree with the Instagram comments though.
Ashley Longshore sells her paintings through Instagram for $30,000. There are many artists that are thriving on Instagram as well. =)
This informative and interview with Owen Garratt is very helpful. Recently a friend told me don’t exbibit in galleries, their percentage is too much. When an artist paints a beautiful painting it does not mean it’s a seller.
Booth psychology. Something I wouldn’t have thought about. Good tip