Have you ever fallen in love with a painting or piece of artwork and then realized that you couldn’t afford it? Do you think owning original artwork is outside your budget? Have you ever thought about, or indeed tried, haggling with an artist to get a discount? There is a lot of advice out there on etiquette when it comes to buying art but, the truth is, there is no single approach that can be applied to all artists. There is also a common issue when it comes to understanding the difference between the price one pays for a painting and the painting’s perceived value. Let’s explore these further.

What are you paying for?

Premium art materials

Original artwork and paintings cost money to create. Well, that’s pretty obvious but what is less obvious to a potential customer is what it actually costs the artist to produce a given piece of work. When I create paintings for sale I always use premium canvases or boards and the highest quality paints. This ensures they remain light-fast for years (you don’t want your bold colors slowly fading away). Then there is the varnish or other protective finishes that are applied to most paintings to prolong the life of the painting further.

Once the painting is completed and dry enough to handle, I will package it carefully so that it can be safely stored and is also ready to be wrapped for delivery or for transporting to a show. Packaging materials cost money.

Art marketing and advertising

Of course, I want people to see my artwork otherwise no one will know it exists and I won’t have any customers at all. To this end, I have to pay for website hosting and, because I want to look professional, I also pay for a bespoke domain name (www.awberyart.com). There are also other fees to consider such as business banking fees, the cost of remote payment terminals, card transaction fees, and, occasionally marketing and advertising fees.

All of these things must be factored into the price of any artist’s paintings otherwise they will run the risk of running at a loss, which is a disaster for anyone wanting to make a career out of being an artist.

An artist’s time

An artist’s time is always a tricky one to explain, I find. Some advice out there suggests (especially to new artists) working out what one wants to be paid and dividing this up to determine an hourly rate and then multiplying this by the square-inch size of any painting. To me, this seems a little arbitrary. A novice artist is never going to command the same rates as a veteran artist who has been to art school. Also, paintings take different lengths of time to create depending on the subject, the media being used and, of course, the size. Would it be fair for an artist who is particularly slow to charge more than someone who could do the same work in less time? Probably not.

It’s not all about painting

Most people don’t think about the time an artist spends working on research before they begin a painting. I’m going to assume that I am no different from most artists out there and I spend a great deal of time researching before I put brush to canvas.

Why do I need to do research? Well, especially with commissions, but also when planning a series of paintings, there needs to be some thought (quite a lot in fact) put into what the final painting will look like before I start. What colors am I going to use? Will I use mixed media? How will I frame the composition? What effects am I trying to achieve? How will my painting be different from others of a similar genre? What does the client want (client conversations and prototyping can take a lot of time). There is no way of easily putting a price on the time taken to do research for a painting but it does need to be considered when the artist prices their work.

The difference between price and value

In simple terms, price is the financial reward for creating a product and value is what a customer believes it is worth to them and how they feel about the product. Warren Buffet famously said ‘price is what you pay; value is what you get’.

With my own paintings, I promise to never produce prints (basically copies) of my original artwork and don’t try to create the same painting twice. This means that anyone buying one of my paintings is getting a genuinely original painting. I also don’t create a huge stock of paintings despite being in the lucky position of having a good number of returning customers. This means that because my demand is relatively high and my supply relatively low that the intrinsic value of my paintings tends to increase. Don’t believe me? Consider this, a marketing friend suggested that each time I sell a painting I should slightly increase the price on all future paintings. I have done this every time and still, the paintings sell. Art is worth whatever someone is prepared to pay for it.

Value leads to investment

Of course, as my prices have increased with my sales so too has the intrinsic value of the paintings I have sold in the past. Those customers who were kind enough to believe in me, and like my early work enough to buy them, can now sit back safe in the knowledge that their paintings are, in theory at least, worth more now than they paid for them. They certainly wouldn’t be able to buy those same paintings for the price they originally paid.

Perceived value is important

The value one attaches to an object is also important. Does a celebrity’s £250k wedding dress really cost that much to make? Probably not. But if someone is prepared to pay that much for it then its perceived value increases. It is the same for prestige motor cars. Granted, there is some amazing workmanship that goes into a Rolls Royce, Ferrari, or Bugatti but at the end of the day, they are still cars - little different from anything else on the road. So, why do they command such high prices? Because those buying them are prepared to pay such prices and bestow upon them the perception of enhanced value. This in turn makes the car, object, whatever, appear special - not everyone can afford one so they are also limited in availability and accessibility, thus also driving up the desirability and perceived value.

Paintings are no different. I have followed several artists who have done a fantastic job of marketing themselves and consistently selling their work for a high price. This has made their work desirable and the high price suggests something of high value to buyers.

For example, if I sell a print of one of my paintings for £25 in the long term it is likely to end up in a charity shop or worse, in a landfill. If people know that the painting was relatively expensive, it is more likely to be handed down to someone else or gifted or bestowed upon someone, thus preserving the sense of value. It is therefore in the interests of both the artist and the buyer to understand and accept a price that reflects the skill of the artist and the potential investment value for the buyer.

Haggling the price can be detrimental

I have had many occasions, especially at art and craft shows, where someone has tried to bargain with me and try to haggle with the aim of driving the price down. I will sometimes consider negotiating on price but usually, I am always reluctant to do so for a few reasons.

Firstly, I believe that I price my artwork reasonably, with the stated aim of making my artwork accessible to most people and especially those who thought they couldn’t afford original artwork. Secondly, if I start lowering my prices on demand there is a very real risk that the future expected price for similar paintings (size, shape, material, etc) will also be lower. This reduces the amount I earn but it also risks reducing the perceived value of all the paintings I sold previously. I refer you back to my comments above about increasing my prices as my sales grow, thus increasing the perceived value of my work.

Buying direct from the artist is a very good deal

I have deliberately chosen to not sell my artworks through established galleries. I have bought paintings from galleries in the past (before I became an artist) and I found the experience to be, on the whole, less than comfortable. Stuffy sales staff who seem to try to judge you from the moment you walk in; the clinical feel in many galleries and the feeling that one must walk and talk in near silence and that awkwardness when you just want to browse and think without the hard sell, which inevitably comes. No, I don’t like that and I don’t want others to experience it either. Besides, do I really need a gallery to tell me if my work is good enough or not? I’ve sold over 200 paintings in four years so I think I must be doing something right.

The other issue with galleries is that you will be immediately paying about 50% more for a painting than you would be if you bought direct from an artist. The reason is that the galleries typically charge the artist a commission of around 50%. This covers the cost of their overheads, marketing, advertising, etc. But when you buy from an artist directly, these costs are already factored into the price being asked for. For me at least, it makes perfect sense to buy original artwork from the artist rather than through a gallery. You are therefore getting a really good deal so why bother trying to haggle?

So, is it okay to haggle with an artist?

Ultimately, it is down to the individual customer to decide whether they feel that a painting is worthy of its price tag. It is also about how the painting makes them feel, which will underpin the painting’s value - to them.

Every artist is different. Some may be happy to negotiate with a potential customer and may take the view that it is better to make a sale at a lower price than not make a sale at all. Others will steadfastly refuse any haggling whatsoever. Personally, I think it depends on the situation and context. If I’m at a craft show or art market, I engage with potential customers to try to learn a bit about them. It may become apparent that they are interested in original artwork but think it is beyond their budget and may be able (and willing) to help them by lowering my price. However, with my website prices, I don’t negotiate and I must confess to ignoring messages from people asking for (usually) outrageous reductions on the displayed price. Besides, I already give generous discounts to repeat buyers and subscribers to my newsletters.

The best thing I can suggest when buying original artwork is to engage with the artist (or customer) and talk. Be friendly. Learn about each other and find out if there is room for negotiation. In the end, if the answer is no, be polite and accept that the artist will certainly have good reasons for refusing to haggle. But, you never know, you might just get a really good bargain!

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Roy