Selling Art in a Recession

Lagoon, 6 x 6 original oil on canvas by Mary Hubley
Nobody's buying much art right now. The first thing that caves under recession is art; instead, people would rather buy groceries.

But there are exceptions.

I live in a gallery town, where there are lots of great places to buy art. And a few sales are still being made by a few artists who have established names. One artist said she just sold three paintings as she was hanging them for a new show last week. Another artist sold a $3,000 painting through a show at the art association. I'm actually doing quite well with my smaller paintings; I've sold quite a few of them in the past couple of months.

There are also ways other than gallery sales to make a buck in a recessionary time for artists. And during a recession, while waiting for the buyers to come back, it's a prime time to do work and to market. Here's a list of things artists can do while they're waiting for the market to come back:

• Keep doing art association shows and galleries.
• Find other places to show art--banks, restaurants, pet groomers, accountants, etc.
• Create or update your website.
• Look to where the money is. Find collectors by volunteering where they volunteer, attend art lectures, and network, network, network.
• E-mail your collectors to let them know what you're doing.
• Give classes.
• Find niches in other countries where collectors are looking for inexpensive American art.
• Sell overstock through e-bay. You don't get lots of money here, but it's a way to sell things that you might otherwise bonfire.
• Be willing to do commercial work, where businesses still need artists to produce images for products.