Artists or Tradesmen?

Artists or Tradesmen?

A group of us were discussing the pricing of our work yesterday. Some of us were very shy of fixing a price, feeling that perhaps the buying public would have a very negative reaction to any artwork that was priced in the hundreds of pounds.

When we start out as artists I think perhaps we need to look at our artwork in relation to other trades.

For example, when our car won’t start, we take it to our local garage. When the bill comes back we see the line for materials (spark plugs, oil, filters etc) and we see a line for the mechanic’s time. The mechanics will rarely charge less than £10 for an hour of their time, often they will charge £20 or even £30 per hour.

And where do artists stand in relation to mechanics (or plumbers, or window cleaners, or street sweepers). How should they stand in relation to doctors, dentists, lawyers? Most of us would position artists’ skills somewhere in the middle. And probably rightly so.

So why do we still feel guilty if we charge £200 for a painting that took us all week to complete?

I try to charge a reasonable sum for my work. Luckily I work fast, and can produce 3-4 paintings a week. I probably charge £100-£250 for most of them, and I probably take about 5-10 hours to paint each one. Add 15% for framing costs and I really do think that I’m providing good, value-for-money art.