The Big Sale

My $500 painting sale. Why? And What happened?

I always wanted to make art affordable for everyone. Artwork at a great price for myself and for art lovers. Over the years I’ve noticed most artworks are priced really high. This is mainly because artists charge for their skillset and their product. As an artist that part made sense to me but I realized that it caused a divide between the artist and the beginner art collector. Most artists that take the leap into selling their artwork in a public way have been working on their craft for years before they’ve made the decision. They want to charge what they’re worth in skillset and product from the start. The problem is they’re not able to charge the prices they deserve to charge at the point in their career. This is the basis of my $500 custom painting project. Before jumping at this idea, I had already been making paintings for about five years and I had sold my fair share of artwork priced well over $500. The issue I ran into was I wanted to reach more people across a wider demographic, but I was stuck in the same circle of art lovers who could comfortably afford artwork priced above $1000. I wanted to expand my audience and begin to connect with and build relationships with new art lovers. 

Immediately I began to connect with an audience with people that had growing families, people that were new homeowners, and young professionals at the beginning of their adult careers. In this process I learned a fair amount about this demographic. I noticed that most of these people had a good income but they didn’t have a ton of disposable income for items like artwork. Sure, it’s possible they would pay $6000 for a unique custom painting but in most cases it wouldn’t be the most financially smart thing to do. I spoke with many of these people and I knew that they loved original artwork and wanted to buy, but it wasn’t necessarily something that they could afford at the artists price. 

I fell in love with this idea because it gave me the ability to dive deep into what I love to do, which is paint nonstop. This idea opened up a handful of opportunities that would help me to grow as an artrepreneur. I was able to work on my sales techniques, meet new art lovers and build life-long relationships with the most interesting and amazing people. I grew in ways that I couldn’t have imagined by simply putting all of my energy into creating & executing ideas for custom paintings.

I learned a valuable lesson about people through creating custom artwork. People are way more creative than they give themselves credit for.

You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve spoken with someone and they said “I’m the I’m the least creative person” and 10 minutes into the conversation they’ve come up with some amazing off the wall idea that will translate into an incredibly creative and beautiful painting. The crazy part about it is that it just comes out in our conversation. No matter how off the wall the idea is, I let them know how possible it is for me to turn this idea into a real tangible piece of art. Just like that, their idea is brought to life. That same person that believed they didn’t have a creative bone in their body has now created a unique and special piece of art.

This project ended up being so special to me because I was able to connect with so many people. It gave me the opportunity to help them bring their ideas to life and ultimately spread the message of The Flower Boy brand. I got a chance to challenge myself pushing my art practice to produce at a higher level than ever before. I see this type of production becoming a daily operation for me. I truly enjoyed the challenges and troubles of this project. Completing all of the work was a satisfying relief and an experience that I can now say I really needed to understand where I am and where I can go as an artist. This project pushed me to be more versatile, open minded and understanding of the value of the complexity and simplicity of artwork. The spectrum from simple to complex can control the power and impact of the work depending on the subject matter. 

This project started with a problem that I wanted to solve; the divide between the artist and the beginner art collector.

I love these ideas of mine that turn into projects, because they end up becoming the stepping stone for the next best idea. As usual one thing leads to another. With that being said, I’m so excited to continue this journey and continue on connecting with new and existing art lovers creating more unique, interesting and special artworks.

-Von