What Kind Of Paintings Sell

Are you searching for the best selling art subject matter? Are you frustrated because you are having a difficult time selling your artwork? As a selling artist, I have always been observing what kind of paintings sell.

I always keep a close eye on my competition, just like all successful businesses.

Knowing who your competitors are, and what they are offering, can help you to make your products, services and marketing stand out. It will enable you to set your prices competitively and help you to respond to rival marketing campaigns with your own initiatives. (Source: Info Entrepreneurs)

I observe if art buyers are purchasing original art, giclee art prints, and prints on merchandise.

Knowing what people want is the nucleus of any business.

What Kind Of Paintings Sell

About a year ago I wrote a very popular post Art That Sells – What Artists Need to Know that shares a study from Art Business Today and how it might alter your art business strategy.

Art Business Today took a survey in 2003 to find out what the top 10 best selling art subject matter for Paintings in the UK were.

These were the results:

1. Traditional Landscapes
2. Local Views
3. Modern Landscapes
4. Abstracts
5. Dogs
6. Figure
7. Seascapes
8. Wildlife
9. Impressionistic Landscapes
10. Nudes

The post also covers some important tips on how to start marketing your art online.

You can read the post by visiting Art That Sells – What Artists Need to Know.

Now that you know what kind of paintings sell, what should you do next?

• Do you continue to paint for pleasure and hope that it sells?
• Do you paint commissioned work?
• Do you sell art on consignment? 
• Do you start working with different mediums?
• Do you start using different colors?

These questions will keep arising throughout your journey because you want to sell more art. You want to grow your art business and make more money.

There will be times when you feel like you are going a hundred miles an hour in every direction going nowhere.

You are just spinning your wheels becoming tired and frustrated.

Feeling this way will only have you become frustrated and discouraged to move forward.

How often have you heard in the past, pick one thing and stick with it?

During your art journey, you will hear many people say, “you should”, “you must”, or “why don’t you”.

These words will come from people who are not artists or business owners in most cases.

They are from people who feel as if they have to give their opinion.

Yes in some cases, their opinions might be right but take them for what they are, ideas or suggestions.

The only thing you should do is follow your vision and stay true to your goals.

• It does not matter what other artists are doing.
• It doesn’t matter what type of paintings sell best on Etsy.
• It does not matter what works for other artists.

What you see is only the surface of an artist’s journey, not the entire picture.

Art that sells for millions was created by an artist who built a brand for their artwork. They started where you are today.

So the bottom line is not to judge your success by someone else’s success.

Stay true to yourself, your morals, and your vision, and work towards your goals.

Stop worrying about what kind of paintings sell best and start putting your energy into enhancing your artistic style and marketing skills.

I did mention earlier that I do keep an eye on my competitors.

I am not concerned if they just created a landscape painting. However, I am interested in finding out if people purchase their giclee reproductions, original artwork, or merchandise.

Best Way To Sell Art

Now that you know it will be in your best interest to enhance your artistic skills and learn your artistic voice, it is time to focus on how to sell your art and stop worrying about the art subject that sells best from other artists.

Spending some time every week to enhance your artistic style and becoming a master at marketing your art will have you selling more art than you could have ever imagined.

Many artists lose track of their vision and goals when they first start selling their artwork.

Instead of focusing on creating art with one medium or subject matter, they become anxious and think that if they create art that is popular they will sell more art quicker.

Before they can blink an eye they are in over their head with multiple jobs they can not complete.

Artists who succeed are focused and have a clear vision of where they want to be. They stay on course and don’t change their artistic style every week.

The best selling art on Etsy or the best selling art subject matter is the ones that are marketed and promoted by artists who have spent many hours learning about online marketing.

How to Sell Art Online Basics:

• Create great art
• Study the market
• Discover your unique voice
• Work towards your vision
• Have a plan
• Set goals
• Create a WordPress art blog or use a different platform to sell your art on
• Create an artist blog
• Promote your art on Pinterest
• Promote your art on social media
• Build an email list
• Work hard
• Learn everything you can about marketing your art
• Be patient
• Stay true to yourself

Artist Roadblocks

Now that you know it doesn’t matter what kind of paintings sell, let’s talk about some roadblocks artists face during their art journey that hinder their sales.

What I am going to cover next is what makes an artist successful are makes an artist fail.

Do not be concerned about what color paintings sell best when developing your art marketing plan.

Instead, focus on how to make money selling paintings or drawings that you create.

Artistic Skills

You might have heard the saying, “It takes 10,000 hours to master something.”

There is some truth to this statement. Practice does make perfect.

Every time you do something, you become better at it.

If you paint for half an hour a day, you will improve your artistic skills quicker than if you painted an hour once a week.

When artists become impatient when they start selling their art.

When a piece does not sell within 24 hours after posting it for sale, they become impatient and start to think irrational.

They start to think:

• Their art is not good enough
• Their prices are too high
• They are not painting or drawing the right subject
• They are not using the right colors
• They will never make it as an artist

Have you ever felt this way?

I know I have and it takes a lot of energy to change the way you think.

The reality is art does not sell because it is not seen by the right person.

There is a person who would love to own and showcase your art in their home or workplace.

Successful artists spend extra time trying to find where their target audience (people who are interested in their artistic style) hangs out, not wasting time trying to create “trending artwork” art.

Take some time to decide what niche you would like to focus on for the long term.

This does not mean down the road, you can not branch out.

Many successful artists have gone in a different direction and succeeded.

The difference between them and many artists is that they took the time to build a brand for themselves early on in their careers.

When I started selling online in the early 2000s, I began by selling handpainted signs.

I worked hard at building an online presence and switched to selling graphite drawings.

I now sell graphite drawings, pen and ink drawings, and pastel paintings.

I could have only done this because I worked hard at enhancing my artistic skills, and I studied everything I could about online marketing.

There are many resources available that will help you enhance your artistic skills.

If you would like to learn how to draw, visit my Free Drawing Tutorial page.

Be an Authority in Your Field

Being seen as an authority in your field is pretty much your ticket to building a successful business – it is most certainly a requirement of having long-term relationships with your clients. (Source: HuffPost)

Being seen as an authority in your field is your ticket to building a successful business.

Being seen as an authority in your field is your golden ticket.

The Bestselling art on Etsy is art and crafts created by artists who have built a name for themselves. They are seen as the best of the best.

Related post: 22 Creative Things To Sell On Etsy

If you were on vacation and wanted to dine at a fine seafood restaurant, would you go to a restaurant that served pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, steak, spaghetti, and fish?

Or would you search for a restaurant that only served seafood with high ratings?

It is safe to say that the restaurant that only cooked seafood would be the restaurant of choice.

Why?

Because the seafood restaurant that only serves seafood is seen as experts in cooking seafood.

The same is true for when people are searching to invest in artwork.

Purchasing fine art is an investment. People are willing to pay top dollar for high-quality art created by artists who have built a name for themselves.

You can build a name for yourself and be seen as an expert in your field.

Every successful artist you know has started where you did. Not knowing anything about marketing their artwork.

You can become a master at marketing your artwork too. All you have to do is put in the time.

Staying Motivated Creating And Marketing Art

It is difficult to stay motivated when you are working on too many projects at one time.

You might be able to stay on track for a month or two, but in time, you will become tired, frustrated, and ready to throw in the towel.

I can back this up because I have been there many times.

I always find myself overloading my plate.

I did not see real results until I took a step back and changed how I was working.

Instead of trying to work on multiple projects, I decided to focus on no more than three projects at a time.

When I made the change, I found that the quality of my work increased.

Multitasking is scientifically impossible because that simply isn’t how our brains were designed to work. (Source: ScienceABC)

If you think you can be productive working on multiple projects at one time, you are wrong. Learn from my mistakes. I wasted a lot of time in the early days.

Focusing on just a few projects at one time will also help you to expand your online presence.

Let’s be honest, you will not sell any art online if they do not know you exist.

You do not need to know what kind of paintings sell, you need to know how to market the paintings you create.

It will be easier for you to develop an art marketing strategy and content marketing strategy that will produce results if you are creating one style of artwork.

Time Management

The last thing I would like to talk about is time management, or how to find the time to get all of the jobs done that are necessary to sell your art online.

You will be enhancing or struggling with your time management for as long as you are selling your art online.

Over the past 16 years, I have learned and developed many strategies that allow me to operate NFAM (Nevue Fine Art Marketing), create and sell art online and at craft shows, as well as teach 50 one-on-one music lessons a week.

My days are packed and I would not be able to accomplish anything if I didn’t learn how to manage my time properly.

I see so many artists struggle in this area I have created many tools to help them manage their time better.

If you can learn how to be productive with your time you will notice that you can achieve great things.

Time Management Tools:

The Productive Artist – How to Live Your Dreams eBook

Get More Done in Less Time The Part-time Artist eBook

How to Write Goals You Can Achieve Workbook

The tools listed above have helped hundreds of artists be more productive with their time.

The end results are selling more art and having more free time.

Conclusion:

You will not sell more art because you know what kind of paintings sell best.

Paintings that sell fast online are created by artists who have learned how to market their art online.

Staying true to your vision and learning how to be productive with your time will help you to achieve your dreams.

Stop worrying about what kind of art sells online.

Stop worrying about what the most popular art subjects are and start focusing on marketing your unique art.

Start focusing on your art and spend time learning how to market your art.

There are people who are interested in your artistic style. You just have to find them and learn how to share your art with them.

You might also be interested in:

How Tracking Your Time Will Help You Sell More Art

How to Sell Your Art Online – The Ultimate Guide

How to Use Pinterest to Drive Massive Art Blog Traffic

Accomplish More by Setting Deadlines for Your Art Business

5 Easy Tips to Beat Procrastination and Sell More Art