We have come up with a less than educated guess that we should bring between 35 and 40 paintings across a range of price points for any given show. I am curious if this is in line with the experience of the experienced artists on this site. As of right now the largest work will be framed 22" by 28" (canvas size). Please excuse me if I do not use correct artist jargon. My wife is the artist, I just carry things.
Thanks for your attention and advice.
Replies
That sounds like plenty to me. If you can fit that many in your booth, bring 'em! You'll get a feel for the numbers pretty quickly after the first show or 2. I'm like Brian, I only bring 10-15. That's about all I can fit now that I'm painting bigger.
Brian & Barbara
Thanks for the advice. We only planned to hang 12-15 pieces of various sizes in the booth. The reason we thought we might need to bring more was because we wanted to be able to hang a painting to replace anything that might sell and we wanted to be able to swap things out by size and price range depending on what was happening at the show (what is selling and at what prices) Most of the paintings would probably never leave the cases. However, I still believed 40 was too many. I think we may revise that down to 30, which will fit in three to four cases. Sherry's smallest paintings are approximately 5" by 5" and the biggest are 22" by 28". Probably a third of what we planned on bringing are 16" by 20". (all canvas sizes)
Brian, not being an artist myself, I never thought about the portfolio. We have the website, but I think the portfolio would be better. Thanks for that tip.
Thanks to both of you for freeing up space in my truck.
I'm a painter and this seems like an awful lot to me for one show. I'm in the West so it may be very different but from my experience and research, painters usually only sell a few originals at each show if your lucky. Hell, sometimes 0. My paintings are larger, ranging from 24x30 to 40x48. I usually bring around 10-12 paintings to a show. This fills the walls nicely without looking overcrowded and a couple paintings for replacement. You don't want too many paintings up at once, this makes it harder for the customer to focus and make a decision. I think it's best to create a gallery experience. I also sell prints and have my portfolio available for those who want to look at more of my work.
Good advice, Larry. I am also the computer geek, so I will have an inventory system set up in Excel. I figure tracking this inventory will be much easier than tracking the liquor during one of my previous lives as a pub owner. I am hopeful paintings will not mysteriously go missing like the products of the pub did from time to time.
Not having experience, it's all speculation. No two artists can say that they sell the same number of paintings as the other artist. Just take what fits comfortably in your vehicle and keep track of what sells.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100