Convince me to live with your painting?


“My paintings speak for themselves, I do not need to say anything about them.”
“My paintings sell themselves, I cannot talk about them.”
“ I am to shy to talk about my paintings to strangers, if they like them they can buy them.”
These are some of the things I get told when I ask Artists to come and talk about their paintings.

Here is a statement that most artists never think about,
The collector, buyer lives with your painting many years longer, than you live with it.

Now when that sinks in, it is easy to understand why they want to know all about the art work and the Artist, they want your story and the story about your painting.
Artist if a painting is worth putting all that precious time, love, money and energy into, it is also worth telling the story behind it. The story invites me the potential buyer to connect with you the Artist and your painting.
Next time you put a painting up on a Facebook artist group, tell your story about your artwork, “The Why?”
People/Collectors want to connect with the Artist, they want to get to know the reason why the Artist produced the work.
What were you feeling at the time?
Why did you use those colours?
Why did your composition have circles in it?
To many Artists are asking the wrong questions and not telling their story.

The question for the Artist?
“ Why are you not telling me about the process, so I can be part of the painting, I will live with it longer than you will?”
Instead you give me details I am not really interested in, you tell me the title, that's good.
You tell me the medium.... I do not care what medium it is in, that will not make me buy, it may influence me later.
You tell me the size... Not that interested I can tell if it will fit on my wall.
What I want to know is, “Why should I buy it?”
Give me a reason to connect with your painting?
Give me a reason to fall in love with it?
The Collector/ Buyer is in the Gallery, is looking through Facebook Artist groups, they are interested in paintings and they have bought paintings in the past, the Collector says,
“Please Artist tell me why I should buy your painting and live with it?
Help me to connect with you, your painting and your process?”

“ The World does not need another painting.”
But the World does need paintings that they can connect to, emote to and become part of the artistic process.

I am convinced that the paintings that have a story about them will without a doubt create more interest than just another lonely painting out there fighting for attention among all the other orphan paintings lost on Facebook art groups.
If you want people to take notice, then tell the story of how your art work came into existence.
You must think about why you are doing it, not just doing it.
This why Artist biographies are so popular, they connect us with the Artist, tell your story.

Please Artist remember, the buyer/Collector lives longer with your painting than you do.





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