Phil Clayton

“Framing, Pricing & Exhibiting”

Our demo artist Phil Clayton (Sou’-Sou’ West Contemporary Art Gallery at Symondsbury) very bravely tackled the ‘elephant in the room’ subjects, of framing, pricing and exhibiting.

Phil brought along a selection of framed and unframed artworks which he asked us to price. Figures were bandied about willy-nilly, wild and conservative alike and wasn’t it difficult? To frame or not to frame… that is the question!

How do you price your artwork?

Do you price by the hour or by the inch! Or does it go on experience, training, qualifications or location? What about skill, creativity, technique? Maybe previous sales history or how much fun the artist seemed to have while creating the piece! I think we can all agree there is no right or wrong answer. It’s probably a little bit of all of the above and a dash of confidence.

As for exhibiting! At times I did wonder if Phil was suggesting we all give up now! Only joking… I appreciated his honesty on the difficulty of exhibiting and again there are lots of variants.… Where do you exhibit your work? The local cafe, town gift shop, city centre gallery, village hall, allotment shed?

It seems the answer to all of these questions is unique to every artist… just like their artwork. It appears to be very much trial and error and balancing costs against exposure. A bit of a gamble but as they say, ‘Nothing ventured… nothing gained’.

On a personal note… I’d like to be positive and share this quote from Romero Britto…

‘Art is too important not to be seen’.

So whatever the price and however you’ve framed it… it won’t sell if it’s stored under your bed. If it’s important enough for you to take time making it… share it! Where ever and whenever you can! Only then will you find your tribe… those who love what you do and want to own a piece of it.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and a Creative New Year. You are all making our art society a fun place to be.

P.S. Sorry no photos today, I was too engrossed in the framing, pricing, exhibiting discussion. I’ll try and do better next time.