Panoramic series Take 16

Pano 16



NEWS FLASH

After much consideration I've decided to handle how I sell my 12"x 36" pano prints differently than my normal art festival offerings. 90% of my print sales are framed using the "clip frame" method I talked about in a previous post. This offers a ready to hang piece of art at a very affordable price. After doing about 15 festivals selling my 12"x 36" prints this way, I experienced about a 50% glass breakage on this particular size during transportation to an from the shows. Once hung, the fragile nature of these long, narrow frames disappears. Its the constant moving that breaks the glass.

So starting this year, I will be carrying metal framed panoramas to shows as well as un-framed prints only that will be delivered in crush proof mailing tubes. This will allow customers their choice of buying finished works (as long as they like my taste in frames) or purchasing un-mounted prints that they can have framed exactly like they want at their local frame shop.

T minus 10, 9, 8, 7…..

During the show season, Mondays are usually spent behind the steering wheel of my truck driving home from a far off art festival. Most shows run something like this.

Thursdays are spent setting up your “mini art gallery” under the roof of your canopy and stocking it with your art.

Friday, Saturday and Sundays are “show time” where you hope to entice enough people to walk into your booth and hopefully leave with a piece of your art.

Sunday is also break down day. After the show has finished there’s a mad dash to pack your art and display gear and either start your drive home or head back to where you’ll spend yet another night on the road and rest up for your drive home the next day.

So starting next Monday, a week from today that all too familiar routine starts for me again. Hey, 2008 show season, here I come.

Today though, officially starts the count down until I jump in the truck Thursday and head off into the great white open. (Literally, we’re having a whale of a snowstorm as I write this post) This first show of my season is sort of a local one for me. It’s held in Spokane Washington, which is only about 125 miles from home so I consider this my only local show of the year.

The name of the event is “Custer’s 31st Annual Spring Arts & Craft Show.” From the name you can see that this show has been around along time and is run by the daughter and son-in-law of the founder, Jim Custer. This well attended and professionally run event, although smaller than more shows I do, is one I keep coming back to because the cost to sales ratio, ease of set-up and closeness to home makes this the perfect show to start my season with in order to work out my winter time cobwebs.

So even though I spent a great deal of time over my break creating new art, getting it framed and reading myself for the next 10 months on the road, today begins T minus 10 and counting. I’ve been able to print nearly 500 pieces of my old standbys that I ran out of last year plus my new 2008 creations over the past month and today I’m selecting 100 or so to frame in order to take with me this week.

This selection process is always a headache for me. I stock over 200 different images in 5 different sizes and then try and fit them into a 10 foot by 10 foot booth and still leave room for me and my customers, I think you get the picture.

To make my selection job a little easier this year, I finally took my wife’s advice and culled a few dozen of my slower selling images, which will give me some much, need display space I otherwise wouldn’t have had.

This strategy does two import things. One, it frees up space for better selling pieces and two, it lets these image take a break from the publics eye for a few years. Once I bring them back, they’ll seem fresh and new even though some of them might be over 10 years old.

So, it’s back to my framing studio to wrap up this batch of 8”x10” prints and get ready for Tuesdays batch of 11”x14” and 16”x20”.

How I frame my art

Years ago, before launching my career as an artist, I was attending an art festival as a customer and I found myself admiring a wide variety of art that I would have loved to purchase but couldn’t afford. The main reason for this was the pieces I wanted were elegantly framed, thus escalating the sales price above what my budget would allow.

I was able to leave that day with a few smaller pieces that were matted and not framed. Indeed, I owned the art but until I framed them myself they couldn’t be hung on my wall. Purchasing art this way enabled me to start my collection on a small budget. Typically artists sell matted and “bagged” prints this way in order to accommodate people who want to support and buy their art but couldn’t afford to purchase one of their framed pieces.

This way of thinking seems to be universal in the art world. It makes some sense. Framing is usually expensive. At least well-framed art is. Matted and clear-bagged prints can usually be bought for 25- 50% of the price of the same piece of art framed. Seems like a good solution for both the buyer and the artist, right? Well here are a few reasons why offering your art this way might be a great idea.

If you are purchasing art this way you have to remember that in order to hang your new masterpiece it will need to be framed. As mentioned before, framing can be expensive. Budget for it at this stage or you might end up like me with a substantial art collection with many pieces still in their matted and clear-bags, just the way I bought it from the artist. Even now, as a professional who makes his living creating and selling art, I fool myself into thinking that I’ll buy the piece un-framed and do it myself to save money. Funny thing, I think I still have some of those early purchases sitting in my studio waiting to find the time to frame it properly.

Procrastination is my middle name after all.

By now you may get the feeling I’m steering you towards either passing up on that wonderful piece of art you discovered from that artist your sure is the next Jackson Pollock or that I am suggesting that you break the bank and pop for it nicely framed at a rate that could be hundreds of dollars more than the same piece just matted.

One of the most important things I’ve discovered about selling art (if you are an artist pay close attention because this secret can add tens of thousands of dollars to your yearly sales) is that many people that attend art festivals aren’t necessarily shopping for themselves. They might be looking for a gift. This is especially true during the holidays. If someone comes into your booth and tells you they are shopping for a some one, admires your art, picks out one of your matted and clear-bagged pieces and says “I’ll take it” then hands you their credit card, you might be doing them an injustice if you don’t at least warn them that whoever receives this present with have to spend a fair amount of money to have it framed in order to hang.

I know, you’re thinking bummer, they like it, they want it and once it leaves your booth it isn’t your problem if the $25.00 8x10” print you just sold actually might turn into a Ben Franklin after it’s framed. For those of you not familiar with the term “Ben Franklin” think, hundred dollar bill, get it?

What a dilemma, but I say buy it, we artists need to eat too.

Actually there is another way. Because I didn’t want my customers to be faced with this hurdle without a solution that made both of us happy, I decided to “frame” my art in Quadro Clip Frames.

These are “real” glass frames that use simple metal clips to hold the art piece sandwiched between a masonite backing board and the glass front. The look is very contemporary and fits with many different styles. The best part about Quadro Clip Frames is the price. Cheap, but classy looking, a rare feature in the world of art. When my customer leaves my booth after buying a piece of my art I know that there is nothing else for them to do except hang it or gift wrap it. Remember what I said earlier about procrastination, we all have it to some degree. Even well intentioned buyers might not get around to framing their new purchase, so by using clip frames, my customers pay a reasonable price plus have a ready to hang, framed piece of art. A definite win-win situation if you ask me.

If you would like more information on these frames, click here.