Put A Price On Acrylic Paintings

[HongKongphooey]

I know this is a tricky one.I've no idea what to price my paintings at, for sale. I've been asked to exhibit some of my Acrylic paintings on Saturday at a friends wine and canapes soiree, with a view to selling them. A couple of other artists are doing the same, and its going to be in a village hall near us. Haven't really done this before. Only once when I exhibited a watercolour in an open exhibition. I priced it at £75 and it was the cheapest painting there by about £250. As the gallery took 30% of all sales I kicked myself after the exhibition opened and it sold cos I probably should of priced it higher. These paintings for Saturday are all on canvas (the type that doesn't need a frame.) and 3 of them measure 40 x 50cm. Two are portraits of animals, a sheepdog and a cat by a vase of flowers, and the other which took me quite a while longer is a detailed view of Scarborough Harbour. Any ideas as to what price I should put them at? Does Damien Hirst have this problem???!

[boxtops]

It might help you to either Google the sort of paintings you're offering, or search for similar on sites like eBay or Amazon, to see what sort of prices they are for sale for. Look in local art shops too, see what's being charged there.

[heathfield]

Probably not enough time left, but I'd take them to any shop that sells original artwork and ask for an opinion. It's a big problem. An artist might spend six weeks on a painting, then only get, say, £150. Never going to earn much of a living at that rate.

[DTCwordfan]

First can we see them - I may be in a better position to judge them. At the outset, the Scarborough one will be more 'commercial.'

My pen and inks, when I sell them, fetch £300 - £500 and I rarely go through galleries. The most profitable way for me is to sell prints/cards/postcards/ wedding materials off them. I can net over a £1000 in some instances by this route and I get to hold onto the original! Also, doing cards, you can get second orders coming in, esp when pubs. Some of my work is in this area but in the top headline if you do a search, the last one of a Norfolk church for a wedding , back in Feb.

[HongKongphooey]

I will try and take photo's (not billiant with a digital camera) Thanks guys, some interesting suggestions. I have already made some into cards, but just sell them at craft fairs for 1.25 a card

[black_cat51]

if it's at your friends house, what sort of social position are they in? are their friends and acquaintances likely to be high earners; likely to want artwork; likely to have money to splash?
how much work did you put into each one (in hours?) how much did you spend on the original materials?

[Canary42]

Based on a local artist exhibition I saw recently at Chichester, I would say in the region of £1,200 to £2,000.