The Kitchen Table Artist

I remember back when starting my design studio. I had just moved into my new location from abroad, nobody knew me or my work, my office and studio was, yes you guessed it, my kitchen table! I had just spent another long, hard day on the phone trying to set up appointments to present my portfolio. All I had to show for scores of phone calls were a few maybes, loads of phone backs and ’send me your brochures’, which of course I didn’t have.

Journal

I was at one of my lowest points, despairing and feeling like giving it all up and getting a ‘real job’. I’ve always kept a journal, so as I started writing I stumbled upon one of those profoundly small simple questions that can make such a big difference.

Here it is…..

Exactly how many clients do I need to prosper from my work?

The answer completely changed my attitude and gave me such a boost. Here’s why. Given the average time it took me to complete a typical project I only needed one new order every 6 weeks - around 8 to 9 per year! It put all those calls and rejections into perspective. Of the thousands of businesses within driving distance of my kitchen table I only needed 8 of them to say yes! (Or less if some of them had more than one project per year).

Eight people to say ‘yes’ felt doable and it made me immune to all of those rejections all because I had a clear and achievable target. It was the start of building my business from its kitchen table roots into a very successful business.

Gaining clarity - maybe it’s not so difficult after all

So what’s all this got to do with art?

Simple – how many ‘paintings’, (insert the type of media you work with), do you need to sell every year to prosper?

First work out your yearly out-goings and don’t forget to include a budget for the things and events that make life fun. Work out the average price of one of your art pieces (less costs), and divide it into your total out-goings. That’s how may pieces you need to sell per year. This exercise may also cause you to question the prices you’re charging.

Say you’ve worked out you need to sell 30 paintings. In the millions and millions of people worldwide who like and buy art this is doable, especially if a buyer invests in more than one of your works.

Total yearly out-goings / by average cost of one of your pieces (less costs) = number of clients you need.

Revisit your Pricing

This is also a great way to explore your pricing as it calls into question the number of pieces you can/do complete per year and other issues such as the size of your work and format.

Now you need to let people know you exist and show your work. I’ll be going into this a lot more in future articles.

Taking a break from working in my studio this afternoon, I browsed in the local bookshop. One book caught my attention. A hard backed book called ‘Cradle to Cradle’. As I turned the pages I discovered it speaks about ‘Re-making the way we make things’, so they last and have enduring value.

I thought how timeless our art work is. Using the best of artists quality paints on time tested materials such as canvas, paper and wood, well mounted and suitably framed, they will endure the march of time for years measured in the hundreds.

As I strolled back to my studio well wrapped up against the cold wind and rain, I glanced in the windows of the shops along the way. Televisions, kettles, computers, clothes and tools. Our oil paintings will hardly be fully dry when the first of these things find their way to the dump as landfill or to be recycled. The shiny new 2009 registered cars, wet in the afternoon rain, slowly making their way down the narrow street originally designed for horse driven carriages, will be crushed into blocks the size of our kitchen tables well before Grandchildren inherit our work from their Grandparents.

There are relatively few objects that will last as long in their original state and give pleasure to unborn generations as our art.

Art endures.

So must we as artists.

(Cradle to Cradle by Michael Braungart and William McDonough)