You have produced a collection of artworks and the time has come for you to start selling them to the public.  How do you decide where to pitch your pricing?  Too low and you may not cover your costs, or you may be seen as too cheap and therefore not worth even looking at! Too high and you just won't find people prepared to pay.  Peter and Laura talk in this episode about how the pricing of your work needs to develop over time, how you can approach the initial pricing based on what your peers are doing and also how a consistent policy on pricing will help you to avoid awkward situations.

Most artists want to get their work on the walls of a gallery, at least until someone buys it!  How do you get your work into a gallery?  What should the relationship be between you and your gallery?  Are there tings that you must never do when dealing with a gallery - and are there things that the gallery should not be doing?  In our second podcast interviewing Nick Bentley owner of Bils and Rye Gallery in Kirkbymoorside in North Yorkshire, Peter and Laura talk about how the relationship should work, how you might approach a gallery and gives some frank advice on things you should avoid.

Social media can be a huge benefit to any creative person wanting to promote what they do, but it needs to be used intelligently and it should be the artist using it as a tool, rather than being an end in itself.  In this Podcast Laura and Peter talk about their own experiences with Social Media and how it has helped them to further their careers and businesses.

Originality in art is certainly to be admired, you don't want to be seen to be  derivative, but it is also important to have a recognisable style so that, in time, people can look at your work and see it as being yours.  In this episode Peter and Laura talk about finding your own voice as an artist, developing ideas and techniques in a way that is recognisably your own.

All artists will experience critcism, it goes with the territory.  Tastes differ so much that making art can only ever appeal to a segment of the audience, so sometimes people will tell you that they do not like what you do.  Peter and Laura talk in this episode about how to deal with this criticism, both to protect yourself and to put it into perspective.

Being a professional artist is a job, it brings in income (hopefully) and, if all goes well brings a degree of satisfaction.  It is inevitable that people will help you in your artistic journey: giving you opportunities, buying your work or attending classes that you are teaching. from time to time it's great to give back a little largesse.  Today Peter and Laura talk about ways that they repay kindness and loyalty, or contribute to causes that they believe in by using their artistic skills.  They talk too about the value of devoting time to the artistic community,  involving yourself in art organisations or taking responsibility for art events.  It may be seen as work for nothing, but there are nearly always rewards in the end.

There are certain expectations of you when you are an artist and one is that you will be expected to supply information about your artistic practice. in this episode Peter and Laura talk about the 'Artist's Statement' the brief description of your motivation and your process: what makes you tick.  

It's great to hear what artists think about galleries, but that is only one side of the story.  Today Peter and Laura talk to Nick Bentley, owner of Bils and Rye, a wonderful gallery in the North Yorkshire town of Kirkby Moorside.  Bils and Rye have a great portfolio of artists including sculptors, painters, printmakers (including Laura, which is how we were able to lure Nick into our studio!) and ceramicists.  Nick's view is that a gallery needs to be more than a place that potential buyers might visit: it has to be pro-active, finding both artists and buyers and fostering a healthy relationship with both in order to thrive as a business.

If you would like to know more about Bils and Rye then you can visit their website www.bilsandrye.com or find them on all the usual social media platforms

As an artist it is likely that you will have to interact with your customers and the persona you adopt when you do this can have a huge effect on your success.  Confidence in your work inspires confidence from your audience so developing and maintaining a comfortable, confident attitude (even if it is not entirely the way you really feel!) can help you to become a respected artist.  Peter and Laura talk about ways to achieve this most difficult of things, your artist's persona!

There are lots of ways of putting your art in front of prospective buyers, but few are quite as good as art fgairs.  Displaying your work among your peers and having the opportunity to talk to your audience make art fairs an invaluable outlet in the journey to making a commercial success of your art career. Peter and Laura have both participated in art fairs, which vary enormously.  In this podcast they talk about the different types of fair and how to approach them.