As of late: The business of art
Behind the scenes of building an art business
May has been a whirlwind month for me. I set intentions earlier this year that by May I would have an online shop set up for my art. The universe aligned for this to happen, but had a few more colorful sparks to throw at me too.
I was procrastinating at first. I watched the days tick by in April, and decided on multiple occasions that the tasks required to get my online shop up and going could be done tomorrow or next week.
That procrastination continued until I was approached by a member of the marketing team (Kenzie) from a new foodhall that opened this month in Sheffield—Cambridge St. Collective. I received a message one morning asking if I would be interested in doing some live painting at their VIP opening event on Wednesday 22nd.
I had no idea that live painting was a thing outside of weddings—and was surprised to hear that they were interested in having me come in to do some live painting for the opening night. Me: Finger painter and abstract art maker. But they were into it, so I accepted.
As things unfolded, I was invited to participate in two more opening-week activities—a market and a workshop. Again, I said “Yes!”
I really couldn’t believe my luck in getting these three opportunities—a trifecta—all in one go. I hadn’t even considered live painting as a service I could offer, and really hadn’t thought too much about running an art workshop. But it would have been silly to pass on these opportunities! And I love new experiences. Better to jump in, learn and iterate than to stand on the sidelines thinking about it forever and ever (and telling yourself you’ll do it tomorrow or next week in perpetuity 👀).
These invitations were a true catalyst to the thing I’d promised myself I’d do earlier on: To set up the bloody shop! To put my art out into the world to sell. To create systems and channels for commerce to happen. And start marketing all of it so that commerce can flow. I have work to offer the world and I’m ready to start a business with it, so—let’s go!
And I’ve done it. Like—really. It’s not happening tomorrow, it is done. It is set up and I am invested in keeping it going. I have literally entered a new reality where I am morphing into an artist who is participating in the commercial system and it is really exciting. And I’m having some success, like… I’ve not sold physical art pieces yet, but I’ve sold my services as a live painter and workshop teacher, and I’ve had an immense amount of success in terms of my learning, perspective, awareness and getting things off the ground. I’ve gained a few new followers. People are expressing interest. And I know the sales will come as I turn my focus to marketing and networking a bit more.
I want to give you a behind-the-scenes perspective of everything I’m doing and the things I’m simply figuring out at the moment, so here goes:
Setting up an online shop isn’t just a one-stop deal these days—it’s creating one shop as a basis, then multiplying that out to other channels. E.g. I have a Squarespace shop, but I’m also building an Etsy shop; once these are done I can copy and paste my shop items to other store-fronts that suit me.
Print-on-demand is surprisingly good, and it makes centralizing stock and managing production really easy. I’m here for it.
I have some artwork that is perfect for print-on-demand, like some illustration work I did in the past and, of course, all of those paintings from the 500 project.
Regarding the 500—I knew since day one that ultimately I’d like to reproduce those works. I have carefully catalogued every single painting I’ve done of that series with hi-res, overhead photos (like scans) so that I could re-produce and license those paintings at some point in the future… and the future is now!
Note: I still have about 150 paintings to go to finish the 500 project 😂 but 350 ain’t bad! That’s a lot of artwork I can reproduce.
You can purchase framed canvas reproductions of a selection of 6 pieces from the first 30 of the 500 from my online shop! 💁♀️ Also featured in this video I made on insta.
Spreadsheets really are a business owner’s best friend.
I have about 12 original paintings that I would like to sell and / or get into galleries and exhibitions. I’ve made a spreadsheet to catalog and write content related to each series of work, descriptions for each piece and details like the size, medium, price. This makes it super easy for me to just copy + paste that info into my shop sites and also into applications for art competitions and calls-for-artists.
I have also written these descriptions for all my prints. Super easy to copy and paste!
Insurance is worth it. I haven’t needed it yet, but in doing these in-person events I’ve realized that things could have gone terribly wrong if the paint had wound up in the wrong place or on the wrong person! Artists insurance exists, I now have it.
I’m not sure if selling at markets will be worth it in the long run, but I’m going to keep doing them for a little while in hopes that it will help me to continue networking and getting my name out there. I think it is good experience, but I’m not convinced that the ROI will be worth it.
I imagine I could invest that time and energy elsewhere for better long-term returns. I might pivot on this one.
I’m nervous that there won’t be a gallery who wants to work with me, but I have faith that those relationships will develop in time.
I’m becoming aware of how very important relationships are in this business. You can expect to see me at events, networking, visiting galleries and asking lots of questions as I get my feet under me.
Since I finally had to catalog all of the sellable work I’ve produced over the years, I discovered that I actually have 3 distinct bodies of work—4 if you count the 500 project. This came as a pleasant surprise to me, and of course each body of work tells a story—it reflects what I was going through at the time.
Come back next week for a deep-dive into those bodies of work. I’m excited to share them with you.
People love watching you do art.
At the live painting event, people got really into watching me do art. I never really doubted that people would enjoy it, but honestly I hadn’t thought it was something I could do as a performance for people.
I loved doing art as a performance.
I loved teaching, too.
Before last week, I had never really taught an art class. It was really fun.
Now, for photos and links and access to all the things.
Live painting at Cambridge St. Collective, Opening Night, 22nd May
The pop-up market, Cambridge St. Collective, 27th May
Prints and original canvases are still very much available—you can see them on my instagram and in my online shop 😉
Wellness Wednesday Art Workshop, Cambridge St. Collective, 29th May
Show and tell — things I’ve been building and tools I’m using:
My website, courtneykyle.com, runs on Squarespace (image is clickable).
Services page 👇
About page 👇
Writing about my work is something I’m really enjoying. It forces me to think deeply about my work and what has influenced it over the years. I’ll share more of those stories next week.
Etsy 👇
Trello is keeping me organized 👇
Spreadsheet making life easy 👇
Printful print-on-demand service that I’m using to produce framed canvas reproductions and prints of original works.
I’m not 100% sold on the platform, but the service seems good and product samples were great. I might continue experimenting with other platforms to see if I can find one with a better UX (before I get too far down the rabbit hole) 👇
What’s next?
Marketing, networking, outreach. Applying for art competitions, art fairs and exhibitions. I’ll be seeking more opportunities to do live painting and workshops too because they were so much fun!
Diving into this ‘art business’ stuff has felt like a whirlwind. Like I’m here just throwing stuff at the wall now to see what sticks. But that’s totally OK—I’m into the process now.
I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities that arose for me this month—to Kenzie for reaching out and, perhaps unwittingly, putting a fire under me to stop procrastinating. I’m invested now—I’m making sacrifices in order to make this a success because my ultimate goal is to have a life where art is my full-time job. And now is the time to take the risk, invest, and nudge it along. No more procrastinating.
Of course I’m a little nervous, I have no idea if my art is good enough, but I’m not too worried. I know that the most important thing right now is putting it all out there and being receptive to feedback and opportunities that come my way.
Thanks for joining me here this week! I won’t lie, I almost forgot to write this because I was fully absorbed in some of the tasks you’ll have seen on my Trello board 😂 but I’m glad I found a little time to share this with you today. Maybe it’s helpful to some of you to see what I’m up to over here. It’s messy, but it’s fun.
For those of you who are creative business owners: what tricks, tips, tools, etc can you share with me? I’m accepting any and all pieces of feedback and advice at the moment.
Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t yet! Next week I’ll share more about the artwork I’ve created on the side over the last several years that I can now file into three distinct bodies of work.