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While seeking ways to help artists enhance their careers, I found a dynamite book with step-by-step instructions to promote and sell artwork, by author Gregory Peters.

DIY – Art Promotion: Do It Yourself Art Promotion (Volume 1)

is available for purchase from Amazon, and includes detailed and creative approaches to promoting, marketing and selling your work.

I contacted Gregory and asked him to give my readers his thoughts on how to take control of  their art careers and grow their businesses.  He was kind enough to give his opinions, drawing on years of experience with marketing and his own experience as a fine artist . . .

My name is Gregory Peters and I am a reasonably successful artist.  I’m a lot of other things as well, but for now I’ll leave it at that.  I’m not wealthy or famous (yet), but I have no doubt that given time, I will be.

The reason is very simple.  I’ll quote Malcolm Forbes for the answer who said, “How to succeed?  Try hard enough.”   As a friend told me years ago, if it’s to be, it’s up to me.

This then is the essence of success as an artist.  You must be your own cheerleader, marketer, promoter, and fundraiser. It’s up to you and you alone to ensure that opportunities become available to gain you that most cherished of all goals – exposure.

I have been producing and selling art for a number of years to a growing collector base, producing artwork favoring both western and far eastern subject matter. My art hangs in homes around the nation and overseas, has evolved from simple landscapes to highly complex compositions with 3-dimensional elements to enhance visual impact. I am a strong believer in keeping art approachable to everyone, and try not to be too pretentious about any aspect of fine art.

I live in sunny southern California and also write about art. I am the author of the book DIY – Art Promotion: Do It Yourself Art Promotion (Volume 1)

and numerous articles. I’ve been painting since I was 5 years old. My little studio is out back of my house.

I’m heavily into texture, dimension and making art a multi-sensory experience for my audience.  When the worldwide web came about, I rushed to it like a drowning man looking for a lifeline and like so many other ventures I’d tried, was brought up short.   Unfortunately, much of my 3D oriented artwork does not project well in a 2D environment like the web.

While working my other job and raising a family and still fitting in the occasional show, I kept  running into artists who were utterly lost when it came to promoting themselves and their interests.  While I didn’t have all the answers, I had been associated with promotion and marketing services for products enough to know that there were things that could be done to gain exposure, which I often suggested to fellow artists. You have to take off your artist beret and don your (virtual) business suit.  Think and act like a businessman.

The single biggest mistake most artists make when it comes to promoting themselves is to not promote themselves. You simply can’t rely on others to do it as well or as often.  A gallery has its own interests, and promoters are too often like the snake-oil salesmen of old.

There are informed promoters in the business and a wealth of information on the net available to you,  but unless you’re made of money, you must make the most of every promotional dollar and minute you have.  Promoting your art is as much about time as it is about the art itself. Perhaps you need a road map?

You’re in luck!  I’m going to provide you a road map you can use to kick start your promotional campaign(s).  The “road map” is a course I created based upon my book.  The DIY short course is in fact 4 course modules which are downloadable as a PDF and provide a wide range of information you can use to get smart about the art of promoting your art.

Artsy Shark has been kind enough to provide links to this and other information you may access, and I sincerely hope you take advantage and put this information to work.  I can’t guarantee your success, but I can guarantee that using these methods will provide you more opportunities for exposure than you probably are aware of.  Artwork, like a web site, does not promote itself.  A web site may be open 24/7, but it’s up to you to point your audience to it!

I’d like to say a few words about rejection, because it is the handmaiden of success.     Promoting yourself often means trying things that fail.  If something fails do you just give up?  No, the marketplace of potential buyers is vast.  What is necessary to find that potential buyer is to create as many exposure opportunities as possible using a wide variety of tools and mediums to suit the market area you are in.

Even in these tough economic times, art is selling.  Would you be willing to reduce your prices or offer something for free with every sale?  Why not?  Merchants do.  Aren’t you a merchant offering your wares when you get in front of the public?

And when you do get in front of the public, make certain you have memorized a one minute “elevator speech” about your art.  What’s an elevator speech?  That’s a canned pitch you’ve memorized about you and your art that you can give spontaneously if you happen to be trapped in an elevator with the world’s best art collector.  Who then, is that collector?  Why, it’s your next customer.  Perhaps the next person you talk to while waiting in line at a grocery store.  One minute.  Give them a business card, and point them to your web site.

Visit my web site, download the short course, or entertain yourself by viewing my art and reading some of the motivational articles you’ll find there.  I want you to succeed as an artist because the world needs more of us creative folks!