Sorry to find that the earlier thread has been closed, but happy to catch it at this level.
There is an excellent research paper by Mamata Herland that goes into real depth about the subject of digital painting/digital prints/Giclee or digital art generally and how it is seen by the “establishment”. It’s a good article and can be found here: http://www.worldprintmakers.com/english/mamata.htm
Also, to comment about some of the difficulties in selling digital in the previous thread I’ll make a couple of my reflections here from a “long” lifetime of producing so called “fine art” or “fine crafts” and trying to sell.
A gallery owner once told me that artists generally have the view that their art should fly off the shelf, or at least, sell regularly, when in fact, they’ll be lucky if the gallery can sell a few pieces in an entire year. It’s a tough business with most of them surviving by taking money from one pocket (made in some other manner) and putting it in the other pocket (the one that pays the gallery bills).
The artist is depending on the traffic flow through that particular gallery to sell. Of the total, it’s likely that only a small number will like that particular artists style or work. Of those, only a small number will actually buy. Few people wandering through galleries actually buy anything. Other things generally grab our money first such as food, rent, etc. Art comes in near the end of a priority list. Another thing is that those who do buy have only so much room to display. At some point it’s either <move to a bigger house, put stuff in boxes to store, or stop buying>. I’ve run into this problem a lot in the past in talking with customers of mine who may already have a dozen pieces. How much more can you expect them to own! It’s likely they also own the work of other artists as well. Eventually the house fills up.
Beyond that, there is the fact that the vast bulk of humanity has absolutely no taste in art (or bad taste) at least as defined by artist. Hack artists such as Kincaid and his copiers are making tons selling to these folks who just love the <feel good> scenes they paint. These people are skilled painters whe are basically prostituting their art to sell. I don’t blame them, or criticize, though, as if it weren’t them it would be somebody else. There’s always been prostitutes!
For those of us who refuse to prostitute ourselves, we’d better get used to the facts of life as an artist. Verrrrrryy few make it professionally as fine artists. Commercial does better, but it’s very competitive and there may be long periods with no job. Working in a studio is probably more secure than free-lancing, but only as long as the studio is pulling in regular work. Being laid off isn’t unusual.
I’ve sold in galleries for almost fifty years–off and on. I also did so-called fine craft which was a blend of woodworking, drawing, and painting. It was high end work and I sold at high end art fairs in good affluent neighborhoods. That’s where I made most of my money but that had a whole realm of difficulties of it’s own unrelated to gallery sales. Weather being a big one!![]()
In galleries as I said earlier, you’re stuck with whoever walks through the door. At art fairs there are perhaps several hundred thousand people who come to either buy art or be entertained. It’s possible for a good artist/craftsman to make several thousand dollars a day. That however, is balanced by being rained out or bombing at another fair on another day. Selling art is a crapshoot!
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