Ready-To-Frame Motivational Prints

Arleyart.com is a platform where Arley Clark, the owner, sells his unique motivational art. Arley, born in 1947 and raised in Bremerton, Washington, has always been inspired by words of wisdom. This includes quotes, phrases, song lyrics, and even advertising taglines. Throughout his career, motivational or thought-provoking messages were always on display on his office walls. Frustrated by the limited selection of display-worthy plaques, posters, or art prints available in the market, he decided to create his own. Upon retiring from a management career in the sporting goods industry, Arley decided to check the market for his kind of motivational art, leading to the birth of ArleyArt1.

Wholesale or consign to other online boutiques and galleries. You can browse wholesale markets to find compatible retailers that want to sell your art.

Collaborations with other artists who sell art online. Get exposure to their audiences by producing collab work to sell and promote on both your site and theirs.

Cat now sells her work through multiple channels, but she cautions to start slow if you’re just learning how to sell artwork. “Having multiple avenues came as an evolution to what first began as a wholesale business,” she says.

While her retail channel is on pause for the moment, Cat now sells direct to customers and works on custom projects for clients and brands, in addition to her wholesale business. “If I had tried to balance all of these from the onset,” she says. “I believe I would have been overwhelmed.”

Selling your artwork isn’t limited to online—you can sell via physical retail too. Because Maria works frequently in traditional mediums, much of the impact of the texture and scale of her work gets lost digitally. “It’s actual physical work, so when we do exhibits, you can walk into a gallery and see that I’m a real person who has technical skills and can do paintings and large scale installations,” she says.

Artists can also connect with fans and find new audiences by taking work offline. You can use in-person experiences to drive people back to your online store.

Open your studio to the public when you launch your website, or keep consistent weekly open-studio hours to invite fans into your process.

Before Ken opened his permanent gallery, he dabbled in pop-ups as a means to build his reputation and validate the business idea. For those selling original works, some element of in-person experience is critical, says Ken. “It’s very rare to find a successful art gallery that functions entirely online.”

However, advances in technology like 3D and AR for online stores and the trend toward digital experiences may mark big changes for the art world in the future. It’s important to follow consumer trends while you learn how to sell your art and grow your business.

You can work with galleries to sell your art on your behalf if you are not interested in handling the business side of art, or as an additional channel to complement your own efforts. This partnership can give you access to new audiences, including serious art buyers and art collectors.

✅ DO check out the gallery’s social media accounts. “If you have more followers than that gallery does or that gallery doesn’t have a lot of followers, that may give you pause,” says Ken. A gallery should be able to give you a wider exposure than you can get yourself.

❌ DON’T approach a gallery via social media. “You’d be amazed at how many people try to submit to us via Facebook Messenger or tag us in a post on Instagram and ask us to look at their work,” says Ken. “While social media is a major focus for us, that’s just not a very professional way to come across if you’re an artist.”

✅ DO your research and contact only those galleries who represent work in line with your own style. “You can’t sell street art to somebody who collects impressionism,” says Ken.

❌ DON’T sacrifice quality for quantity. “It’s frustrating when an artist who's hoping to catch our attention tags us and 20 other galleries all in the same post.” Select the top few galleries that you want to work with most and send individual outreach to each.

✅ DO your homework. “Find the name of the director or the curator for the gallery,” says Ken. “Being able to personalize an email is a great first step in that process.”

Many artists like Maria started on social media, growing a following first before launching a store and monetizing their work. The channel where you’ve gained the most traction in the beginning is a natural place to spend your energy and marketing dollars first.

Invest in organic social by producing consistent content and engaging with fans and art communities frequently. While algorithms make it increasingly challenging to do so, emerging or niche platforms are often the best places to find success.

Reach out to influencers and press when you launch your site or a new collection. As you scale, you may opt to outsource to a PR firm.

Use content marketing to drive organic traffic. Leverage your expertise to create content around art, tutorials, behind the scenes sneak peeks, etc., either through a blog, TikTok account, YouTube channel, or podcast.

Custom Quote Posters

Drive exposure with offline marketing. Participate in art shows and markets or work with a gallery to expand your reach to new, larger audiences.

Ultimately, you will need to balance how much time you have for marketing with your skill level and willingness to create content. Often artists like to focus on what they do best and leave the rest to experts. Working with retail or gallery partners may result in smaller margins, but will take the onus of marketing off your plate.

As art is visual, you should pay attention to the smallest details, down to how your art is packaged and shipped. Art that arrives undamaged is the bare minimum—give your customers an experience that matches the quality and care you put into your work.

The Paper Tube Co. sells stock and custom tubes that you can brand to ship your oversized art prints professionally. The Paper Tube Co.

If you are shipping original art, or elect to ship prints and canvases yourself, rather than through a print and fulfillment company, take extra precaution with your packing. Larger prints and posters are best shipped in cardboard mailing tubes, and smaller prints in rigid cardboard mailing envelopes.

Use glassine (a water and grease-resistant paper) or clear cellophane sleeves to protect prints within the packaging. Custom branded packaging like tissue paper or poly envelopes that feature your branding or art can spark delight with customers and improve their experience with your brand.

Many ecommerce platforms integrate with shipping providers and shipping apps to help you find the best shipping rates for each market and package. Determine if you will offer free shipping and roll the shipping cost into the retail price or charge a flat fee to keep shipping transparent.

Framed works and canvases require additional precautions. Packaging supply shops offer packing and shipping materials like cardboard corners and specialty box sizes designed specifically for art.

If you’re shipping original work to a gallery or art collector, there are ways to cut costs. “The cost to ship an oversized painting that’s stretched on a canvas can be pretty substantial,” says Ken. “Sometimes what we do is unstretch a canvas, roll it in a tube, and ship it that way, which dramatically lowers the freight costs. Then we can have the canvas stretched locally.”

The easiest way to sell art online is to outsource all of the printing, fulfillment, and shipping to a print-on-demand partner. They are able to access great shipping rates due to volume and partnerships with carriers.

Insurance is important when shipping original works, as a lost or damaged package can’t be replaced. Many standard carriers offer fairly basic insurance on most packages, and if you sell your art you should look into the specific extra coverage costs and limitations of each carrier’s insurance offerings.

If you’re selling your own artwork at high price points, Ken takes additional measures to ensure the safety of the work. “Shipping anything worth more than a thousand dollars is definitely tricky,” he says, suggesting that artists look into using a private freight company or a carrier that specializes in art handling, despite the higher costs.

Artist Tuesday Bassen waged war on copycats—large chain stores who ripped off her original designs—by hiring a lawyer and taking her story to the media. However, both Maria and Ken say copycats and plagiarism are just an unfortunate reality of doing business. Maria took legal action only once, before shifting her perspective.

“At the end of the day, it took me my whole life to learn how to do this,” Maria says. “If somebody is copying me, they’re going to have to sit down and eventually learn for themselves, because sooner or later they’re going to run out of ideas.”

Maria takes Hatecopy’s copycats as an indication that she’s onto something.“It’s a sign that I’m inspiring others and that what I’m doing is right because they wouldn’t copy me otherwise,” she says, “I’m not offended or bothered by it anymore.”

For galleries that represent multiple artists and sell art online, copycat websites are a consistent problem. “We do have an issue with various online sites just bootlegging what we do,” says Ken. “It’s part of the way the world works, unfortunately. We do our best, but it happens.”