The business of Art

4x4 Archival Print of AI painting matted to 8x8

 Like most beginning artist I was excited to learn to paint and in my early explorations I didn't think of what is the next step once the painting was completed. Consequently the first time I tried to frame my art I was in for a big surprise.. I had 4 or 5 nice pieces and the Framer told me it would be about $500.. Yikes! I couldn't afford that so I went to a Craft Shop and tried to fit my pictures in precut mats and frames.. No go there either. I had 4x5 and 8x6 and 12x14 inch paintings and None of them fit into standard frames. That was when I learned one of the most important lesson in starting in the art business. Paint to Standard sizes. It makes it so much easier to frame your art. If I had painted  on a 5x7 inch piece of paper it would fit perfectly into a mat for an 8x10 frame.. And a 7x10 painting works well in a 11x14 frame.. Hmm. There must be a reason those artist blocks come in those sizes. LOL.. So, I started to standardize my paintings.. And bought mats for those standard sizes and kept an eye out for great frame sales and haunted the thrift stores for standard size frames and soon had a substantial art inventory and joined a small co-op gallery.