Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Analysis of Sales at The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2025

After the annual exhibition of the The Pastel Society (PS) and my review of the exhibition comes my metrics post!

  • Which price ranges achieved the best sales? 
  • Is this the same for members and those selected from the Open Entry - or does it vary?

This is another of my regular posts reviewing sales and prices after the annual exhibition. It covers:
  • General commentary on 
    • sales of artwork and how and when art is sold
    • Buyers at the Mall Galleries - where the PS hold their annual exhibition
  • Sales at the 2025 Annual Exhibition of the Pastel Society focusing on:
    • the number of sales and 
    • the prices that pastel artwork sold for 
The reason I'm writing this post is because I'd like to see:
  • more artists do better
  • more artists make sales
  • more artists improve their annual income from their artwork
  • THROUGH more intelligent pricing of their artwork
Bottom line, the most realistic price for your artwork is the price which enables a sale. Otherwise, why bother pricing at all?

General Commentary on Sales of Artwork


How and when art is sold


These days art sales are typically generated in one of three ways
  • the associated online website for the artwork - and the fact this goes online before the exhibition in the gallery opens
  • sales at the Private View - where it's a common expectation that a goodly proportion of artwork will be sold given this is an opportunity for artists to be nice to collectors!
  • sales while the exhibition is open to the public.
In the past, art societies used to have Buyers' Views for people:
  • who were known collectors and/or
  • had previously bought at the exhibition.
Art Societies don't seem to be doing these as much these days. Maybe because of the online exhibition - which is published well in advance of the exhibition opening and the fact people are more used to online sales. It's certainly the case that artwork regularly sells before an exhibition opens

Nevertheless, I still think there's a case to be made for the "pampering time" for previous art buyers/collectors when they don't have to fight for space with the legions of "friends of the artist" and can actually see the work properly.

I don't go to as many private views as I used to, mainly because to my mind they should be artists and buyers and "influencers" in the absence of a private view. 

I left this one early because of the crush - see Review: The Pastel Society 126th Annual Exhibition (2025) 

It's nice to have an event for friends of the artist BUT if it creates such a crush that it causes people to leave and/or deters sales, then that is a problem. 

My solution would be to introduce a constraint for all members and those selected via the open entry of strictly one friend only at the PV.

After all, friends can come any time, but artists typically only come once and it's on PV day! Plus buyers and collectors do like to meet the artist - and I see precious little effort by art societies generally to making sure that can happen. 

On the day of the PV, it's perfectly possible to stage manage a different focus at different times eg buyers at lunchtime; members getting together in the afternoon and friends allowed in the evening. That way we might actually get to see some art. I find I always have to go back if I go to the PV - just to be able to look at the art properly.

Sales have also been less than usual due to the constraints on people's budgets in the last couple of years. It seems to be easing slightly - but sales are still not yet back to where they used to be - and it's worth thinking about how to help them along....

Who are the buyers at the Mall Galleries?


Essentially annual exhibitions at the Mall Galleries are about AFFORDABLE ART for most of those who visit, view and buy art.

This is about my well known mantra characterising buyers at the Mall Galleries. 
Typically they are essentially "middle class, middle aged and middle income"
They typically like buying artwork priced at less than £1,500 - and they like it even more if it is priced at less than a £1,000.

You should bear this in mind as you review the charts and commentary below and as you check the profiles of the price ranges of artwork sold in the charts below

Sales at The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2025


This is a chart of the sales at the recent Open Exhibition 2025 of the Pastel Society.
I got my numbers by going through the data on sales available from the online exhibition.


Analysis of the number of artworks sold by price range
in The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2025


The Pastel Society exhibited 382 artworks and sold 84 paintings (22% of the hung artwork). 

This is a marked improvement on the 2024 performance (see below).
They exhibited 359 artworks and sold 59 (16% of the total hung).
  • members sold 34
  • open entrants sold 25
The price of the most expensive artwork sold was £2,850.
2024 PS Annual Exhibition Sales Metrics
Open artists sold more artwork than members - with both improving on the number sold last year - but OPEN artists improved the most!
  • members sold 40 (45% of sold artwork) - 6 more than last year
  • OPEN entrants sold 46 (55% of sold artwork) - 21 more than last year
I didn't do the calculation, however members would dominate - in percentage terms - the value of work sold. 

Most significantly 83% of sales were priced under £1,000 
  • OPEN artists completely dominated the "below £500" category
  • members led the "£501-£1000" category
This exhibition (like last year) continues to reinforce the notion that those exhibiting are more likely to succeed with selling their artwork if they price under £1,000. It's always wise to remember that Pastel does not rank alongside oils, for example, when it comes to pricing.

I think the improvement may be due to some members reviewing sizes and prices in the context of recent times. Often the way to stay in line with pricing in the galleries which sell artists' artworks is to sometimes review who gets which work in different sizes (and prices).

Top priced artworks


Interestingly, the top priced artworks for both members and open artists depicted water!

The top priced artwork was £4,000 

Frequencies. Celtic Sea. XI by Tanya Avchinnikova PS
Soft Pastel, 100x70cm (106x76cm framed) 
£4,000

No OPEN artist sold a painting for more than £1,650 - see below

The Power of Calmness by Gareth Jones
Soft pastel, 60x80cm (74x94cm framed)
£1,650

Artists who did well with sales


I'd highly recommend that you take a look at the websites of these artists and see if you can work out for yourself what makes their artwork so attractive to buyers. 

You can, of course, see the artwork which sold in the Online Exhibition - just use the filter (on the left) for the Artists Name. 

I've given you links to the artists websites - embedded in their names - of those who sold either three or four artworks. You can look up the rest for yourself!
Five paintings by Ian Rawlings PS of which four sold.

Three of these five pastel paintings by Sheila Goodman PS sold

Three paintings of water in North Wales
by Dave Roberts PS
  • Ten artists sold two artworks each - and these were a mix of members (5) and open artists (5). In alphabetical order, they are:
    • Michele Anderson
    • Liz Balkwill PS
    • Fiona Carvell
    • Patricia Clements 
    • Jaana Fowler PS
    • Jane Hodgson PS
    • Kevin Nzumbi Mutemi
    • Tom Mulliner
    • Norma Stephenson PS
    • Katrina Wallis-King PS
Although this post is specific to the recent annual exhibition by the Pastel Society at the Mall Galleries, it does also contain a number of useful points and lessons about pricing for:
  • more than one art society
  • members and associates of the PS in particular
  • ALL those who enter OPEN exhibitions by national art societies in London - and most especially those who exhibit at the Mall Galleries.

More posts about Pastel Society Exhibitions (2006-2024)


Below you can access and review my previous posts about Pastel Society exhibitions during the last 19 years - from my archives.
As you can see I've reviewed this exhibition every year since 2006!
Posted by Making A Mark on Wednesday, February 19, 2025
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