Most Revenue or Best Profit? What was the Best Place to sell Art in 2013?

This is my Annual Making A Mark Poll which aims to find out about the trends in how artists sold their art - in 2013.

I've moved it to after the end of the calendar year so that those who do their accounts on a calendar basis will know better:

• which place generated the most revenue
• which place generated the most profit

The last time I ran this poll in 2012, I split the poll in two to make a distinction between gross revenue sales ("most revenue") and net profit ("most profitable").

That's because those places which generate the "most money in art sales" are not necessarily the "most profitable" after the "cost of sales" has been deducted.

Interestingly, the fact that one place happens to be the most profitable doesn't mean to say that's where the most profit will be made - unless an artist has already identified this and is capitalising on this knowledge.

So what these polls will do is identify

• The most (and least) effective places for selling art in 2013 - in terms of which places generate the most revenue and turnover (i.e. gross sales)
• The most (and least) profitable places for selling art in 2013 - in terms of where did you generate the best profit (i.e. net profit - profit from gross sales after deduction of the cost of sales)
• Trends in selling art in the last 6 years

There are two NEW Polls in the right hand Column. Both polls have identical options. Be sure to note the distinction between 

• MOST REVENUE and 
• MOST PROFIT.

For those interested in what the results were in 2012 here are the results of these two polls and the trends observed in September 2012

• ANNUAL POLL: What's the best place to sell art in the last year?
• 2012 Poll Results: What's the best place to sell art? (Part 1) - this reveals 4 places where (1) the most money & (2) the most profit were made from selling art in 2011/12.
• What's the best place to sell art? Trends in selling art 2008-2012: (1) direct from the studio; (2) via third party galleries ad art societies.
• The Best Place to Sell Art - More Trends Trends in selling art 2008-2012: via temporary venues and online websites.

Drawings of Holocaust Survivors

In the latter half of 2013, a young man and art student called Gideon Summerfield developed a project to draw Holocaust Survivors called "From Generation to Generation (L’Dor V’Dor)". Gideon's pen and ink drawings in of the men and women pen and ink from Jewish Care's Shalvata centre are included in an exhibition which opens on Friday (details below).

I think they demonstrate an amazing level of sensitivity both in terms of his project and the actual drawings - even more so when you consider they were completed by a 17 year old.

Portrait of Holocaust Survivor Freddie Knoller
From Generation to Generation
© Gideon Summerfield 

You can see his drawings on YouTube (below) and also macro crops on Facebook where they are accompanied by a narrative about the life of the individual portrayed and the object of their choice which is important to them.

Read more about his project in a couple of articles:

• Huffington Post - Drawing Inspiration - an article by Gideon Summerfield
• Youth Arts Online - Remembering With Gideon Summerfield - an interview with Gideon

“It has been an extraordinary privilege to learn from people now in their 80s and 90s about their experiences as children and teenagers, how they survived the death camps and the Holocaust. For me as an 18 year old, it has been a formative, and at times traumatic, learning experience.”
Gideon Summerfield

More about the exhibition and more Holocaust Art at the end.

Prior to this Gideon had completed a project called 'Sketch a Day' in which he drew somebody who was in the news every day for 366 days.  Age 17 years old, he drew his final drawing sat in the BBC Morning News Studio - where he was also interviewed. Click the 'Sketch a Day' link to visit the relevant page on his website - then click a link in the grid to see a larger image of each portrait of the person for that day.

Society of Botanical Artists - Annual Exhibition 2014 - Call for Entries

Botanical artists have just under two months to get our entries ready for this year's Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists - which is open to entries from both non-members and international artists.  This post is an overview of the call for entries and the process.

Call for Entries - Society of Botanical Artists
Botanical Garden Annual Exhibition 2014

Note that this year, both the Receiving Day and Annual Exhibition are later than usual.

The Receiving Day for entries for the 2014 Annual Exhibition is Monday 17th March in the Aldersgate Room in the basement of Westminster Central Hall in London (11am - 4pm).  Here's a great blog post by Julie Whelan about last year's Receiving Day.

The theme of this year's exhibition is The Botanical Garden. It will include about 700 works of botanical art:

• at Westminster Central Hall, Storey's Gate, London SW1H 9NH and is 
• between Friday, 9th to Sunday 18th May 2014 (Daily from 11am to 5pm including Sundays)
• open to the public - admission FREE

Below you will find:

• the key points for those wanting to enter the Exhibition.  
• links to previous posts on this blog which include images so you can see the type and quality of work which is accepted for exhibition and/or wins prizes
• links to my resources for botanical artists

David Shepherd's Wildlife Artist of the Year 2014 - deadline extended to 5th February

The deadline for entries for David Shepherd's Wildlife Artist of the Year 2014 (First prize £10,000)

• WAS Monday 20th January
• BUT is now midnight on Wednesday 5th February 2014

Below you can find the information about this very popular art competition for wildlife artists.

There are two new categories for 2014:

• Wildlife in Monochrome - particularly suitable for those who work in fine art prints, graphite or charcoal
• Silver Artist - for the Over 60s - which I think is a great idea!

The Wildlife Artist of the Year Exhibition will be held at the Mall Galleries, London Tuesday 3rd to Saturday 7th June 2014, 10am to 5pm (closes 4pm on final day).

The Private View will be held on 29th May 6-9pm. The Private View for this has an excellent attendance with lots of enthusiastic private collectors of wildlife art and lots of sales.  If you're a collector and want an invite I suggest you get in touch with the Foundation.

The David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year website page

Call for Entries Summary

Full details are available on the Wildlife Artist of the Year - Terms & Conditions page on the DS website.  They also have a Wildlife Artist of the Year - Frequently asked questions page

Prizes

The Overall Winner wins £10,000 cash prize and title 'David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year 2014'. In addition:

• Overall Runner-Up £1,000 cash prize. 
• Remaining Category Winners £500 each. 

Deadlines for entries

The (extended) closing date is 5 February 2014. No entries will be considered after the closing date.

Who can submit

Making A Mark notches up 5 million Pageviews!

This morning Making A Mark hit and passed 5,000,000 pageviews - as counted by Blogger.  

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who read - and have read - this blog on a regular basis!  It would appear that many of you have also discovered the archives! :)

The 5 million pageviews cover the period since May 2007 - when Blogger started counting - when this blog was already 17 months old.

Statcounter has a slightly different take on the numbers but this chart shows you the steady rise in daily pageviews over the last 8 years from January 2006 when this blog first went public to this month.

Making A Mark: Daily Pageviews (January 2006 - January 2014)

I must finish off bringing the archives up to date so that they are more accessible!