Putting a price on artwork isn't always a simple task

It's been said that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, but when it comes to art, beauty is often tied to the size of one's wallet.

Since the cost of something is whatever someone is willing to pay for it, buying art remains a rather subjective exercise. With a host of autumn art and craft shows scheduled this year, local artists throughout the area offered some perspective on why things cost what they do -- a perspective that suggests established artists base their prices on something more than a whim.

Lisle artist Susan R. Wilson, who recently appeared in Naperville at the annual Art League's Fine Art Fair, has been creating oil paintings for more than two decades and said the cost of an artist's work is based on "credibility and skill."

"There are artists I know that charge by the inch, but certainly part of the fee structure is your credentials," Wilson said. "People look at how many juried shows you appear in each year, and whether you are a creator of quality work. You also have to know what the market will bear, based on checking out other artists' work at shows. You have to balance that against your time and materials as well."

Deborah Venezia, executive director of the Naperville Fine Art Center, offers some different perspectives on pricing. Venezia admits she is often asked by artists what each should charge. She says that offering a direct answer is "dangerous territory."

"Some artists are very humble and tend to undersell their work, while others have an inflated ego and will price themselves out of the market," she said. "To play it safe, I mention the obvious, like advising an emerging artist to consider pricing his or her work based on time, labor and the cost of materials used."

Wheaton artist Michael Mckee, who annually is among one of the most popular artists at the Fine Art Fair, said his fees have increase each year he appears at the show and that like Wilson, his ideas about price structure came from surveying the market.

"The first year or two at the art fair, I'd go around and see what other people were charging and I'd also reflect on the time it took to create my pastels," Mckee said. "Eventually, I became comfortable with a certain price point and now it's at the point where you could almost say I'm charging by the inch -- if something I paint is twice the size, I'm comfortable with doubling the cost."

Sometimes artists, Venezia adds, "are locked into the contractual agreements they encounter when selling their work at galleries." These artists cannot sell their work in a surrounding region or price their goods less than the price showing at that gallery, which Venezia said can include more than a 50 percent mark up to cover the commission costs.

Aurora resident and artist George Shipperley says professional framing adds value to works, which many artist don't often provide. Like Venezia, Shipperley noted that a lot of artists struggle with their fees and it is vital they be priced right.

"Larger is not necessarily better or worth more money, and it's my belief that you can't take a good artist for granted," he said. "An artist should never negotiate on a price if the item is priced right to begin with. All that shows the consumer is that your work was priced in order to be discounted, and it devalues other works you might have sold before. The reputation of the artist suffers if you deviate."

From song writers to poets, writers to painters, artists often look at their work as children -- extensions of themselves. Venezia said pricing has to avoid the pitfall of over sentimentality.

"As hard as it may be, artists should avoid pricing their pieces based on emotion," she said. "Attachment may play a role when deciding what to charge, but this is not a wise way to make a decision. If artists are serious about selling, they need to keep their final asking price in line with the going price of similar work at other locations. Today's shoppers are savvy ones, and they will search art fairs, flea markets, galleries and discount houses before making that ultimate decision."