Working on My Lynchburg Landmarks Collection
Last August I posted a sketch/painting I’d done of two Lynchburg (VA) Main Street buildings on Facebook in a local Lynchburg group. I got comments asking if I sold my paintings or prints of them. I didn’t start this journey into art to sell the artwork I created so the inquiry was quite surprising. When I responded that I was looking into where to get quality prints made - I decided that this was, in fact, a business opportunity - I started to get suggestions of other locations people would like paintings of.
So I started a list of the suggested locations and added some of my own. Soon my list had grown to forty-seven entries! I decided that once I had a five or six paintings I would have a small run of prints made of each. I found a print shop online located in New York state that made extremely good quality prints on paper that was very much like watercolor paper. However, I then found a local shop that produced equally good prints at a bit less per print and since they’re local, there’s no shipping cost. The local shop uses the same giclee printing process and the paper they use, though different, is also high quality, heavy and watercolor-like. Since I now have five paintings I plan to start having prints made of them.
My wife has encouraged me to create limited edition prints so I have decided to do editions of twenty-five numbered prints of each painting. This means that I am guaranteeing each purchaser of one of these prints that there will never be more than twenty-five prints made. I do keep the originals and could sell them but if I find one of my paintings is particularly popular, I would have to paint another version and make prints from it in order to honor the limited edition guarantee of the first painting. Finding that there are people interested in purchasing my original artwork and even prints of my artwork is quite exciting not to mention flattering.
The Aviary, Miller Park
Now I have to determine the best way to market and sell the prints. I also need to determine a fair price. The printing of each print is not inexpensive but it’s worth it because the prints will be on very good, archival paper and show of the painting very well. All of my sketches are done in watercolor sketchbooks or watercolor blocks, so the size of the paper on which I paint is usually around 8 1/2” x 5 1/2” (22cm x 14cm, about A5 size).
