BoldBrush Circle
Creating Art is about Creating Magic.
And it’s the only magic that is for sale.
Don’t cheapen it with the usual marketing tactics.
We show you how to create magic with your marketing.
Fortune Favors the Bold Brush.
Membership Includes:
The Way of the Bold Brush Private Newsletter
Live Bi-Weekly Circle of Marketing Webinars
The Circles of Art Marketing Model Book
Circle of Marketing Private Community
Private Facebook group
Video Art Marketing Courses
Our unique art marketing guide books
Monthly Art Marketing Calendar
Getting Started Guidebook
Access to our art marketing and creativity Q&A bot, EnsoGPT
All this at our introductory price:$13/month or $132/year.
Have you taken marketing courses or read marketing books in that past and not understood how they felt “off” when it comes to marketing art?
How can that be? “Marketing is Marketing” right? Wrong.
Most of what you learn about art marketing online is incomplete or wrong because all marketing is not the same and Art isn't like other businesses and must be marketed differently.
Most art coaches come from a “marketing” background and, frankly, don’t actually know how to sell art. So they teach traditional marketing methods. But you can’t sell art like Amazon sells shoes and so, what they teach you isn’t as effective as it could be, and it feels slightly wrong for selling art.
We, on the other hand, come from an art background (our founder owned an art gallery for over a decade), and understand deeply the holistic, non-coercive, human-centered, fun, creative way that art must be marketed. Leave the questionable tactics and metrics-driven marketing behind with The Way of the Bold Brush.
Join us, step into the light, and become an Art Marketing Jedi Master.
Thanks for your insight! Someone finally gets me— I don’t want to be a brand. I’m not a manufacturer! Great article! - Bethany H.
Thank you Clint! For explaining this perfectly! In my head I always felt art (not only my art but every artists' work) was different than selling trucks, paper clips or other cooky cutter items…Three separate purchasers decided quickly on the work they would take home. One collector shared, "This little oil has found a new home!" - Faye G.
Membership Benefit Details:
1. The Way of the Bold Brush Private Newsletter
We teach you The Way of the Bold Brush, which is a members only twice weekly newsletter version containing Clint’s (and guest writers) latest thoughts on creativity and art marketing.
2. Live Circle of Marketing Zooms
Bi-weekly live zoom sessions with our entire marketing team, including our founder. You can ask questions and we share our latest ideas and thoughts. We also invite guest artists to these session who share what is working for them to market and sell.
3. The Circles of Art Marketing Model
You will have access to our complete Circles of Art Marketing framework. You haven’t seen this before and it alone will clarify for you the entire life cycle of selling art, from creation to the final sell.
4. Circle of Marketing Community
A private community where you can communicate directly with our team and with other members. Ask questions. Share your wins. Participate in Challenges. Access all our resources. You also get access to our private Facebook group, Art Marketing Mastermind if you prefer to interact there.
4. Video Art Marketing Course Library.
Video courses covering our approach to art marketing as well as an archive of all live Zoom sessions (in case you miss one). Many of these videos teach you a different way that alone will pay for years of your membership fees.
5. Our unique art marketing guide books
An ever growing library of marketing guidebooks that teach you everything we know about marketing art. Some examples are our Circles of Art Marketing Framework, our Email Marketing Guidebook, our Getting Started guide, our Art Sales Guide, and our How to Conduct a Studio sale on Instagram guide (one artists made over $70,000 in one day utilizing this Instagram studio sale method).
6. Art Marketing Calendar
Aren’t sure what to do next to market your art? We post a monthly calendar that shows you exactly what to do each day to promote your art.
7. Getting Started Guidebook
Are you just starting to market you art publicly? Do you not yet have anyone on your email list? Our Getting Started guide book is for you. Learn how to go from zero to one and jumpstart your mailing list.
8. EnsoGPT Access
We took our books, best articles and other data about art marketing and creativity that we’ve learned over more than 20 years and trained a GPT Chatbot so that you can ask your questions and get answers in real time anytime you wish. It’s like having our marketing team at your fingertips at all times.
All this at our introductory price:
$13/month or $132/year.
I love this! My monkey mind has been busy with all of those selling tactics and making me feel like a freak because everything in me says NO! As soon as I read this I felt calmer, grounded and validated. Thank you! - Sarah G.
The Original Sin of Art Marketing
The original sin in art marketing is thinking that the art business is like any other business.
The art profession is utterly unlike any other profession, and an art “business” is utterly unlike any other business. Artists are noble creatures made in the image of the Creator, and yet most try to convince artists that they should market their art like the common products of the world.
Your efforts and marketing and sales of art will fail, or, at least, fall short, if you don’t internalize this idea.
Here is the biggest difference between art and all other businesses:
In business, the customer comes first. In art, the customer comes last.
Marketing art is less like selling iPhones, and more like finding a partner on Tinder.
Normal products solve a problem. Art does not (except the problem the artist feels if he doesn’t create it). Art exists to inspire, not solve a problem.
All products have some element of personal preference. Of aesthetic appeal. But art, from the customer’s point of view, is almost all personal preference (I say all barring the case of a specific piece needing to fit over the fireplace).
For example: I need an iPhone, my old one broke. I prefer, let's say, a black phone. But they are out of stock and I’m offered a 10% discount if I take a space gray phone. I’ll probably take the discount, because what I truly care about is solving my problem.
But now, say I just fall in love with a piece of art. I feel the energy. I feel the vibe. I have no problem to solve. But I want the art. I prefer it. The entire sale is based on my preference for that particular piece of art. If you say “sorry I just sold it to someone else,” it will be difficult to then say, “but you can have this other piece that you passed up earlier for a 10% discount.” I probably will pass on it again.
This original sin of art marketing, misunderstanding the difference between art and normal business, is why many art marketers and coaches aren’t quite getting things correct. Marketing art, being completely different from normal products, requires a completely different approach. And most marketers and coaches get that approach wrong because they come from a business background.
How many times have you been asked to “think through the persona of your ideal customer?”
How many times have you heard, “What problem does your art solve for your client?”
Have you been asked to identify your “Blue Ocean?”
Have you been offered an “Art Marketing ‘formula’?”
The question you should actually be thinking about is, “What am I inspired about?” and “Does my latest piece capture the vibrant energy of inspiration that started it?” And, at the point of creation, the customer had better not get in the way.
These are the approaches of business people who view art as a commodity. But art is not a commodity at all! Each piece you produce is a unique inspiration from the universe, lovingly crafted by your hand, with the vision filtered through your unique perceptions. At the crafting stage, you aren’t thinking about the customer at all. In fact, even if there is no customer, you would still create your art! Because it’s part of what you have to do. It’s the reason you are here! Each artwork is a child of you, and you must find that child’s partner when you market it.
When business people teach their methods to artists, the results are predictable. They’ll point you to marketing methods like “story branding.” And they’ll point to tactics that work for Amazon. They’ll take the wonder and elegance of the art on your website and pollute it with invasive popups. And “new customers get a 20% discount!” (Why would you discount your child? And even if you did, why would your past buyers, the most important people on your list, be the only ones NOT to get the discount? It boggles my mind, it is an obvious exploitative and extractive marketing technique.) You will be asked to “optimize your SEO.” (mostly a waste of time). You will be given every tactic under the sun for social media (that will turn you into a jester that works for the algorithm). You will be asked to analyze ridiculous analytics. You will be told your site only scored a “63%” on some made up test or another (who cares?).
You will mostly be told a bunch of decent ideas if you were in any business other than art.
Forget all that stuff.
There is a better way.
And we call it The Way of the Bold Brush.
When I owned an art gallery, we didn’t do most of that stuff above, because we were selling art.
You know what we called ourselves, internally? Matchmakers.
Each painting and each customer had different interests, stories, needs, budgets, etc. And our job was to make the match.
This is why selling art is so difficult, even for professional gallerists. Difficult, but certainly not impossible, and, potentially, much more fun than selling anything else.
And, if you are marketing your own art, you can forget most of the stuff out there and focus on making the match.
This is what we preach, and teach. This is what we write about. This is what our BoldBrush Circle marketing community is about.
You are an artist - part of the nobility of the online economy. Don’t allow Instagram, Google or the latest course or coach to turn you into a jester working for big tech companies. Instead, hold your head high as a child of God, taking part in the ongoing creation of the beauty of the universe and market your art in the way it deserves to be marketed.
Learn The Way of the Bold Brush
More Comments From Our Members:
Thank you Clint for doing to help artists! You educate us, encourage us and support us. It is so good to have a site for artists. When you are a painter and have someone on your side it is so helpful. - Phillis Tag
Thank you for saying that. I have been frustrated feeling like I was resisting the “right way “ now i feel I can absorb what feels right and leave the rest. ..what a relief! - Ann
Why should we settle and treat our child [our art] (we squeeze out a part of us) as if it was a commodity? - Susan D.
This is absolutely the best post I've ever read! I am now 74 and have painted since I was in my teens. I started by being my true self but without much knowledge of Art. Over time and with much education, I was able to enter competitions. I was poo-pooed whenever I didn't fit the mold, such as in Plein Air competitions. I found myself becoming what everyone else wanted me to be, mostly in order to be able to sell my work. It has made me very unhappy. At this point, I want to close the circle and become my true self again, and this article was the perfect incentive and guide! It's never too late to be "born again"! - Epperson
Thanks for the courage to take on [and challenge] the topic of “brand or niche”! I think of the child’s toy, Jack in the Box. Turn the crank, Surprise! Creativity just doesn’t cram well into a box! - Kathy W
This is the best advice ever and it is true to the nature of ever evolving artist.
Thank you for confirming it with your powerful writing. I find being stuck in one style for a long time is detrimental to creativity. As an artist I find it impossible not to go forward. - Yuksel
I needed your letter 5 years ago, when I let a gallery owner convince me to focus only on wildlife. 3 years later I was uninspired and in a huge rut, thinking my career was dead. It took me a long time to dig my way out. But now I am determined, despite all the comments from the past about being "all over the place", not to be in a box. I'll paint what I want, when I want, but stay within my style. - Roberta M
You get access to everything we’ve outline at our introductory prices:
$13/month or $132/year
Our program is open to new artist members….if you truly committed to your art and sharing it with the world, then please start the process by clicking the button below.
There is a better way: The Way of the Bold Brush.
