As an artist, one of the things that I need to consider when looking at my customer base and deciding who I wish to target is my range of work. Obviously I don’t want it to be too wide as that can get very confusing and difficult to market and easier to lose sight of your identity as an artist.

I already wish to specialise in equestrian art, this could already limit my audience. Although, being around horses and stable yards and embracing the whole lifestyle, there are other genres that can lead from this into pet and livestock images to boost the potential sales. Also, I am a mixed media artist and work with paints, ceramics and printing mediums and techniques. This makes it a bit easier to develop a range of works in the mediums that fit within a simple pricing strategy.

I decided I want my work to be affordable, even my higher priced products. I also want them to be good quality, which means I have to make a lot of pieces to perfect my techniques and have enough stock to either sell or have a portfolio to show customers what I can do as part of my portfolio. I need to be able to set a Low – Medium – High price range, so there needs to be a way of defining what would fall into those categories and what my typical market is that I’m aiming for.

If I start with my linoprints. I use the lino’s for both printing and my ceramic relief work. If I follow through the methodical processes I go through, and from experience of selling the prints for £10 unframed and £15 framed at the UCW Pop Up Shops.

One A5 lino is used to create several pieces of work. The example shown for our Vision pop up shop, was a simple jigsaw lino, where you cut out the parts that are going to be printed in different colours and piece them back together. I would have a limited print, for this one each colour was a maximum of 10 so that is a maximum of 40 prints altogether. I then created three plaster reliefs of the image, that are able to be freestanding and then created some ceramic tile reliefs. My pricing for this would be:

• Unframed print £10
• Framed print £15
• Plaster relief £30
• Ceramic relief £45

These would be my lower range work and I’m hoping more popular due to the size they appeal to a wider range of customers than the larger sizes because they can either be free standing or hung in a small wall space.

My midrange work would be larger and/or more detailed to justify the increase in price. Again any lino prints would be a limited edition. And I would possibly only manage to do around 8 or 10 ceramic reliefs per image. My midrange work would be between £50-£95.

The higher range items would be more bespoke work, possibly one off pieces. Therefore I would price them around the £100-£185. I’m really conscious that these items wouldn’t sell as quickly or easily but the time taken create the detail in a lino cut A3 or over in size, would need to be recuperated somehow.

My paintings would probably be more on a commission basis, and these would be priced depending on the subject, the size and the medium used. I’m really conscious that I do not want to overprice myself out of the reach of everyday people, and have considered that in the current climate not everyone has a lot of disposable income these days.

I think the main market I am trying to attract are the normal equestrians like me that will splurge a bit on a bespoke commission but not into the £1,000’s as all our disposable money goes into the care and upkeep of our expensive hobby. I’m also as a booster to this income looking to attract the pet owner market and people who like wildlife and livestock. These more generic pieces also make a good stock to take to art fairs and sell in an online shop.

The reason I have decided to try and concentrate on the smaller prints and sculpture prints, is through discussions I’ve had with friends and fellow pony club mums about what they like and what they can afford. Also, whilst starting out I am limited on the time I have available as I need to keep my other paid income work going, so I am limited to what I can create with a dedicated 2 to 3 days in my week to building my art practice.