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 There
are a few secrets to attractively display artwork in your store, gallery,
restaurant, home, or office. The first of these is location, location,
location. You cannot sell art unless it is in the proper place. If you
are tucking the art in an out of the way corner, or got other merchandise
in front of it, the art will not sell. There should be a minimum of six
inches of clear wall space all around the art, a foot or more would be
even better. I have seen art in stores with merchandise hung all around
and even over it. It is very difficult to sell art this way. You customers
need to be able to stand back and view the art with as few visual distractions
as possible. If you only have a small space to sell art, it is better
to hang up fewer pieces than to crowd the art so close together that they
almost touch.
The works of art need to be hung at the eye level of the average person.
How many times have you gone into stores and seen art hung around the
room almost touching the ceilings with all the other merchandise below
it. Art hung this way will not sell. To sell art it needs to be hung where
people can see it. This means that the middle of the main picture should
be just about five feet six inches above the floor with other pictures
grouped around it. Most people hang pictures too high for best viewing.
 
 
Which grouping above do you think looks best? Usually the
informal approach looks nicer to most people. When hanging your pictures
try to think of a tree as in picture number four.
Grouping pictures is important. Unless you are a museum I would not recommend
that you hang the art in a straight line across your wall. Pictures look
much better when hung as a group. You can get more pictures on a wall
this way, and the appearance of the group as a whole adds to the charm
of your pictures. When pieces sell it is also a lot easier to replace
it with another picture even if the size is slightly different. If you
try to hang pictures in a straight line, you will be forever pounding
hangers into your walls. Always use the proper hangers when hanging art,
especially in sheetrock walls. If you use nails, sooner or later you are
going to lose a picture to your floor. Real art hangers hold art very
securely, nails do not.
Proper lighting is the second secret to selling art. Most stores do not
have the proper lighting to display art correctly. If your store or restaurant
is well lit by florescence lights, or bulbs that may be fine for general
merchandise but not for selling art. To properly display art you need
to get a section of track lighting and put a 50 watt halogen flood light
up that can be pointed onto the piece of art. You will not believe the
difference this makes. I show a trick to people all the time in my gallery.
I hold a piece of cardboard up in front of a track light shining on a
piece of art in a fairly well lit room and then ask them to look at the
art. I then drop the cardboard and you would not believe the responses
I get form people who are seeing colors of the art just pop in front of
them. You can turn an average picture into a great picture just this easy.
Regular light bulbs don't cut it, you need to use halogen flood lights.
(don't use halogen spot lights unless the light is a long way away from
the art)
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