Depending on how you look at it selling your art can be very easy or very difficult. If you work at selling, you will sell. Balance your work and your selling also called art marketing. Spend half your time creating art and the other half trying to sell it. If you are one of those artists who cannot let go of a particular painting… you are not alone and that will be a different blog.
Here are some tips that have worked for me.
Talk to people and tell them you are an artist. If they show interest, give them a business card (vistaprint.com).
• Carry a portfolio. If you have an extra $100 get a Palm Pilot with a photo album, they work great.
• If a person shows extreme interest give them an Artist Trading Card with a business card attached to the back.
• Take commissions. This is a grueling job, but if you are hard up for some money, this is a way to go.
• Get a professional Web site. There are plenty of free ready made/ready-to-tweak templates out there. Be sure to answer the five basic questions at the very least and have 10 pictures of your work.
• If you get a business license or permit (depending on where you live) you can send press releases to newspapers, radio stations announcing whatever you do (and sell your items legally). Otherwise stick to the Internet sites.
• Get people linking to your Web site, but only relevant art sites.
• Get on many free online galleries as you can.
• Post a profile on Myspace.com and promote the heck out of it. Add as many friends as possible.
• Create small paintings that you can sell for $50 or less, those are hotcakes that are great promotional pieces.
• Create ATC (artist trading cards) and give them away with your business card on the back (or sell them for $1).
• Create and start a resume, an artist statement, and all the rest of the bull that comes with being a fine artist (I recommend Art Marketing 101 by Constance Smith) you could probably find it at a library.

To Dos:
• eBay unless you have extreme patience and sell for garage sale prices. Small works like ATC can sell well, but not the painting kind of art. Usually it’s the collages.
• Art.com prints because you only get royalties (you can sell original art on there if you wish, but that’s worse than eBay).

Not Recommended:
Good luck and have some fun!

The problem with the fine art business, particularly New York, is that they are searching for the new Picassos, Warhols, and Dalis. They will not find them. It is happening to music, and writers and any professional position where there are some gurus at the top. And do you know what is happening? Us. We are happening. Time even said so, the person of the year is You. It is a beautiful thing. We are all making this life, we are saying what goes instead of a tired old few. YAY! This is a good thing. Yes, we probably won’t make as much money or get as famous, but that isn’t really the point. The point is to make a living, to be happy, and to get ourselves out there, whether it is for painting, music, writing, or whatever your heart’s desire is! Go! Do it! Be yourself, because only you can be you! And that’s who we really care about. Cheers!