How to sell your paintings in Belgium

01The places where art really sells, and what each one is worth

There aren’t many ways to do it. Whether you want to sell your art online or in person, in Belgium a painting finds its client through one of these routes, and almost never any other way. What separates them is not the cost of the place, it is the audience that arrives there and what they have in mind when the page opens.

• The people around you. The first painting sold almost always goes to someone who knows you. That isn’t cheating, it’s where everyone starts.
• Social media, Instagram above all. It works for getting seen. It works badly for selling: the conversation drifts into private messages, the price is hard to negotiate, and nothing protects the payment.
• Artist markets, creative fairs and open studio days. Lots of people, lots of conversations, few purchases. Count the pitch fee (often €20 to €60 a day) and a whole day on your feet.
• The gallery. It brings a space, a trained eye and a network of clients. It also takes half the price, sometimes more. The details are in the guide on what a gallery costs.
• Online art platforms - Etsy, Saatchi Art, Singulart, Artmajeur. Here the visitor is looking for an artwork, and this is the audience that pays best. The published commission runs from 6.5% at Etsy to 40% at Saatchi Art, and several platforms do not publish theirs at all.
• The big second-hand marketplaces - Vinted, 2ememain, eBay, classified ads. That is where the most traffic passes, and where people are hunting for a bargain rather than an artist. Below roughly €150 it works; above that, the client wonders why it is not somewhere else.
• Your own shop window, at home or on a place that suits you. You show, someone buys, you get paid: it is a route that works while you sleep. It is also the one arvel is building, with 0% for the artist and an all-in price for the client.

None of these routes is better than the others. Most artists who make a living from painting use three of them at the same time.

02Setting a price without being off by half

This is where almost everyone gets stuck. Two mistakes keep coming back: underpricing because you don’t dare, and a round number pulled out of nowhere that means nothing.

The most widely used method is based on size. You add the height and the width in centimetres, then multiply by a coefficient that is yours. An artist starting out often begins with a coefficient between 2 and 5; a 60 × 80 cm canvas then comes out between €280 and €700. The coefficient rises with what you have already sold, not with the time you spent.

Then add what the work cost you in materials, and what the place you sell through will take. A gallery that takes 50% doesn’t shrink your margin: it doubles the price the client sees. It’s the same painting, at two different prices depending on the door it leaves through.

Keep the same price everywhere. A client who finds your painting at €400 from you and €800 in a gallery will buy neither, and the gallery won’t take you back.

03Choosing yours, in five minutes

Do not look for the best place, there is none. Look for the one that matches your price and the time you can give it, then hold it for six months before judging. The figures below are trade habits people report, not a scale.

• The price you have just set decides almost everything. Low, and what you mainly want is the space back: the big second-hand marketplaces will do.
• Between roughly €150 and €800, and you want to build: one art platform kept up to date, plus your Instagram account, plus at least one in-person event a year.
• Above roughly €800: a gallery, or selling direct. Second-hand holds such a price badly, because nobody arrives there looking for it.
• In every case, one place taken seriously beats five abandoned ones. A dead page on a platform tells people, in your place, that you gave up.

And keep this in mind: the place does not sell in your stead. What sells is a good photograph, a clear price, and somebody who answers when written to.

04The photo is the product

Online, nobody buys your painting. They buy its photo. A good piece badly photographed doesn’t sell, and it’s the number one reason listings get no replies.

• Daylight, near a window, never in full sun and never with a flash.
• The canvas straight, face on, tightly framed. No corner of the living room, no radiator.
• A neutral background: a white or grey wall is enough.
• A second, close-up photo where you can see the texture and the brushwork. That’s the one that triggers the purchase.
• A third photo with a familiar object next to it, to give the scale. A chair, a hand, a plant.

Don’t retouch the colours to make them prettier. A client who finds a painting that looks different from the photo at the handover walks away, and rightly so.

05Getting paid, without a nasty surprise

This is the part that scares people, and with good reason. A sale between private individuals in Belgium rests entirely on trust, unless a third party holds the money.

• The classic bank transfer: simple, but the money has to have arrived in your account before the painting leaves. A transfer “in progress” is not a transfer received.
• Payment links sent by message: avoid them. A lot of scams look exactly like them, and you won’t be able to tell the difference.
• Cash at the handover: legal, but Belgian law caps cash payments. Above the cap, it has to go through the bank. The amount is published by the FPS Economy, the link is at the bottom of the page.
• A platform that holds the money: the client pays, the sum is kept, and it’s only paid out to you once the handover is confirmed. It’s the only set-up where neither of you takes the other’s risk.

That cap is a legal figure, and it moves. We don’t copy it here: check it at the source before a big sale.

06Handing over the work

A painting is not a parcel. Transport is expensive, insurance even more so, and a frame damaged on the way turns a good sale into a dispute.

Handing it over in person settles all of that at once: no packaging, no breakage, no fees, and the client sees the real work before taking it. In Belgium, where nothing is ever more than an hour and a half away, it’s rarely a constraint.

Pick a public place and a daytime slot. A café, a station, the entrance of a cultural centre. Your studio, only if you’re comfortable with the idea.

07Can you sell art as a private individual?

It’s the question that stops the most people before their first sale. The short answer: selling a painting now and then is not the same as trading in art, and the two don’t call for the same paperwork.

The subject is serious enough to have its own page, with the official sources. It’s among the other guides, at the bottom of this one.